Genesis 25:1 ff and 1 Chronicles 1:32 name her as Av-Raham's second wife (Hagar apparently doesn't count as a wife), after the death of Sarah. Av-Raham must have been extraordinarily old when he married her - and yet look at their supposed progeny! Is "marriage" then a euphemism for "tribal conquest"? Or, as we shall see in a moment, more likely "tribal confederation", or simply a list of all those people who worshipped the same god.
Which is to say: an attempt to make Av-Raham a universal father, as the meaning of his name infers; was he then being elevated to godhead when his name was changed, as Zeus' was when he rose to Olympus, as Ya'akov (Jacob) was when he became Yisra-El? Or indeed, the other way around: that Av-Ram and Av-Raham were originally gods, reduced to mere humans in the Yisra-Eli mythology - see, for example, the notes to Kesed.
The name, in liturgy, means "incense" (somewhat complexly - click here, and see Amos 4:5 and Hosea 4:13) which needs some further investigating, if only because Keturah also means "binding", in the sense of "tying knots"(cf Daniel 5:12 and 16), as does "Akeda" (the "binding" of Yitschak), but in very different usages of that term. In Yitschak's case he was "bound" to a rock for the purpose of sacrifice; in Keturah's it probably has the sense of "binding" as the formation of a confederacy - which also happens to be the meaning of "Chevron" - with Av-Raham's "parentage" more a case of "patronage": an evolved sheikhdom embracing much of the Arabian peninsula; either that, or it is simply a statement that all these Semitic people came from the same ethnic source, and then a claim that Av-Raham was the progenitor.
But what is not stated in the Tanach, which nonetheless forms the buttress of the genealogy of the Qur'an, is the secondary connecting cord of pan-Arabism: Yishma-El, and not Keturah. When - how much later - was the story of Keturah added? And was it added precisely to draw attention away from Yishma-El?
Keturah's sons were:
Zimran (זמרן): possibly an error for Zibran, which Ptolemy locates between Mecca and Medina in what is today Saudi Arabia; the name means "sand dune". On the basis of tribes as religious functions, Zamar (זמר) is "a singer", connecting him to the temple choir. Kley zemer ("the instruments of song") is the root of the Yiddish Klezmer (click here to hear some).
Yakshan (יקשן) - father of Dedan (דדן) and Sheva (שבא); Dedan fathered Ashurim (אשורים), Letushim (לתושים) and Le'umim (לאמים).
Sheva (שבא) in this instance is probably the Sabaeans, and Dedan (דדן), the Dodonians.
Dedan in turn fathered the Ashurim (אשורים) = the Assyrians, or possibly the worshippers of Asherah; also the Letushim (לתושים) = "blacksmiths"; and the Le'umim (לאמים), which means "a conglomeration of peoples", presumably from Arabia. The designation as "blacksmiths" should probably be understood as a Guild rather than a clan or tribe or people.
Should we be reading Yakshan as a dialect variation, or even a mere spelling variation, for Yaktan (יָקְטָן), one of the fathers of the peoples of Arabia according to the Shem genealogy in Genesis 10:21 ff? The variation is entirely likely, as we can witness the change from Chaldean Tav (ת) to Yehudit Sheen (ש) in many words, the best-known example being Tammuz, which becomes Shemesh (שמש) and Shimshon (שמשון - Samson) in the Yehudit.
Medan (מדן): orthographical confusion here. Medan and Midyan (מדין) are clearly both variants upon the same name – the same root also yields Medina, meaning "a city" or at the very least a "citadel", though we should not read into that a connection with modern Medina, the one referred to under Zimran above; that town was originally Yatrib, and became al-Madīnah an-Nabawīyah (المدينة النبوية), "the city of the Prophet", when Muhammad made it his base; later it became known simply as Medina.
Midyan (מדין - father of Eyphah (עיפה), Epher (עפר), Chanoch (חנוך), Avi-Da (אבידע), El-Da'ah (אלדעה), Yishbak (ישבק) and Shu'ach (שוח).
Compare 1 Maccabees 12:21 and 2 Maccabees 5:9 for this genealogy, both appearing to make the Beney Yehudah and the Lacedemonians related. Medan recalls the Yemenite god Madan. Midyan occupied the Gulf of Arabia and the Sinai Peninsula; later south Arabia.
Yishbak (ישבק): the name means "leaving behind". The Beney Yishbak are the Iashbuqu of northern Syria.
Shu'ach (שוח): repeated references to him in the Book of Job - but absolutely nowhere else - again confirm that book as being Chaldean and not Hebrew. The Beney Shu'ach are the Shukhu of northern Syria.
