Hebrews

This article is about the Hebrew people. For the book of 1.1 Shasu of Yhw
the Bible, see Epistle to the Hebrews.
Main article: Shasu
The hieroglyphic rendering of the Egyptian word 3 sw
Hebrews (Hebrew: or , Tiberian Irm,
Iriyym; Modern Hebrew Ivrim, Ivriyyim; ISO 259-3
ibrim, ibriyim) is a term appearing 34 times within 32
verses[1][2][3] of the Hebrew Bible. While the term was
not an ethnonym,[4][5] it is mostly taken as synonymous
with the Semitic-speaking Israelites, especially in the premonarchic period when they were still nomadic, but in
some instances it may also be used in a wider sense, referring to the Phoenicians, or to other ancient groups, such
as the group known as Shasu of Yhw on the eve of the
Bronze Age collapse.[6]
By the Roman Empire, Greek Hebraios could refer to
the Jews in general, as Strongs Hebrew Dictionary puts
it any of the Jewish Nation[7] and at other times more
specically to the Jews living in Judea. In Early Christianity, the Greek term refers to Jewish Christians as opposed to the gentile Christians and Judaizers
(Acts 6:1 among others). is the province where
the Temple was located.
In Armenian, Italian, Modern Greek, Serbian, Bulgarian
Russian, Romanian and a few other modern languages because of pejorative connotation of the word corresponding to the word Jew, Hebrew is in the primary word
used for a Jew.[8][9][10] The name corresponding for Hebrew is used also in the Kurdish and was once used also
in French.
Egyptian representation of a captive Shasu

(Shasu) means those who move on foot. The name

Shasu of Yhw", e.g., the name rings from Soleb
and Amarah-West, corresponds very precisely to the
Tetragrammaton in the Hebrew Bible.[13] The demonym
'Israel' can reasonably be referred to a Shasu enclave,
and it can be concluded that the Shasu originated from
Moab and northern Edom and eventually helped to constitute the nation of 'Israel' which later established the
Kingdom of Israel.[14][15] The Shasu are mostly depicted
hieroglyphically with a determinative indicating rather a
land than a people, referencing people of that particular
land.[16]

Etymology

The origin of the term remains uncertain.[11] The Biblical term Ivri (), meaning to traverse or pass over, is
usually rendered as Hebrew in English, from the ancient
Greek and Latin Hebraeus. In the plural it is
Ivrim, or Ibrim.
In Genesis 10:21 Shem, the elder brother of Ham and
Japheth, rst-born son of Noah, is referred to as the father of the sons of Eber (), which may have a similar
meaning.

Some authors argue that Ibri denotes the descendants of 1.2 Habiru
the biblical patriarch Eber (Hebrew ), son of Shelah,
a great grandson of Noah and an ancestor of Abraham,[12] Main article: Habiru
hence the occasional anglicization Eberites.
1

4 SYNONYM FOR CONVERT FROM JUDAISM

Since the discovery of the second millennium inscriptions mentioning the Habiru, there have been many theories linking these to the Hebrews. Some scholars argue that the name Hebrew is related to the name of
the seminomadic Habiru people, who are recorded in
Egyptian inscriptions of the 13th and 12th centuries BCE
as having settled in Egypt.[17] This is rebutted by others who propose that the Hebrews are mentioned in older
texts of the 3rd Intermediate Period of Egypt (15th century BCE) as Shasu of Yhw.[18] According to Anson F.
Rainey, modern scholars conclude that the attempts to
relate apiru (Habiru) to the Hebrew word ibri (Hebrews)
are not fruitful.[19]

1.3

Hyksos

Main article: Origins of the Hyksos

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.[22] Professor Nadav Na'aman and others say that the use of the
word Hebrew to refer to Israelites is rare and when used
it is used to Israelites in exceptional and precarious situations, such as migrants or slaves.[23][24]

3 Use as synonym for Jews

By the Roman period, Hebrews could be used to designate the Jews, who use the Hebrew language.[25] The
Epistle to the Hebrews was probably written for Jewish
Christians.[26]
In some modern languages, including Armenian, Greek,
Italian, Romanian, and many Slavic languages, the name
Hebrews survives as the standard ethnonym for Jews,
but in many other languages in which there exist both
terms, it is considered derogatory to call modern Jews
Hebrews. 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 leftwing wishes for a Hebrew-Arab joint cultural republican state).

