Naaman

For other uses, seeNaaman (disambiguation).

Elisharefusing the gifts of Naaman, byPieter de Grebber

Naaman theAramean(Hebrew:נַעֲמָן,romanized:Naʿmān,lit. 'pleasantness') was a commander of the armies ofHadadezer,the king ofAram-Damascus,in the time ofJehoram, King of Northern Israel (Samaria).

According to2 Kings 5in theBible,Naaman was a commander of the army of Aram. He was a good commander and was held in favor because of the victory thatGodbrought him. However, Naaman suffered fromtzaraath,askin diseaseoften translated as "leprosy".

Naaman's wife had a servant girl from theNorthern Kingdom of Israel( "Samaria" ) who said that a prophet there would be able to heal him. Naaman tells his lord this and he is sent to Israel with a letter to the king. The king of Israel did not know what to do, butElishasent a message to the King, advising that the King tell Naaman to come to see him. Elisha then told Naaman to go bathe in theJordan Riverseven times and he would be clean. Naaman was angry and would have left, but his servant asked him to try it and he was healed.

A servant of Elisha,Gehazi,seeing his master refuse gifts from Naaman, ran after him and falsely asked for clothing and silver for visitors. Tzaraath afflicted Gehazi and would remain in his descendants.

Tanakh

Naaman is mentioned in2 Kings 5of theHebrew Bibleas "Naaman, captain of the army of the King of Aram" (וְ֠נַעֲמָן שַׂר־ צְבָ֨א מֶֽלֶךְ־אֲרָ֜ם).

Now Naaman, the general of the king of Aram, was a prominent man before his lord and respected, for through him had the Lord given victory to Aram; and the man was a great warrior, and he was amezora[מְצֹרָע]. Now the Arameans went out in bands and captured from the land of Israel a young girl, who ministered to Naaman's wife.

— Melachim II,2 Kings 5:1–2

According to the narrative, he is called amezora,a person affected by the skin disease tzaraath (Hebrew:צָרַעַת,romanized:ṣāraʿaṯ). Often translated asleprosy,this illness or affliction, was not today's leprosy. Leprosy as known today did not come to Israel until 327 to 325 BCE, after the return of the troops after theIndian campaign of Alexander the Great.When the Hebrew slave-girl who waits on his wife tells her of a Jewish prophet in Samaria who can cure her master, he obtains a letter from the King of Aram to King Jehoram, in which the Aramean king asks Jehoram to arrange for the healing of his subject Naaman. Naaman proceeds with the letter to King Jehoram. The king of Israel suspects in this impossible request a pretext of Aram for later starting a war against him and tears his clothes.

When the prophet Elisha hears about this, he sends for Naaman. Rather than personally receiving Naaman when the latter arrives at Elisha's house, Elisha merely sends a messenger to the door who tells Naaman to cure the tsaraath by dipping himself seven times in the Jordan River. Naaman had expected the prophet himself to come out to him and to perform some kind of impressiveritual magic;he angrily refuses and prepares to go home unhealed. Only after Naaman's slaves suggest to their master that he has nothing to lose by at least giving it a try since the task is a simple and easy one, he takes his bath in the Jordan River as amikvehand finds himself healed.

Naaman returns to Elisha with lavish gifts, which Elisha flatly refuses to accept. Naaman also renounces his former godRimmonafter being cured by Elisha, acknowledgingonly the God of Israel.He does, however, ask for soil from amizbeḥ(a sacrificial altar from anIsraelite temple) to be given him to take back home and that theGod of Israelpardon him when he enters the temple of Rimmon as part of his obligations to the King of Aram.

Rabbinic literature

According to Rabbinic teaching, Naaman was the archer who drew his bow at a venture and mortally woundedAhab,King of Northern Israel. This event is alluded to in 2 Kings 5:1: "for through him GOD had granted victory to Aram" (2 Kings 5:1), and therefore the Aramean king, Naaman's master, was Hadadezer.Naaman is represented as vain and haughty, on account of which he was stricken with leprosy.Tanhumasays that Naaman was stricken with leprosy for taking an Israelite maiden and making her his wife's servant.Naaman is understood asMoabin the expression "Moab would be my washbasin" inPsalm 60(Psalms 60:10), which the Rabbis regard as an allusion to Naaman's bathing in the Jordan; the appellation "Moab" is a play on the word "abi" (= "my father" ), by which Naaman was addressed by his servants in2 Kings 5:13.Naaman was ager toshav,not a perfect proselyte, having accepted only some of the commandments.TheMekhilta of Rabbi Ishmael,however, places Naaman's conversion aboveJethro's.

As the object of the narrative of Naaman's sickness and restoration to health is, apparently, to form a link in the long series of miracles performed by Elisha, the redactor of II Kings did not concern himself to indicate the time when this event occurred. The rabbinical tradition that Naaman was the archer (1 Kings 22:34) who mortally wounded Ahab seems to have been adopted by Josephus.If the tradition is correct, the king Naaman served must have been Hadadezer, but since the interval between the death of Ahab and the curing of Naaman's leprosy is not known, it is impossible to identify the king to whom Naaman was sent with a letter. Ewald thinks the king referred to wasJehoahaz,while Schenkel suggests Jehu,but the general view is that it was Jehoram. The passage "for through him GOD had granted victory to Aram" (II Kings 5:1) upon which the identification of Naaman with Ahab's slayer is based by theChazalis referred by G. Rawlinson, however, to the triumph overShalmaneser IIIin theBattle of Qarqarby an alliance of Aramean and Arab states led by Hadadezer.

The request of Naaman to be permitted to carry away two mules' burden of Israelite earth to erect upon it an altar on which to offer sacrifices to the Israelite God reflects the belief of those days that the god of each land could be worshiped only on their native soil. The expression "When he had gone some distance from him" (כִּבְרַת־אָרֶץ,2 Kings 5:19) seems to contradict the assertion of Naaman's intention to return to Aram with the two loads of earth. The wordכברתis transliterated in theSeptuagint (Vatican)Koinē Greek:δεβραθαand (Lucian)χαβραθα,while theCodex Alexandrinushasκαὶ ἀπῆλθεν ἀπ' ἀυτōν ἀπό τῆς γῆς Ἰσραηλ,apparently readingמארץ ישראל וילך מאתו.Klostermann, while supplying with the Codex Alexandrinus, the wordישראל,connects this passage with Naaman's departure with the loads of earth, and renders the passageוילך מאתו כבר מארץ ישראלas "and he carried away from him about a cor of the earth of Israel."

New Testament

Naaman is also mentioned inLuke 4:27of theNew Testament,inGreekas "Ναιμὰν ὁ Σύρος" or "Naaman the Syrian", a leper.

There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.’

— Jesus Christ,Luke 4:27

Christian theologydepicts Naaman as an example for the will of God to save people who are considered by men as less than pious and unworthy of salvation. TheSeptuagint,the Greek Old Testament, uses the wordbaptizeinfor the dipping that heals the heathen Naaman from the skin disease calledtzaraath.The new baptism takes place in the Jordan River whereJesus of Nazareth,also called the Christ by his followers, was baptized many centuries later.

See also

• Gehazi
• Naamah (disambiguation)
• Nu'man

Sources

• This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain:Easton, Matthew George(1897). "Naaman".Easton's Bible Dictionary(New and revised ed.). T. Nelson and Sons.