Benjamin | |
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בִּנְיָמִין | |
.jpg) Painting byArthur Pond (1745) afterFrancisco de Zurbarán's portrait from the series (Jacob and His Twelve Sons)c. 1640 – c. 1645 | |
| Pronunciation | Binyamin |
| Born | 11Cheshvan |
| Children | [1]
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Benjamin (Hebrew:בִּנְיָמִיןBīnyāmīn; "Son of (the) right")[2] was the younger of the two sons ofJacob andRachel, and Jacob's twelfth and youngest son overall. In Jewish, Christian and Islamic tradition. He was also the progenitor of theIsraeliteTribe of Benjamin. Unlike Rachel's first son,Joseph, Benjamin was born inCanaan according to biblical narrative.
In theSamaritan Pentateuch, Benjamin's name appears as "Binyamēm" (Samaritan Hebrew:ࠁࠪࠍࠬࠉࠣࠌࠜࠉࠌࠬ, "son of days"). In theQuran, Benjamin is referred to as a righteous young child, who remained with Jacob when the older brothers plotted against Joseph. Later rabbinic traditions name him as one of four ancient Israelites who died without sin, the other three beingChileab,Jesse andAmram.
The name is first mentioned in letters from KingSîn-kāšid ofUruk (1801–1771 BC), who called himself “King of Amnanum” and was a member of theAmorite tribal group the “Binu-Jamina” (single name “Binjamin”; AkkadianMar-Jamin).[3] The name means "Sons/Son of the South" and is linguistically related as a forerunner to the Old Testament name "Benjamin".
According to theHebrew Bible, Benjamin's name arose when Jacob deliberately changed the name "Benoni", the original name of Benjamin, since Benoni was an allusion to Rachel's dying just after she had given birth, as it means "son of my pain".[4] Textual scholars regard these two names as fragments of naming narratives coming from different sources - one being theJahwist and the other being theElohist.[5]
Unusual for one of the12 tribes of Israel, the Bible does not explain theetymology of Benjamin's name. Medieval commentatorRashi gives two different explanations, based onMidrashic sources. "Son of the south", with south derived from the word for the right hand side, referring to the birth of Benjamin inCanaan, as compared with the birth of all the other sons of Jacob inAram.[6][7] Modern scholars have proposed that "son of the south" / "right" is a reference to the tribe being subordinate to the more dominant tribe of Ephraim.[7] Alternatively, Rashi suggests it means "son of days", meaning a son born in Jacob's old age. TheSamaritan Pentateuch consistently spells his name "בנימים", with a terminalmem, ("Binyamim"), which could be translated literally as "spirit man" but is in line with the interpretation that the name was a reference to the advanced age of Jacob when Benjamin was born.[7]
According to classical rabbinical sources, Benjamin was only born afterRachel hadfasted for a long time, as a religious devotion with the hope of a new child as a reward. By thenJacob had become over 100 years old.[7] Benjamin is treated as a young child in most of the Biblical narrative,[7] but at one point is abruptly described as the father of ten sons.[8] Textual scholars believe that this is the result of the genealogical passage, in which his children are named, being from a much later source than theJahwist andElohist narratives, which make up most of theJoseph narrative, and which consistently describe Benjamin as a child.[7]
By allusion to the biblical Benjamin, inFrench,Polish andSpanish, "Benjamin" (benjamin/beniamin /benjamín, respectively) is a common noun meaning the youngest child of a family, especially a particularly favoured one (with a similar connotation to "baby of the family").
