Note 8 — Chapter I · A.D. 7-70. FROM THE REVOLT OF JUDAS TO THE SIEGE OF JERUSALEM.

It is an error, I think, to connect the name Hebrew with Heber, or Eber, the great-grandson of Shem. Abraham was called the Hebrew, or passer over, ὁ περάτης (Gen. xiv. 13, LXX.), because, in obedience to Divine command, he ‘passed over’ the Euphrates, leaving his home and people, to settle in a strange land. Heber was the progenitor, not of the Hebrews only, but many other nations. The notion that they were called after him, because at the dispersion of Babel he retained and transmitted the primitive language of the world to one only of his descendants, is a mere fancy. He may have been, and very probably was called the ‘passer’ or ‘carrier away,’ because he was the patriarch of the dispersion. But Abraham’s name was given to him for a different reason, and altogether independently of Heber.