Aram, (b. )

Note: He was the founder of the Aramaeans, known to the Akkadians as the Aramu, but were later known to the greeks as the Syrians (from Serug? see notes). In an Assyrian inscription of Tiglath-pileser III, however, some 400 years later, they were living all over Mesopotamia. After this they settled to the west, occupying roughly the same area that makes up modern Syria. A clay tablet from Ur bears the name of Aramu, and it is of interest to note that Aramaic is still spoken today.
--Cooper 173.

Source: (Name)
Title: Bible

Page: Genesis 10:22-23
Data:
Text: "The children of Shem: Elam, and Asshur, and Arphaxad, and Lud, and Aram. And the children of Aram: Uz, and Hul, and Gether, and Mash"

Note: There is still considerable disagreement as to the precise area in which the descendants of Uz settled, and given the somewhat nomadic nature of the Aramaeans (Aram was the father of Uz), this is hardly surprising. Northern Arabia, between Babylon and Edom, seems the most likely area of settlement. (Josephus, probably correctly, identifies it as the classical Trachonitis).
--Cooper, 173; Josephus 1.vi.4.

Source: (Name)
Title: Bible

Page: Genesis 10:23
Data:
Text: "And the children of Aram: Uz, and Hul, and Gether, and Mash."

Note: His descendants settled to the north of the sea of Galilee, where they gave their name to the lake and vale of Huleh (the biblical Waters of Merom, which were known to Josephus as Ul). The place was notorious amongst Victorian explorers of Palestine for its tribes of Bedhouin robbers, and its far from healthy marshes and swamps which today have been drained, the reclaimed land being farmed and settled. The modern Israelis have also set up a nature reserve there, and know the place under its ancient name of the Vale of Hula. The lake of Hula is formed by the accumulation of water from the two sources of the Jordan before beginning their descent to Galilee.
--Cooper, 173.

Source: (Name)
Title: Bible

Page: Genesis 10:23
Data:
Text: "And the children of Aram: Uz, and Hul, and Gether, and Mash."

Note: His descendants (known to Josephus as Gather) settled to the south of Damascus. Josephus identifies them as the latter-day Bactrians, famous amongst other things for a breed of camel. Whether this identification is correct or not cannot now be determined. It should, however, be noted that Bactria was populated by Aryan, or Japhetic tribes in late Assyrian times, whereas the children of Gether were, of course, Semites. Bactria is around present-day Afghanistan.
--Cooper, 173

Source: (Name)
Title: Bible

Page: Genesis 10:23
Data:
Text: "And the children of Aram: Uz, and Hul, and Gether, and Mash."

Note: The Akkadians rendered the name Mashu, which in turn was known to the Egyptians as Msh'r. It was also rendered Mishal, all of which names referred to a people that dwelt in Lebanon. However, in I Chronicles 1:17, the name is rendered Meshech, and this should not be confused with the Japhetic Meshech. Such confusion arises in Josephus and later in the 9th Century historian Nennius.
--Cooper, 173-174

Source: (Name)
Title: Bible

Page: Genesis 10:23
Data:
Text: "And the children of Aram: Uz, and Hul, and Gether, and Mash."

Note: Luke 3:35-36 interposes a generation between Arphaxad and Salah: "...Heber, which was the son of Sala, which was the son of Cainan, which was the son of Arphaxad, which was the son of Sem..." this follows the Septuagint, which says "When Arphaxad had lived 35 years, he begat Cainan. And after he begat Cainan, Arphaxad lived 430 years and had other sons and daughters. When Cainan had lived 130 years, he begat Salah, and after he begat Salah, Cainan lived 330 years and had other sons and daughters." Genesis 10:24 in the Septuagint consistently says "Arphaxad begat Cainan, and Cainan begat Salah..." Finally, 1 Chronicles 1:18 in the Septuagint sais "And Arphaxad begat Cainan, and Cainan begat Sala, and Sala begat Heber.

On the other hand, Josephus does mention Cainan, but follows the Masoretic genealogy. (1.vi.5) He also quotes Berosus as mentioning Abraham as being the tenth generation after the flood (1.vii.2) which further argues against Cainan.

