After Pinchas’ dramatic act, we are told that God declared (Numbers 25:12-13): “I grant him My pact of friendship. It shall be for him and his descendants after him, a pact of priesthood for all time … ”
But was not Pinchas a priest already, as he was the son of Elazar, son of Aharon? Rashi explains: “Even though the priesthood had already been given to Aharon’s descendants, it was given only to Aharon and his sons who had been anointed together with him and to their offspring, whom they might beget after they had been anointed. But Pinchas who had been born prior to that and had not been anointed, had not as yet attained the status of priesthood until now. This, we learned in Zevachim (101b): ‘Pinchas did not become a priest until he had slain Zimri.’”
But Rashi has not given the full picture here… Rashi has followed the view of Rabbi Hanina that Pinchas was not a priest prior to the Zimri event. But there are two Tannaim at Zevachim 101a who view Pinchas as having already been a priest for 38 years. (This seems to be the view of Rambam as well, see Biat Hamikdash 5:13.) There is also another Tannaitic source at Zevachim 102a that has Elisheva stating early on that Pinchas was a priest who was the “mashuach milchama.”
Rashi probably chose the view of Rabbi Hanina because he felt that it resulted in the simplest reading of the reward of Numbers 25:12-13. But those others can easily read the reward as fitting with their views: e.g., Pinchas and his descendants will now be rewarded with the high priesthood. Or: before he was only the priest who was “mashuach milchama,” but now he can perform the regular avodah as well. In fact, many view the simplest sense of the reward of 25:13 as being a dynasty of the high priesthood. On all of this, see, e.g., Rashbam, Daat Zekenim, Ralbag and Shmuel David Luzzatto.
(Note that despite Numbers 25:12-13, there is a view at Zevachim 101b that Pinchas did not actually become a priest until his actions in Joshua, chapter 22, where he made peace between the tribes. See the view of Rav Ashi and see Tosefta, s.v. “ha-hu.”)
——
What does the name פנחס mean? It does not sound like Hebrew. Accordingly, most scholars view it as Egyptian. The widespread scholarly view is that it means “the Nubian.” (“Nubia” was a region that spanned parts of Egypt and Sudan. It was the home of the Kushim.) It is not necessarily an indicator of ethnicity and could have been used for a child of darker complexion. See J. Hoffmeier, Ancient Israel in Sinai: “The Evidence for the Authenticity of the Wilderness Tradition” (2005), page 226. (Note that the initial “p” sound of פנחס represents the definite article in Egyptian.) The Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon and Encyclopaedia Judaica 13:466 had taken the same approach as Hoffmeier.
(Rabbi Moshe Yasgur reminds me that תחפנחס is a city in Egypt mentioned in Tanach and that its similarity to the name פנחס is striking.)
פנחס is not the only name among ancient Israelites that sounds like it is Egyptian. Another example is Chofni (son of Eli, mentioned in Samuel 1, 1-4).
Until I did this research, I never thought about the meaning of the name אהרן. Looking at it now, I realize it is difficult. If it is Hebrew, we can see words like “har” and “ron” in it. But this seems forced. I have seen the suggestion that this name is Egyptian as well. (Note that the Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon and the Encyclopaedia Judaica article on Aaron made no attempts at an etymology for it.)
What about the name משה? We all know what the Torah does. It gives the name an etymology as if it were a Hebrew name. See Exodus 2:10: “min hamayim meshitihu.” But many believe his name was really an Egyptian name. (Cassuto writes: “It is … difficult to suppose that Scripture attributed to the Egyptian princess a knowledge of Hebrew and the choice of a Hebrew name.”)
If the name was Egyptian, what would it mean? A widely suggested answer in modern times is that “mose” means “son” in Egyptian. See “The Living Torah” on Exodus 2:10 and Daniel Klein’s note 18 on page 54 in his Shadal on Exodus. In fact, many of the Pharaohs have names ending in “mose.” E.g., Achmose: son of the moon, and Thutmose: son of Thoth.
A scholar I know once said half-seriously: “Since Moshe was a baby without a known father, he was called ‘mose,’ which means “son of no one.” His name is the equivalent of the modern name, ‘Sonny!’”
——
Finally, let us discuss the etymology of the word כהן. (This is a review, as I have written about this before.) Typically in Biblical Hebrew, a verb has three letters and the noun is formed by adding a “mem” (or “tav”) as the first letter. For example, the noun “M-K-D-Sh” (temple) is derived from the verb “K-D-Sh.”
In the case of the noun “C-H-N,” if the verb preceded the noun, then we would expect the noun to have taken the form “M-C-H-N.” Since it did not, this suggests that the noun preceded the verb. The Tanach does use the verb לכהן, but since it came after the noun, it means merely: “function as a priest.”
When the noun precedes the verb, the task of determining the root is harder as it is not just a matter of chopping off the initial letter. Accordingly, many etymologies have been speculated for כהן. But the most likely one is that the root of כהן is כון. See Ernest Klein, “A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Hebrew Language,” page 271. This root has meanings like: “set up, prepare, establish and stand.” This fits because the כהן was the one who was responsible for setting up and preparing the religious procedures, and standing before God.
Rav Shimshon Rafael Hirsch looks to an even a broader meaning of the root כון, preparing the people. Here are his inspiring words at Genesis 14:18: “כהן from root כון … כון from which we get הכין, to get a thing ready for a special purpose. נכון, that which is suitable … כהן, that one who (by teaching, example and symbolic procedure) influences people that they become כן, that they correspond to the will of God, are ready and fixed for godliness. The Jewish priest has not to make God and godliness satisfy human requirements … but to shape men and human matters to satisfy God’s requirements … ”
Mitchell First can be reached at [email protected]. He still remembers his seventh grade teacher at SAR very awkwardly taking off his glasses and looking at the ceiling when attempting to explain what Pinchas did!
