Hebrews#Use in Zionism

The biblical term Ivri ({{lang|he|עברי}}; {{IPA|he|ʕivˈri}}) is usually rendered as Hebrew in English ({{langx|grc|Ἑβραῖος|link=no}}; {{langx|la|Hebraeus|link=no}}). The biblical word Ivri has the plural form Ivrim, or Ibrim. The definitive origin of the term "Hebrew" remains uncertain.{{cite encyclopedia | title = Hebrew | encyclopedia = Encyclopædia Britannica | place = Chicago |year = 2009 }}

The most generally accepted hypothesis today{{cite web| url=https://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?t=kjv&strongs=h5680 | editor-last=Gesenius | editor-first=H. W. F. |title=Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament}}{{cite web| url=https://biblehub.com/commentaries/genesis/14-13.htm| work=Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges |title=Genesis 14:13}}{{cite web| editor-last=Ernest |editor-first=Klein |title=A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Hebrew Language for Readers of English |url=https://www.sefaria.org.il/Klein_Dictionary%2C_%D7%A2%D6%B4%D7%91%D6%B0%D7%A8%D6%B4%D7%99?lang=he}} is that the text intends ivri as the adjective (Hebrew suffix -i) formed from ever (עֵבֶר) 'beyond, across' (avar (עָבַר) 'he crossed, he traversed'), as a description of migrants 'from across the river' as the Bible describes the Hebrews.{{Cite web|title=Joshua 24:3 But I took your father Abraham from beyond the Euphrates and led him through all the land of Canaan, and I multiplied his descendants. I gave him Isaac|url=https://biblehub.com/joshua/24-3.htm|access-date=August 4, 2020|website=biblehub.com}} It is also supported by the 3rd century BCE Septuagint, which translates ivri to perates (περατής),{{cite web| title=Abram the Hebrew = Αβραμ τῷ περάτῃ |url=https://www.blueletterbible.org/lxx/gen/14/1/t_conc_14013}} a Greek word meaning "one who came across, a migrant",{{Cite web|last1=Liddell|first1=Henry George|last2=Scott|first2=Robert|title=περατής|website=A Greek-English Lexicon|url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Dperath%2Fs|access-date=September 3, 2022}} from perao (περάω) "to cross, to traverse",{{Cite web|last1=Liddell|first1=Henry George|last2=Scott|first2=Robert|title=περάω|website=A Greek-English Lexicon|url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0057:entry=pera/w1|access-date=September 3, 2022}} as well as some early traditional commentary.{{cite web|title=Bereishit Rabah 42:8|url=https://www.sefaria.org.il/Bereishit_Rabbah.42.8?lang=he|type=on the first mention of the word ivri in the Bible: the phrase "Abram the ivri" of Genesis 14:13}} Gesenius considers it the only linguistically acceptable hypothesis.{{Cite book|last=Wilhelm Gesenius|url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Gesenius'_Hebrew_Grammar/2._Sketch_of_the_History_of_the_Hebrew_Language|title=Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar|chapter=Sketch of the History of the Hebrew Language }} The description of peoples and nations from their location "from across the river" (often the river Euphrates, sometimes the Jordan River) was common in this region of the ancient Near-East:{{Cite journal|last1=Beattie|first1=D. R. G.|last2=Davies|first2=Philip R.|date=March 1, 2011|title=What Does Hebrew Mean?1|url=https://academic.oup.com/jss/article/56/1/71/1661105|journal=Journal of Semitic Studies|language=en|volume=56|issue=1|pages=71–83|doi=10.1093/jss/fgq059|issn=0022-4480|url-access=subscription}} it appears as eber nari in AkkadianA Concise Dictionary of Akkadian, Jeremy Black, Andrew George, Nicholas Postgate, page 64[https://cdli.ucla.edu/search/search_results.php?SearchMode=Text&ObjectID=P336126 Example]: definition of [http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa02/sig?%E2%98%A3%40saao%2Fsaa02%25akk-x-stdbab%3Ae-bir-ID%E2%82%82%3DEber-nari%5Bacross%20the%20river%2F%2FSyria%20west%20of%20Euphrates%5DGN%C2%B4GN%24Eber-nari eber nari] in Akkadian-language [http://oracc.iaas.upenn.edu/saao/saa02/P336126/html Treaty of Esarhaddon King of Assyria with Baal King of Tyre] (British Museum, London, UK) and avar nahara in Aramaic (both corresponding to Hebrew ever nahar), the Aramaic expression's use being quoted verbatim in the Bible, for example in an Aramaic letter sent to the King of Persia in the Book of Ezra[https://biblehub.com/ezra/4-11.htm Ezra 4:11, New American Standard Bible]: "To King Artaxerxes: Your servants, the men in the region beyond the Euphrates River" (Aramaic: enash avar nahara). or in the Book of Nehemiah,{{Cite web|title=Nehemiah 2:7 Hebrew Text Analysis|url=https://biblehub.com/text/nehemiah/2-7.htm|access-date=August 4, 2020|website=biblehub.com}} sometimes rendered as Trans-Euphrates.{{Cite web|title=Nehemiah 2:7 in the New International Version translation: "may I have letters to the governors of Trans-Euphrates"|url=https://biblehub.com/nehemiah/2-7.htm|access-date=August 4, 2020|website=biblehub.com}}

