חָנַךְ

From the study of Proverbs 22:6

Range of meaning

This is a rare verb. It occurs only five times: a newly built house a man has not yet 'dedicated' (Deut 20:5, twice), Solomon and the people 'dedicating' the temple (1 Kgs 8:63; 2 Chr 7:5), and here. The related noun ḥănukkâ means 'dedication' of an altar, a wall or a house (Num 7; Neh 12:27; heading of Ps 30), and later gave its name to the festival of Hanukkah. The related adjective ḥānîk in Gen 14:14 describes Abram's 'trained men' or retainers. So the core idea is inaugurating something new into the use it is meant for, and with people, starting them in a role and making them experienced in it.

Against the English

'Train up' sounds to English ears like drilling, repetition and discipline. The Hebrew includes instruction but leans toward starting and committing: a first setting-apart of something new for what it is meant to be. NIV's 'start … off' and YLT's 'give instruction' each catch one part of this.

How it drifted

From the KJV onward, 'train up' became the standard rendering, and the verse came to be read mainly as a method of discipline. The sense of 'dedicate / inaugurate', which is how the verb is used everywhere else, dropped out of view.

Used elsewhere in the period

In the Hebrew Bible the word is used for dedicating buildings. Aramaic and later Hebrew use it for dedication and for education. Arabic has a related root that refers to the palate and to the custom of rubbing chewed dates on a newborn's palate. It also has a sense of 'making experienced'. Popular sermons sometimes build on the palate custom ('create a taste for the way'). That link comes from Arabic and medieval interpreters and is not shown by biblical usage, so it should be treated as speculative.

From the study of 1 Kings 8:63

Range of meaning

To inaugurate, to open something for its intended use, to start it on its course. It is used for a man who has built a house but has not yet 'dedicated' it, meaning moved in and started living there (Deuteronomy 20:5). It is used for the temple here and in 2 Chronicles 7:5. It is used for training a child (Proverbs 22:6, 'start a child on the way'). The noun ḥanukkah means inauguration: of the altar (Numbers 7:10–88), of Jerusalem's wall (Nehemiah 12:27), of the house (Psalm 30 heading), of Nebuchadnezzar's statue (Aramaic, Daniel 3:2–3).

Against the English

'Dedicated' (in every major English version) is acceptable, because English speaks of dedicating a new building. But 'dedicate' can also suggest devoting something inwardly or making it holy. Hebrew has a separate word for making holy, qiddesh, which appears in the very next verse (8:64). Ḥanakh is the opening ceremony that puts the house into use.

How it drifted

The drift is mild. 'Dedicate' moved from Latin dedicare (to declare formally, to set apart for a god) toward a general sense of 'devote'. The Hebrew sits nearer to 'inaugurate' or 'open'.

Used elsewhere in the period

The Septuagint renders it enkainizō, 'to make new, to renew, to inaugurate'. 1 Maccabees 4:36–59 uses the same Greek family for the re-dedication of the defiled temple in 164 BC. That event became the festival called ta enkainia in John 10:22, which Jews know as Hanukkah. Ancient Mesopotamian royal inscriptions also describe opening feasts for newly built temples and palaces.