🔼The name Noadiah: Summary
- Meaning
- Yah Has Met By Appointment, Meeting With Yah
- Etymology
- From (1) the verb עדה ('ada), to repeatedly pass by or encounter, and (2) יה (yah), the name of the Lord.
🔼The name Noadiah in the Bible
There are two people named Noadiah in the Bible, one man and one woman, and they are contemporaries:
- The man named Noadiah is a son of Binnui, and he was among the few Levites who assisted Meremoth, son of Uriah the priest, as he was weighing the gold and silver utensils that were donated for the temple by the king (Artaxerxes of Persia), his counselors and the people of Israel (Ezra 8:33).
- The woman named Noadiah was a prophetess in Jerusalem, right after the return. We don't know exactly was she did but she managed to get on Nehemiah's nerves to such a degree that he wrote about her in his book (Nehemiah 6:14). Noadiah the prophetess was among the people who opposed the idea of rebuilding Jerusalem's wall and the temple. Perhaps they were jealous (as some of the Samaritans appear to have been) or perhaps she was afraid that the Persians would change their mind about the whole affair and come over to destroy everything again. We don't know. But neither Nehemiah nor Noadiah could have realized that Nehemiah's records would one day be canonized, or else Nehemiah might have omitted the Noadiah remark and Noadiah might have behaved herself.
🔼Etymology of the name Noadiah
The name Noadiah consists of two elements, the final one being יה (Yah), which is an abbreviated form of the Tetragrammaton יהוה, YHWH, or Yahweh.
The first part of our name comes from the verb יעד (ya'ad), meaning to appoint:
עדד
Root עדד ('adad) describes a repeated passing by or over, or a repeated encountering. Noun עדה ('idda) describes any well-worn item.
Verb עדה ('ada I) means to advance or pass on. Nouns עד ('ad) and ועד (w'ad) describe the difficult concept of a future era advancing upon the now, or else the prey or booty upon which a predator advances. The conjunction עד ('ad) or עדי ('ady) means "as far as" or until.
The same verb, namely עדה ('ada II) is used to mean to adorn or ornament oneself — that is: to have items approach the canvas of one's bulk in order to testify of some social rank or perhaps the trade or order one belongs to. Noun עדי ('adi) means ornamentation: fancy or declarative things worn on one's body or clothes.
Verb יעד (ya'ad) means to meet, habitually and repeatedly rather than incidentally. Noun עדה ('eda) means congregation or some other joint collective. Nouns מועד (mo'ed), מועד (mo'ad) and מועדה (mu'ada) describe a place (or time) of meeting.
Verb עוד ('ud) means to return and repeat. Noun עוד ('od) denotes an addition, repetition or continuance. Nouns עד ('ed), עדה ('eda), עדה ('eda), עדת ('edut), עדות ('edut) and תעודה (te'uda) all mean witness or testimony in various nuances, and verb עוד ('ud) means to bear witness.
The letter נ (nun) with which our name begins comes from a Hebrew grammatical construction that may reflect a simple perfect form or an infinite or a participle (and some others). Which one is meant can usually be derived from the context, but since we're dealing with a name, all possible forms are permitted.
🔼Noadiah meaning
For a meaning of the name Noadiah, NOBSE Study Bible Name List reads Yahweh Has Met By Appointment, Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names proposes Met With Of The Lord, and BDB Theological Dictionary has Meeting With Yah.