Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Kevin L. Barney" <klbarney AT yahoo.com>]

Dan,

The Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible at 1:15 takes Abram as ab,
"father," and ram, seen also in numerous other proper names, such as
Adoniram, Amram, Hiram and Malchiram, from the verb "to be high/exalted." 
I learned Abram as meaning "exalted father"; while that translation is
possible, more likely is "the (my) father is exalted."  Cuneiform
parallels are sometimes suggested, but the name has never been found in
Akkadian.  Since "Abram" is a regular Northwest Semitic formation, both by
reason of its structure (as a nominal-sentence name) and each of its
components, Noth cautions against the attempt to link it with Akkadian
names.  (I noticed such an attempt in the Catholic Encylcopedia, for
instance.)

The etymology of Abraham given in Genesis 17:4-5 as "father of a multitude
of nations" is a popular etymology, as is common in Genesis.  It may sound
similar to 'abh hamon (goyim), but there is no philological relationship.

Here I'll quote the Dictionary:

"It is best to take 'abhraham as an aramaic expansion of 'abram, and
basically identical with it in form and meaning.  raham would then be a
longer, Aramaic form of the Hebrew ram, with the h filling in the weakness
in the 'hollow root' rwm, just as Aramaic rht and bht are the equivalents
of Hebrew rwts and bws (cf. Aramaic and Syriac participles qam from the
root qwm)."

Kevin L. Barney
Hoffman Estates, Illinois
klbarney AT yahoo.com