Ben | The amazing name Ben: meaning and etymologyOn the same note, Israel as a nation is frequently compared to a bride, and more specifically, to the bride of God (Ezekiel 16). Similarly, believers who are gathered into the Body of Christ are also depicted as bride (Rev 21:2, John 3:29). We should also note that the Hebrew word for house (temple, family, group), בית (bayit), which contracts to beth in compound names such as Bethlehem or Bethel, bears a striking resemblance to our word בת (bat), meaning daughter. The masculine plural of the word בן (ben) is בנים (benim)

Ben | The amazing name Ben: meaning and etymology

The name Ben in the Bible

The name Ben is vastly popular in our culture but in the Bible it occurs only once, and that in a high name-density chapter of Chronicles. The sole Biblical Ben is an obscure second degree Levite who is a gatekeeper but who is drafted to make music during the transportation of the Ark (1 Chronicles 15:18).

Etymology of the name Ben

Ben is surely also the shortest name in the Bible (together with Dan and Ner), and although a fine name in its own right, the word ben appears as part of about a dozen compound names (see below).

The name Ben is identical to the common Hebrew noun בן (ben), meaning son:

Abarim Publications Theological Dictionary

בן

The masculine noun בן (ben), most generally meaning son, occurs more than 5,000 times in the Bible. That alone shows how important family is in the Bible, and partly explains how the relationship between God and mankind became understood as that of a father and son.

But it should be realized that the word בן (ben) is by no means as narrowly defined as our word son is. And as common as our word is, we have no idea how we got it. BDB Theological Dictionary rattles off a vast array of obscure researchers and impenetrable abbreviations but grimly observes that "all traces of this root are lost in Hebrew form."

The brilliant Bible scholar Wilhelm Gesenius, however, quietly proposed that בן (ben) may have originated in the root בנה (bana), meaning build or rebuild. This verb usually simply refers to the building of buildings, but since a man's "house" most often denotes the family that lives in the house, rather than the actual building, the connection with the word בן (ben) is defendable with a great deal of optimism. The optimism rises even higher when we observe that in Genesis 16:2 Sarai, until then barren and desiring sons at any cost, addresses her husband Abram, shoves her aid Hagar front-center and utters the words, "Please go into my maid; perhaps I shall be built up from her," using our verb bana.

This at once directs our attention towards the curious statement made by Jesus:" . . . for I say to you that God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham" (Matthew 3:9), which is now far less curious and all the more profound.

Note that some scholars propose that the word for stone, אבן ('eben) is also related to the verbבנה (bana), meaning to build, and thus to our noun בן (ben), meaning son.

Jesus also says, " . . . and you will be sons of the Most High (Luke 6:35)," and Peter writes, "You also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house . . . " (1 Peter 2:5).

The word "house" is often used to denote someone's family. But it's also used to denote any other clearly defined group, such as a guild, a caste or order, and the word בן (ben) denotes a member of that group. Hence the Bible speaks of sons of the prophets (1 Kings 20:35); sons of the troops (2 Chronicles 25:13); or sons of the exile (Ezra 4:1).

The word בן (ben) is not even solely reserved for males. In Genesis 3:16 God informs Eve that she will suffer labor pains due to giving birth to benim, which certainly denotes both boys and girls. The word בן (ben) is not even reserved for humans (calves are 'sons' of the flocks - 1 Samuel 14:32), or even living things ('sons' of the sparks - Job 5:7; kernels on the threshing floor are 'sons' of the floor - Isaiah 21:10). A yearling kid may be called a son-of-year (Exodus 12:5) and offshoots of plants may be called their daughters (Genesis 49:22).

So yes, the word בן (ben) means son, but it really means quantum or building block.