File:Canaanites and Shasu Leader captives from Ramses III's tile collection; By Niv Lugassi.png depicting Canaanite and Shasu leaders as captives. Most archaeologists regard the Hebrews as local Canaanite refugees and possibly some Shasu settling down in the hill-country.{{cite web|url=https://members.bib-arch.org/biblical-archaeology-review/34/6/9|title=Shasu or Habiru: Who Were the Early Israelites?|date=August 24, 2015|website=The BAS Library|access-date=March 3, 2019}}{{cite web|url=http://www.fsmitha.com/h1/ch04-2.htm|title=Israelites as Canaanites|website=www.fsmitha.com|access-date=March 3, 2019}}{{cite web|url=https://members.bib-arch.org/biblical-archaeology-review/34/6/8|title=Inside, Outside: Where Did the Early Israelites Come From?|date=August 24, 2015|website=The BAS Library|access-date=March 3, 2019}}]]

File:Samuel e david.jpg]]

File:Dura Europos fresco Jews cross Red Sea.jpg leads the Israelites across the Red Sea while pursued by Pharaoh. Fresco from the Dura-Europos synagogue in Syria, 244–256 CE]]

{{bibleverse||Genesis|10:21|HE}} refers to Shem, the elder brother of Ham and Japheth, and thus the first-born son of Noah, as the father of the sons of Eber (עבר), which may have a similar meaning.

Some authors such as Radak and R. Nehemiah[https://www.thetorah.com/article/who-were-the-hebrews Who Were the Hebrews?] argue that Ibri denotes the descendants of the biblical patriarch Eber (Hebrew עבר), son of Shelah, a great-grandson of Noah and an ancestor of Abraham,{{cite web|url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/5406-eber|title=EBER - JewishEncyclopedia.com|website=www.jewishencyclopedia.com|access-date=March 3, 2019}} hence the occasional anglicization Eberites. Others disagree, arguing that the Eberites and Hebrews were two different ethnicities, with the former specifically inhabiting Assyria. Nonetheless, the descent of Hebrews from Eber is acknowledged.{{Cite Jewish Encyclopedia|title=Eber|url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/5406-eber|first1=Emil G.|last1=Hirsch|first2=Eduard|last2=König|authorlink1=Emil G. Hirsch|authorlink2=Friedrich Eduard König|volume=5|page=30}}

