Hannah

File:Hannah-brings-her-boy-to-eli.jpg

Hanna brings Samuel to Eli at Shiloh.

Hannah, also transliterated Chana, (Hebrew: חנה - Grace) was the mother of the prophet and last judge, Samuel, in theHebrew Bible. She was the pious wife of Elkanah who, despite persecution by a second wife for her barrenness, conceived a son miraculously. In fulfillment of a vow to God, she offered Samuel to serve as a priest in the tabernacle at Shiloh, visiting him only once a year. Her sacrifice opened the way for Samuel fulfilled a great destiny as a national leader who appointed the first two kings of Israel, Saul and David.

The Bible records Hannah's hymn of praise in gratitude for the birth of her son. Known as the Song of Hannah, the hymn is much discussed for its influence on similar songs attributed to both Elizabeth and Mary in the New Testament. It also has given rise to speculation that in an earlier tradition, Hannah's son may not have been Samuel, but Saul. She is considered a prophetess in the rabbinical tradition. The Hebrew name "Hannah" is the same as Anna in English.

Biblical Narrative

In the Biblical story, Hanna is one of two wives of Elkhanah, son of Jeroham, who lived in the hill country belonging to his tribe of Ephraim. Elkanah's other wife, Peninnah, bore children to him, but Hannah remained childless. Nevertheless, Elkhanah preferred Hannah. Every year Elkhanah would offer a sacrifice at the Shiloh sanctuary and give Hannah twice as big a portion of it as he would to Penninah.

File:Hannah-praying.jpg

Hannah prays for a son.

Envious of the love Elkanah showed to Hannah, Peninnah continually ridiculed and provoked her because of her childlessness. Peninnah's cruelty became particularly intense on those occasions when the family made the pilgrimage to Shiloh. This persecution was so intense that it casued Hannah to weep and refrain from eating.

Desperate for a son, Hannah prayed in tears at the tabernacle. In her prayer she begged for a child and promised to dedicate him to God's service at Shiloh. She also promised to raise as a nazirite, Hannah raised him as a nazirite, strictly following the laws of the Torah never cutting his hair or allowing him to drink wine. (The story here follows a similar pattern to that of Samson in the Book of Judges and John the Baptist in the New Testament.)

Eli, the High Priest, was sitting on a chair near the doorpost of the tabernacle and noticed the unusual passion of Hannah's prayer, in which she mouthed her words but did not utter them. Thinking her to be drunk, he reprimanded her. "Not so, my Lord," Hannah replied. "I am a woman who is deeply troubled. I have not been drinking wine or beer; I was pouring out my soul to the Lord... I have been praying here out of my great anguish and grief." (I Sam. 1:15-16). Realizing his error, Eli blessed her, saying "may the God of Israel grant you what you have asked of him."

No longer downhearted, Hannah remained one additional night at the tabernacle and returned home the next day with her family. Soon she realized that she had become pregnant. As promised, when the child was born, she named him Samuel. With Elkanah's agreement, after Samuel was weaned, she brought him to Eli where he entered the service of the Shiloh priests. Her messianic hymn of praise for his birth - the "Song of Hannah" — became an important part of Jewish liturgy. It reads, in part:

"My heart rejoices in the Lord;

in the Lord my horn is lifted high.

My mouth boasts over my enemies,

for I delight in your deliverance.

There is no one holy like the Lord;

there is no one besides you;

there is no Rock like our God.

He raises the poor from the dust

and lifts the needy from the ash heap;

he seats them with princes

and has them inherit a throne of honor.

For the foundations of the earth are the Lord's;

upon them he has set the world...

The Lord will judge the ends of the earth.

"He will give strength to his king

and exalt the horn of his anointed."

After Samuel was weaned, and with Elkanah's agreement, Hannah brought the child to Eli and Shiloh, where he began to serve as a priest at young age. Each year at pilgrimage time, she visited and brought him a new robe. Samuel eventually took the place of Eli's own sons as his spiritual son, since they were corrupt and unworthy of the priesthood. He went on to become not only the chief priest, but a great prophet, judge, military leader and kingmaker. More than any other figure in the period of judges, he unified the tribes of Israel. He also identified, anointed, and officially appointed the first two of the kings of Israel: Saul and David.

It is no exaggeration to say that in the biblica tradition, the kingdom of Israel rested on the faith of Hannah, the mother of Samuel.

In Jewish Tradition

In Classical Rabbinical literature, Hannah was considered as a prophetess, and her Song as prophecy, an opinion presented for example by Jonathan ben Uzziel. Hannah is also singled out in Rabbinical literature for being the first to refer to God as Elohim Sabaoth (God of hosts). .

Hannah's prayer as Rosh Hashona liturgy.

In contemporary Biblical criticism

It has been suggested among Biblical critical commentaries that the name "Samuel" in the story of Samuel is a better etymological refererence to the name Saul, and because of this it has been posited that the stories may have been displaced at one time in the narrative's transmission history. Peake's Commentary on the Bible explains:

Hannah named her son Samuel. The name, in the narrative, is interpreted as meaning "I have asked him of the Lord," but this interpretation belongs, etymologically, to the name Saul. It has therefore been suggested that the etymology, and probably the whole birth story with it, has been displaced from Saul to Samuel in the course of compilation or transmission.

[and Samuel.]

The editors of the 1906 Jewish Encyclopedia presented but disputed this view, arguing that interpreting Hannah's "asked of God" answer as referring to the etymology of Samuel's name, the basis of the displacement theory, is "not tenable":

The name "Shemu'el" is interpreted "asked of Yhwh," and, as Khimih suggests, represents a contraction of "M'El Shaul", an opinion which Ewald is inclined to accept ("Lehrbuch der Hebräischen Sprache," p. 275, 3). But it is not tenable. The story of Samuel's birth, indeed, is worked out on the theory of this construction of the name (i. 1 et seq., 17, 20, 27, 28; ii. 20). But even with this etymology the value of the elements would be "priest of El" (Jastrow, in "Jour. Bib. Lit." xix. 92 et seq.). Ch. iii. supports the theory that the name implies "heard by El" or "hearer of El." The fact that "alef" and "'ayin" are confounded in this interpretation does not constitute an objection; for assonance and not etymology is the decisive factor in the Biblical name-legends, and of this class are both the first and the second chapter. The first of the two elements represents the Hebrew term "shem" (= "name"); but in this connection it as often means "son." "Shemu'el," or "Samuel," thus signifies "son of God" (see Jastrow, l.c.).

interprets the narrative of Hannah as an attempt by the monarchist source of the Books of Samuel to glorify Saul as a divinely appointed child, using the childless wife and lesser childbearing wife template found in multiple narratives from the Book of Genesis (e.g. the narrative of Rachel) [citation needed]

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