🔼The name Bedad: Summary
- Meaning
- Special, Separation
- Etymology
- From the verb בדד (badad), to isolate or separate.
🔼The name Bedad in the Bible
There's only one man named Bedad in the Bible and he's mentioned twice. Bedad was the father of a man named Hadad, who became king of Edom after the death of Husham. Either Bedad or Hadad (or both) defeated Midian in the territories of Moab, and their city was called Avith (Genesis 36:35, 1 Chronicles 1:46).
🔼Etymology of the name Bedad
The name Bedad comes from the verb בדד (badad), to isolate or separate:
בדד
The verb בדד (badad) means to isolate or be separate, but significantly not severed from the maternal medium but rather identified as an individual part of that maternal medium. Its derived nouns בדד (badad) and בד (bad) describe isolation for whatever reason but frequently describe how God isolates (but not severs) his people from the world or makes them notably special or recognizable within it. Hence the noun בד (bad) also describes the signature linen ephods of priests. More negatively, this noun בד (bad) may also describe speech that is disjointed, idle or empty. The verb בדא (bada') means to invent or connive.
🔼Bedad meaning
For a meaning of the name Bedad, both NOBSE Study Bible Name List and Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names read Separation. BDB Theological Dictionary does not offer an explanation of this name.
Note that the Greek word ιδιωτης (idiotes) literally means "in a category of his own" and expresses much of the same ideas as the verb בדד (badad) and only recently assumed its signature negative meaning. Likewise it's unclear whether the name Bedad denoted a solitary priest-like person or antisocial idiot.