Eber (; ; ) is an ancestor of the

Ishmaelites The Ishmaelites (; ) were a collection of various Arab tribes, tribal confederations and small kingdoms described in Abrahamic tradition as being descended from and named after Ishmael, a prophet according to the Quran, the first son of Abraha ...

and the

Israelites Israelites were a Hebrew language, Hebrew-speaking ethnoreligious group, consisting of tribes that lived in Canaan during the Iron Age. Modern scholarship describes the Israelites as emerging from indigenous Canaanites, Canaanite populations ...

according to the

Generations of Noah The Generations of Noah, also called the Table of Nations or ''Origines Gentium'', is a genealogy of the sons of Noah, according to the Hebrew Bible (Book of Genesis, Genesis ), and their dispersion into many lands after Genesis flood narrative ...

in the

Book of Genesis The Book of Genesis (from Greek language, Greek ; ; ) is the first book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. Its Hebrew name is the same as its incipit, first word, (In the beginning (phrase), 'In the beginning'). Genesis purpor ...

() and the

Books of Chronicles The Book of Chronicles ( , "words of the days") is a book in the Hebrew Bible, found as two books (1–2 Chronicles) in the Christian Old Testament. Chronicles is the final book of the Hebrew Bible, concluding the third section of the Jewish Ta ...

().

Lineage

Eber (Hebrew: Ever) was a great-grandson of

Noah Noah (; , also Noach) appears as the last of the Antediluvian Patriarchs (Bible), patriarchs in the traditions of Abrahamic religions. His story appears in the Hebrew Bible (Book of Genesis, chapters 5–9), the Quran and Baháʼí literature, ...

's son

Shem Shem (; ''Šēm''; ) is one of the sons of Noah in the Bible ( Genesis 5–11 and 1 Chronicles 1:4). The children of Shem are Elam, Ashur, Arphaxad, Lud and Aram, in addition to unnamed daughters. Abraham, the patriarch of Jews, Christ ...

and the father of

Peleg Peleg (, in pausa , "division"; ) is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible as one of the two sons of Eber, an ancestor of the Ishmaelites and the Israelites, according to the Generations of Noah in and . In Scriptures Peleg's son was Reu, born w ...

, born when Eber was 34 years old, and of

Joktan Joktan (also written as Yoktan; ; ) was the second of the two sons of Eber (Book of Genesis 10:25; 1 Chronicles 1:19) mentioned in the Hebrew Bible. He descends from Shem, son of Noah. In the Book of Genesis 10:25 it reads: "And unto Eber were bo ...

. He was the son of

Shelah Shelah may refer to: * Shelah (son of Judah), a son of Judah according to the Bible * Shelah (name), a Hebrew personal name * Shlach, the 37th weekly Torah portion (parshah) in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading * Salih, a prophet described i ...

, a distant ancestor of

Abraham Abraham (originally Abram) is the common Hebrews, Hebrew Patriarchs (Bible), patriarch of the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In Judaism, he is the founding father who began the Covenant (biblical), covenanta ...

. According to the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. '' Septuagint The Septuagint ( ), sometimes referred to as the Greek Old Testament or The Translation of the Seventy (), and abbreviated as LXX, is the earliest extant Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible from the original Biblical Hebrew. The full Greek ...

, the name is written as Heber/Eber (), and his father is called Sala (). His son is called Phaleg/Phalek (), born when Heber was 34 years old, and he had other sons and daughters. Heber lived to an age of 464 years.

Name

The

triliteral root The roots of verbs and most nouns in the Semitic languages are characterized as a sequence of consonants or " radicals" (hence the term consonantal root). Such abstract consonantal roots are used in the formation of actual words by adding the vowel ...

, , is connected with crossing over and the beyond. Considering that other names for descendants of Shem also stand for places, Eber can also be considered the name of an area, perhaps near

Assyria Assyria (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , ''māt Aššur'') was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization that existed as a city-state from the 21st century BC to the 14th century BC and eventually expanded into an empire from the 14th century BC t ...

. Medieval scholars such as

Michael the Syrian Michael the Syrian (),(), died AD 1199, also known as Michael the Great () or Michael Syrus or Michael the Elder, to distinguish him from his nephew, was a patriarch of the Syriac Orthodox Church from 1166 to 1199. He is best known today as th ...

, Bar Hebraeus, and Agapius of Hierapolis noted that the prevailing view was the

Hebrews The Hebrews (; ) were an ancient Semitic-speaking peoples, 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 pre ...

(, also derived from the letters ) had received their name from ʿEber, while others state the name "Hebrew" means "those who cross", a reference to those who crossed the

Euphrates The Euphrates ( ; see #Etymology, below) is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of West Asia. Tigris–Euphrates river system, Together with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia (). Originati ...

with

Abram Abraham (originally Abram) is the common Hebrews, Hebrew Patriarchs (Bible), patriarch of the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In Judaism, he is the founding father who began the Covenant (biblical), covenanta ...

from

Ur of the Chaldees Ur Kasdim (), commonly translated as Ur of the Chaldees, is a city mentioned in the Hebrew Bible as the birthplace of Abraham, the Patriarchs (Bible), patriarch of the Israelites and the Ishmaelites. In 1862, Sir Henry Rawlinson, 1st Baronet, Hen ...

Harran Harran is a municipality and Districts of Turkey, district of Şanlıurfa Province, Turkey. Its area is 904 km2, and its population is 96,072 (2022). It is approximately southeast of Urfa and from the Syrian border crossing at Akçakale. ...

and then

Canaan CanaanThe current scholarly edition of the Septuagint, Greek Old Testament spells the word without any accents, cf. Septuaginta : id est Vetus Testamentum graece iuxta LXX interprets. 2. ed. / recogn. et emendavit Robert Hanhart. Stuttgart : D ...

