🔼The name Ahban: Summary
- Meaning
- Brother Of Intelligence, Brother Of Son
- Etymology
- From (1) the noun אח ('ah), brother, and (2) either the verb בין (bin), to discern, or the noun בן (ben), son.
🔼The name Ahban in the Bible
The name Ahban occurs once in the Bible. He's one of two sons of Abishur, son of Shammai of Judah, and Abihail (1 Chronicles 2:29). His brother's name is Molid.
🔼Etymology of the name Ahban
The name Ahban consists of two elements. The first part is the enigmatic little word אח ('ah), usually translated with brother:
אח
The noun אח ('ah) means brother, or more broadly: a fellow member of a social economic node (a "house") within a broader economic whole.
This word's lavish inclusion in names strongly suggests that the deity was reckoned by this word — in modern times we mostly speak of Our Father in Heaven but in antiquity the deity appears to have also been addressed as Our Brother. The New Testament appears to entertain that dynamic in the tenet that the Word is God's Son, and all who have the Word are godly brothers. Also note the similarity with the verb חוה (hawa), to show, tell, make known.
The noun אחוה ('ahawa) means brotherhood and אחות ('ahot) means sister.
Where the second part of the name Ahban comes from is debatable. It looks like it is identical to the noun בן (ben), meaning son:
בן
The noun בן (ben) means son, or more general: a member of one particular social or economic node — called a "house", which is built upon the instructions of one אב ('ab), or "father" — within in a larger economy (hence: the "sons of the prophet" are the members of the prophet-class; the prophets). This noun obviously resembles the verb בנה (bana), to build, and the noun אבן ('eben), stone.
Our noun's feminine version, namely בת (bat), means daughter, which resembles the noun בית (bayit), meaning house. Sometimes our noun is contracted into a single letter ב, whose name beth comes from בית (bayit) and means "house" as well. As a prefix, the letter ב (be) means "in." The word for mother, אם ('em), is highly similar to that of tribe or people, אמה ('umma).
But even though the second element of our name Ahban looks exactly like the word בן, most commentators take it from the verb בין (bin), meaning to discern:
בין
The verb בין (bin) means to distinguish and thus to discern, contemplate and understand. Its derivation בין (ben) means between, and obviously resembles the word בן (ben), son. A spectrum of sons is what an אב ('ab), or father, is expressed in.
🔼Ahban meaning
For a meaning of the name Ahban, NOBSE Study Bible Name List reads Brother Of Intelligence. Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names has Brother Of The Prudent, and BDB Theological Dictionary offers Brother Of An Intelligent One.