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The Status and Role of the Naʿar in Israelite Society

IT was as the result of examining the role of the suhdru in the early Amorite kingdoms, about which I have written elsewhere, that my attention was drawn to the status of the role of the na'ar in Israelite society. The word na'ar is almost everywhere translated under two headings: (1) child, lad, young man; (2) servant. It is the purpose of this article to demonstrate that these renderings are inadequate and produce a totally false impression of the person involved. Nacar undoubtedly means a young male, whether he is a babe-in-arms or a young man. What seems not to have been realized till now is that he is a young male of high birth. The significance of this statement, we shall demonstrate, affects the traditional rendering "servant," which does not distinguish the na'ar from other servants, for whom different Hebrew words are consistently used. The word na'ar appears in West Semitic (Ugaritic and Hebrew), and the root is unknown elsewhere in the literature of that linguistic area. In the span of Israelite Hebrew literature it serves to express a remarkable range of age-groups, as traditionally rendered "lad, youngster." It is used of a child yet unborn (Jud. 13:5-12 passim), or one just born (1 Sam. 4:21). In 1 Sam. 1:22 the na'ar is not yet past the stage of sucking at the breast, while the same term describes the babe after weaning two verses later. In Exod. 2:6 the na'ar is three months old.