Etymologically
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בן

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Pronunciation

  • Tiberian: bēn, construct ben-, plural bānîm[1][2]
  • Samaritan reading tradition: ban, with suffix bā̊ni, plural bā̊nəm[3]

Forms

בֵּן (bēn) noun, masculine, plural בָּנִים[1][4] Construct בֶּן־, rarely בִּן (Deuteronomy 25:2 and always in bin-nûn “son of Nun”); with suffix בְּנִי, בִּנְךָ, בְּנוֹ; plural בָּנִים, construct בְּנֵי; the feminine is בַּת (baṯ).[5][2][6] The archaic poems keep construct forms ending in a vowel: בְּנִי in Genesis 49:11 and בְּנוֹ in Numbers 23:18; 24:3, 15.[2][6]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Semitic *bin- (“son”), a Common Semitic noun.[4][7] Kogan reconstructs it for Proto-West Semitic from Ugaritic bn, Aramaic בַּר (bar), Classical Syriac ܒܪܐ (brā), Arabic ابن (ʾibn), Sabaean bn and the Modern South Arabian forms.[8] It is also Phoenician bn[9] and Moabite.[2][10] Akkadian bīnu “son”, found mainly in names and in a phrase for “grandson”, is the Akkadian form,[11] but Kogan points out that it is late and marginal and may be a West Semitic loan: the ordinary Akkadian word is māru.[8] Aramaic and the Modern South Arabian languages have /r/ for /n/ in the singular;[12] Klein calls the change hard to explain and suggests dissimilation.[12]

A link with בָּנָה (bānâ, “to build”) is old: Gesenius proposed it, BDB thought it possible and Klein probable,[2][12] but BDB adds that no trace of the verb remains in the Hebrew form, and Kogan and HALOT list the noun without a verbal root.[2][8][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The noun is in all the archaic poems that Sáenz-Badillos lists, 27 times in MACULA's count.[13][1] In the Blessing of Jacob the brothers are bənê ʾāḇîḵā, “your father's sons” (Genesis 49:8), and Judah ties bənî ʾăṯōnô, “the foal of his she-ass”, to the vine (Genesis 49:11), with the young of an animal called a “son”.[1][10] Balaam is bilʿām bənô ḇəʿōr, “Balaam son of Beor” (Numbers 24:3), with the old construct ending.[2][1] These poems are archaic by their language, not dated records.[13] The Hebrew inscriptions have it some 370 times, mostly in names with their patronymics: the Lachish list of names begins gmryhw bn ḥṣlyhw, “Gemaryahu son of Ḥiṣṣilyahu”.[14][15]

Semantic evolution

HALOT's article runs from the literal to the figurative.[10] Beside “son” and, in the plural, “children” of both sexes (Genesis 3:16), the word means the young of an animal (ben-bāqār, a calf), a grandson, and, in address, a younger companion or a pupil: “my son” is the teacher's address in Proverbs.[10] With a collective noun it singles out one member: ben-ʾāḏām is a single human being, 93 times the prophet's title in Ezekiel and taken up in Daniel 8:17.[10] It names the members of a people (bənê yiśrāʾēl, the Israelites), of a guild or class (ben-nāḇîʾ, one of a band of prophets, Amos 7:14), and a person marked by a quality or destiny: ben-māweṯ, a man who deserves to die (1 Samuel 20:31).[10] It gives ages: ben-šānâ, “a year old”.[10] Many of these idioms match Akkadian ones.[10][16]

The Septuagint renders it almost always by Ancient Greek υἱός (huiós).[1] The Dead Sea Scrolls have it about 2,475 times.[17] English has it in names from Hebrew: Benjamin from binyāmîn, “son of the right hand”, with the frozen construct bin-, and B'nai B'rith from the plural construct bənê.[7] Modern Hebrew בן (bén) keeps all the main senses.[4]

Timeline

  • Archaic Hebrew poetry – bənê ʾāḇîḵā in the Blessing of Jacob (Genesis 49:8) and bənô ḇəʿōr in the Balaam oracles (Numbers 24:3).[13][1]
  • Classical Biblical Hebrew – about 2,100 occurrences in Genesis to Kings.[1]
  • Late Biblical Hebrew – nearly 900 occurrences, many in the genealogies of Chronicles.[1]
  • 7th century BC – bn on a jar inscription from the City of David, Jerusalem.[18]
  • 6th century BC – patronymics with bn in the Lachish ostraca.[14][15]
  • 3rd–2nd century BC – the Septuagint translates it as Ancient Greek υἱός (huiós).[19][1]
  • 2nd century BC – 2nd century AD – about 2,475 occurrences in the Dead Sea Scrolls.[20][17]