. In some translations of the

New Testament The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, as well as events relating to Christianity in the 1st century, first-century Christianit ...

, he is referred to once as Heber/Eber (

Luke 3 Luke 3 is the third Chapters and verses of the Bible, chapter of the Gospel of Luke in the New Testament of the Christianity, Christian Bible, traditionally attributed to Luke the Evangelist, a companion of Paul the Apostle on his missionary journ ...

:35, "] the son of

Serug Serug ( – ''Śərūḡ'', "branch"; – ''Seroúkh'') was the son of Reu and the father of Nahor, according to Genesis 11:20–23. He is also the great-grandfather of Abraham, thus the ancestor of the Ishmaelites and the Israelites. In s ...

, the son of

Reu Reu or Ragau (; ), according to Genesis in the Hebrew Bible, was the son of Peleg and the father of Serug, thus being Abraham's great-great-grandfather and the ancestor of the Israelites and Ishmaelites. In scriptures According to the apo ...

, the son of Peleg, the son of Heber, the son of Selah"). He is distinct from Ḥeber, the grandson of

Asher Asher ( ''’Āšēr''), in the Book of Genesis, was the younger of the two sons of Jacob and Zilpah, and Jacob's eighth son overall. He was the founder of the Israelite Tribe of Asher. Name The text of the Torah states that the name אָ� ...

, who is mentioned in Genesis 46:17 and in Numbers 26:45; Ḥeber is with a

heth Heth, sometimes written Chet or Ḥet, is the eighth letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician ''ḥēt'' 𐤇, Hebrew ''ḥēt'' , Aramaic ''ḥēṯ'' 𐡇, Syriac ''ḥēṯ'' ܚ, and Arabic ''ḥāʾ'' . It is also related to ...

while ʿEber has an

ayin ''Ayin'' (also ''ayn'' or ''ain''; transliterated ) is the sixteenth letter of the Semitic scripts, including Phoenician ''ʿayin'' 𐤏, Hebrew ''ʿayin'' , Aramaic ''ʿē'' 𐡏, Syriac ''ʿē'' ܥ, and Arabic ''ʿayn'' (where it is si ...

Hebrew

The 13th-century Muslim historian Abu al-Fida relates a story noting that the patriarch Eber, the great-grandson of

, refused to help with the building of the

Tower of Babel The Tower of Babel is an origin myth and parable in the Book of Genesis (chapter 11) meant to explain the existence of different languages and cultures. According to the story, a united human race speaking a single language migrates to Shin ...

. As a result, his language was not confused when the tower was abandoned. He and his family alone retained the original Adamic language, which he identified as

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

, a language named after ʿEber.

Morris Jastrow Marcus Jastrow (June 5, 1829 – October 13, 1903) was a Poland-born American Talmudic scholar and rabbi, most famously known for his authorship of the popular and comprehensive ''Dictionary of the Targumim, Talmud, Talmud Babli, Jerusalem Talmud, ...

, Ira Maurice Price,

Marcus Jastrow Marcus Jastrow (June 5, 1829 – October 13, 1903) was a Poland-born American Talmudic scholar and rabbi, most famously known for his authorship of the popular and comprehensive ''Dictionary of the Targumim, Talmud Babli, Talmud Yerushalmi and Mid ...

Louis Ginzberg Louis Ginzberg (, ''Levy Gintzburg''; , ''Levy Ginzberg''; November 28, 1873 – November 11, 1953) was a Russian-born American rabbi and Talmudic scholar of Lithuanian-Jewish descent, contributing editor to numerous articles of '' The Jewis ...

, & Duncan B. MacDonald;
Babel, Tower of
, ''

Jewish Encyclopedia ''The Jewish Encyclopedia: A Descriptive Record of the History, Religion, Literature, and Customs of the Jewish People from the Earliest Times to the Present Day'' is an English-language encyclopedia containing over 15,000 articles on the ...

''; Funk & Wagnalls, 1906.

In Islam

ʿEber is sometimes referred to in classical Islamic writings as the "father" of the "prehistoric, original Arabs" (the ''ʿArab al-ʿĀriba''), who lived in the

Arabian Peninsula The Arabian Peninsula (, , or , , ) or Arabia, is a peninsula in West Asia, situated north-east of Africa on the Arabian plate. At , comparable in size to India, the Arabian Peninsula is the largest peninsula in the world. Geographically, the ...

after the

Deluge A deluge is a large downpour of rain, often a flood. The Deluge refers to the flood narrative in the biblical book of Genesis. Deluge or Le Déluge may also refer to: History *Deluge (history), the Swedish and Russian invasion of the Polish-L ...

.Buhl, Fr., "Ḏj̲urhum", in: ''Encyclopaedia of Islam, First Edition (1913-1936)'', Edited by M. Th. Houtsma, T.W. Arnold, R. Basset, R. Hartmann. ʿEber was also identified with the Muslim prophet Hud by some of the early Muslim authorities, who has a surah named after him in the

Quran The Quran, also Romanization, romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a Waḥy, revelation directly from God in Islam, God (''Allah, Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which ...

.Wensinck, A. J., "Hūd", in: ''Encyclopaedia of Islam, First Edition (1913-1936)'', Edited by M. Th. Houtsma, T.W. Arnold, R. Basset, R. Hartmann. Other sources identify the prophet Hud as ʿEber's son.

Lineage

Name

Hebrew

In Islam

See also

References

External links