קוד: ארם נהרים בתנ"ך
סוג: פרטים1
מאת: אבנר רמו
אל:
In the Book of Genesis we read that God told Abraham:
אני יהוה אשר הוצאתיך מאור כשדים-לתת לך את-הארץ הזאת לרשתה.
“I am YHWH that brought you out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give you this land to inherit it” (Gen 15:7; see also: Neh 9:7).
We also read in the Book of Genesis that Abram came to חרן - “Haran” from אור כשדים - “Ur of the Chaldees” (Gen 11:28). Apparently, it was assumed that this Ur was in the land of the Chaldeans, and therefore it was traditionally believed that originally Abraham was an Akkadian. However, in various historic periods the Akkadians conquered towns that were outside their homeland. Furthermore, the language spoken by Abraham is not Eastern Semitic but rather North-Western Semitic.
We read that when God approached Abraham for the first time He told him:
לך-לך מארצך וממולדתך ומבית אביך, אל-הארץ אשר אראך.
“Get you out of your country, and from your kindred, and from your father's house, to the land that I will show you” (Gen 12:1). Yet in the previous verse we are told that at that time Abram was already in חרן - “Haran” (Gen 11:31-32).
For unknown reason Abraham does not refer to: אור כשדים - “Ur of the Chaldees” as: ארצי - “my country” and as: מולדתי - “my kindred” but rather to ארם נהרים - “Aram-naharaim” (Gen 24:4, 6, 10).
It is therefore not surprising that the Greek translators of the Pentateuch assumed that
ארם נהרים - “Aram-naharaim” is “Mesopotamia” (Gen 24:10; Deu 23:5), and this understanding also prevailed until quite recently among many biblical scholars.
It was pointed out by others that several towns in the Middle-East were named Ur. One of them is named today Urfa (Urha in Armenian; Orrhoa in Greek). This ancient town is located 38 mi north-west of the town of Harran, another ancient town that was mentioned already in the Ebla tablets (late 3rd millennium BC). Both towns were between the 15th to the 13th centuries BC in the Hurrian-speaking state - Mitanni. In the Egyptian Amarna letters this state was referred to as: N-h-r-n.
Prior to that time this area was part of the Amorite kingdom of Mari. The Amorites were Western-Semites who began to settle in this area before the twenty-first century BC. Their third kingdom lasted from c. 2266 BC to c. 1761 BC, when it was destroyed by the Babylonian King Hammurabi. The Akkadians referred to this kingdom as Amurum and the Egyptians as: Amar.
As prior to the 17th century BC this part of Eastern Syria was referred to by the Egyptians as Amar, and after the 16th century as Naharin, it is likely that in between these eras, it had the combined name Amar-Naharin. It is therefore suggested that ארם נהרים - “Aram-naharaim” is an order-type error of this name.
When the name ארם נהרים - “Aram-naharaim” is mentioned in the Books of Judges (Jud 3:8), Psalms (Ps 60:1), and Chronicles (1 Ch 19:6) it is translated to Greek as: “Syria of rivers”, “Mesopotamian Syria”, and Mesopotamia of Syria, respectively. We may therefore assume that the Greek translators believed that these biblical references to ארם נהרים - “Aram-naharaim” are indeed referring to Syria.
The proposition that in the Pentateuch “Aram” is an order-type error of “Amar”, suggests also a remedy for another problem.
A contemporary of Abraham (and in fact his relative) is לבן הארמי - “Laban the Aramean” (Gen 25:20; 28:5; 31:20, 24). Yet the first credible reference to the Arameans as a people appears in the inscription of Tiglath Pileser I (c. 1100 BC). As Laban apparently lived several hundred years earlier, he could not have been an “Aramean.” However, he could have been an Amorite אמרי (emori) rather than ארמי (arami).
In fact, when old Abraham was sending his servant to fetch a bride for his son Isaac he told him:
לא-תקח אשה לבני מבנות הכנעני, אשר אנכי יושב בקרבו
“You shall not take a wife for my son of the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell” (Gen 24:3).
A similar instruction was given by Isaac to his son Jacob (Gen 28:1). We should notice that in both events the Amorites are not mentioned.
In fact, we read that the relations between Abraham and the Amorites were more than cordial:
והוא שכן באלני ממרא האמרי, אחי אשכל ואחי ענר, והם בעלי ברית-אברם.
“He dwelt by the terebinths of Mamre the Amorite, brother of Eshcol, and brother of Aner; and these were confederate with Abram” (Gen 14:13).
Furthermore, these Amorites are described as the men that helped Abraham pursuing the people that took captive Lot, his brother’s son (Gen 14:14-24).