Source: (Name)
Title: Bible

Page: Genesis 10:24, 11:12-15
Data:
Text: "And Arphaxad lived five and thirty years, and begat Salah: And Arphaxad lived after he begat Salah four hundred and three years, and begat sons and daughters. And Salah lived thirty years, and begat Eber: And Salah lived after he begat Eber four hundred and three years, and begat sons and daughters." 11:12-15

Death: 1878 B.C.

Note: Known to Josephus as Heber, he gave his name to the Hebrew race. Some have tried to identify him with Ebru, earstwhile king of Evla, but that is unlikely on both chronological and ethnic grounds. The attempt to identify the children of Eber with the Habiru of the Egyptian chronicles may also be somewhat forced, although it is fair to add that, although we tend today to think only of the Jewish nation as Hebrews, in fact all of Eber's descendants, technically speaking, would have been Hebrew also, the Joktanite Arabs included.
--Cooper, 174

Source: (Name)
Title: Bible

Page: Genesis 10:24-25; 11:14-17
Data:
Text: "And Salah lived thrity years, and begat Eber... And Eber lived four and thirty years, and begat Peleg: And Eber lived after he begat Peleg four hundred and thrity years and begat sons and daughters." 11:14, 16-17.

Death: 1817 B.C.

Note: The progenitor of no less than thirteen sotherns Arabian tribes, he is remembered amongst modern Arabs as Yaqtan. Only the purest Arabs, it is still maintained, are those Semitic Arabs descended from Joktan; whilst Hamitic Arabs are referred to somewhat disdainfully as Musta 'rabs, pretended Arabs. Joktan's name is preserved in the ancient town of Jectan near present-day Mecca. Josephus knew him as Joctan.
--Cooper 174

According to their own tradition, the legendary forefather of all South Arabians is Qahtan and his 24 sons. Qahtan can be identified with the Biblical Joctan, a descendant of Shem (first son of Noah) of the fourth generation. According to the same tradition, all Northern Arabs are descendants of Adnan, the son of Ishmael, brother of Isaac, ancestor of the Hebrews. Both Ishmael and Isaac were sons of Abraham, who is of a much later generation than Qahtan. Most prominent representative of the Adnan-Arabs is of course the Prophet Mohamed of Al-Qoreish, the leading tribe at Mecca.

Yet the Qahtan Arabs consider themselves the true and original Arabs, since Adnan (coming after Abraham) belongs to a much later generation than their forefather. "Arab al Areba" means "original 'Arabs" and pertains to the Qahtanis, the South Arabians. While "Arab al Mustariba" means "arabized Arabs" and pertains to the Adnanis in the North.

Among the sons of Qahtan are famous names like Azal (believed to have been the original name of Sana'a) and Hadhramaut. Another son is Ya'rub and his son Yashjub is the father of Abd Shams, who is also called Saba. All Yemeni tribes, trace their ancestry back to this Saba, either through Himyar or Kohlan, his two sons.
---http://yemeni.virtualave.net/ymn/yh.html, a page entitled "The Ancient History of Yemen."

Note: Young gives Almodad's name as meaning 'the Agitator', which, if correct, hides what is no doubt a most interesting background. The name is certainly Arabic, his descendants being known to early Arab historians as the al-Morad tribe, who are seemingly to be identified with the Gebonites (the name is rendered Elmodad in Josephus). Their precise area of settlement cannot now be determined.

Note: Rendered Saleph in Josephus, the name is that of a southern Arabian tribe who were known to the pre-Islamic Arabs as the Salif. They were a Yemeni tribe whose capital, Sulaf, lay some sixty miles due north of present day San'a.

Note: Known as Asermoth in Josephus, his descendants populated the 200 mile long valley that runs parallel to the southern coast of Arabia. It is known to this day as the Hadramaut, a direct transposition into Arabic of the name Hazarmaveth. In pre-Islamic inscriptions, the name is variously rendered hdrmt and hdrmwt. Strabo tells us that the tribe of Hazarmaveth was one of the four main tribes of Arabs in his day. The name seems to mean "town of death" - Hadramaut means the same in Arabic -- although we can now only ponder the possible tragedy behind it.
--Cooper 175

Note: There lies, on the shores of Galilee, a ruined mound that is named Beth-Yerah, the house of Jerah, although this may not refer to the subject here. It is more likely that his descendants migrated into the southern regions of Arabia. Indeed, the Arab city that bore Jerah's name, and which was rendered by Ptolemy as Jerakon Kome, lay on the Mara coast close to the Handramaut. The name appears as Jera in Josephus, and as Yarki in the inscriptions of the Ashurbanipal.

