person · P0044
Nachum נחום האלקושי
Prophet of the "burden of Nineveh" — the book-length oracle of the fall of the Assyrian capital, consolation for a Yehudah that had lived under Assyria's shadow. Seder Olam places him in the days of Menashe. Per the Rambam he received the Oral Torah from Yoel and transmitted it to Chavakuk.
I. Who
- Hebrew
- נחום האלקושי
- Also known as
- Nachum HaElkoshi, Nahum
- Era
- bible
- Received the mesorah from
- Yoel
- Transmitted the mesorah to
- Chavakuk
II. When
- Traditional
- c. 3230–3290 AM (placed by Seder Olam in the days of Menashe)
- Academic
- fl. c. 660–612 BCE (before the fall of Nineveh)
- Lifespan (traditional)
- ≈60 years
- Precision
- approximate
V. How do we know
| Claim | Evidence | Confidence | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| Received the Oral Torah from Yoel and his court, and transmitted it to Chavakuk — the seventeenth link in Rambam's forty-generation chain.
Confidence is for the chain as stated by the Rambam. |
rabbinic | ★★★★★ | |
| "The burden of Nineveh — the book of the vision of Nachum the Elkoshite": his entire book is the oracle of the Assyrian capital's fall.
Confidence is for what the biblical text states. |
biblical | ★★★★★ | |
| A longstanding Jewish and local tradition identifies a shrine at modern Alqosh in northern Iraq as Nachum's tomb.
The tradition was reported by Benjamin of Tudela in the twelfth century, but the source explicitly states that nothing proves the tomb's authenticity; the present structure has later medieval and nineteenth-century fabric.
|
tradition | ★★☆☆☆ | |
| Seder Olam places Nachum in the days of Menashe; academic dating sets the book shortly before the fall of Nineveh in 612 BCE. The two systems are stated separately.
Schematic traditional dating. |
tradition reconstruction | ★★☆☆☆ |