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  • From: "Kevin P. Edgecomb" <kevin AT bombaxo.com>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Nahar
  • Date: Thu, 04 Jun 2009 14:51:59 -0700

Yigal Levin asks:
But really how old is the tradition? When is it first attested? I have never really looked into it, and would be glad to hear from someone who has.

I write:
I remember this coming up a few years ago (somewhere out of mind). As I recall, the answer was that this tradition is only attested after the city came into Turkish hands. That's early second millennium.

This is the city formerly known as Edessa, the intellectual center of Syriac Christianity. There's not a hint of the connection of Abraham's with the place during Christian times.

I suspect the Urfa/Urhai and variant "ur" sounding names are corruptions of the Callirhoe, the nearby river. But that's just a guess.

Regards,
Kevin P. Edgecomb
Berkeley, California




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