The Confounding Origins of the Term “Hebrew”

In this week’s Torah reading of Lekh-l’kha, which deals with Abraham’s journey to the land of Canaan and his early adventures there, we see the first appearance in the Bible of one of its most confounding, but also most enduring, words: ivri, which, via Greek and Latin, has come into English as “Hebrew.” How the Bible first uses a word often provides some root sense of what it means, and that is very much the case with this one—which, as I will explain, is one especially pregnant with meaning about the very nature Jewishness itself. Abraham, in this passage, is informed that his nephew Lot has been taken captive by foreign powers:

A fugitive brought the news to Abraham the Hebrew (ha-ivri) who was dwelling at the terebinths of Mamre the Amorite, kinsman of Eshkol and Aner, these being Abram’s allies.

By this point, we’ve already known Abraham for more than two chapters. We’ve learned his genealogy, his origins in Ur of the Chaldees, and his familial connections to the land of Haran. But only here does the text bestow upon him an ethnic marker. The report about Lot immediately impels Abraham to set out on a campaign to liberate his kinsman by military means, mustering the 318 men of his household to attack the invading army. Thus, the premier biblical appearance of the term ivri anchors its bearer in a group forged by an ancestral bond powerful enough to evoke self-sacrifice to preserve its integrity.