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Meaning, origin and etymology of the name Abraham
| A B C D E G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U Y Z |
Aaron Abarim Abed-nego Abel Abida Abigail Abimael Abinadab Abishai Abraham Abram Absalom Accad Adah Adam Admah Almodad Amalek(ite) Amasa Amminadab Amorite Amos Amram Anak (Anakim) Anamim Anem Aram Aramean Ararat Ari (Arie, Arieh) Ariel Arkite Arpachshad Arvadite Asahel Asenath Asher/ Asherah Ashkenash Asshur Asshurim Assyria |
Abraham
Abraham is the arch-father of all believers. God cuts the covenant with Abraham of which Jesus is the fulfillment (Gal 3:7, 16, 29). |
(rhm) does not exist in Hebrew. Perhaps God is suggesting that something unique is happening to Abram. There are some other words in Hebrew that are used only once, and are often highly significant.
(ab-hamon-goyim), and that doesn't sound like "Abraham" at all (as mentioned, no R).As told by Joel M. Hoffman Ph.D. in his delightful and riveting book In the Beginning: A Short History of the Hebrew Language - read our review - the Hebrews were the first to incorporate vowels in their written text, and by doing this the previously esoteric art of writing and reading became available to the masses. The seemingly casual command to 'write' something on doors or foreheads included the invention of a writing system that could be learned by everybody. A very big deal, and resulting in the most powerful tool of data preservation up to this common age. Hebrew theology is by far the most influential ever, and this is in part due to the Hebrew invention of vowel notation. This power (this theology) contrasted others by use of the vowel notation, using symbols that were already used and until then only represented consonants: the letters  (waw),  (yod) and  (heh), and to give an example: the word  is either the word dod, meaning beloved (and the is a vowel), or it is the word dud, meaning jar (and the is again a vowel), or it is the word dawid, which is the name David (and the is a consonant).These letters became markers for both the Hebrew identity and the Hebrew religion, including the various names for God. One of these names is the famous Tetragrammaton  - YHWH - which actually exists only of vowels, and is utterly exceptional in many ways, including the fact that it can not be pronounced.The word  (El) was the name of the prominent Canaanite god, whose name was either derived of or became the common word for god in general. The plural of this word is  ; gods. With the addition of the letter , creating the word  , the Hebrews not only stated essential monotheism (by naming a single God after the plural word "gods") but also marked their God as theirs: Elohim is the singular pantheon of the vowel-people.Something similar occured when the name of patriarch Abram (  ) was expanded with the heh into Abraham  , and the name of matriarch Sarai ( ) was expanded with the heh to Sarah ( ). |
(brh 282; means to cut a covenant!) emerge in the heart of the new name. But, though certainly pleasing to a poetic eye, this may be a long shot. And to shoot even longer: Perhaps the new name is now a compilation of the words 
(abar 13b), meaning to fly, from the root (abr 13) that has to do with flying and the flight of birds, plus the word 
(hem 504), which is the third person plural independent nominative pronoun, or simply "they": Fly They Will! It's not mentioned anywhere in the Bible, but since God has wings (God has no body and thus also no wings, but He does have an attribute that anthropomorphized results in wings; Psalm 36:7) man made in His image should have wings too, or at least when we're done growing.The word from the "many nations" part mentioned above, and which is favored by many,
(hamon 505a) denotes a multitude in the sense of a large, specifically noisy crowd. This word comes from the verb 
(hama 505), cry aloud, make noise. If the segment comes indeed from , it denotes massive noise much rather than simply a multitude.BDB concludes a troublesome paragraph by quoting J. Halévy's Revenue des Études Juives, which states that
is in fact 
(abir 13c, abbir 13d), meaning strong one, denoting strength or leadership in a man. And comes from , but is never used anywhere in Scriptures. And it means multitude...(?)If the name had been
it would have meant Chief Of A Multitude. But now that the name is it means Flight 'n Noise, or Fly They Will, with at the heart of it the letter heh to claim Abraham as Hebrew arch father and forming the verb (to cut a covenant) which states the reason for the name Abraham.
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