Ethan (Hebrew:אֵיתָן,Modern: ʾĒtan,Tiberian: ʾĒṯān, Eytan or Eitan)the Ezrahite, is mentioned in theHebrew Bible. Ethan was a boy at King David's court well known for his wisdom. He authoredPsalms 89: thisPsalm is entitled "amaschil or contemplation of Ethan the Ezrahite". Baptist preacherCharles Spurgeon theorised that this was the same person asJeduthun.[1] TheologianJohn Gill refers to a Jewish tradition which identifies Ethan withAbraham;Heman withMoses; andChalcol withJoseph.[2][3]
Ethan means "strong and optimistic, solid and enduring, permanent". The name Ethan appears eight times in the Hebrew Bible (1 Kings 4:31,Psalm. 89 title,1 Chronicles. 2:6 and 2:8, 1 Chronicles. 6:42 and 6:44, and 1 Chronicles. 15:17 and 15:19).
He was a standard of wisdom to whom KingSolomon is compared favorably. Called there "Ethan the Ezrahite", to whom the title of Psalm 89 ascribes the authorship of that poem.[4]
A son of Kishi or Kishaiah, of theMerarite branch of Levites, and also, withHeman andAsaph, was placed byKing David over the service of song (1 Chronicles 6:44; 1 Chronicles 15:17, 19).
An ancestor of Asaph of the Gershonite branch of the Levites (1 Chronicles 6:42).
Ethan is the protagonist and narrator ofStefan Heym's 1973 historical novelThe King David Report.[5] As depicted by Heym, Ethan is commissioned by the newly enthronedKing Solomon to write an official history of his father,King David. Ethan meets and interviews many persons who were associated with David at various periods of the late King's life. However, much of the material gathered by Ethan gets censored out for political reasons by Solomon and his ministers; the royally-approved surviving portions of Ethan's report eventually get into the Bible, forming the later chapters of theBooks of Samuel and the early ones of theBooks of Kings. Heym clearly used the biblical setting as a metaphor for his own situation as a writer inEast Germany's Communist regime.[citation needed]
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