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Benjamin was the last-born of Jacob's thirteen children (12 sons 1 daughter), and the second and last son of Rachel in Jewish, Christian and Islamic tradition. He was the progenitor of the Israelite Tribe of Benjamin. In the Biblical account, unlike Rachel's first son, Joseph, Benjamin was born in Canaan. In the Samaritan Pentateuch, Benjamin's name appears as "Binyaamem" (). In the Qur'an, Benjamin is referred to as righteous young child, who remained with Jacob when the older brothers plotted against Joseph. Later rabbinic traditions name him as one of four ancient Israelites who died without sin, the other three being Chileab, Jesse and Amram. ==Name== According to the Torah, Benjamin's name arose when Jacob deliberately corrupted the name ''Benoni'', the original name of ''Benjamin'', since ''Benoni'' was an allusion to Rachel's dying just after she had given birth, as it means ''son of my pain''.〔Genesis 35:19〕 Textual scholars regard these two names as fragments of naming narratives coming from different sources - one being the Jahwist and the other being the Elohist.〔Richard Elliott Friedman, ''Who wrote the Bible?''〕 The etymology of the name interpreted as ''son of the right side''. Being associated with the right hand side was traditionally a reference to strength and virtue (cf ''sinister'', which derives from the latin for ''left''). This is, however, not the only literal translation, as the root for ''right'' is identical to that for ''south'', hence ''Benjamin'' also literally translates as ''son of the south''. This meaning is advocated by several classical rabbinical sources, which argue that it refers to the birth of Benjamin in Canaan, as compared with the birth of all the other sons of Jacob in Aram.〔''Jewish Encyclopedia''〕 Modern scholars have instead proposed that, with the eponymous Benjamin being just a metaphor, ''son of the south'' / ''son of the right'' are references to the tribe's being subordinate to the more dominant tribe of Ephraim.〔 Inside the Samaritan Pentateuch, the name is consistently written as בן ימים, with a terminal mem, making it ''Benjamim'', and would literally translate as ''spirit man''. Some classical rabbinical literature argues that this was the original form of the name and was a reference to the advanced age of Jacob when Benjamin was born.〔 According to classical rabbinical sources, Benjamin was only born after Rachel had fasted for a long time, as a religious devotion with the hope of a new child as a reward. By then Jacob had become over 100 years old.〔 Benjamin is treated as a young child in most of the Biblical narrative,〔 but at one point is abruptly described as the father of ten sons. Textual scholars believe that this is the result of the genealogical passage, in which his children are named, being from a much later source than the Jahwist and Elohist narratives, which make up most of the Joseph narrative, and which consistently describe Benjamin as a child.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Benjamin」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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