אֶלְנָתָן
el.na.tan
Elnathan
Lexicon Entry
Lexicon data from STEPBible TIPNR, Tyndale House, Cambridge. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.
What Original Readers Understood
Supported# Elnathan: A Proper Name in Hebrew Scripture Elnathan (אֶלְנָתָן) is a Hebrew proper noun that appears a single time in the biblical text. As a name rather than a common word, it functions as a personal identifier rather than conveying a general semantic meaning applicable across different contexts. The name itself appears to be constructed from Hebrew elements—"El" (God) and "natan" (gave)—suggesting a theophoric name meaning something like "God gave," though the lexicon data provided does not explicitly confirm this etymological analysis. The extremely limited occurrence of this name in the biblical corpus (only once) indicates that it belonged to a specific individual whose identity and significance would be understood primarily through the narrative context in which the name appears. Without access to that contextual information through the lexicon entry itself, we can only note that Elnathan was a person significant enough to be named and recorded in Scripture, but the single occurrence suggests he was not a major recurring figure or central character in the biblical narrative.
Source data & methodology
Occurrences in Scripture
1 total occurrence across the text