Ancient Hebrews

The Hebrews (; ) were an ancient Semitic-speaking people. Historians mostly consider the Hebrews as synonymous with the Israelites, with the term "Hebrew" denoting an Israelite from the nomadic era, which preceded the establishment of the Kingdom of Israel and Judah in the 11th century BCE. However, in some instances, the designation "Hebrew" may also be used historically in a wider sense, referring to the Phoenicians or other ancient Semitic-speaking civilizations, such as the Shasu on the eve of the Late Bronze Age collapse. It appears 34 times within 32 verses of the Hebrew Bible, while others do not, and others still hold that the multiple modern connotations of ethnicity may not all map well onto the sociology of ancient Near Eastern groups.

By the time of the Roman Empire, the term () could refer to the Jews in general (as '' Strong's Hebrew Dictionary'' puts it: "any of the Jewish Nation") or, at other times, specifically to those Jews who lived in Judea, which was a Roman province from 6 CE to 135 CE. However, at the time of early Christianity, the term instead referred to Jewish Christians, as opposed to the Judaizers and to the gentile Christians.

In Armenian, Georgian, Italian, Greek, Kurdish, Serbian, Russian, Romanian, and a few other languages, the transfer of the name from "Hebrew" to "Jew" never took place, and "Hebrew" (or the linguistic equivalent) remains the primary word used to refer to an ethnic Jew.

With the revival of the Hebrew language in the 19th century and with the emergence of the Yishuv, the term "Hebrew" has been applied to the Jewish people of this re-emerging society in Israel or to the Jewish people in general.

Etymology

The biblical term ''Ivri'' (; ) is usually rendered as ''Hebrew'' in English (; ). The biblical word ''Ivri'' has the plural form ''Ivrim'', or ''Ibrim''. The definitive origin of the term "Hebrew" remains uncertain.

The most generally accepted hypothesis today is that the text intends ''ivri'' as the adjective (Hebrew suffix -i) formed from ''ever'' (עֵבֶר) 'beyond, across' (avar (עָבַר) 'he crossed, he traversed'), as a description of migrants 'from across the river' as the Bible describes the Hebrews. It is also supported by the 3rd century BCE Septuagint, which translates ''ivri'' to ''perates'' (περατής), a Greek word meaning "one who came across, a migrant", from ''perao'' (περάω) "to cross, to traverse", as well as some early traditional commentary. Gesenius considers it the only linguistically acceptable hypothesis. The description of peoples and nations from their location "from across the river" (often the river Euphrates, sometimes the Jordan River) was common in this region of the ancient Near-East: it appears as ''eber nari'' in Akkadian and ''avar nahara'' in Aramaic (both corresponding to Hebrew ''ever nahar''), the Aramaic expression's use being quoted verbatim in the Bible, for example in an Aramaic letter sent to the King of Persia in the Book of Ezra or in the Book of Nehemiah, sometimes rendered as Trans-Euphrates.

refers to Shem, the elder brother of Ham and Japheth, and thus the first-born son of Noah, as the father of the sons of Eber (עבר), which may have a similar meaning.

Some authors such as Radak and R. Nehemiah argue that ''Ibri'' denotes the descendants of the biblical patriarch Eber (Hebrew עבר), son of Shelah, a great-grandson of Noah and an ancestor of Abraham, hence the occasional anglicization ''Eberites''. Others disagree, arguing that the Eberites and Hebrews were two different ethnicities, with the former specifically inhabiting Assyria. Nonetheless, the descent of Hebrews from Eber is acknowledged.

