Hannah (Bible)

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Hannah (also occasionally transliterated as Chana) (Hebrew: חנה - Grace / favour / charm) was a wife of Elkanah mentioned in the Books of Samuel. According to the Hebrew Bible she was the mother of Samuel, The Hebrew word "Hannah" has multiple meanings and interpretations such as beauty or passionate.

In the Biblical narrative, Hanna is one of two wives of Elkhanah; the other, Peninnah, gave birth to Elkanah, but Hannah remained childless. Nevertheless, Elkhanah preferred Hannah. Every year Elkhanah would offer a sacrifice at the Shiloh sanctuary, and give Hannah twice as big a portion of it as he would to Penninah. One day Hannah went up to the temple, and prayed silently, while Eli the High Priest was sitting on a chair near the doorpost. In her prayer she begs for a child in return for giving the child up, putting him in the service of the Shiloh priests, and raising him as a nazirite.

Eli thought she was drunk and questioned her, but when she explained herself he sends her away and effectively says that her wish will be granted. That night she went home with her husband, they had marital relations, and she became pregnant. As promised, when the child was born, she raised him as a nazirite and put him into the service of the Shiloh priests, then she sang/prayed a song of praise for his birth - the Song of Hannah. Subsequently, when the child proved himself a good worker, Eli blesses Hannah again, and Hannah has five more children.

[edit] In Classical Rabbinical literature

In Classical Rabbinical literature, Hannah was considered as a prophetess, and her Song as prophecy, an opinion presented for example by Jonathan ben Uzziel. Hannah is also singled out in Rabbinical literature for being the first to refer to God as Elohim Sabaoth (God of hosts). ^[1].

[edit] In contemporary Biblical criticism

It has been suggested among Biblical critical commentaries that the name "Samuel" in the story of Samuel is a better etymological refererence to the name Saul, and because of this it has been posited that the stories may have been displaced at one time in the narrative's transmission history. Peake's Commentary on the Bible explains:

Hannah named her son Samuel. The name, in the narrative, is interpreted as meaning "I have asked him of the Lord," but this interpretation belongs, etymologically, to the name Saul. It has therefore been suggested that the etymology, and probably the whole birth story with it, has been displaced from Saul to Samuel in the course of compilation or transmission.^[2]

The editors of the 1906 Jewish Encyclopedia presented but disputed this view, arguing that interpreting Hannah's "asked of God" answer as referring to the etymology of Samuel's name, the basis of the displacement theory, is "not tenable":

The name "Shemu'el" is interpreted "asked of Yhwh," and, as Khimih suggests, represents a contraction of "M'El Shaul", an opinion which Ewald is inclined to accept ("Lehrbuch der Hebräischen Sprache," p. 275, 3). But it is not tenable. The story of Samuel's birth, indeed, is worked out on the theory of this construction of the name (i. 1 et seq., 17, 20, 27, 28; ii. 20). But even with this etymology the value of the elements would be "priest of El" (Jastrow, in "Jour. Bib. Lit." xix. 92 et seq.). Ch. iii. supports the theory that the name implies "heard by El" or "hearer of El." The fact that "alef" and "'ayin" are confounded in this interpretation does not constitute an objection; for assonance and not etymology is the decisive factor in the Biblical name-legends, and of this class are both the first and the second chapter. The first of the two elements represents the Hebrew term "shem" (= "name"); but in this connection it as often means "son." "Shemu'el," or "Samuel," thus signifies "son of God" (see Jastrow, l.c.).^[3]

^[specify] interprets the narrative of Hannah as an attempt by the monarchist source of the Books of Samuel to glorify Saul as a divinely appointed child, using the childless wife and lesser childbearing wife template found in multiple narratives from the Book of Genesis (e.g. the narrative of Rachel) ^{[citation needed]}

[edit] References

1. ^ Jewish Encyclopedia, Saul, Book of Samuel, Hannah
2. ^ Mathew Black, Peake's Commentary on the Bible. Routledge, 2001. ISBN 0415263557, p. 319
3. ^ "Samuel", Jewish Encyclopedia, 1901-1906.