Everything about Benjamin totally explained
» This article is about the history and origin of Benjamin. For people named Benjamin, see Benjamin (name). For other uses, see Benjamin (disambiguation).
Benjamin was, according to the
Book of Genesis, a son of
Jacob, the second (and final) son of
Rachel, and the founder of the
Israelite Tribe of Benjamin; in the Biblical account, unlike Rachel's first son -
Joseph, the father of
Ephraim and
Manasseh - Benjamin was born after Jacob and Rachel arrived in
Canaan. However some
Biblical scholars view these details as
postdiction, an
eponymous
metaphor providing an
etiology of the connectedness of the tribe to others in the Israelite confederation.
Biblical scholars regard it as obvious, from their geographic overlap and their treatment in older passages, that originally Ephraim and Manasseh were considered one tribe, that of
Joseph ; according to several biblical scholars, Benjamin was also originally part of this single tribe, but the biblical account of Joseph as his father became lost. The description of Benjamin being born after the arrival in Canaan is thought by some scholars to refer to the tribe of Benjamin coming into existence by branching from the Joseph group after the tribe had settled in Canaan. According to this view, the story of Jacob's visit to
Laban to obtain a wife originated as a
metaphor for this migration, with the property and family which were gained from Laban representing the gains of the Joseph tribes by the time they returned from Egypt.
The
Torah argues that Benjamin's name arose when Jacob deliberately corrupted the name
Benoni, the original name of
Benjamin, since
Benoni was an allusion to Rachel
dying just after she'd given birth, as it means
son of my pain; textual scholars regard these two names as fragments of naming narratives coming from different sources - one being the Jahwist and the other being the
Elohist. The true
etymology of the name
Benjamin is a matter of dispute, though most agree that it's composed of two parts -
ben and
jamin - the former meaning
son of. The literal translation of
Benjamin is
son of right (as opposed to
left), generally interpreted as meaning
son of my right hand, though sometimes interpreted as
son of the right [hand] side; being associated with the right hand side was traditionally a reference to strength and virtue (cf
sinister, which derives from the
latin for
left). This is, however, not the only literal translation, as the
root for
right is identical to that for
south, hence
Benjamin also literally translates as
son of the south; this meaning is advocated by several
classical rabbinical sources, which argue that it refers to the birth of Benjamin in Canaan, as compared with the birth of all the other sons of Jacob in
Aram. Modern scholars have instead proposed that, with the eponymous Benjamin being just a metaphor,
son of the south/
son of the right are references to the tribe coming into existence in a geographic situation to the south of Ephraim, the more dominant tribe. In the
Samaritan Pentateuch, the name is consistently written as
בן ימים - with a terminal
mem - making it
Benjamim, and would literally translate as
son of days; some
classical rabbinical literature argues that this was the original form of the name and was a reference to the old age of Jacob when Benjamin was born, but at one point is abruptly described as the father of ten sons; textual scholars believe that this is caused by the genealogical passage, in which his children are named, being from a much later source than the
Jahwist and
Elohist narratives, which make up most of the Joseph narrative, and which consistently describe Benjamin as a child.; the narrative goes on to state that when
Judah (on behalf of the other brothers) begged Joseph not to enslave Benjamin and instead enslave him, since enslavement of Benjamin would break Jacob's heart, this caused Joseph to recant and reveal his identity. The
midrashic book of Jasher argues that prior to revealing his identity, Joseph asked Benjamin to find his missing brother (ie. Joseph) via
astrology, using an
astrolabe-like tool. However, some classical rabbinical sources argue that Joseph identified himself for other reasons. In these sources, Benjamin swore an oath, on the memory of Joseph, that he was innocent of theft, and, when challenged about how believable the oath would be, explained that remembering Joseph was so important to him that he'd named his sons in Joseph's honour; these sources go on to state that Benjamin's oath touched Joseph so deeply that Joseph was no longer able to pretend to be a stranger.
In the narrative, just prior to this test, when Joseph had first met all of his brothers (but not identified himself to them), he'd held a feast for them; the narrative heavily implies that Benjamin was Joseph's favorite brother, since he's overcome with tears when he first meets Benjamin in particular, and he gives Benjamin five times as much food as he apportions to the others. According to textual scholars, this is really the Jahwist's account of the reunion after Joseph identifies himself, and the account of the threat to enslave Benjamin is just the Elohist's version of the same event, with the Elohist being more terse about Joseph's emotions towards Benjamin, merely mentioning that Benjamin was given five times as many gifts as the others;
Baidawi, the
quintessential mediaeval commentator on the Qu'ran, records that there was a tradition that the brothers had been made to sit in pairs at the feast, so that Benjamin had to sit on his own, which resulted in Benjamin weeping over the loss of Joseph.
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