person · P0058
Otniel ben Kenaz עתניאל בן קנז
Otniel ben Kenaz appears at the transition from the conquest narratives to the cycle of the Judges. He wins Achsah by capturing Kiryat-Sefer and is later presented as Israel's first named deliverer after Yehoshua. Rabbinic tradition also portrays him as a master of legal reconstruction after Moshe's death.
I. Who
- Hebrew
- עתניאל בן קנז
- Also known as
- Othniel son of Kenaz
- Era
- bible
II. When
- Traditional
- c. 2500–2580 AM, in the early Judges period
- Lifespan (traditional)
- ≈80 years
- Precision
- approximate
V. How do we know
| Claim | Evidence | Confidence | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| Caleb promised his daughter Achsah to the man who captured Kiryat-Sefer, and Otniel ben Kenaz captured it and married her.
Directly stated in the cited source. |
biblical | ★★★★★ | |
| When Israel cried out under Cushan-rishathaim, God raised Otniel as a deliverer; the spirit of God came upon him, he judged Israel, and the land then rested forty years.
Directly stated in the cited source. |
biblical | ★★★★★ | |
| The wording in Judges identifies Otniel as "the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother"; whether the kinship phrase modifies Kenaz or Otniel is grammatically discussed, so the exact family relationship should not be overstated.
The verse plainly links Otniel to Caleb's family, but English renderings differ on the precise syntax.
|
biblical | ★★★★☆ | |
| A Bavli tradition says that after Moshe's death Otniel restored by dialectical reasoning many halakhot that had been forgotten during the mourning period.
Aggadic-rabbinic portrayal; the numerical details belong to the Talmudic narrative.
|
rabbinic | ★★★☆☆ | |
| The traditional placement c. 2500–2580 AM, in the early Judges period is a schematic Mesorah Atlas reconstruction from his position as the first named deliverer after the conquest and before Ehud in Judges; the cited sources do not state an absolute AM range.
The cited sources establish relative chronology or regnal duration; they do not state the absolute AM range.
|
tradition reconstruction | ★☆☆☆☆ |