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6/29/2025, 7:39:37 AM
>>17799841
>A Mari text uses the name of Abraham's brother, Nahor, in the form Nakhur, as the name of a city in the vicinity of Haran. Mari texts speak further of a people called Banu-yamina (Benjamin), and use names built on the same roots as Gad, Dan, Levi, and Ishmael. Later Assyrian texts speak of two cities, Til-turakhi and Sarugi, the equivalents of Terah and Serug, father and prior ancestor of Abraham respectively. These names, and others that might be added, all appear in texts from the first half of the second millennium. Though evidence is lacking that any refers to a specific biblical person or place, they do indicate that the names employed in the Genesis record are those of the nomenclature of the day
>Although Abraham himself is not known from extrabiblical sources, the name is attested in its Babylonian form, Abamram (BASOR, #83, p. 34), as are the names Nahor (cf. city of Nahor, Gen 24:10), Terah and Serug (Gen 11:22, 24) as towns mentioned in the Mari texts and other Assyrian documents (cf. John Bright, A History of Israel, p. 70)
>Evidence for the West Semitic (or Amorite) origin of the majority of the people figuring in the Mari documents is revealed in the onomasticon (name-stock) and specific linguistic features of the Mari dialect. Many of the hundreds of proper names known from the Mari texts are paralleled in the Bible, especially in the patriarchal narratives and the Exodus-Conquest cycle, which demonstrate a strong archaizing tendency. At Mari, where Yahweh was known in theophoric names, these names occur often with (other) the ophoric (god-bearing) components; e.g., Jacob and Ishmael – i.e., haqba-hammu/-ahim/ etc. and Yasmaḥ-El/-Adad/-Baʿal/ etc. The names of the Israelite tribes of Levi and Benjamin also seem to have their parallels
>A Mari text uses the name of Abraham's brother, Nahor, in the form Nakhur, as the name of a city in the vicinity of Haran. Mari texts speak further of a people called Banu-yamina (Benjamin), and use names built on the same roots as Gad, Dan, Levi, and Ishmael. Later Assyrian texts speak of two cities, Til-turakhi and Sarugi, the equivalents of Terah and Serug, father and prior ancestor of Abraham respectively. These names, and others that might be added, all appear in texts from the first half of the second millennium. Though evidence is lacking that any refers to a specific biblical person or place, they do indicate that the names employed in the Genesis record are those of the nomenclature of the day
>Although Abraham himself is not known from extrabiblical sources, the name is attested in its Babylonian form, Abamram (BASOR, #83, p. 34), as are the names Nahor (cf. city of Nahor, Gen 24:10), Terah and Serug (Gen 11:22, 24) as towns mentioned in the Mari texts and other Assyrian documents (cf. John Bright, A History of Israel, p. 70)
>Evidence for the West Semitic (or Amorite) origin of the majority of the people figuring in the Mari documents is revealed in the onomasticon (name-stock) and specific linguistic features of the Mari dialect. Many of the hundreds of proper names known from the Mari texts are paralleled in the Bible, especially in the patriarchal narratives and the Exodus-Conquest cycle, which demonstrate a strong archaizing tendency. At Mari, where Yahweh was known in theophoric names, these names occur often with (other) the ophoric (god-bearing) components; e.g., Jacob and Ishmael – i.e., haqba-hammu/-ahim/ etc. and Yasmaḥ-El/-Adad/-Baʿal/ etc. The names of the Israelite tribes of Levi and Benjamin also seem to have their parallels
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