Jonan is a name found in the King James Bible, appearing 1 time in the text.
Who This Was
Jonan was a descendant of David who is named in the genealogy of Jesus Christ recorded in the Gospel of Luke. He appears in the lineage that Luke traces from Jesus backward through His ancestors, a line that runs through the house of David and ultimately to Adam, whom Luke calls “the son of God” (Luke 3:38). Jonan is thus one link in the chain of generations that God preserved from David to the coming of the Messiah.
The single reference to Jonan in the King James Bible is found in Luke 3:30: “Which was the son of Simeon, which was the son of Juda, which was the son of Joseph, which was the son of Jonan, which was the son of Eliakim.” In this verse Jonan is identified as the son of Eliakim and the father of Joseph, who in turn was the father of Simeon. The passage continues the long, orderly recital of names by which Luke demonstrates that Jesus truly belonged to the line of David.
Scripture records nothing else about Jonan. No deed, word, or circumstance of his life is preserved. He is known only as a name within a genealogy—one generation among many who lived, died, and passed the promise of the coming Christ down to the next. His entire biblical witness is that he stood in the ancestral line of the Savior.
The Name
The name Jonan is generally understood to be a shortened or contracted form of the Hebrew name Johanan (Yehochanan), which means “the LORD is gracious” or “the LORD has been gracious.” The same name appears in various forms elsewhere in Scripture—most familiarly as John—and its meaning is well established from the Hebrew roots yo (the LORD) and chanan (to be gracious). Luke, writing in Greek, renders the name in a form that the KJV transliterates as Jonan, but the underlying name and its meaning are clear.
A Closing Thought
Jonan’s life is summed up in a single line of a family tree, yet that line mattered eternally. He never performed a miracle or spoke a recorded word, but he was faithful in the ordinary work of belonging to the generations through whom God brought His Son into the world. Most of us will not be remembered for great deeds either. Jonan reminds us that quiet faithfulness in our place, within our family and generation, is not forgotten by God, who weaves even the unnoticed into His redeeming purposes.
At a Glance
- Gender: Male
- Testament: New
- Mentions in the KJV: 1
Where It Appears in Scripture
- Luke 3:30 — Which was the son of Simeon, which was the son of Juda, which was the son of Joseph, which was the son of Jonan, which was the son of Eliakim,