Tuesday, 13 January 2015

Judaism, the First Phase: the Place of Ezra and Nehemiah in the Origins of Judaism,
Joseph Blenkinsopp, Eerdmans, 2009, page 19

Next, Blenkinsopp moves on to name categorisation:

In biblical usage the term "Hebrew" (’ivri) denotes a social category, similar to the ‘apiru of the Amarna letters and other second millenium BC texts, whether ’ivri is understood to be linguistically related to ‘apiru or not. It assumes an ethnic connotation only at a later date, and that very rarely.

So the word "Hebrew", first used for course for Abraham in B'resheet 14:13, seems to be a categorisation rather than a name. Hmmm.