Note: One source has the following details:
The lineage of Jobab remained in the Middle East, while his clan cousins wer swept into China by the band of Nimrod. The clan of Jobab, which was accompanied by many Shemite people including the Medes, fled into Tibet, (where many Chou people still reside today) and when the Medes migrated north, back to their original homelands just south of the Caspian Sea, the Chou migrated into China to join their blood cousins, the Shang, who by now were well established in China.
The name Jesharelah means "Upright towards God." Jesharelah [son of Hoshaiah, son of Jobab] lived during this time and was then the patriarch of the Chou. Many stories were written about him, due to this, and preserved by a Hamite-Shemite population of people. While in China, Jesharelah took the Chinese name Hou Chi, which means Holder of the Mandate of Jehovah God. Ian, the Mede [son of Madai son of Japheth] became Yan and all Medes in China acquired the Chinese family name of Chiang.

Note: The name appears as a personal name in Akkadian records where it is rendered Ra'u. The early Greeks knew it as Ragau, as did Josephus. Reu was to give his name to an island in the Euprates that lies just below the city of Anat, and which the Akkadians knew as Ra'ilu. It was known to the Greeks as Ragu.

Source: (Name)
Title: Bible

Page: Genesis 11:18-21
Data:
Text: "And Peleg lived thirty years, and begat Reu... And Reu lived two and thirty years, and begat Serug: and Reu lived after he begat Serug two hundred and seven years, and begat sons and daughters."

Death: 1978 B.C.

Note: He gave his name to the city and district was known to the Akkadians as Sarugi. This lay to the west of Haran. It is normall y assumed that the name of the land of Syria came about because the Greeks confused it with Assyria. But surely it is more likely that Syria is merely a transposition into the Greek of the patriarchal name of Serug who, after all, settled in that part of the world.

Source: (Name)
Title: Bible

Page: Genesis 11:20-23
Data:
Text: "And Reu lived two and thirty years, and begat Serug... and Serug lived thirty years, and begat Nahor: And Serug lived after he begat Nahor two hundred years, and begat sons and daughters."

Death: 1955 B.C.

Note: The name Nahor is known from Babylonian inscriptions, and from the clay tablets of Mari, which render the name Nahur. Nahor settled in Haran, which was later to become known as the Town of Nahor. This appears in inscriptions from the reign of Ashurbanipal, as Nahuru, the cities later ruins being known to the Assyrians as til-Nahiri, th mound or hill of Nahor.

Source: (Name)
Title: Bible

Page: Genesis 11:22-25
Data:
Text: "And Serug lived thirty years, and begat Nahor... and Nahor lived nine and twenty years, and begat Terah. And Nahor lived after he begat Terah an hundred and nineteen years, and begat sons and daughter."

Death: 2007 B.C.

Note: Abraham's life:
1996 B.C.: Born 352 years after the Flood
1946 B.C.: 50. Call in Ur of Chaldees.
1921 B.C.: 75. Death of his father, Terah. Abraham leaves Ur of Chaldees
1920-1912 B.C.: Sojourn in Egypt
1910 B.C.: 86. Birth of Ishmael by Hagar
1897 B.C.: 99. God commands Abraham to circumcise the males in his household.
1896 B.C.: 100. Birth of Isaac by Sarah
1859 B.C.: 137. Death of Sarah, his wife, at 127.
1856 B.C.: 140. Isaac (age 40) marries Rebekah
1846 B.C.: 150. Abraham (age 150) marries Keturah
1836 B.C.: 160. Birth of grandsons Jacob and Esau to Isaac and Rebekah.
1821 B.C.: 175. Death.

Chronology according to E.W.Bullinger, The Companion Bible, Appendix 51.

Source: (Name)
Title: Bible

Page: Genesis 11:27-25:11

Death: 1821 B.C. in Machpelah, Heth

Death: 1859 B.C. Kirjath-arba, Heth, later Hebron, Canaan

Death: Ur, Chaldees

Death: 12 APR 1545 Basingthorpe, Lincolnshire, England