The tribe called the Beney Midyan is referred to on several occasions in the Tanach. It was Beney Midyan who, in one version of the story (Genesis 37:28), bought Yoseph out of the pit and took him to Mitsrayim (Egypt). It was to the Beney Midyan that Mosheh fled after killing the Egyptian overseer (Exodus 2:16 ff); his first wife Tsiporah was the daughter of Yitro, the priest of the Beney Midyan; a significant part of the wilderness journey was through the land of Midyan.
There are further detailed notes on the Midyan page, but I have also included the following here, in order to deal with some of the confusion between Medan and Midyan.
The land of Midyan ran along the east coast of that right finger of the Red Sea which we call the Gulf of Aqaba; and then south and eastwards from Aqaba into the Hejaz of Saudi Arabia. To reach it from Mitsrayim or Kena'an was nothing like so difficult as the legend of the Exodus pretends, especially coming from Goshen; indeed, to make the famous crossing, Mosheh would have had to do the difficult part first, crossing the empty sands of the Sinai Peninsula to get to the Gulf of Aqaba, and even then it would have required an unnecessary detour further south, when the traditional camel-route skirted well north, through the southern Negev around Timna. The other possibility, that the miraculous crossing occurred at the Bitter Lake, or the smaller lake at what is today Ismailya, would also have been unnecessary, though anything north of Ismailya would have been wet indeed, for that land is known colloquially as Yam Suph - the Sea of Reeds - it being marshland spilling out of the delta of the Nile. And remember, Mosheh had no difficulty getting there, or back again, nor Aharon his brother when he came to meet him at Chorev (Exodus 4:27), when he fled from murdering the overseer in Exodus 2:15.
However the geographical references make it almost impossible for the Beney Midyan to be the Medan here. Midin (מדין) means "measures" and was used to mean the equinox. Once again a "tribe" is being denoted by the religious function of a group of people (a caste would be a better nominator) and then misconstrued as its geographical location.
It should also not be forgotten that the conquerors of the Babylonians, who enabled the Beney Yisra-El to return from exile and to rebuild Yeru-Shala'im, were the Medean Persians, or Medes, written as Maday (מדי) in Yehudit.
Where Medan is not accredited with children, Midyan is said to have fathered Ephah (עיפה), Epher (עפר), Chanoch (חנוך), Avi-Da (אבידע) and El-Da'ah (אלדעה) - the two last names are probably variants of the same, El (אל) and Av (אב) being synonymous - all of whom appear elsewhere as other people's children, all of whom relate to priestly roles in the sun-cult.
In fact, all the tribes named in the Keturah list are Chaldean, or treated as being such - and as such more connected with Av-Ram's childhood than Av-Raham's old age. The Biblical redactors wished to give Av-Ram a Chaldean origin, though in fact it is highly unlikely that he ever had one, and this was part of that strategy. Why such an origin? Perhas because Ur Kasdim was precisely where the Beney Yisra-El found themselves exiled between 586 and 536 BCE, and what a marvellous symmetry, as well as a marvellous rallying-cry, if the founding ancestor of your people had himself been covenanted the land of Yisra-El when he set out to return to it from precisely this place.
Of other names mentioned in the long Keturah list: Chanoch was Hanakiya in northern Medina. Avi-Da was Ibadidi, mentioned by Sargon II in cuneiform tablets from Babylon. Asshur should be regarded as the god, though he is given as the tribal city: Nabataean inscriptions note Ashuru (Ashurim?) and Latashu (Letushim?) as personal names, but the Nabataeans were a much later people, who used names of gods they did not believe in. Le'umim probably just means "other nations", of which the list mentions: Emorim (Amorites), Kena'anim (Canaanites), Keynim (Kenites), Rephayim, Kadmonim (Kadmonites; Beney Kedem), Kenazim (Kenizites, an Edomite clan/Genesis 36:11), Perizim (Perizites; Pheresites in 1 Esdras 8:69), Chitim (Hittites), Girgashim (Girgashites), and Yevusim (Jebusites), the original inhabitants of Yeru-Shala'im.
Zimran (זמרן): possibly an error for Zibran, which Ptolemy locates between Mecca and Medina in what is today Saudi Arabia; the name means "sand dune". On the basis of tribes as religious functions, Zamar (זמר) is "a singer", connecting him to the temple choir. Kley zemer ("the instruments of song") is the root of the Yiddish Klezmer (click here to hear some).
Yakshan (יקשן) - father of Dedan (דדן) and Sheva (שבא); Dedan fathered Ashurim (אשורים), Letushim (לתושים) and Le'umim (לאמים).
Sheva (שבא) in this instance is probably the Sabaeans, and Dedan (דדן), the Dodonians.