Meanings

Noun

  1. a son;[10][2] (plural) children, sons and daughters.[10][2]
  2. a grandson;[10] (plural) descendants.[10]
  3. the young of an animal: ben-bāqār a calf, bənê yônâ young pigeons.[10]
  4. (in address) “my son”, to a younger man or a pupil.[10]
  5. a single member of a group: ben-ʾāḏām a human being;[10] bənê yiśrāʾēl the Israelites.[10]
  6. a member of a guild or class: ben-nāḇîʾ a disciple of the prophets.[10]
  7. one who deserves or is destined for something: ben-māweṯ one worthy of death.[10]
  8. (of age) aged: ben-šānâ a year old.[10]

Word family

  • בַּת (baṯ)

Descendants

  • Modern Hebrew בן (bén)[4]

Usage notes

In Hosea 13:15 MACULA reads בֵּן as the preposition “among”, bēn ʾaḥîm “among brothers”, which DCH gives as a possibility beside “son”.[1][21] The Biblical Aramaic word for “son” is Aramaic בַּר (bar).[10]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Clear Bible (2023–), MACULA Hebrew Linguistic Datasets (Westminster Leningrad Codex, with Greek alignment), github.com/Clear-Bible/macula-hebrew, CC BY 4.0
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Brown, Francis; Driver, S. R.; Briggs, Charles A. (1906), A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, with an Appendix Containing the Biblical Aramaic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. בֵּן
  3. ^ Højgaard, Christian Canu; Naaijer, Martijn; Schorch, Stefan (2023), Text-Fabric Dataset of the Samaritan Pentateuch, Zenodo, doi:10.5281/zenodo.7734632
  4. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  5. ^ Koehler, Ludwig; Baumgartner, Walter; Stamm, Johann Jakob (1994–2000), The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, transl. and ed. M. E. J. Richardson, 5 vols, Leiden: Brill
  6. ^ a b Gesenius, Wilhelm; Buhl, Frants (1915), Hebräisches und aramäisches Handwörterbuch über das Alte Testament, 17th ed., Leipzig: F. C. W. Vogel, p. s.v. בֵּן
  7. ^ a b Huehnergard, John (2011), "Proto-Semitic Language and Culture" and "Semitic Roots", in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, p. bn
  8. ^ a b c Kogan, Leonid (2015), Genealogical Classification of Semitic: The Lexical Isoglosses, Berlin: De Gruyter, p. 71
  9. ^ Krahmalkov, Charles R. (2000), Phoenician-Punic Dictionary, Leuven: Peeters (OLA 90), p. s.v. bn
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Koehler, Ludwig; Baumgartner, Walter; Stamm, Johann Jakob (1994–2000), The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, transl. and ed. M. E. J. Richardson, 5 vols, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. בֵּן I
  11. ^ Black, Jeremy; George, Andrew; Postgate, Nicholas (2000), A Concise Dictionary of Akkadian, 2nd ed., Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, p. s.v. binu
  12. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest (1987), A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Hebrew Language for Readers of English, Jerusalem: Carta; Haifa: University of Haifa, p. s.v. בֵּן
  13. ^ a b c Sáenz-Badillos, Angel (1993), A History of the Hebrew Language, transl. John Elwolde, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 69
  14. ^ a b Davies, Graham I. (1991), Ancient Hebrew Inscriptions: Corpus and Concordance, vol. 1, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 1.001.1
  15. ^ a b Sáenz-Badillos, Angel (1993), A History of the Hebrew Language, transl. John Elwolde, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 79
  16. ^ Tawil, Hayim ben Yosef (2009), An Akkadian Lexical Companion for Biblical Hebrew: Etymological-Semantic and Idiomatic Equivalents, Jersey City: Ktav, p. 53
  17. ^ a b Abegg, Martin G.; Jacobs, Jarod; Roorda, Dirk (2022), The Dead Sea Scrolls, Text-Fabric dataset, version 2.0.2, github.com/ETCBC/dss
  18. ^ Davies, Graham I. (2004), Ancient Hebrew Inscriptions: Corpus and Concordance, vol. 2, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 4.122.1
  19. ^ Sáenz-Badillos, Angel (1993), A History of the Hebrew Language, transl. John Elwolde, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 93
  20. ^ Sáenz-Badillos, Angel (1993), A History of the Hebrew Language, transl. John Elwolde, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 143
  21. ^ Clines, David J. A., ed. (1993–2011), The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew, 8 vols, Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press / Sheffield Phoenix Press, p. 2:186