Hebrew | People, Religion, & Location | Britannica (original) (raw)

Hebrew, any member of an ancient northern Semitic people that were the ancestors of the Jews. Biblical scholars use the term Hebrews to designate the descendants of the patriarchs of the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament)—i.e., Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (also called Israel [Genesis 32:28])—from that period until their conquest of Canaan (Palestine) in the late 2nd millennium bce. Thenceforth these people are referred to as Israelites until their return from the Babylonian Exile in the late 6th century bce, from which time on they became known as Jews.

In the Bible the patriarch Abraham is referred to a single time as the ʿivri, which is the singular form of the Hebrew-language word for Hebrew (plural ʿivrim, or ʿibrim). But the term Hebrew almost always occurs in the Hebrew Bible as a name given to the Israelites by other peoples, rather than one used by themselves. For that matter, the origins of the term Hebrew itself are uncertain. It could be derived from the word ʿeber, or ʿever, a Hebrew word meaning the “other side” and conceivably referring again to Abraham, who crossed into the land of Canaan from the “other side” of the Euphrates or Jordan River. The name Hebrew could also be related to the seminomadic Habiru people, who are recorded in Egyptian inscriptions of the 13th and 12th centuries bce as having settled in Egypt.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica This article was most recently revised and updated by Adam Zeidan.