Since the 19th-century CE discovery of the second-millennium BCE inscriptions mentioning the Habiru, many theories have linked these to the Hebrews. Some scholars argue that the name "Hebrew" is related to the name of those semi-nomadic Habiru people recorded in Egyptian inscriptions of the 13th and 12th centuries BCE as having settled in Egypt. Other scholars rebut this, proposing that the Hebrews are mentioned in later texts of the 3rd Intermediate Period of Egypt (11th century BCE) as Shasu of ''Yhw'', while some scholars consider these two hypotheses compatible, ''Ḫabiru'' being a generic Akkadian form parallel to Hebrew ''ʿivri'' from the Akkadian equivalent of ''ʿever'' "beyond, across" describing foreign peoples "from across the river", where the letter ayin (ע) in Hebrew corresponds to ''ḫ'' in Akkadian (as in Hebrew ''zeroaʿ'' corresponding to Akkadian ''zuruḫ''). Alternatively, some argue that Habiru refers to a social class found in every ancient Near Eastern society, which Hebrews could be part of.

Use as synonym for "Israelites"

In the Hebrew Bible and sometimes used by Israelites when speaking of themselves to foreigners, although Saul does use the term for his fellow countrymen in . In , Abraham (Abram) is described as a descendant of Eber; Josephus states "Eber" was the patriarch that Hebrew was named after proceeding from the Tower of Babel at the time of Eber's son Peleg, from which ''Hebrew'' would eventually become derived.

According to the ''Jewish Encyclopedia'' the terms ''Hebrews'' and ''Israelites'' usually describe the same people, stating that they were called Hebrews before the conquest of the Land of Canaan and Israelites afterwards.

Professor Nadav Na'aman and others say that the conflation of Hebrew with Israelite is rare and is only used when Israelites are "in exceptional and precarious situations, such as migrants or slaves." Professor Albert D. Friedberg similarly argues that Hebrews refer to socioeconomically disadvantaged Israelites, especially in the context of the Book of Exodus and Books of Samuel.

In , Abraham is described as ''Avram Ha-Ivri'' which translates literally as "Abram the Hebrew." Hebrew, in this context, might refer to Abraham's descent from Eber. It might also refer to Abraham's primary language or his status as a migrant from the "other side of the river".

Theologian Alexander MacLaren believes that Hebrew was a nickname for all migrants who migrated to Canaan from the other side of the Euphrates River (or the Jordan River), from the perspective of the 'long-settled' aboriginal inhabitants of Canaan.

Use as synonym for "Jews"

By the Roman period, "Hebrews" could be used to designate the Jews, who use the Hebrew language. The Epistle to the Hebrews, one of the books of the New Testament, was probably directed at Jewish Christians.

In some modern languages, including Armenian, Greek, Italian, Romanian, and many Slavic languages, the name ''Hebrews'' (with linguistic variations) is the standard ethnonym for Jews; but in many other languages in which both terms exist, it is currently considered derogatory to call Jews "Hebrews".

Among certain left-wing or liberal circles of Judaic cultural lineage, the word "Hebrew" is used as an alternatively secular description of the Jewish people (e.g., Bernard Avishai's ''The Hebrew Republic'' or left-wing wishes for a "Hebrew-Arab" joint cultural republican state). It is also used in some circles as a secular description of people of Judaic cultural lineage who practice other religions or none, including Hebrew Catholics.

Use in Zionism

Beginning in the late 19th century, the term "Hebrew" became popular among secular Zionists. In this context, the word alluded to the transformation of the Jews into a strong, independent, self-confident secular national group ("the New Jew") sought by classical Zionism. This use died out after the establishment of the state of Israel, when "Hebrew" was replaced with "Jew" or "Israeli".

David Ben-Gurion, the first Prime Minister of Israel, believed that the Hebrews were the indigenous inhabitants of Canaan that joined Abraham's religion, after he settled in the region. He also believed that not all Hebrews joined Jacob's family when they migrated to Egypt and later, birthed the generation of Hebrews that endured the Exodus.

Notes

References

Bibliography

*''Ancient Judaism'', Max Weber, Free Press, 1967,
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*Richard Kugelman,
Hebrew, Israelite, Jew in the New Testament
" In The Bridge: A Yearbook of Judaeo-Christian Studies, Vol. 1, edited by John M. Oesterreicher and Barry Ulanov, 204–224. New York: Pantheon Books, 1955.
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External links

*{{Commonscatinline

Ancient peoples of the Near East
Canaan
Hebrew Bible nations
Semitic-speaking peoples