Bible Geek Word Nerd - Naphtali

July 8, 2022

We love -- in a totally inappropriate way -- the classic Weber-Rice rock opera... No, not THAT one. The other one: "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour® Dreamcoat". (Taking a quick detour from the "to say" series because, well, reasons...the Hebrew word for that is MAAN (מַעַן), from the verb ANAH (עָנָה), which means answer or respond...one of the words we're discussing in the series...so this is not really a detour completely). Any way, back to Weber and Rice and the many-coloured coat...and Jacob's twisted, dysfunctional family.

 

Genesis 30 tells a wowser of a story (the Hebrew might say we are TAMAH (תָּמַהּ) by the whole thing. But just read the first eight verses of the chapter for this word for now, because it relates to a name. NAPHTALI. You do not see many Napthali's running around the Chick-fil-a or Autozone in the towns of America. But the kid's name is interesting.

 

 

 

It comes the word NAPHTHULIM (נַפְתּוּל) and it means "wrestlings" (plural because of the "IM" suffix). Poor Rachel, bereft of kids, is using her handmaids to bring children into her marriage with Jacob. And verse 8 of chapter 30 has Rachel saying this about her handmaid's son (whom Rachel named):

 

"Then Rachel said, ‘I have had a great struggle with my sister, and I have won.’ So she named him Naphtali."

 

ותאמר רחל נפתולי אלהים ׀ נפתלתי עם־אחתי גם־יכלתי ותקרא שמו נפתלי

 

NAPHTHULIM comes from PATHAL (פָתַל), which means "to twist", and if you have ever watch someone wrestle, you know the imagery is spot on. But the verb PATHAL is not necessarily a positive word. It also means "twisted" or "cunning". Imagine being little NAPHTHALI and having that connotation attached to not only your name, but also to your origin story.

 

Tell us again WHY God in His wisdom chose (BACHUR) this twisted, dysfunctional family to be the origin of Messiah? The mind boggles...