person · P0060
Gideon גדעון
Gideon is called from obscurity during Midianite oppression and becomes one of the most elaborately narrated judges. His story combines prophetic commissioning, signs, a deliberately reduced army, and a major victory. It closes ambivalently: he refuses a hereditary crown yet creates an ephod that becomes a snare.
I. Who
- Hebrew
- גדעון
- Also known as
- Gid'on, Jerubbaal, Yerubbaal
- Era
- bible
II. When
- Traditional
- c. 2700–2780 AM, in the middle Judges period
- Lifespan (traditional)
- ≈80 years
- Precision
- approximate
V. How do we know
| Claim | Evidence | Confidence | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| An angel found Gideon threshing wheat in a winepress, commissioned him to save Israel from Midian, and accepted his offering with a miraculous fire.
Directly stated in the cited source. |
biblical | ★★★★★ | |
| After Gideon destroyed his father's Baal altar, he was called Jerubbaal because the townspeople said Baal should contend for himself.
Directly stated in the cited source. |
biblical | ★★★★★ | |
| God reduced Gideon's army to three hundred men so that Israel could not claim the victory as its own achievement; the Midianite camp then collapsed amid trumpets, jars, torches, and confusion.
Directly stated in the cited source. |
biblical | ★★★★★ | |
| Gideon rejected the people's request that he and his descendants rule, declaring that God would rule; nevertheless, he made an ephod from captured gold, and it became a snare to Gideon and his house.
Directly stated in the cited source. |
biblical | ★★★★★ | |
| Gideon was the son of Yoash the Abiezrite and was threshing wheat in a winepress at Ophrah when first introduced.
Directly stated in the cited source. |
biblical | ★★★★★ | |
| He had seventy sons by many wives; a concubine in Shechem bore him a son named Avimelech.
Directly stated in the cited source. |
biblical | ★★★★★ | |
| He died at an advanced age and was buried in the tomb of his father Yoash at Ophrah of the Abiezrites.
Directly stated in the cited source. |
biblical | ★★★★★ | |
| The traditional placement c. 2700–2780 AM, in the middle Judges period is a schematic Mesorah Atlas reconstruction from his position after Devorah and before Avimelech 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 | ★☆☆☆☆ |