Since the 19th-century CE discovery of the second-millennium BCE inscriptions mentioning the Habiru, many theories have linked these to the Hebrews. Some scholars argue that the name "Hebrew" is related to the name of those semi-nomadic Habiru people recorded in Egyptian inscriptions of the 13th and 12th centuries BCE as having settled in Egypt.{{cite web |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Hebrew|title=Hebrew - people|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|access-date=March 3, 2019}} Other scholars rebut this, proposing that the Hebrews are mentioned in later texts of the 3rd Intermediate Period of Egypt (11th century BCE) as Shasu of Yhw,{{cite journal | last = Rainey | first = Anson | title = Shasu or Habiru. Who Were the Early Israelites? | journal = Biblical Archaeology Review | volume = 34 | issue = 6 (Nov/Dec) | publisher = Biblical Archaeology Society | date = November 2008}} while some scholars{{Cite web|title=Klein Dictionary, עִבְרִי|url=https://www.sefaria.org/Klein_Dictionary,_עִבְרִי|access-date=August 4, 2020|website=www.sefaria.org}} consider these two hypotheses compatible, Ḫabiru being a generic Akkadian form parallel to Hebrew ʿivri from the Akkadian equivalent of ʿever "beyond, across" describing foreign peoples "from across the river",See above the discussion of the Akkadian and Aramaic expressions eber nari and avar nahara respectively, corresponding to Hebrew ever nahar, being widely used in the ancient Near-East. where the letter ayin (ע) in Hebrew corresponds to ḫ in Akkadian{{Cite book|last=Klein|first=Ernest|url=https://archive.org/details/AComprehensiveEtymologicalDictionaryOfTheEnglishLanguageByErnestKlein/page/n357/mode/2up|title=A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary Of The English Language|year=1971|pages=692}} (as in Hebrew zeroaʿ corresponding to Akkadian zuruḫ{{Cite web|title=Search Entry|url=http://www.assyrianlanguages.org/akkadian/dosearch.php?searchkey=6333&language=id|access-date=August 4, 2020|website=www.assyrianlanguages.org}}). Alternatively, some argue that Habiru refers to a social class found in every ancient Near Eastern society, which Hebrews could be part of.{{Cite web |last=D. Friedberg |first=Albert |date=22 February 2017 |title=Who Were the Hebrews? |url=https://www.thetorah.com/article/who-were-the-hebrews#:~:text=%E2%80%9CThe%20Hebrew%2C%E2%80%9D%20a%20member,the%20original%20language%20of%20man. |url-status= |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231128014216/https://www.thetorah.com/article/who-were-the-hebrews |archive-date=28 November 2023 |website=The Torah.com}}

{{See also|Israelites|Who is a Jew?|History of ancient Israel and Judah}}

In the Hebrew Bible, the term Hebrew is normally used by foreigners (namely, the Egyptians) when speaking about Israelites and sometimes used by Israelites when speaking of themselves to foreigners,William David. Reyburn, Euan McG. Fry. A Handbook on Genesis. New York: United Bible Societies. 1997.{{Page number needed|date=September 2022}} although Saul does use the term for his fellow countrymen in {{Bibleverse||1 Samuel|13:3|HE}}. In {{Bibleverse||Genesis|11:16-26|HE}}, Abraham (Abram) is described as a descendant of Eber; Josephus states "Eber" was the patriarch that Hebrew was named after proceeding from the Tower of Babel at the time of Eber's son Peleg, from which Hebrew would eventually become derived.Flavius Josephus - [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0526.tlg001.perseus-eng1:1.6.4 Antiquities of The Jews, Book I, Chapter VI, Paragraph 4]: {{langx|el|Ἀρφαξάδου δὲ παῖς γίνεται Σάλης, τοῦ δὲ Ἕβερος, ἀφ᾽ οὗ τοὺς Ἰουδαίους Ἑβραίους ἀρχῆθεν ἐκάλουν: Ἕβερος δὲ Ἰούκταν καὶ Φάλεγον ἐγέννησεν: ἐκλήθη δὲ Φάλεγος, ἐπειδὴ κατὰ τὸν ἀποδασμὸν τῶν οἰκήσεων τίκτεται: φαλὲκ γὰρ τὸν μερισμὸν Ἑβραῖοι καλοῦσιν.|translation=Sala was the son of Arphaxad; and his son was Heber, from whom they originally called the Jews Hebrews. Heber begat Joetan and Phaleg: he was called Phaleg, because he was born at the dispersion of the nations to their several countries; for Phaleg among the Hebrews signifies division.}}‘To Eber were born two sons: the name of the one was Peleg, for in his days the earth (erets) was divided’ ({{Bibleverse||Genesis|10:25|HE}})

