🔼The name Conaniah: Summary
- Meaning
- Established Of The Lord, Yahweh has Established, Yah Is Firm
- Etymology
- From (1) the verb כנן (kanan), to be set up, fixed or established, and (2) יה (yah), the name of the Lord.
🔼The name Conaniah in the Bible
There may be two men named Conaniah (or rather Conaniahu, with the final ו, waw, which is common for yah-names) in the Bible, although Conaniah is really the same name as Chenaniah. The distinction between the two was made by the Masoretes, who worked more than a thousand years after the text of the Bible was written. Even the Septuagint has the same name for the two: Χενενιας:
- A Levite who, together with his brother Shimei, was in charge of the tithes and consecrated items after the reorganization of the temple services by king Hezekiah (2 Chronicles 31:12).
- Another (or the same?) Levite who contributed a substantial amount of livestock for Passover celebrations during the reign of king Josiah, at least sixty years after the reforms of Hezekiah (2 Chronicles 35:9).
🔼Etymology of the name Conaniah
There are two elements to the name Conaniah. The final element is יה (Yah) = יהו (Yahu) = יו (Yu), which in turn are abbreviated forms of the Tetragrammaton יהוה, YHWH, or Yahweh.
The first part of the name Conaniah comes from the verb כנן (or, as some insist, from the kindred verb כון), meaning to be firm or established:
כון
Root כנן (kanan) and hence verb כון (kun) mean to set, establish, fix, and so on. Nouns כן (ken), מכונה (mekona) and מכנה (mekona) denote a base or pedestal, noun מכון (makon) describes some fixed or established place, and noun תכונה (tekuna) means place or arrangement. Noun כון (kawwan) expresses a sort of ritualistic or sacrificial setup.
Adjective כן (ken) means right, true or honest, and adverb כן (ken) expresses confirmation: "thus" or "so". Verb כנה (kana) means to give a title or epithet or cognomen. Slightly unexpected, the noun כן (ken) denotes a gnat; the sort of proverbially plaguy insect that appears in huge swarms.
🔼Conaniah meaning
For a meaning of the name Conaniah, Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names reads Established Of The Lord, and NOBSE Study Bible Name List has Yahweh has Established. BDB Theological Dictionary does not interpret our name, but reads Yah Is Firm for Chenaniah.