The Jewish historian Josephus maintains that the Hyksos

were in fact the children of Jacob who joined his son
Joseph in Egypt to escape a famine in the land of
Canaan. The Hyksos rst appeared in Egypt during the
Eleventh Dynasty. They came out of the second intermediate period in control of Avaris and the Nile delta
and ruled Lower Egypt as Semite kings (Fifteenth Dynasty). Kamose, the last king of the Theban 17th Dynasty, refers to the Hyksos King Apophis as a Chieftain
of Retjenu (Canaan). At the end of the Seventeenth Dynasty of Egypt, they were expelled by an ethnic Egyptian
pharaoh. The term Hyksos derives from the Egyptian
3.1
expression heka khasewet (rulers of foreign lands).

Use in Zionism

Josephus records the false etymology that the Greek

phrase Hyksos stood for the Egyptian phrase Hekw Shasu Beginning in the late 19th century, the term Hebrew
meaning the Shepherd Kings, which scholars have only became popular among secular Zionists; in this context
the word alluded to the transformation of the Jews into a
recently shown means rulers of foreign lands.[20]
strong, independent, self-condent secular national group
(the New Jew) sought by classical Zionism. This use
died out after the establishment of the state of Israel,
2 Use as synonym for Israelites when Hebrew was replaced with Jew or Israeli.[27]
See also: Israelites, Who is a Jew?, and History of
ancient Israel and Judah
In the Hebrew Bible, the term Hebrew is normally used
by Israelites when speaking of themselves to foreigners,
or is used by foreigners when speaking about Israelites.[21]
In fact, the Torah in parashat Lekh Lekha (go!" or
leave!", literally go for you) calls Abraham Avram HaIvri (Abram the Hebrew), which translates literally as
Abram the one who stands on the other side.[Gen. 14:13]
Israelites are dened as the descendants of Jacob,
son of Isaac, grandson of Abraham. Eber, an ancestor of Jacob (seven generations removed), is a
distant ancestor of many people, including the Israelites, Ishmaelites, Edomites, Moabites, Ammonites,
Midianites and Qahtanites.

4 Synonym for convert from Judaism

The word Hebrew, in its secular sense, has also been
used as ethnic self-descriptors by converts from Judaism
to other religions. Hebrew Catholics, a community of
converts from Judaism to Catholic Christianity, were so
named by Elias Friedman, a Carmelite Catholic priest
who founded the Association of Hebrew Catholics. Similarly, Hebrew Christians (better known as Jewish Christians) identify with their Hebrew ethnicity while often
embracing adaptations of Protestantism or any other form
of Christianity. Hebrew Christians are also known as
Messianic Jews, or Completed Jews.

7.2

Notes

The United States

Early in its presence in the United States, Reform Judaism

attempted to distance itself from terms such as Jew or
Jewish. The organization of reform congregations in the
United States was known as the Union of American Hebrew Congregations prior to 2003 when it was renamed
the "Union for Reform Judaism.

[5] Collapse of the Bronze Age, p.266, quote: Opinion has

sharply swung away from the view that the Apiru were the
earliest Israelites in part because Apiru was not an ethnic
term nor were Apiru an ethnic group.
[6] The Electronic Pennsylvania Sumerian Dictionary s.v.
SA-GAZ. The Assyrian Dictionary of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago volume H (1956) p. 13
& p. 84; volume /1 (1989) p. 70.
[7] Thayers Lexicon

Name of the Hebrew language

[8] Administrator. Jewish Museum of Venice - homepage.

Museoebraico.it. Retrieved 2012-08-04.