According to the Jewish Encyclopedia the terms Hebrews and Israelites usually describe the same people, stating that they were called Hebrews before the conquest of the Land of Canaan and Israelites afterwards.{{cite encyclopedia |title=HEBREW |encyclopedia=Jewishe Encyclopedia |url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/7445-hebrew |access-date=March 3, 2019}}

Professor Nadav Na'aman and others say that the conflation of Hebrew with Israelite is rare and is only used when Israelites are "in exceptional and precarious situations, such as migrants or slaves."{{cite book |author=Carolyn Pressler |url=https://archive.org/details/genderlawhebrewb00matt |title=Gender and Law in the Hebrew Bible and the Ancient Near East |publisher=Bloomsbury Academic |year=2009 |isbn=978-0567545008 |editor=Bernard M. Levinson |editor-link=Bernard M. Levinson |page=[https://archive.org/details/genderlawhebrewb00matt/page/n152 152] |chapter=Wives and Daughters, Bond and Free: Views of Women in the Slave Laws of Exodus 21.2-11 |editor2=Victor H. Matthews |editor2-link=Victor H. Matthews |editor3=Tikva Frymer-Kensky |editor3-link=Tikva Frymer-Kensky |url-access=limited}}{{cite book |last=Carvalho |first=Corrine L. |title=Encountering Ancient Voices: A Guide to Reading the Old Testament |publisher=Anselm Academic |year=2010 |isbn=978-1599820507 |page=68}} Professor Albert D. Friedberg similarly argues that Hebrews refer to socioeconomically disadvantaged Israelites, especially in the context of the Book of Exodus and Books of Samuel.

In {{Bibleverse||Genesis|14:13|HE}}, Abraham is described as Avram Ha-Ivri which translates literally as "Abram the Hebrew." Hebrew, in this context, might refer to Abraham's descent from Eber. It might also refer to Abraham's primary language or his status as a migrant from the "other side of the river".

Theologian Alexander MacLaren believes that Hebrew was a nickname for all migrants who migrated to Canaan from the other side of the Euphrates River (or the Jordan River), from the perspective of the 'long-settled' aboriginal inhabitants of Canaan. {{Cite web |date=2024 |title=Genesis 14 MacLaren Expositions Of Holy Scripture |url=https://biblehub.com/commentaries/maclaren/genesis/14.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240208035016/https://biblehub.com/commentaries/maclaren/genesis/14.htm |archive-date=February 8, 2024 |website=Biblehub.com}}

File:1940'S POSTER ENCOURAGING SAILING ON HEBREW SHIPS. כרזה משנות ה-40 הקוראת לשוט באוניות עבריות.D247-028.jpg

By the Roman period, "Hebrews" could be used to designate the Jews, who use the Hebrew language.{{cite web |url=http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Hebrews |title=Hebrews|access-date=March 3, 2019|via=The Free Dictionary}} The Epistle to the Hebrews, one of the books of the New Testament, was probably directed at Jewish Christians.{{cn|date=February 2022}}

{{Quote box|width=246px|bgcolor=#c6dbf7|align=right|quote= A friend of mine in Warsaw told me about a Polish journalist who visited Israel for the first time. On his return he reported with great excitement:
“You know what I’ve discovered? In Israel, too, there are Jews!”
For this Pole, Jews are people who wear a long black kaftan and a big black hat. [...]
This distinction between Israelis and Jews would not have surprised any of us 50 years ago. Before the foundation of the State of Israel, none of us spoke about a “Jewish state”. In our demonstrations we chanted: “Free Immigration! Hebrew State!”
In almost all{{efn|Hebrew-language}} media quotations from those days, there appear the two words “Hebrew state”, almost never “Jewish state”.|3= Uri Avnery, born in 1923.{{cite web |last1=Avnery |first1=Uri |title=The Original Sin |url=http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/channels/avnery/1290871909 |publisher=Gush Shalom |access-date=26 January 2023 |date=27 November 2010}}}}

