🔼The name Phanuel: Summary
- Face Of God, He Turns To God
- From (1) the verb פנה (pana), to turn, and (2) the word אל ('el), God.
🔼The name Phanuel in the Bible
The name Phanuel belongs to a man of the Israeli tribe of Asher, whose daughter (or more distant descendant) Anna was fortunate enough to meet the infant Jesus in Jerusalem when she was eighty-four and widow (Luke 2:36).
🔼Etymology of the name Phanuel
The name Phanuel consists of two elements, the final one being אל, El, the prominent Canaanite deity whose name became applied to the God of Israel, or the common abbreviation of Elohim, the genus God:
In names אל ('el) usually refers to אלהים ('elohim), that is Elohim, or God, also known as אלה ('eloah). In English, the words 'God' and 'god' exclusively refer to the deity but in Hebrew the words אל ('l) and אלה ('lh) are far more common and may express approach and negation, acts of wailing and pointing, and may even mean oak or terebinth.
The first part of our name comes from the verb פנה (pana), meaning to turn:
The verb פנה (pana) means to turn toward. Adverb פנימה (penima) means toward the inside. Adjective פנימי (penimi) means inner.
This verb's primary derivation is the plural noun פנים (panim), literally turnings or inclinations. It's the common Biblical word for face and may also be used to mean scope, sight, surface, and so on.
The noun פנה (pinna) means corner, and is commonly used to describe where a wall makes a turn. This noun is thought to have derived from a by-form or parental form of the verb פנה (pana), namely פנן (panan), of similar meaning.
A second derivation of this form is the plural noun פנינים (peninim), which describes a red coral, probably with swirling branches or otherwise corrugated structure.
The name Phanuel means the same as Penuel, namely Face Of God or He Turns To God.