The Hebrew language is a member of the larger group of [9] Jewish Ghetto of Venice. Ghetto.it. Retrieved 201208-04.
Canaanite languages within Northwest Semitic. The language has been known as Hebrew in English since the [10] Yann Picand; Dominique Dutoit. translation of evreiesc in English | Romanian-English dictionary. Transla11th century, from Old French Ebreu, in turn from Latin
tion.sensagent.com. Retrieved 2012-08-04.
Hebraeus and Greek , whose alphabet is ultimately a loan from "Assyrian lettering (Ktav Ashuri), the [11] Hebrew. Encyclopdia Britannica. Ultimate Reference
square-script, by Ezra the Scribe following the BabyloSuite. Chicago: Encyclopdia Britannica. 2009.
nian Exile.
[12] Jewish Encyclopedia article on Eber

Since the Hebrew Bible makes a point of marking the

Canaanites as peoples set apart from the Israelites, the ex- [13] Astour, Michael C. (1979). Yahweh in Egyptian Topographic Lists. In Festschrift Elmar Edel, eds. M. Gorg &
tent of the distinction between the culture of the CanaanE. Pusch, Bamberg; (1979), p. 18
ites and the Israelites is a matter of debate. It has been
argued that the Israelites were themselves Canaanites, and [14] Redford, Donald B. (1992). Egypt, Canaan and Israel
that historical Israel, as distinct from literary or BibIn Ancient Times. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
lical Israel was a subset of Canaanite culture. It is also
ISBN 0-691-00086-7. p. 272-3,275.
known that Israelites and later the subdivision of Israelites
known as the Judeans spoke Hebrew as their main lan- [15] Rainey, Anson (2008). Shasu or Habiru. Who Were
the Early Israelites?" Biblical Archeology Review 34:6
guage and it is still used in Jewish holy scriptures, study,
(Nov/Dec).
speech and prayer.

References

[16] Dermot Anthony Nestor, Cognitive Perspectives on

Israelite Identity, Continuum International Publishing
Group, 2010 p.185.
[17] entry in britannica.com

Jewish Encyclopedia
Biblical History The Jewish History Resource Center

7.1

Bibliography

Ancient Judaism, Max Weber, Free Press, 1967,

ISBN 0-02-934130-2

7.2

Notes

[18] Rainey, Anson (November 2008). Shasu or Habiru.

Who Were the Early Israelites?". Biblical Archeology Review. Biblical Archaeology Society. 34 (6 (Nov/Dec)).
[19] Anson F. Rainey, Unruly Elements in Late Bronze Canaanite Society, in Pomegranates and golden bells ed. David
Pearson Wright, David Noel Freedman, Avi Hurvitz,
(Eisenbrauns, 1995) p.483
[20] Finkelstein, Israel and Silberman, Neil Asher, The Bible
Unearthed: Archaeologys New Vision of Ancient Israel
and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts, 2001, The Free Press,
New York City, ISBN 0-684-86912-8 p. 54

[1] Strongs Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible #5680

[21] William David. Reyburn - Euan McG. Fry - A handbook

on Genesis - New York - United Bible Societies - 1997

[2] Step Bible

[22] Hebrews entry in Jewish Encyclopedia

[3] Brown, Driver, Briggs, Gesenius (1952). The NAS Old

Testament Hebrew Lexicon. Oxford University Press.
ISBN 0-198-64301-2. Retrieved 2014-09-06.

[23] Carolyn Pressler (2009). Wives and Daughters, Bond

and Free: Views of Women in the Slave Laws of Exodus
21.2-11. In Bernard M. Levinson; Victor H. Matthews;
Tikva Frymer-Kensky. Gender and Law in the Hebrew
Bible and the Ancient Near East. p. 152. ISBN 9780567545008.

[4] Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible, p.567, Hebrew, Hebrews... A non-ethnic term

[24] Carvalho, Corrine L. (2010). Encountering Ancient

Voices: A Guide to Reading the Old Testament. Anselm
Academic. p. 68. ISBN 978-1599820507.
[25] entry in thefreedictionary.com
[26] Encyclopdia Britannica: Hebrews, Epistle to the
[27] Shavit, Yaacov (1987). The New Hebrew Nation. Routledge. pp. xiv. ISBN 0-7146-3302-X.

External links

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