גן

Forms

גַּן (gan) noun, masculine, once feminine^[1][4] Pausal גָּן, with article הַגָּן, with suffix גַּנִּי, גַּנּוֹ, plural גַּנִּים.^[2][4]

Etymology

According to Wiktionary, the garden is inherited from Proto-Semitic *g-n-n (“to protect, defend”), a noun meaning “a protected place”.^[5] HALOT also places it under the root of the verb “to protect” and explains the sense as “fence” > “garden”.^[2] Kogan finds it in Ugaritic, Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic and Old South Arabian and reconstructs a Central Semitic *gann- (“garden”), with a feminine form.^[6] The cognates are Ugaritic gn (“garden, orchard”),^[7] Aramaic גִּנָּא (ginnā), Classical Syriac ܓܢܬܐ (gantā), Arabic جَنَّة (janna) and Sabaean gnt.^[4][6][8] Akkadian gannu of the Neo-Babylonian period is a borrowing from West Semitic or Aramaic.^[2][7] Huehnergard gives the West Semitic root the sense “to cover, surround”, and Arabic جَنَّ (janna) means “to veil, conceal, protect”.^[9][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is not in the archaic poems.^[1] Its first use in the canon is the Garden of Eden: wayyiṭṭaʿ yhwh ʾĕlōhîm gan-bəʿēḏen miqqeḏem, “and the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east” (Genesis 2:8).^[1]

Semantic evolution

A gan was an enclosed plot of trees or vegetables, as gan yārāq, “a vegetable garden” (Deuteronomy 11:10, 1 Kings 21:2).^[2][11][1] The Garden of Eden is also called “the garden of the LORD” and “the garden of God” (Genesis 13:10, Ezekiel 28:13), and the Song of Songs calls the bride gan nāʿûl, “a locked garden” (Song of Songs 4:12).^[2][11][1] A well-watered garden is an image of blessing in Isaiah 58:11 and Jeremiah 31:12.^[11]

The Septuagint has Ancient Greek κῆπος (kêpos) for an ordinary garden and παράδεισος (parádeisos) for Eden.^[1] In the Targums gan ʿēḏen is paradise.^[12] Modern Hebrew גן (gan) means “garden”, and also “kindergarten”, short for gan yəlāḏîm.^[13]

Timeline

• Classical Biblical Hebrew – the garden in Eden (Genesis 2:8) and the vegetable garden of 1 Kings 21:2.^[1][2]
• Song of Songs – gan nāʿûl “a locked garden” (4:12).^[1]
• 3rd–2nd century BC – the Septuagint renders it by Ancient Greek κῆπος (kêpos) and παράδεισος (parádeisos).^[14][1]
• 2nd century BC – 2nd century AD – 32 uses in the Dead Sea Scrolls.^[15][16]

Meanings

Noun

1. a garden, an enclosed plot of trees or vegetables.^[2][4]
2. the Garden of Eden, the garden of God.^[2][11]
3. (figurative) a well-watered garden, an image of prosperity; the beloved as a locked garden.^[2][11]

Word family

• גַּנָּה (gannâ)

Descendants

• Modern Hebrew גן (gan)^[13]

Related words

• מָגֵן (māḡēn)

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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 j 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. גַּן
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 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. גַּן
5. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
6. ^ a b Kogan, Leonid (2015), Genealogical Classification of Semitic: The Lexical Isoglosses, Berlin: De Gruyter, p. 208
7. ^ a b del Olmo Lete, Gregorio; Sanmartín, Joaquín (2015), A Dictionary of the Ugaritic Language in the Alphabetic Tradition, 3rd ed., transl. W. G. E. Watson, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ Lane, Edward William (1863–1893), An Arabic-English Lexicon, 8 parts, London: Williams and Norgate, p. 463
9. ^ 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
10. ^ Lane, Edward William (1863–1893), An Arabic-English Lexicon, 8 parts, London: Williams and Norgate, p. 462
11. ^ a b c d e Gesenius, Wilhelm; Buhl, Frants (1915), Hebräisches und aramäisches Handwörterbuch über das Alte Testament, 17th ed., Leipzig: F. C. W. Vogel, p. s.v. גַּן
12. ^ Kaufman, Stephen A., ed., Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon, Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College, cal.huc.edu
13. ^ a b Klein, Ernest (1987), A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Hebrew Language for Readers of English, Jerusalem: Carta; Haifa: University of Haifa, p. s.v. גַּן
14. ^ Sáenz-Badillos, Angel (1993), A History of the Hebrew Language, transl. John Elwolde, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 93
15. ^ Sáenz-Badillos, Angel (1993), A History of the Hebrew Language, transl. John Elwolde, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 143
16. ^ Abegg, Martin G.; Jacobs, Jarod; Roorda, Dirk (2022), The Dead Sea Scrolls, Text-Fabric dataset, version 2.0.2, github.com/ETCBC/dss