🔼The name Elmadam: Summary
- Meaning
- God Of Blood
- Etymology
- From (1) the word אל ('el), God, (2) the particle מ (mem), from, and (3) the noun דם (dam), blood.
🔼The name Elmadam in the Bible
The name Elmadam (or Elmodam, as some translations have it) occurs only once in the Bible, namely in Luke 3:28, where he is presented as an ancestor of Jesus of Nazareth, namely the great-great-great-grandfather of Zerubbabel.
The genealogy of Matthew doesn't mention Elmadam because even though both derive Jesus from king David, Matthew's genealogy goes though Solomon while Luke's genealogy goes through Solomon's brother Nathan.
🔼Etymology of the name Elmadam
It's not clear where the name Elmadam comes from. Most scholars appear to hold that it is a Greek transliteration of the Hebrew name Almodad, which in turn is a name of dubious etymology — please see our article on that name for the details.
It seems obvious that our name starts with אל, El, the prominent Canaanite deity whose name became applied to the God of Israel, or the common abbreviation of Elohim, the genus God:
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.
If Elmadam is indeed the same as Almodad, the second part of our name may either derive from the verb מדד (madad), meaning to measure, or from דוד (dod), meaning beloved.
However, the name Elmadam obviously ends with an m and not with a d, as does Almodad, and it's by no means certain that the two have anything to do with each other. In fact, the madam-part may very well come from the particle מ (me), meaning of or from, plus the word דם (dam), meaning blood:
דמם
The root דמם (ddm) is all about beginnings — or rather the simplicity from whence complexity arises — from being still before the noise starts to being monochromatic before color vision starts. Verb דמם (damam) means to be still, noun דממה (demama) denotes calmness and דמה (dumma) denotes a silenced person. Noun דומה (duma) describes the silence of death, noun דומיה or דמיה (dumiya) the silence of waiting and noun דומם (dumam) the silence of inertia or inactivity.
Verb דמה (dama I) describes making a (still) image. Nouns דמות (demut) and דמין (dimyon) mean likeness. Verb דמה (dama II) means to stop, halt or arrest. Noun דמי (domi) means a halting. Whatever the unused verb דמן (dmn) might have meant, noun דמן (domen) denotes refuse and מדמנה (madmena) a manure pit.
Unused verb אדם ('dm) may have meant to produce or begin to produce. Noun אדם (adam) is one of a few words for man but means literally probably "product" or likeness-made-from-soil; man as corporeal unit of humanity. This word is never used in plural, and its feminine equivalent, namely אדמה (adama), denotes arable soil or clay-red earth.
Red is the first color a baby learns to see and red or ruddy is indeed the color of rudiment: verb אדם ('adom or 'adem) means to be red, adjective אדם ('adom) means red, noun אדם ('odem) denotes a ruddy gem, possibly quartz, noun אדם ('edom) denotes a kind of red stew, adjective אדמדם ('adamiddam) means reddish, and adjective אדמוני (admoni) means red or ruddy.
The ubiquitous noun דם (dam) means blood; the seat of life, whose circulatory system always sits inside an organic body, isolated from the world at large. When a river turns to blood, it not so much assumes the color and thickness of blood but becomes isolated from the greater hydrological cycle. The life that is seated in the blood is therefore primarily an issue of waste-management. Without it, the organism pollutes and dies.
🔼Elmadam meaning
The name Elmadam may be a Greek interpretation of the Hebrew name Almodad, which means Immeasurable, God Is Loved, or Who Does God Love? But our name rather looks like a literal transliteration of a term that consists of the Hebrew word for God plus the phrase מדם (medam), meaning "of [the] blood". The exact same term occurs frequently in the Old Testament, most often in Leviticus (Leviticus 4:5, 4:16, 4:25, 4:34, etcetera). Ergo, the name Elmadam also, and perhaps even more so, means God Of Blood.