🔼The name Shehariah: Summary
- Meaning
- Eclipse Of Yah, Diligently Searched Out Yah
- Etymology
- From (1) the noun שחר (shahar), solar eclipse, and (2) יה (yah), the name of the Lord.
🔼The name Shehariah in the Bible
The name Shehariah occurs only once in the Bible. He is mentioned as one of the sons of Jeroham of Benjamin (1 Chronicles 8:26). We have no further information on this man.
🔼Etymology of the name Shehariah
The name Shehariah consists of two elements, the final one being יה (Yah), which is an abbreviated form of the Tetragrammaton יהוה, YHWH, or Yahweh.
The first part of our name comes from the verb שחר shahar, to be dark or black:
שחר
The verb שחר (shahar) means to be black or dark (mostly of skin, hair and horses). The adjective שחר (shahor) means black, and adjective שחרחר (sheharhor) means blackish. Nouns שחור (shehor) and שחרות (shaharut) mean blackness.
The noun שחר (shahar) is generally thought to mean dawn, but here at Abarim Publications we find that unlikely (for our reasoning, follow the link at the foot of this paragraph, to the full Dictionary article). Instead, we propose that this noun describes a solar eclipse, which occurs when an invisible moon moves in front of the sun and blocks out its light. This causes a brief and unexpected moment of nightly darkness, which in turn makes the stars and planets visible.
An observer can see other people, but she cannot see what they see. This means that the sun she sees is hers alone, and equal to her own ratio. A solar eclipse also eclipses one's own solar ratio and reveals the many ratios of other people. This awakens one's stellar consciousness, or Theory of Mind, which counts as being "born from above" (John 3:3). These events are obviously mimicked in the Biblical accounts of the crucifixion and resurrection.
From the noun שחר (shahar), solar eclipse, derives the denominative verb שחר (shahar), meaning to diligent search for God and wisdom; again qualities of a stellar consciousness.
🔼Shehariah meaning
The name Shehariah doesn't come with a manual (or a context), so there's no telling what the original name-giver meant to convey with this name. It could be Darkness Of Yah, which sounds rather grim but really isn't, since YHWH has made great things come about in darkness (creation as a whole; Genesis 1:2, the covenant with Abraham; Genesis 15:17; the Messiah; Isaiah 9:2).
But perhaps our name celebrates the social and stellar light of Yah upon the eclipse of the rational and solar light of Yah — all light comes from Yah. Jesus said: "I am the Light" (John 8:12) which covers both sunlight and starlight and of course the photonic energy that comes before all polarization and the forcefields of virtual photons that hold atoms and everything that consists of atoms together (Colossians 1:17).
But one's stellar consciousness is vastly greater than one's solar consciousness (in size, not in importance), and the name Shehariah may very well celebrate being "born-from-above" (John 3:3) and the awakening of one's stellar consciousness or Theory of Mind.
For a meaning of the name Shehariah, NOBSE Study Bible Name List reads Yahweh Is The Dawn. Alfred Jones (Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names) connects our name to the denominative verb שחר (shahar), meaning to look diligently, and translates Shehariah with Sought Of The Lord. BDB Theological Dictionary doesn't translate the name Shehariah but does list it under the proposed root שחר II (shahar II), from which would come the noun שחר (shahar), meaning dawn. As said above, here at Abarim Publications we propose that the noun שחר (shahar) does not mean dawn but rather solar eclipse.