Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Dan Wagner <Dan.Wagner AT dstm.com>]

Kevin Barney states, "It may sound similar to 'abh hamon (goyim), but there
is no philological relationship."

You can assert that, but it cannot be proven. It assumes that we know more
about Hebrew philology and comparative Semitics from a very limited sample
of data (esp. of Hebrew data) than the people who spoke and/or interacted
with those languages in their own day. You cite or allude to several
assumptions which cannot be proven as absolute norms (e.g., Abram as an
exclusively NW Sem. name and the necessary exclusion of Akkadian influence
even if it were, esp. if he were a traveling nomad and in a world of much
interaction & linguistic overlap). In any case, i would probably be more
inclined to follow those who take Ab-raham as based on a root we find in the
Arabic noun ruhamun, "multitude" (implying that the writer and his readers
were aware of such a Semitic root even if uncommon in their own language,
but not necessarily of the specific, extant Arabic form of which we are
aware).

Furthermore, it was not necessary for Hebrew names to be strictly
philologically based upon normative usage & spelling of their components
(especially name changes). Plays on words and on sounds were not beyond the
linguistic ability of the ancient Semitic writers (or of God). Therefore,
our traditional understanding of Abraham (father of a multitude) can stand
on the basis of the Genesis narrative alone apart from any need of modern
philological confirmation.

Of course, there are also presuppositions which each of us have which are
outside the scope of this discussion list, but which undoubtedly play the
greater part in excluding each other's perspective as reasonable.

Dan Wagner

-----Original Message-----
From: Kevin L. Barney [mailto:klbarney AT yahoo.com]
Sent: Tuesday, November 21, 2000 23:00
To: Biblical Hebrew
Subject: Abram/Abraham


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

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