Ἑβραῖος

Forms

Ἑβραῖος (Hebraîos) m (feminine Ἑβραίᾱ, neuter Ἑβραῖον); first/second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Biblical Hebrew עִבְרִי (ʿiḇrī, “Hebrew”), probably through Aramaic עִבְרַי (ʿiḇray), whose ending -ay the Greek form reflects.^[1][2][3]

The origin of the Hebrew name has been explained in several ways.^[4][2] Thayer derives it from עֵבֶר (ʿēḇer), “the region beyond” the Euphrates, so that a Hebrew was one who came from across the river.^[4] Babiniotis lists three proposals: a verb meaning “to cross”, with reference to Abraham's crossing of the Euphrates; the name Eber, an ancestor of Abraham, which he thinks the most likely; and a term found in Akkadian texts for groups of displaced people in the second millennium BC.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is first found in the Septuagint of the 3rd century BC, in Genesis and Exodus, where it translates the Hebrew word and the Israelites are named so in contrast with other peoples.^[5][6][3] The tragedian Ezekiel, of the same century, also uses it.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Greek and Roman-period writers such as Plutarch, Lucian, Pausanias, Appian and Porphyry use the name as a synonym of “Jew”,^[5] and Pausanias places the Hebrews “beyond the Syrians” and “above Palestine”.^[5][7] Philo sets the Hebrews against “us”, the Greek-speaking Jews.^[5]

In the New Testament Paul calls himself “a Hebrew of Hebrews”, and Acts sets the Hebrews against the Hellenists: in LSJ's account, Jews who used the Hebrew or Aramaic language, against those who spoke Greek, though Abbott-Smith notes that the difference was not only one of language.^[7][3][8] Derivatives soon followed: Ἑβραϊκός (Hebraïkós) “Hebrew”, the feminine Ἑβραΐς (Hebraḯs) (of the language and of women), Ἑβραΐζω (Hebraḯzō) “to speak Hebrew” and Ἑβραϊστί (Hebraïstí) “in Hebrew”.^[7]

Coptic borrowed the word, first in texts of about AD 300.^[9] The Latin word hebraeus, Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐌹𐌱𐍂𐌰𐌹𐌿𐍃 (haibraius) and Old Church Slavonic еврѣи (evrěi) come from it, the last giving the Russian and Bulgarian words for a Jew, and Romanian evreu is also from it.^[1] Medieval vernacular Greek had the forms Εβριός (Evriós) and Οβριός (Ovriós) beside Εβραίος, and Οβριός survives in dialects.^[10] Standard Modern Greek Εβραίος (Evraíos) is a learned form of the Hellenistic word.^[11]

Timeline

• 3rd century BC – The Septuagint and the tragedian Ezekiel use it for the Hebrews.^[5][6]
• 1st century BC to 1st century AD – Philo contrasts the Hebrews with the Greek-speaking Jews.^[5]
• 1st century AD – Josephus uses the feminine Ἑβραΐς (Hebraḯs) of Hebrew women and the verb Ἑβραΐζω (Hebraḯzō), to speak Hebrew.^[7]
• 2nd century AD – Pausanias and Appian use it as a name for the Jews.^[5][7]
• About AD 300 – Coptic texts show the first records of the borrowed word.^[9]
• 1100–1669 – Vernacular texts have the forms Εβριός (Evriós) and Οβριός (Ovriós).^[10]
• Modern Greek – The learned form Εβραίος (Evraíos) is the standard word.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A Hebrew, an Israelite; in Greek and Roman writers usually the same as a Jew.^[7][5][12]
2. (New Testament) A Jew who used the Hebrew or Aramaic language, as opposed to a Greek-speaking Ἑλληνιστής (Hellēnistḗs).^[7][8][3]

Adjective

1. Hebrew.^[7][13]

Word family

• Ἑβραϊκός (Hebraïkós)
• Ἑβραΐς (Hebraḯs)
• Ἑβραΐζω (Hebraḯzō)
• Ἑβραϊστί (Hebraïstí)

Related words

• Latin hebraeus
• Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐌹𐌱𐍂𐌰𐌹𐌿𐍃 (haibraius)
• Russian еврей (jevréj)
• Romanian evreu

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
3. ^ a b c d Abbott-Smith, G. (1922), A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament, Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark
4. ^ a b Thayer, Joseph Henry (1889), A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, New York: American Book Company
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
6. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
7. ^ a b c d e f g h Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
9. ^ a b Database and Dictionary of Greek Loanwords in Coptic (DDGLC), Freie Universität Berlin and Universität Leipzig
10. ^ a b Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
11. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
12. ^ United Bible Societies (2023), UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament (revised Louw–Nida semantic domains), open-licence ed.
13. ^ Bailly, Anatole (2020), Dictionnaire grec-français, Bailly 2020 Hugo Chávez ed., ed. Gérard Gréco et al.