🔼The name Ethanim: Summary
- Meaning
- Perennials, Eternal Flows
- Etymology
- From an assumed noun אתן ('etan), from the verb יתן (yatan), to flow continuously.
🔼The name Ethanim in the Bible
The name Ethanim belongs to a month, and particularly the seventh month, which corresponds to our months September and October — for a closer look, see our article on the Mysterious Hebrew Calendar.
After the exile, the Jews began to refer to the seventh month by its Babylonian name Tishri, but this name does not occur in the Bible.
The month of Ethanim is mentioned only once in the Bible: "All the men of Israel came together to King Solomon at the time of the festival in the month of Ethanim, the seventh month" (1 Kings 8:2).
🔼Etymology of the name Ethanim
The name Ethanim is Hebrew and looks like an off-the-shelf masculine plural of a noun that corresponds to the adjective אתן or איתן ('etan), meaning perennial or ever-flowing, from the verb יתן (yatan), to flow continuously:
תנן
The root תנן (tanan) speaks of luring and scavenging and preying upon the weak and gullible. Verb תנה (tana) means to hire (predominantly of a prostitute) and nouns אתנן ('etnan) and אתנה ('etna) describe the hire of a prostitute.
It should be noted that societies were considered "houses" and their central governments their "house-father". The Bible often uses the prostitute to describe a society, which would typically be a society without central rule and which maintains its fading identity by means of shifting allegiances with neighboring states.
Still, on rare occasions this verb is also used to describe how God displays his splendor in the heavens, presumably to lure humanity to him, even though humanity does not accept the formal knowledge of natural law (that's the Word of God) as their king.
The noun תן (tan) describes some kind of predatory animal, possibly a jackal. Noun תנין (tannin) refers to a mythological aquatic serpentine creature, which appears to dwell in the caustic undertows of human society.
יתן אתן
The unused verb יתן (yatan) probably denoted the permanence of flowing water (it does so in cognate languages). The adjective אתן or איתן ('etan) means perennial or ever-flowing.
The noun אתון ('aton), from an assumed root אתן ('atan), describes a female donkey or she-ass. In the ancient world camels signified international trade (like our trucks), horses signified military might (our jeeps), oxen signified heavy farm work or local commerce (our tractors and lorries), and donkeys, particularly female donkeys, signified the spontaneous congress of peaceful and free civilians (our Volkswagens and campers).
Female donkeys were the units of social networks and symbolized both the freedom, peace and prosperity, and the curiosity about and concern for one's neighbor upon which any social network is based. This is why mankind's King rides a donkey (Zechariah 9:9): donkeys mostly carry stories, and mankind's King, obviously, is the Word of God, or the formal manifestation of natural law.
🔼Ethanim meaning
For a meaning of the name Ethanim, NOBSE Study Bible Name List offers a rather specific Incessant Rains. Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names doesn't treat the names of the months. BDB Theological Dictionary appears to have omitted this name all together.