Medan
Me'dan (Hebrews Medan', מדָן, contention, as in Pr 6:14,19; Sept. Μαδάν v. r. in Chron. Μαδιάμ; Vulg. Madan), the third son of Abraham by Keturah (Ge 25:2). BC. post 2024. He and his brother Midian are believed to have peopled the country of Midian, east of the Dead Sea. "It has been supposed, from the similarity of the name, that the tribe descended from Medan was more closely allied to Midian than by mere blood-relation, and that it was the same as, or a portion of the latter. There is, however, no ground for this theory beyond its plausibility. The traditional city Medyen of the Arab geographers (the classical Modiana), situate in Arabia on the eastern shore of the Gulf of Eyleh, must be held to have been Midianitish, not Medanitish (but Bunsen, Bibelwerk, suggests the latter identification). It has been elsewhere remarked, SEE KETURAH, that many of the Keturahite tribes seem to have merged in early times into the Ishmaelite tribes. The mention of 'Ishmaelite' as a convertible term with 'Midianite,' in Ge 37:28; Ge 36, is. remarkable; but the Midianite of the AV. in ver. 28 is Medanite in the Hebrew (by the Sept. rendered Μαδιηναῖοι, and in the Vulg. Isimaelitae and: Madianitae), and we may have here a trace of the subject of this article, though Midianite appears on the whole to be more likely the correct reading in the passages referred to. SEE MIDIAN. .
