NATINEI (Heb. nēthānīm; Septuagint nēthānīm, rarely nēthānīm and nēthānīm; Vulg. nathinaei). - Ministers assigned to the humblest services (Estd. 8,20) of the Temple of Jerusalem, mentioned after the priests and Levites (I Par. 9, 2; Estd. 2, 43,70; Neh. 7,46) as a distinct class, although not deriving from a particular tribe or lineage. They are associated, by similarity of function, with the “servants of Solomon” (Estd. 2, 58; Neh. 7, 60), descendants of the Canaanites, whom that King subjected to servile labor (I Reg. 9, 20-21).
It is thought that for the most part the n. were prisoners of war (cf. Ios. 9, 21-23) and their descendants. The name is connected with the root nāthān, “to give” (a nominal formation with passive meaning, qāṛīl), whence it is now customary to translate it as “oblates,” “offered” for sacred service, like the Levites themselves (called nēthānīm, “given,” passive participle, in Num. 3, 9; 8, 16, 19). There is no information about them prior to the exile; it is known, however, that they existed in Babylon, whence a group returned with Ezra to Jerusalem (Estd. 7, 7; 8, 17, 20), where the memoirs of Nehemiah recall them as inhabitants of a quarter of their own (Neh. 3, 26, 31; 7, 73; 11, 3, 21) and as participants in the reforms of that period (Neh. 10, 29).