Midianite

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In the Bible, Midian (Hebrew: מִדְיָן, Standard Midyan Tiberian Miḏyān; Arabic مدين; "Strife; judgment") is a son of Abraham and his concubine Keturah (who according to midrash is Hagar).[1]

His descendants, the Midianites, settled in the territory east of the Jordan River[2] and also much of the area east of the Dead Sea (later occupied by Ammonites, Moabites and Edomites), and southward through the desert wilderness of the Arabah. During the time of the Exodus, their territory apparently also included portions of the Sinai Peninsula. They dominated this territory from roughly the twelfth through the tenth centuries B.C.E.

In Bible history, Midian was where Moses spent the 40 years between the time that he fled Egypt after killing an Egyptian who had been beating a Hebrew,[3] and his return for leading the Israelites.[4] During those years, he married Zipporah, the daughter of Jethro, the priest of Midian. Exodus 3:1 implies that God's appearance in the burning bush at Horeb occurred in Midian. As the Bible asserts, in later years the Midianites were often oppressive and hostile to the Israelites, at least partly as God's punishment for their idolatry.[5] By the time of the Judges, the Midianites, led by two princes Oreb (Hebrew: עֹרֵב, Orev) and Zeeb (Hebrew: זְאֵב, Z'ev) were raiding Israel with the use of swift camels, until they were decisively defeated by Gideon.[6] Today, the former territory of Midian is found through small portions of western Saudi Arabia, southern Jordan, southern Israel and the Sinai.

  • The ancient and historical people of Midian are also mentioned extensively in the Qur'an, where the name appears in Arabic as Madyan.
  • Prophet Shoaib “Jethro” Mosque and Tomb is located near the Jordanian city of Mahis in an area called Wadi Shuib

Geographical Position

In the Book of Genesis, Midian was the son of Abraham and Keturah. His five sons, Ephah, Epher, Enoch, Abidah,[7] and Eldaah, were the progenitors of the Midianites.[8] The term "Midian," which may be derived from the Semitic root word for judgement, denotes also the nation of the Midianites; the plural form occurring only in Genesis 37:28,36 and Numbers 25:17, 31:2. Their geographical situation is indicated in Genesis as having been to the east of Canaan; Abraham sends the sons of his concubines, including Midian, eastward.[9] But from the statement that Moses led the flocks of Jethro, the priest of Midian, to Mount Horeb,[10] it would appear that the Midianites dwelt in the Sinai peninsula, having either migrated there or conquered or settled the area in addition to their eastern possessions. Later, in the period of the Israelite monarchy, Midian seems to have occupied a tract of land between Edom and Paran, on the way to Egypt.[11] Midian is likewise described as in the vicinity of Moab: the Midianites were beaten by the Edomite king Hadad ben Bedad "in the field of Moab",[12] and in the account of Balaam it is said that the elders of both Moab and Midian called upon him to curse Israel.[13]

During the Exodus and the period of the Judges

In Exodus, the land of Midian is introduced as the place to which Moses flees when running away from Pharaoh. There, he encounters Reuel or Jethro, a Midianite priest, who later became Moses' father-in-law. Toward the close of the forty years' wandering of the children of Israel in the wilderness, the Midianites ally with the Moabites against the Israelites, in asking Balaam the son of Beor to curse the Israelites (Numbers 22); however, Balaam refuses, and prophesies future greatness for Israel (Numbers 24). Subsequently Israelites coexisted peacefully with Moabites and Midianites (Numbers 25). However, Israel suffered a plague which was blamed on Israelite participation in the local religion and sexual immorality. For this reason, according to the Torah, Moses was ordered by God to punish the Midianites. He dispatched against them an army of 12,000 men, under Phinehas the priest; this force defeated the Midianites and slew all their males, including their five kings, Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba. These five kings may have been the rulers of the five clans descended from their eponymous folk-ancestor's sons.

It may be noted that these five princes of Midian are called by Joshua[14] the vassals of Sihon, the Amorite king of Heshbon. It is possible that Sihon had previously conquered Midian and made it a vassal, and that after his death the Midianites recovered their independence. The Israelite soldiers set on fire all the cities and fortresses of the Midianites, carried the women and children into captivity, and seized their cattle and goods. God later ordered Moses to have the Israelites slay every Midianite male child and every woman, sparing only the female virgins.[15] It appears from the same account that the Midianites were rich in cattle and gold. The narrative shows that each of the five Midianite tribes was governed by its own king, but that all acted together against a common enemy; that while a part of each tribe dwelt in cities and fortresses in the vicinity of Moab, another part led a nomadic life, living in tents and apparently remote from the seat of the war. The account of Moses' war against the Midianites, and particularly his order of extermination, is highly questionable, as they reappear as a major power several generations later, in the time of Gideon.

The Biblical account of the battle between the Midianites and Gideon[16] asserts that the Israelites suffered at the hands of the Midianites for a space of six years. The Midianites seem to have been then a powerful and independent nation; they allied themselves with the Amalekites and the Kedemites, and they oppressed the Israelites so severely that many were obliged to seek refuge in caves and strongholds; Midianite raiders destroyed crops and reduced them to extreme poverty.[17] The allied army of Midianites and Amalekites encamped in the valley of Jezreel[18] after having crossed the Jordan. Gideon with his army encamped by the fountain of Harod, the Midianite army being to the north of him. With 300 men Gideon succeeded in surprising and routing them, and they fled homeward across the Jordan in confusion.[19] A point worth noting is that here only two Midianite kings, Zebah and Zalmuna, and two princes (or generals - Hebrew: שַׂר), Oreb and Zeeb, are mentioned.[20] This would show that only two tribes bore the name "Midianites," while the remaining three probably were merged with other tribes, including perhaps partly with the Israelites. Midian is stated to have been "subdued before the children of Israel, so that they lifted up their heads no more."[21] In fact, aside from allusions to this victory,[22] Midian is not mentioned again in sacred history except in Judith 2:26, where the term "Midianites" seems to be a mistake for "Arabians."

