Ἰωανάν G2490
Joanan, an ancestor of Jesus in Luke's genealogy
Joanan appears in Luke 3:27 as one name in the ancestral line from Jesus back to Adam. The name is a Greek rendering of the Hebrew Yohanan, meaning 'Yahweh is gracious.' Luke's genealogy differs from Matthew's, moving through Nathan rather than Solomon, and includes many names known only from this list. Each name, however obscure to history, testifies that God's Messiah emerged from a real human lineage spanning generations of covenant faithfulness and divine patience.
Senses
1. sense 1 — Luke's genealogy stretches backward from Jesus through otherwise unknown ancestors like Joanan, grounding the incarnation in Israel's history. The multilingual forms (French Joannan, Spanish Iōanán) preserve the Hebrew name's phonetic shape. While we know nothing else about this individual, his inclusion affirms that Jesus's humanity traces through real people, not mythic figures—the Word became flesh in a specific family line. 1×
AR["يُوحَنَّانَ"]·ben["যোহানানের"]·DE["Ἰωανὰν"]·EN["Iōanan"]·FR["Joannan"]·heb["יוֹחָנָן"]·HI["योहनान"]·ID["Yoanan"]·IT["ioanan"]·jav["Yohanan,"]·KO["요아난-의"]·PT["Joanã"]·RU["Иоаннанов"]·ES["Iōanán"]·SW["Iōanán"]·TR["Yohanan"]·urd["یوحنان-کا"]
Related Senses
G3588 1. definite article (18298×)H0853 1. definite direct object marker (10915×)G2532 1. (8312×)H3068 1. YHWH (the divine name) (6522×)H0834a 1. relative pronoun (who/which/that) (4839×)H3588a 1. causal: because, for (3498×)G1161 1. and (2806×)H3478 1. Israel (proper name and nation) (2507×)G4771 1. you (plural address) (1853×)H1931 1. personal pronoun he/she/it (1431×)G3739 1. relative pronoun who/which/that (1149×)H1732 1. David (proper name) (1075×)H2088 1. this, this one (demonstrative) (1059×)G1063 1. (1047×)G3778 1. this thing, these things (1003×)H???? 2. (1002×)G2424 1. (924×)G3754 1. that (content clause) (881×)H2009 1. presentative particle: behold, look (881×)H0589 1. I (first person singular pronoun) (874×)
BDB / Lexicon Reference
Ἰωανάν (Rec. Ἰωαννᾶς, -ᾶ), ὁ indecl. (Heb. יוֹחָנָן), Joanan (cf. Ἰωάνης): Luk.3:37.† (From Abbott-Smith. LSJ has no entry)