Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Kevin P. Edgecomb" <kevin AT bombaxo.com>]

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