The Kenites and Ephah

The first recorded instance of a Midianite tribe surrendering its identity by attaching itself to another people appears in Judges 1:16. In this instance, which occurred in the period of the Judges, the Kenites, descendants of Jethro the Midianite, attached themselves to the Israelites in the wilderness of Judah, south of Arad. Later, in the time of Tiglath-pileser (745-727 B.C.E.), a tribe, called in the cuneiform inscriptions "Hayapa" and identified by Friedrich Delitzsch ("Wo Lag das Paradies?" p. 304) with the tribe of Ephah, is said to have dwelt in the northern part of the Hejaz. Isaiah 60:6 speaks of Midian and Ephah as of two distinct peoples. The second son of Midian, Epher, is identified by Knobel with the Ghifar, an Arab tribe which, in the time of Mohammed, had encampments near Medina. Traces of the Midianites existed in post-Biblical times. Ptolemy[23] mentions a place called Modiana, on the coast of Arabia; according to his statement of its position, this place may be identified with the Madyan of the Arabic geographers, in the neighborhood of 'Ain 'Una, opposite the extremity of the Sinaitic Peninsula, and now known under the name of "Magha 'ir Shu'aib" ("the caves of Shu'aib").

In Archaeology

The Midianites have been tentatively connected by some scholars with the remnants of the Hyksos that were driven out of Egypt and made their home in the desert. They may be identical or a part of the people called Shasu by the Egyptians. This conclusion has to be compared with the derivation of Shasu as meaning "foot travelers," vice the depiction in Judges 6 where it says "their camels were innumerable."

Religion

In the Bible, the Midianites are described as worshipping a multitude of gods, including Baal-peor and the Asherah. An Egyptian temple of Hathor at Timna continued to be used during the Midianite occupation of the site; however, whether Hathor or some other deity was the object of devotion during this period is impossible to ascertain.

The Midianites also seem to have been centered around a cultic site at Mount Horeb. This has led some scholars to speculate that the worship of YHWH (the name of God in Judaism) may have actually begun among the Midianites to be adapted later by the Israelites, a claim contested by many Christian scholars.[24] An Egyptian inscription refers to "Yhw in the land of the Shasu" as a tribe or people living in what would later become Midianite territory. According to the Bible the Midianites, like the Israelites, practiced circumcision.[25]

Music

The name of the third full-length album by British metal band Cradle of Filth. Cradle of Filth's lyrics are often inspired by Crowley, H.P.Lovecraft, Clive Barker, Arthurian legends etc... The "Midian" album, as well as a later effort called Thornography, feature narratives by Doug Bradley, the actor who played the "Head Cenobite" in the Hellraiser movies.

Film

The 1990 Clive Barker film Nightbreed takes place mainly in a city named Midian, full of strange creatures and built underneath a cemetery. The movie is based on Barker's novella Cabal.

See also

  • Balak
  • Eglon
  • Ishmaelites
  • Kedar
  • History of ancient Israel and Judah
  • The Bible and history
  • Cradle of Filth
  • Nightbreed

References
ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

  1. Genesis 25:1-6
  2. Tobit 1:14
  3. Exodus 2:11–15
  4. Exodus 4:18
  5. Judges 6:1
  6. Judges 6–8
  7. R. V. "Abida"
  8. Genesis 25:1–4; I Chronicles 1:32–33
  9. Genesis 25:6
  10. Exodus 3:1
  11. I Kings 11:18
  12. Genesis 36:35)
  13. Numbers 22:4,7
  14. Joshua 13:21
  15. Numbers 31:2–18
  16. Judges 6-8
  17. Judges 6:1–6
  18. Judges 6:33
  19. Judges 7:1–24
  20. Judges 7:25 - 8:21
  21. Judges 8:28
  22. Psalms 83:10,12; Isaiah 9:4, 10:6; Habbakuk 3:7
  23. Geography" 6:7
  24. {{web cite|url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09513b.htm%7Ctitle=Madianites%7Cwork=[[Catholic Encyclopedia}}. The article cites Lagrange in the "Revue Biblique," 1903, 382 sqq}}
  25. Exodus 4:25; see also King, Philip J. "Circumcision: Who Did it, Who Didn't and Why." Biblical Archaeology Review. July/August 2006.
  • This article incorporates text from the 1901–1906 Jewish Encyclopedia, a publication now in the public domain.


Resources

  • Clines, David and John Sawyer, eds. "Midian, Moab and Edom: The History and Archaeology of Late Bronze and Iron Age Jordan and North-West Arabia." Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, Supplement Series, No. 24. Sheffield Academic Press, 1983.
  • Singer, Isidore and M. Seligsohn. "Midian and Midianites". Jewish Encyclopedia. Funk and Wagnalls, 1901-1906, which cites to:
  • Cheyne and Black, Encyc. Bibl.;
  • Sir Richard Burton, The Gold Mines of Midian, London, 1878;
  • idem, The Land of Midian Revisited, ib. 1879.S.


Sons of Abraham by wife
Hagar Ishmael
Sarah Isaac
Keturah Zimran Jokshan Medan Midian Ishbak Shuah

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