Biblical Hebrew Forum

[James Read <J.Read-2 AT sms.ed.ac.uk>]

Hi Mark,

best thing would probably be to read the recent origin of Abram  
thread. It provides a good summary of the competing theories.  
Tradition places Abram's birthplace at modern day Sanliurfa in Turkey.

Crossing over the river takes you there.

James Christian

Quoting dwashbur AT nyx.net:

> Mark,
> As  far as I know, any time NAHAR is used without a qualifier like   
> that it means the
> Euphrates.  It was THE major river in the region, and apparently   
> when you said "the river"
> everybody knew which one you were talking about.
>
> On 2 Jun 2009 at 16:02, Mark Spitsbergen wrote:
>
> > In my search to understand a little more about the origins of the
> > Hebrew language I have been pondering the geographical location of
> > Avram's hometown. One of the points that seems most relavent to
> > understanding the location of Avram's hometown Ur, is the meaning of
> > "east of the river"-  b(ever hannahar or as is it reads in the LXX-
> > peran tou potamou "beyond the river" (Joshua 24:2,3,14,15). In that
> > nahar is shared by Hebrew, Ugaritic, Aramaic, Arabic and Akkadian
> > surely it is an unmistakable expression defining a "river". Should I
> > believe that this "river" is the Jordan or must we conclude that it is
> > the Euphrates? As I understand it the Nile would not be classified as
> > a nahar but a ye)or . However, the Euphrates is called a nahar perat
> > or simply nahar- "the river," while, as far as I understand the Jordan
> > is never referred to as a "nahar." If this is true then Ur has to be
> > on the otherside of the Euphrates, correct? Any help here would be
> > valued.
> >
> > thanks,
> >
> > Mark Spitsbergen
> > _______________________________________________
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> > b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
> > http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew
>
>
> Dave Washburn
>
> Ibuprofen, Hebuprofen, Shebuprofen, Theybuprofen, wouldn't you like   
> to be a profen too?
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