🔼The name Eliud: Summary
- Meaning
- My God Is Majestic
- Etymology
- From (1) the word אל ('el), God, and (2) either הוד (hod), majesty, or ידה (yada), to praise.
🔼The name Eliud in the Bible
There's only one Eliud in the Bible and he is mentioned as an ancestor of Jesus Christ, namely his great-great-great-grandfather-by-law, according to the genealogy of Matthew through Solomon (Matthew 1:14 and 1:15). The genealogy of Luke goes through Solomon's brother Nathan and does not mention Eliud.
🔼Etymology of the name Eliud
The name Eliud is obvious Hebrew, but we only have the Greek spelling of this name, so explaining this name takes a bit more guessing than usual. It seems obvious that the first part of our name is אל (El), the prominent Canaanite deity whose name became applied to the God of Israel, or the common abbreviation of Elohim, the genus God:
אל אלה
In names אל ('el) usually refers to אלהים ('elohim), that is Elohim, or God, also known as אלה ('eloah). In English, the words 'God' and 'god' exclusively refer to the deity but in Hebrew the words אל ('l) and אלה ('lh) are far more common and may express approach and negation, acts of wailing and pointing, and may even mean oak or terebinth.
The second part of our name probably either comes from the noun הוד (hod), meaning majesty or glory, or the verb ידה (yada) meaning to praise:
הוד ידה
The related verbs ידה (yada), to praise, and הוד (hod), to be worthy of praise, conjugate into such similar forms that it's often not clear which verb in which tense is used. From the verb ידה (yada), to praise, come:
- The plural noun הידות (huyyedot), meaning songs of praise.
- The noun תודה (toda), meaning confession or praise.
From the verb הוד (hod), meaning to be praise-worthy, comes the noun הוד (hod), meaning splendor, majesty, vigor, glory or honor.
🔼Eliud meaning
For a meaning of the name Eliud, NOBSE Study Bible Name List reads God Is Mighty, which is slightly askew. Spiros Zodhiates (The Complete Wordstudy Dictionary) proposes My God Is Praise. Here at Abarim Publications we settle on My God Is Majestic.