Zoan Root Word Definition

The name Zoan appears to be a Hebrew transliteration of the original Egyptian, which in turn consisted of two words that together meant low region. But the way Hebrew writers spelled this name gives the impression that they associate it with the verb צען (sa`an), which means “to move”: used primarily as a tool in zoology to form words used to categorize animals according to their evolutionary origin, life history, growth pattern, or ecological preferences. (Ancient Egypt. Sant= “fortress”, the modern San). A city on the Tanitan arm of the Nile, called Tanis by the Greeks. It was built seven years after Hebron in Palestine (Numbers 13:22). This large and important city was the capital of the Hyksos or shepherd kings who ruled Egypt for more than 500 years. It was the border town of Goshen. This is where Pharaoh held court at the time of his various conversations with Moses and Aaron. “There is no trace of Zoan; Tanis was built on it, and city after city was built on the ruins of it” (Harper, Bible and Modern Discovery). Vast mounds of ruins, the wreck of the ancient city, now mark its location (Isaiah 19:11; Isaiah 19:13; 30:4; Ezekiel 30:14).

“The whole thing represents one of the largest and oldest ruins in the world.” (starting point), an ancient city in Lower Egypt, called Tanis by the Greeks. It was located on the eastern bank of the tanite arm of the Nile. Its name indicates a place of departure of a land, and therefore it has been identified with Avaris (Tanis, the modern San), the capital of the pastoral dynasty in Egypt, built seven years after Hebron and existing before the time of Abraham. It was captured by the shepherd kings during their invasion of Egypt and rebuilt by them and, according to Manetho, occupied by 240,000 men. This quote is mentioned in relation to plagues in a way that leaves no doubt that this is the city of which the Exodus account speaks, where Pharaoh dwelt (Psalm 78:42, Psalm 78:43) and where Moses performed his miracles in the field of Zoan, a rich plain stretching thirty miles to the east. Tanis gave his name to the twenty-first and twenty-third dynasties and hence his mention in Isaiah. (Isaiah 19:13; 30:4) (Today`s “Zoan Field” is a barren desert, very sparsely populated. “One of the capitals of the pharaoh is now the colony of fishermen who are refuges of wild animals and infested with reptiles and vicious fever.” A large number of monuments have been discovered here, shedding light on biblical history. Brugsch refers to two colossal statues of Mermesha from the XIIIth Dynasty, wonderfully perfect in the execution of the individual parts, and says that the monuments of Ramses the Great are scattered like the moldy bones of long-killed generations.

The area of the sacred precinct of the temple is 1500 feet from 1250.-ED.) Zoan`s rulers had no troops left for a funeral procession through the eastern desert. The name Zoan probably meant lower region in Egyptian, but in Hebrew it seems to walk or move. The name is supposed to mean “migration” (Arabic, tsan). The site is the only one associated with Israel`s history in Egypt before the Exodus, which is certainly fixed, was identified with the present-day village of San at the ancient mouth of the Bubastian arm of the Nile, about 18 miles southeast of Damietta. It should be remembered that the foreland of the delta is constantly moving northward as a result of the deposit of the Nile mud, and that the Nile estuaries are much further north than in the time of the geographer Ptolemy. Thus, in the time of Jacob and Moses, Zoan was probably located at the mouth of the Bubastian branch and was a port after Lake Menzaleh and the lagoons of Pelusium were formed later. This article, which refers to the Hebrew Bible, is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. The Greek Septuagint uses the Greek name (Greek: Τάνις Tánis; Tanis and Tso`an are eventually derived from the ancient Egyptian name for Tanis, ḏꜥn.t (Bohairic Coptic ϫⲁⲛⲓ; Sahidic Coptic ϫⲁⲁⲛⲉ; Modern Arabic صان Ṣan). The Bible mentions in Isaiah and Ezekiel agrees with Tanis.

The name Zoan belongs to an important city in Egypt, which may even be identical to Tanis, says the BDB Theological Dictionary. Numbers 13:22 tells us the curious detail that Zoan was built seven years after Hebron, which strongly suggests that Hebron and Zoan are more than just ancient cities. In the 14th century BC, the city was rebuilt by Ramses II and was then known as Pa-Ramessu. The Hyksos rulers had held it for 500 years, according to Manetho, and were expelled after 1700 BC. George the Syncellus (Chronographia, c. 800 AD) believed that Apepi (or Apophis) was the pharaoh under whom Joseph came to Egypt, but there seems to have been more than one Hyksos king by name, the last being a contemporary of Ra-Sekenes of the XIII dynasty, just before 1700 BC. Manethon says that some assumed that the Hyksos were Arabs, and the population of Zoan under their rule was probably a mixture of Semitic and Mongol races, just as in Syria and Babylonia at the same age. According to Brugsch (Hist of Egypt, II, 233), this population was known as Men or Menti and came from Assyria east of Ruten or Syria. This may relate them to the Minjans of Matiene, who were a Mongolian race. This statement is in the Great Table of Nations, on the walls of the temple of Edfu.

In addition to the name Pepi of the Vl. Dynasty, found by Burton in Zoan, and numerous texts from the Twelfth Dynasty, a cartouche of Apepi (one of the Hyksos kings) of Mariette was found on the arm of a statue apparently of older origin, and a sphinx also bears the name of Khian, who is said to have been one of the early Hyksos rulers. The Hyksos type, with large cheekbones and a prominent nose, contrary to the characteristics of the native Egyptians, was considered Turanic by Virchow and Sir W. Flower in both Zoan and Bubastis; which is consistent with the fact that Apepi did not worship the Egyptian gods, but only Set (or Sutekh), who was also worshipped by the Syrian Mongols (see HITTITES). In Bubastis, this deity is called “Ensemble of Ramses”, which could indicate Zoan`s identity with the city of Ramses. This city was also called “Zoan`s field” (Psalm 78:12; Psalm 78:43) and “the city of Rameses” (see below) because the oppressor rebuilt and embellished it, probably through the forced labor of the Hebrews, and made it his northern capital. The verb צען (sa`an) means to move or travel, especially by nomads. Bibliographic information Orr, James, M.A., D.D. Editor-in-Chief. “Entry for `ZOAN`”. “International Standard Bible Encyclopedia”. 1915.

The city is mentioned only once in the Pentateuch (Numbers 13:22), because it was built seven years after Hebron, which existed at the time of Abraham. Zoan was certainly a very ancient city, as monuments of the Egyptian Sixth Dynasty have been found at this site. Zoar on the border with Egypt (Genesis 13:10) was considered a clerical error for Zoan, but reading the Septuagint (Zogora) does not favor this view, and the intended location is probably the fortress of Tsar or Zor, often mentioned in Egyptian texts as being on the eastern border of the delta. Zoan is mentioned in the prophets (Isaiah 19:11, 13; 30:4; Ezekiel 30:14) and his “princes” are of course mentioned by Isaiah, since the capital of the XXIII Egyptian dynasty (about 800 to 700 BC) was in this city. In Psalm 78:12-43, the “field (or pastoral plan) of Zoan” is mentioned as equivalent to the land of GOSHEN (who sees). Zoan was the capital of the Hyksos rulers, or “shepherd kings,” at whose time Jacob came to Egypt, and their monuments have been found at the site, leading to the conclusion that his plain was the “land of Rameses” (Genesis 47:11; Exodus 12:37; see RAAMSES), where the Hebrews had possessions under Joseph.