🔼The name Sered: Summary
- Meaning
- Frightened, Net-Makers, Law-Makers
- Etymology
- From the verb שרד (sarad), to take flight, or rather the noun סרד (sarad), net-maker.
🔼The name Sered and Seredites or Sardites in the Bible
The name Sered belongs to a son of Zebulun (Genesis 46:14), whose family formed the clan of the סרדי (saredi), that is Seredites (Numbers 26:26) or Sardites according to the King James Version. Nothing more is noted about Sered or the Seredites, and they were most probably deported by the Assyrians along with the other northern tribes. It's not impossible (but also not in any way substantiated) that the Seredites had something to do with the naming of the town of Sardis in Anatolia.
🔼Etymology of the name Sered
In Hebrew there is no root סרד (sa-r-d) but the formidable 19th century German linguist Gesenius points to a comparable word in Syriac Aramaic that meant to be frightened, which is why most onomasticons after Gesenius translate our name with Fear. Here at Abarim Publications we would go with the same root cluster but not with that meaning:
סרר
The verb סרר (sarar) means to be stubborn or rebellious, particularly of attitude (rather than active revolt). Adjective סר (sar) means stubborn or rebellious. Noun סרה (sara) means rebellion.
The verb סור (sur) means to turn aside. It may simply describe taking an exit off a road, but it may also speak of removal or even a coming to an existential end. This verb's sole derivation is the noun סרה (sara), meaning a turning aside or deviation. It's identical to the previous noun meaning rebellion.
Root שרד (sarad) describes a dashing off in blind fear, to run away terrified. Noun שריד (sarid) is commonly translated as survivor, but it rather describes someone who is still racing around trying to get away from whatever is trying to capture or kill him.
An identical second root שרד (sarad) may actually simply be the same as the previous, and has to do with braiding or plaiting. Noun שרד (serad) describes some coarse textile. Noun סרד (sarad) describes a net-maker, סרדא (serada) means network, web or grate, and סרדותא (sarduta) describes a hunter's net.
This latter root שרד (sarad) or סרד (sarad) comes via the process of transposition from the root סדר (sadar), which describes the formation of any ordered arrangement of rows of lines. Noun סדר (seder) describes a general order or organization (the absence of which typifies the realm of the dead). Noun שדרה (sedera) describes any sort of lineal order of elements such as beams or pillars or soldiers standing guard. Noun מסדרון (misderon) means "place of שדרה (sedera)" and describes a colonnade or pillar-supported porch.
So yes, our name has to do with rushing off in blind fear, but it clearly leans much stronger to the group of words that have to do with catching the escapees, and bringing in them back into the fold. Zebulun's territory was on the coast, so the chances are excellent that the Seredites were fishermen, who used coarsely meshed nets to catch fish. Since a societal law has as primary effect that every citizen behaves according to it, and hence in synchronicity with his fellow citizens, the metaphor of being "fishers of men" has to do with teaching people law — and thus physics and standardized language, which are all law based (see our article on the name YHWH).
Note that the name of the Jewish prayer book, Siddur, also derives from our root סדר (sadar), and hence refers to the net with which panic-stricken refugees are gathered. Perhaps similarly, the Greek Stoics were ostensibly named after the colonnade they taught in, but it seems obvious that this name stuck also because it clearly applied a much wider applied image: that of the colonnade that holds up the house, and a house that is kept together from standards and widely applied law (Proverbs 9:1).
🔼Sered meaning
The name Sered may mean Fear or Frightened, but it probably rather more practically described Net-Makers or Fishermen, and metaphorically Law-Makers or simply Linguists or Scientists.