Bible Geek Word Nerd - Samson - ECHAD

What kind of man was Manoah? 
Let's play "name that tune"...

“A certain man of Zorah, named Manoah, from the clan of the Danites, had a wife who was childless, unable to give birth.”
Judges 13:2

 

For no particular reason, other than the way memory and association work, I think of all the classic rock songs with “man” in the title.  You’ve got “Travelin’ Man”, “Rambling Man”, “Starman”, “Simple Man”, “Tambourine Man”, “Working Man”, “Rubberband Man”, “Rocket Man”, “Television Man”, “Secret Agent Man”, “Digital Man”, “Better Man”, and likely many more.  But nobody has written “Certain Man”, as far as we know.  That one belongs to Manoah.

 

The Hebrew term behind this translation to “certain in Judges 13:2 is ECHAD (אֶחָד).  In almost every English translation (NIV, NKJV, ESV, RSV, NRSV, HCSB, JPS, LXX, etc.) ECHAD is rendered as “a certain”.  The NASB just says “there was a man”.  We kind of like where the NASB is going here.

 

ECHAD is an incredibly important term in the Hebrew Bible, occurring nearly 1000 times in the Text.  And it is a loaded word for many reasons.  Here in Judges, it is sort of innocuous.  Does it really matter if English translators render it as “a man” or “a certain man”?

 

Whoops!  We are getting ahead of ourselves.

 

ECHAD is the cardinal number “1” (one).  So technically, if they were being literal, every English translation would begin verse two with “There was ONE man…”  (So the rock song we SHOULD channel is “One” from The Guess Who.) 

 

 

As the number one, ECHAD is used A LOT in the Hebrew Bible.  But here is the fascinating thing about the word: it also is nuanced to mean other things, such as “another”, “each”, “first”, single”, “some”, and “together”.  Importantly, it also can mean “alone”.  This leads us to one of the more controversial ways ECHAD is rendered into English: the GREAT SHAMA.

 

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.”
Deuteronomy 6:4

 

Here is the problem.  The Hebrew text has only one verb in the verse: SHAMA (שָׁמַע), which means “hear”.  There is no “is” in the Text.  It may be implied in English, but is it not spelled out in the Hebrew.  Hebrew has a verb for is: HAYAH (הָיָה).  But the author did not use it here.  Its absense, coupled with the flexible meaning available in ECHAD, has led some translators to render the SHAMA verse differently in English:

 

“Hear, Israel: The LORD (is) our G-d, the LORD ALONE…”

 

Verse 4, then, is a sort of preface to the Great Commandment, which follows in verse 5:

 

“…and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.”

 

What complicates this further in English is that the Hebrew word for “lord” (ADONAY) is not used in Deuteronomy 6:4.  English translations use the English term “LORD” – in all caps – as a euphemism for the Name of the One True G-d (following Jewish tradition of using ADONAY (אֲדֹנָי) in place of the Name). 

 

What if we tried to read the Text in the traditional English manner, but substituted a name in place of the euphemism LORD?  Say, Sally? 

 

“Hear, O Israel, Sally our G-d, Sally one” is almost incoherent to read.  And not just because using “Sally” is blasphemous.  How about the non-traditional way?  “Hear, O Israel, Sally our G-d, Sally alone…”  What do we make of this? 

 

The identity of G-d Almighty, the One True G-d, is more complicated than we often recognize. The lads at The Bible Project took on this topic over 22 episodes of their Podcast in 2018 (it’s a very dense topic that is worth the entire 22 hours of conversation). Maybe the ancient Jewish people were not monotheistic in the way we modern thinkers construe the term.

 

This discussion reinforces two things about ancient languages, such as the Hebrew Bible.  First, it bears repeating that translation is incredibly difficult to do.  So much goes into properly understanding what Hebrew writers were trying to convey.  And thankfully, our existing English translations are all very good. 

 

Second, it is impossible to translate – or even read – without bringing our own biases to the words.  We have preconceived ideas and a priori commitments that act as filters for what we see in the words on the page.  Proverbs comes to mind: “Where there is no guidance, a people falls; but in an abundance of counselors there is safety (or salvation).”

 

So what do we make of this oddly placed ECHAD in our Judges verse?  Well, we know that Manoah is one man.  He is a certain or particular man.  He may be a “simple man”, and he could be a “rambling man”.  But is most definitely one man.

 

Tomorrow, we will speak of The Dan Clan.