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El-i-sheba
El = “god,” “god ‘El” or “the God (‘Elohim)” | i = “of ” or “my” | shaba = “seven” or “to bind with an oath”
The feminine name Elisheba (Hebrew: אלישבע) is one of the many theophoric (“god-bearing”) biblical names built on the ancient noun ‘el, which is both the proper name of a Canaanite deity and a generic term meaning “god” in Semitic languages. It also became short for ‘Elohim, the Israelite God. Shaba (or sheba) is related to either “oath” or “seven,” where the number refers to the proverbial seven seals or seven bonds (of an oath). The letter yod in between joins the two words in construct or acts as the possessive pronoun “my,” resulting in these possible meanings of the name: “God of oathing,” “God of the seven,” or “(my) god is an oath.”
The name occurs only once in the Hebrew Bible. In Exodus 6:23, Elisheba, daughter of Amminadab and sister of Nahshon, is introduced as the wife of Aaron, to whom she bore four sons, Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar. In its Greek form (Ελɩσάβ̓ɛτ, Elizabeth), it appears in the Gospel of Luke (Luke 1:5) as the name of the mother of John the Baptist and wife of the priest Zechariah. She is the first to greet Mary as mother of the Messiah; she also occasioned two of the greatest biblical poems, Mary’s Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55) and the Song of Zechariah (Luke 1:68-79). Remarkably, both women were wives of YHWH’s priests, signaling that the name was popular among the Levites.
El-i-sheba
El = “god,” “god ‘El” or “the God (‘Elohim)” | i = “of ” or “my” | shaba = “seven” or “to bind with an oath”
