🔼The name Nethanel: Summary
- Meaning
- God Has Given
- Etymology
- From (1) the verb נתן (natan), to give, and (2) the word אל ('el), God.
🔼The name Nethanel in the Bible
The name Nethanel is assigned ten times in the Bible, or eleven times if we count the Greek form Nathanael, which occurs in the Gospel of John.
The Nethanels of the Bible are:
- A son of Zuar and leader of Issachar (Numbers 1:8).
- Jesse's fourth son (1 Chronicles 2:14).
- A Levite trumpeter (1 Chronicles 15:24).
- The father of a Levite scribe (1 Chronicles 24:6).
- Obed-edom's fifth son (1 Chronicles 26:4).
- A teacher in Judah (2 Chronicles 17:7).
- A Levite officer (2 Chronicles 35:9).
- One among the priests who divorced their foreign wives under the purge of Ezra (Ezra 10:22).
- A priest in Joiakim's time (Nehemiah 12:21).
- A Levite musician (Nehemiah 12:36).
🔼Etymology of the name Nethanel
The name Nethanel is a compilation of the two elements, the final one being אל, El, the common abbreviation of Elohim:
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 first part of the name Nethanel comes from the verb נתן (natan), meaning to give:
נתן
The shape-shifting verb נתן (natan) means to give in a broad bouquet of senses, from regular giving or bestowing, to setting or putting, to transforming one thing or situation into another.
This verb's three nouns מתן (mattan), מתנה (mattana) and מתת (mattat) all mean gift, again broadly ranging from a regular present to an offering to an innate talent (being "gifted").
🔼Nethanel meaning
The name Nethanel means God Has Given (according to NOBSE Study Bible Name List) or Given of the Lord (according to Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names).