Teman (Edom)
Teman (Template:Lang-he-n), was the name of an Edomite clan and of its eponym, according to the Bible[1] and an ancient biblical town of Arabia Petraea. The term is also traditionally applied to Yemenite Jews.
Job's friend Eliphaz was a Temanite.[2]
Location
According to bibleatlas.org and author W. Ewing, Teman or te'-man (תמין) means "on the right," i.e. "south" (Thaiman) and it is the name of a district and town in the land of Edom, named after Teman the grandson of Esau, the son of his firstborn, Eliphaz.[3] A duke Teman is named among the chiefs or clans of Edom.[4] He does not however appear first, in the place of the firstborn. Husham of the land of the Temanites was one of the ancient kings of Edom [5]. From Obad 1:9 we gather that Teman was in the land of Esau (Edom). In Amos 1:12 it is named along with Bozrah, the capital of Edom. In Ezekiel 25:13 desolation is denounced upon Edom: "From Teman even unto Dedan shall they fall by the sword." Dedan being in the South, Teman must be sought in the North. Eusebius' "Onomasticon" knows a district in the Gebalene region called Theman, and also a town with the same name, occupied by a Roman garrison, 15 miles from Petra. Unfortunately no indication of direction is given. No trace of the name has yet been found. It may have been on the road from Elath to Bozrah. The inhabitants of Teman seem to have been famous for their wisdom (Jeremiah 49:7 Obadiah 1:8 f). Eliphaz the Temanite was chief of the comforters of Job (2:11, etc.). The manner in which the city is mentioned by the prophets, now by itself, and again as standing for Edom, shows how important it must have been in their time[6].
According some biblical scholars and commendators Teman was a city in the Land of Uz. In "The Comprehensive Commentary on the Holy Bible" it is written: "Throughout almost the whole of Hebrew history Uz or Idumea was regarded by the Jews in the same light of elegance and accomplishment, as Greece by the Romans, and Teman, the native city of Eliphaz, as the Athens of Arabia Petrea".[7][8]
The Jewish Encyclopedia points out that the biblical genealogy and the references of the name "Teman": "proves that Teman was one of the most important of the Edomite tribes, and this is confirmed by the fact that "Teman" is used as a synonym for Edom itself (Amos i. 12; Obad. 9; comp. Jer. xlix. 20, 22; Hab. iii. 3). The Temanites were famed for their wisdom (Jer. xlix. 7; Baruch iii. 22)".[9]
The exact location of Teman remains unknown, but there is a possibility that if the city of Teman ever existed as a more permanent location of shepherds during the time of Job, present-day Ma'an (Template:Lang-ar) in Jordan could be its successor, due to the phonetic resemblance of their names and the location of Ma'an in the likely location of ancient Edom. The possible location of Teman given by bibleatlas.org[10] is almost identical with the location of the Jordanian town Ma'an[11].
References
- ^ Genesis 36:11–43
- ^ Job 2:11
- ^ Genesis 36:11, 1 Chronicles 1:36
- ^ Genesis 36:42 1 Chronicles 1:53
- ^ Genesis 36:34, 1 Chronicles 1:45
- ^ biblemap, TEMAN[1]
- ^ Thomas Scott, Matthew Henry, William Jenks: "The Comprehensive Commentary on the Holy Bible".
- ^ Thomas Williams. "The Cottage Bible and family expositor: containing the Old and New Testaments, with practical expositions and explanatory notes", Vol. II. D.F. Robinson and H.F. Sumner, 1834
- ^ .jewishencyclopedia.com, Teman[2]
- ^ http://bibleatlas.org/full/teman.htm
- ^ http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=30.193333,35.733333&spn=0.1,0.1&t=p&q=30.193333,35.733333
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