THEMAN (Heb. Tēmān, Gr. Θαψάν). - Name of the most famous Edomite tribe, descended from Eliphaz, grandson of Esau (Gen. 36:11, 15, 42; 1 Chron. 1:36, 53), as well as of the district they inhabited (Gen. 36:34; 1 Chron. 1:45) in the territory of Edom.

T. is in fact used as a synonym for Edom (Obad. 9) or placed in parallelism with Edom (Jer. 49:7, 20). The Temanites were famous for their insight and wisdom (Jer. 49:7; Obad. 8; Bar. 3:22); the most subtle of Job's interlocutors was Eliphaz the Temanite (Job 2:1; 4:1; 15:1; 22:1; 42:7, 9). In the Byzantine era (Eusebius, Onomast., 96, 20) the name was used for a military post located 15 miles from Petra, perhaps corresponding to el-Meqdes: here, however, there are no archaeological remains of military works, which are found instead in the ruins of es-Sawbak north of Petra; perhaps the distance of 15 should be changed to 25.

Bibliography2 works

BIBL.: F.-M. Abel, Géographie de la Palestine, I, Paris 1933, p. 285; II, ibid. 1938, p. 479. Donato Baldi

@incollection{ec12_theman_ebr_teman_gr_thapsan, author = {Baldi, Donato}, title = {Theman (Ebr. TĒMĀN, gr. θαψάν)}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {XII}, pages = {49}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1954}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/theman-ebr-teman-gr-thapsan} }

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