The Torah's Joseph narrative, at a stage when Joseph is unrecognised by his brothers, describes Joseph as testing whether his brothers have reformed by secretly planting a silver cup in Benjamin's bag. Then, publicly searching the bags for it, and afterfinding it in Benjamin's possession, demanding that Benjamin become hisslave as a punishment.[9]
The narrative goes on to state that whenJudah (on behalf of the other brothers) begged Joseph not to enslave Benjamin and instead enslave him, since enslavement of Benjamin would break Jacob's heart. This caused Joseph to recant and reveal his identity.[9] Themidrashic book of Jasher argues that prior to revealing his identity, Joseph asked Benjamin to find his missing brother (i.e. Joseph) viaastrology, using anastrolabe-like tool.[7] It continues by stating that Benjamindivined that theman on the throne was Joseph, so Joseph identified himself to Benjamin (but not the other brothers), and revealed his scheme (as in the Torah) to test how fraternal the other brothers were.[7]
Some classical rabbinical sources argue that Joseph identified himself for other reasons.[7] In these sources, Benjamin swore an oath, on the memory of Joseph, that he was innocent of theft, and, when challenged about how believable the oath would be, explained that remembering Joseph was so important to him that he had named his sons in Joseph's honour.[7] These sources go on to state that Benjamin's oath touched Joseph so deeply that Joseph was no longer able to pretend to be a stranger.[7]
In the narrative, just prior to this test, when Joseph had first met all of his brothers (but not identified himself to them), he had held a feast for them;[10] the narrative heavily implies that Benjamin was Joseph's favorite brother, since he is overcome with tears when he first meets Benjamin in particular,[11] and he gives Benjamin five times as much food as he apportions to the others.[12] According to textual scholars, this is really the Jahwist's account of the reunion after Joseph identifies himself, and the account of the threat to enslave Benjamin is just the Elohist's version of the same event, with the Elohist being more terse about Joseph's emotions towards Benjamin, merely mentioning that Benjamin was given five times as many gifts as the others.[7]
Upon his death, thepatriarch Jacobblesses his youngest son: "Benjamin is a ravenouswolf; In the morning he consumes the foe, And in the evening he divides the spoil" (Genesis 49:27). Thiswolf symbolism has been interpreted to refer to several elements of the Tribe of Benjamin, including its heroic members likeKing Saul andMordecai, the tribe's often warlike nature, and the tribe's jurisdiction over theTemple in Jerusalem in whichsacrifices were 'devoured' by flame.[13][14]
Biblical scholars believe, due to their geographic overlap and their treatment in older passages, that Ephraim and Manasseh were originally considered one tribe, that ofJoseph.[15] According to several biblical scholars, Benjamin was also originally part of this single tribe, but the biblical account of Joseph as his father became lost.[15][16]
The description of Benjamin being born after the arrival in Canaan is thought by some scholars to refer to the tribe of Benjamin coming into existence by branching from the Joseph group after the tribe had settled in Canaan.[16] A number of biblical scholars suspect that the distinction of theJoseph tribes (including Benjamin) is that they were the only Israelites which went toEgyptand returned, while the main Israelite tribes simply emerged as a subculture from the Canaanites and had remained inCanaan throughout.[16][17]
According to this view, the story of Jacob's visit toLaban to obtain a wife originated as ametaphor for this migration, with the property and family which were gained from Laban representing the gains of the Joseph tribes by the time they returned from Egypt.[16] According to textual scholars, theJahwist version of the Laban narrative only mentions the Joseph tribes and Rachel, and does not mention the other tribalmatriarchs whatsoever.[16][18]
According to Genesis 46:21, Benjamin had ten sons: Bela, Becher, Ashbel, Gera, Naaman, Ehi, Rosh, Muppim, Huppim, and Ard.[8] The name of his wife/wives are not given, but theBook of Jubilees calls his wife Ijasaka and theBook of Jasher mentions two wives, Mechalia the daughter of Aram and Aribath the daughter of Shomron.[19][20] The classical rabbinical tradition adds that each son's name honors Joseph:[7]
There is a disparity between the list given in Genesis 46 and that in Numbers 26, where the sons of Benjamin are listed along with the tribes they are the progenitors of.[21]
Becher, Gera, Ehi, and Rosh are omitted from the second list. Ard and Naaman, who are the sons of Benjamin according to Numbers 26, are listed as the sons of Belah and are the progenitors of the Ardites and the Naamites respectively.
Though not named in theQuran,[22] Benjamin (بنيامين Binyāmīn) is referred to as the righteous youngest son ofJacob, in the narrative ofJoseph in Islamic tradition. Apart from that, however, Islamic tradition does not provide much detail regarding Benjamin's life, and refers to him as being born from Jacob's wifeRachel. As with Jewish tradition, it also further links a connection between the names of Benjamin's children and Joseph.[23]
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