🔼The name Henadad: Summary
- Meaning
- Favor Of Hadad, Grace Of The Thundering One
- Favor Of Dodo, Grace Of The Beloved
- Etymology
- From (1) the verb חנן (hanan), to be gracious, and (2) the name Hadad, from the verb הדד (hdd), to thunder.
- From (1) the verb חנן (hanan), to be gracious, and (2) the name Dodo, from the verb דוד (dod), to love.
🔼The name Henadad in the Bible
There appears to be only one man named Henadad in the Bible, although he himself plays no role. Henadad is the father of the "sons of Henadad," of which two are mentioned by name. We don't know how many there were; it may have been just these two, or two hundred:
- Ezra tells of a kind of union between Jeshua and his sons and brothers, and Kadmiel and his sons, and the sons of Judah (or Hodaviah) and the sons of Henadad and their sons and Levite brothers, and this union oversaw the workmen who built the second temple in Jerusalem (Ezra 3:9).
- Bavvai, son of Henadad, was an official of half the district of Keilah who directed a group of workers who repaired a section of the wall of Jerusalem (Nehemiah 3:18).
- Binnui, son of Henadad, repaired another portion of the wall, from the house of Azariah to a certain corner (Nehemiah 3:24). This Binnui also signed the sealed document (Nehemiah 10:9).
🔼Etymology of the name Henadad
Scholars generally declare the name Henadad to be a contraction of two elements. The first element would be an expression of the verb חנן (hanan), meaning to be gracious:
חנן
The verb חנן (hanan) means to be gracious or to favor. Nouns חן (hen), חנינה (hanina), תחנה (tehinna) and תחנון (tahanun) mean favor or grace. Adverb חנם (hinnam) means freely or gratis, and adjective חנון (hannun) means gracious.
The second element, it is said, would be the name הדד (Hadad), which was the name of a Canaanite deity, and it was in Biblical times obviously quite common to weave divine names into the personal names of people. The meaning of Hadad is not clear but possibly derives from the verb הדד (hdd), to thunder:
הדד
The unused verb הדד (hadad) probably meant to thunder or make a loud noise (it does so in cognate languages). Nouns הידד (hedad) and הד (hed) describe a shout or shouted cheer.
However, to a Hebrew audience the double "d" would probably have reminded of the following root group, and possibly even of the name Dodo, which was also the name of a Canaanite deity:
ידד
The root ידד (yadad) has to do with love, and that mostly in the affectionate, physical sense. Adjective ידיד (yadid) means beloved or lovely. Noun ידידות (yedidot) means love, as in "a song of love" and noun ידידות (yedidut), meaning love in the sense of beloved one.
Curiously, an identical verb ידד (yadad II) means to cast a lot and instead of being kin to the previous, it appears to be related to the verb ידה (yada), which originally meant to cast but which evolved to mean to praise.
That our root has to do with physical fondling and love-making is demonstrated by the verb דדה (dada), which means to move slowly. Noun דד (dad) denotes a women's nipple or breast specifically as object of one's husband's interest.
Unused verb דוד (dwd) probably meant to gently swing, dandle, fondle. Noun דוד (dod) or דד (dod) means beloved or loved one, and may also describe one's uncle. The feminine version, דודה (doda), means aunt. Noun דודי (duday) literally means a "love-bringer" and describes a mandrake. Noun דוד (dud) refers to a kind of pot or jar (perhaps one that was rocked or stirred?).
It may or may not be that the noun יד (yad), meaning hand, also has something to do with this root.
🔼Henadad meaning
For a meaning of the name Henadad, both NOBSE Study Bible Name List and BDB Theological Dictionary read Favor Of Hadad. Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names has the similar The Favor Of Hadad.
But taking the second part of our name from the root דוד or even ידד would translate it to Favor Of The Beloved.