In some modern languages, including Armenian, Greek, Italian, Romanian, and many Slavic languages, the name Hebrews (with linguistic variations) is the standard ethnonym for Jews; but in many other languages in which both terms exist, it is currently considered derogatory to call Jews "Hebrews".Yitzhaq Feder, in an online-article (c. 2013), "[https://www.thetorah.com/article/dont-call-me-hebrew-the-mysterious-origins-of-the-first-anti-semitic-slur Don't Call Me Hebrew! The Mysterious Origins of the First Anti-Semitic Slur]" suggests the term's present-day derogatory quality goes back to the origins of writing about the Jewish people.E. G. Kraeling, "[https://www.jstor.org/stable/529014 The Origin of the Name Hebrews]", American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures 58/3 (July 1941): 237-253.

Among certain left-wing or liberal circles of Judaic cultural lineage, the word "Hebrew" is used as an alternatively secular description of the Jewish people (e.g., Bernard Avishai's The Hebrew Republic or left-wing wishes for a "Hebrew-Arab" joint cultural republican state). It is also used in some circles as a secular description of people of Judaic cultural lineage who practice other religions or none, including Hebrew Catholics.

{{See also|Negation of the Diaspora}}

Beginning in the late 19th century, the term "Hebrew" became popular among secular Zionists. In this context, the word alluded to the transformation of the Jews into a strong, independent, self-confident secular national group ("the New Jew") sought by classical Zionism. This use died out after the establishment of the state of Israel, when "Hebrew" was replaced with "Jew" or "Israeli".{{cite book|last=Shavit|first=Yaacov|title=The New Hebrew Nation|publisher=Routledge|year=1987|pages=xiv|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ziok8FgWCpQC&q=merlin%20kook%20hebrew&pg=PR14|isbn=0-7146-3302-X}}

David Ben-Gurion, the first Prime Minister of Israel, believed that the Hebrews were the indigenous inhabitants of Canaan that joined Abraham's religion, after he settled in the region. He also believed that not all Hebrews joined Jacob's family when they migrated to Egypt and later, birthed the generation of Hebrews that endured the Exodus.{{Cite web |last=Wazana |first=Nili |date=April 15, 2018 |title=Israel's Declaration of Independence and the Biblical Right to the Land |url=https://www.thetorah.com/article/israels-declaration-of-independence-and-the-biblical-right-to-the-land |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240207091222/https://www.thetorah.com/article/israels-declaration-of-independence-and-the-biblical-right-to-the-land |archive-date=February 7, 2024 |website=TheTorah.com}}

{{notelist}}

{{reflist}}

• Ancient Judaism, Max Weber, Free Press, 1967, {{ISBN|0-02-934130-2}}
• {{cite journal|author-link= Solomon Zeitlin |last=Zeitlin|first= Solomon|title=The Names Hebrew, Jew and Israel: A Historical Study|journal= The Jewish Quarterly Review|volume= 43|issue=4|date=1953|pages=365–379|doi=10.2307/1453236|jstor=1453236}}
• Richard Kugelman, "[https://scholarship.shu.edu/jcs-bridge-I/ Hebrew, Israelite, Jew in the New Testament]." In The Bridge: A Yearbook of Judaeo-Christian Studies, Vol. 1, edited by John M. Oesterreicher and Barry Ulanov, 204–224. New York: Pantheon Books, 1955.
• {{cite book|last=Harvey|first=Graham|title=The True Israel: Uses of the Names Jew, Hebrew, and Israel in Ancient Jewish and Early Christian Literature|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Dy5D90UapWsC&pg=PR7|year=2001|publisher=BRILL|isbn=0-391-04119-3}}

• {{Commonscatinline}}

Category:Ancient peoples of the Near East

Category:Canaan

Category:Hebrew Bible nations

Category:Semitic-speaking peoples