Dedan in turn fathered the Ashurim (אשורים) = the Assyrians, or possibly the worshippers of Asherah; also the Letushim (לתושים) = "blacksmiths"; and the Le'umim (לאמים), which means "a conglomeration of peoples", presumably from Arabia. The designation as "blacksmiths" should probably be understood as a Guild rather than a clan or tribe or people.
Should we be reading Yakshan as a dialect variation, or even a mere spelling variation, for Yaktan (יָקְטָן), one of the fathers of the peoples of Arabia according to the Shem genealogy in Genesis 10:21 ff? The variation is entirely likely, as we can witness the change from Chaldean Tav (ת) to Yehudit Sheen (ש) in many words, the best-known example being Tammuz, which becomes Shemesh (שמש) and Shimshon (שמשון - Samson) in the Yehudit.
Medan (מדן): orthographical confusion here. Medan and Midyan (מדין) are clearly both variants upon the same name – the same root also yields Medina, meaning "a city" or at the very least a "citadel", though we should not read into that a connection with modern Medina, the one referred to under Zimran above; that town was originally Yatrib, and became al-Madīnah an-Nabawīyah (المدينة النبوية), "the city of the Prophet", when Muhammad made it his base; later it became known simply as Medina.
Midyan (מדין - father of Eyphah (עיפה), Epher (עפר), Chanoch (חנוך), Avi-Da (אבידע), El-Da'ah (אלדעה), Yishbak (ישבק) and Shu'ach (שוח).
Compare 1 Maccabees 12:21 and 2 Maccabees 5:9 for this genealogy, both appearing to make the Beney Yehudah and the Lacedemonians related. Medan recalls the Yemenite god Madan. Midyan occupied the Gulf of Arabia and the Sinai Peninsula; later south Arabia.
Yishbak (ישבק): the name means "leaving behind". The Beney Yishbak are the Iashbuqu of northern Syria.
Shu'ach (שוח): repeated references to him in the Book of Job - but absolutely nowhere else - again confirm that book as being Chaldean and not Hebrew. The Beney Shu'ach are the Shukhu of northern Syria.
The tribe called the Beney Midyan is referred to on several occasions in the Tanach. It was Beney Midyan who, in one version of the story (Genesis 37:28), bought Yoseph out of the pit and took him to Mitsrayim (Egypt). It was to the Beney Midyan that Mosheh fled after killing the Egyptian overseer (Exodus 2:16 ff); his first wife Tsiporah was the daughter of Yitro, the priest of the Beney Midyan; a significant part of the wilderness journey was through the land of Midyan.
There are further detailed notes on the Midyan page, but I have also included the following here, in order to deal with some of the confusion between Medan and Midyan.
However the geographical references make it almost impossible for the Beney Midyan to be the Medan here. Midin (מדין) means "measures" and was used to mean the equinox. Once again a "tribe" is being denoted by the religious function of a group of people (a caste would be a better nominator) and then misconstrued as its geographical location.
It should also not be forgotten that the conquerors of the Babylonians, who enabled the Beney Yisra-El to return from exile and to rebuild Yeru-Shala'im, were the Medean Persians, or Medes, written as Maday (מדי) in Yehudit.
Where Medan is not accredited with children, Midyan is said to have fathered Ephah (עיפה), Epher (עפר), Chanoch (חנוך), Avi-Da (אבידע) and El-Da'ah (אלדעה) - the two last names are probably variants of the same, El (אל) and Av (אב) being synonymous - all of whom appear elsewhere as other people's children, all of whom relate to priestly roles in the sun-cult.
In fact, all the tribes named in the Keturah list are Chaldean, or treated as being such - and as such more connected with Av-Ram's childhood than Av-Raham's old age. The Biblical redactors wished to give Av-Ram a Chaldean origin, though in fact it is highly unlikely that he ever had one, and this was part of that strategy. Why such an origin? Perhas because Ur Kasdim was precisely where the Beney Yisra-El found themselves exiled between 586 and 536 BCE, and what a marvellous symmetry, as well as a marvellous rallying-cry, if the founding ancestor of your people had himself been covenanted the land of Yisra-El when he set out to return to it from precisely this place.
There are, as always, unanswered textual questions, based on seeming contradictions elsewhere in the scriptures. Is Yakshan, for example, in fact Yaktan (יקטן), the father of Sheva in Genesis 10:27 and grandfather of the mercantile Sabaeans: Qahtan in the Arabic? Yakshan's son Dedan is given as Ra'amah the Cushite in Genesis 10:7 and 1 Chronicles 1:9; as a north Arabian desert tribe from Teyma (תֵּימָא) and Buz (בּוּז) according to Jeremiah 25:23. Job 6:19 speaks of their camel caravans
Eyphah is another error of proofreading by the Redactor. Eyphah is linked to Midyan in Isaiah 60:6 as camel-owners who brought gold and incense from Sheva, but as his father, not his son.
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