🔼The name Ari: Summary
- Meaning
- Lion
- The Best
- Etymology
- From the noun ארי ('ary), lion, from the verb ארה ('ara), to gather.
- From αρι- (ari-), the best.
🔼The name Ari in the Bible
The name Ari exists both in Hebrew and in Greek (see below for a look at the Greek Ari) but neither actually occurs as such in the Bible. The Hebrew Ari (sometimes transliterated as Arie) occurs only in the compounds Ariel and Areli, and as the variant Arieh. In 1 Kings 4:19 occurs the name ארי (Uri) as variant of the name אורי (Uri), which comes from אור ('or), meaning to shine.
🔼Etymology of the Hebrew name Abba
The name Ari or Arie is equal to the Hebrew noun ארי ('ari), meaning lion, and comes from the verb ארה ('ara), meaning to gather:
ארה
The verb ארה ('ara) means to collect, pluck or gather. Nouns ארי ('ari) and אריה ('aryeh) both mean lion, which indicates that in Biblical times lions symbolized any power (individual or national) that plundered, gathered and hoarded. And as always, lions are not intrinsically bad; it all depends on what they gather (and at what cost).
Noun אריה ('urya) means manger or crib, which is a thing around which domesticated animals gather — and that is obviously why mankind's slowly waxing collective wisdom was placed in one by "His" mother.
🔼The Hebrew Ari meaning
Together with the feminine name Deborah and its masculine counterpart Dabar, the feminine word 'urya and the masculine name Ari form the gender-inverted self-similarity between the bee-in-the-lion of Judges 14:8 and the Word-in-the-crib of the Christmas story (for more details see our Introduction to Scripture Theory).
The Hebrew name Ari or Arie means Lion (equivalent to the Latin name Leo) or Gatherer. This secondary meaning relates the name Arie to the names Qoheleth and Agur.
🔼The Greek name Ari in the Bible
The Greek name Ari also doesn't occur by itself in the Bible. In the New Testament the Greek name Ari occurs only in compound names.
🔼Etymology of the Greek name Ari
The Greek name Ari represents the common inseparable prefix αρι (ari) or ερι (eri):
αρι
The prefix αρι- (ari-) means "very," and works basically as an amplifier of what comes next. The noun αρετη (arete) means excellence and virtue. Verb αριστευω (aristeuo) means to be best or bravest and yields the noun αριστος (aristos), best or brave one.
🔼The Greek Ari meaning
In Greek the name Ari means The Best or Excellence.