🔼The name Baaseiah: Summary
- Meaning
- Work Of Yah
- Etymology
- From (1) the verb עשה ('asa), to do or make, and (2) יה (yah), the shortened name of the Lord.
🔼The name Baaseiah in the Bible
The name Baaseiah (say: Ba'aseiah) occurs only one time in the Bible. He is mentioned as a son of Malchijah and the father of Michael in a genealogy of Asaph of Levi (1 Chronicles 6:40).
🔼Etymology of the name Baaseiah
The etymology of the name Baaseiah is a bit of a mystery, although it obviously consists of two elements. The final part is formed from יה (Yah) = יהו (Yahu) = יו (Yu), which in turn are abbreviated forms of the Tetragrammaton; the name of the Lord: YHWH.
The problem lies with the first part of the name Baaseiah. There is no root בעש (b's) in Hebrew, so it was probably formed from something else, maybe through people speaking a dialect. There seems to be somewhat of a consensus among scholars that the B of Baaseiah was originally an M, and that the root this name came from is the very common Hebrew verb עשה ('asa), meaning to do or make:
עשה
The verb עשה ('asa) means to do, make happen or work with. Noun מעשה (ma'aseh) means deed, act, work, doing, making and so on.
The noun מעשה (ma'aseh), meaning work, may be the source of our name, assuming that the B and the M sounded somewhat alike in the olden days. An technically possible alternative comes with the Aramaic verb בעש (ba'ash), to displease (by being odious; see the name Baasha), but that would result in a meaning of Displeasure Of Yah, or Stench Of Yah, which most commentators reject (or ignore).
🔼Baaseiah meaning
For a meaning of the name Baaseiah, NOBSE Study Bible Name List reads Work Of Yahweh, and Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names proposes the similar Work Of The Lord. BDB Theological Dictionary does not translate but does refer to the verb 'asa, albeit with an added question mark.