Aram-Naharaim or "Aram of Two Rivers," is a region that is mentioned five times in the
Hebrew BibleThe Tanakh is a name for the Bible used in Rabbinic Judaism, also known as the Masoretic Text. The name "Tanakh" is a Hebrew acronym formed from the initial Hebrew letters of the Masoretic Text's three traditional subdivisions: The Torah , Nevi'im and Ketuvim —hence...
. It is commonly identified with
Nahrima mentioned in three tablets of the
AmarnaThe site of Amarna is located on the east bank of the Nile River in the modern Egyptian province of Minya, some 58 km south of the city of al-Minya, 312 km south of the Egyptian capital Cairo and 402 km north of Luxor...
correspondence as a geographical description of the kingdom of
MitanniMitanni or Hanigalbat was a loosely organized Hurrian-speaking state in northern Syria from ca. 1500 BC-1300 BC...
. It was the land in which the city of
HaranIn the Bible, Haran is the name of two men and of a place. Though usually spelled identically in English, they are not in Hebrew.Genesis records that a man named Haran was born and died in Ur of the Chaldees. He was a son of Terah and brother of Nahor and Abram...
lay. According to one rabbinical Jewish tradition, the birthplace of
AbrahamAbraham is the founding patriarch of the Israelites, Ishmaelites, Midianites and Edomite peoples, as described in the book of Genesis. He is widely regarded as the patriarch of Jews, Christians, and Muslims....
was also situated in Aram-Naharaim.
The actual rivers referred to are not explicitly named in the Bible, although it is generally agreed that the first was the Upper
EuphratesThe Euphrates is the longest and historically one of the most important rivers of Southwest Asia. Together with the Tigris, the Euphrates is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia...
(called
N-h-r-nNaharin, MdC transliteration nhrn, was the Ancient Egyptian term for the kingdom of Mitanni during the New Kingdom period of the 18th Dynasty. The New Kingdom 18th dynasty was in conflict with the kingdom of Mitanni for control of the Levant from the reigns of Thutmose I, ...
by the Egyptians).
Aram-Naharaim or "Aram of Two Rivers," is a region that is mentioned five times in the
Hebrew BibleThe Tanakh is a name for the Bible used in Rabbinic Judaism, also known as the Masoretic Text. The name "Tanakh" is a Hebrew acronym formed from the initial Hebrew letters of the Masoretic Text's three traditional subdivisions: The Torah , Nevi'im and Ketuvim —hence...
. It is commonly identified with
Nahrima mentioned in three tablets of the
AmarnaThe site of Amarna is located on the east bank of the Nile River in the modern Egyptian province of Minya, some 58 km south of the city of al-Minya, 312 km south of the Egyptian capital Cairo and 402 km north of Luxor...
correspondence as a geographical description of the kingdom of
MitanniMitanni or Hanigalbat was a loosely organized Hurrian-speaking state in northern Syria from ca. 1500 BC-1300 BC...
. It was the land in which the city of
HaranIn the Bible, Haran is the name of two men and of a place. Though usually spelled identically in English, they are not in Hebrew.Genesis records that a man named Haran was born and died in Ur of the Chaldees. He was a son of Terah and brother of Nahor and Abram...
lay. According to one rabbinical Jewish tradition, the birthplace of
AbrahamAbraham is the founding patriarch of the Israelites, Ishmaelites, Midianites and Edomite peoples, as described in the book of Genesis. He is widely regarded as the patriarch of Jews, Christians, and Muslims....
was also situated in Aram-Naharaim.
Identification of the two rivers
The actual rivers referred to are not explicitly named in the Bible, although it is generally agreed that the first was the Upper
EuphratesThe Euphrates is the longest and historically one of the most important rivers of Southwest Asia. Together with the Tigris, the Euphrates is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia...
(called
N-h-r-nNaharin, MdC transliteration nhrn, was the Ancient Egyptian term for the kingdom of Mitanni during the New Kingdom period of the 18th Dynasty. The New Kingdom 18th dynasty was in conflict with the kingdom of Mitanni for control of the Levant from the reigns of Thutmose I, ...
by the Egyptians). The name
Nahrima in the
Amarna lettersThe Amarna letters are an archive of correspondence on clay tablets, mostly diplomatic, between the Egyptian administration and its representatives in Canaan and Amurru during the New Kingdom...
denoted the region of the Upper Euphrates and its tributaries - the
BalikhThe Balikh River is a perennial river that originates in the spring of 'Ayn al-'Arus . It flows due south and joins the Euphrates at the modern town of Ar-Raqqah...
and Khabur.
Both
JosephusJosephus , also known as Yosef Ben Matityahu and, after he became a Roman citizen, as Titus Flavius Josephus, was a first-century Jewish historian and apologist of priestly and royal ancestry who survived and recorded the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70...
and the
SeptuagintThe Septuagint , or simply "LXX", referred to in critical works by the abbreviation ...
translate the name as
Mesopotamia. Ancient writers elsewhere used the name "Mesopotamia" for all the land between the
TigrisThe Tigris is the eastern member of the two great rivers that define Mesopotamia, along with the Euphrates. The river flows from the mountains of southeastern Turkey through Iraq.-Geography:...
and Euphrates. However the usage of the Hebrew name "Aram-Naharaim" does not match this general usage of "Mesopotamia", the former being used exclusively for a northern region. The Book of Jubilees places
AramAccording to the Table of Nations in Genesis 10 of the Hebrew Bible, Aram was a son of Shem, and the father of Uz, Hul, Gether and Mash....
's portion between the Tigris and Euphrates, but lying north of the Chaldeans (Jubilees 9:5):
And for Aram there came forth the fourth portion, all the land of Mesopotamia [Naharaim] between the Tigris and the Euphrates to the north of the Chaldees to the border of the mountains of Asshur and the land of 'Arara.
The translation of the name as "Mesopotamia" was not consistent - the Septuagint also uses a more precise translation "Mesopotamia of Syria" as well as "Rivers of Syria". Josephus refers to the subjects of Chushan, king of Aram Naharaim, as "Assyrians".
In Hebrew
Ashur denotes the region of Assyria containing the Tigris and is listed as distinct from Aram Naharaim in Jubilees. Aram Naharaim lay west of
Ashur as it contained Haran. Haran itself lies on the west bank of the Balikh, east of the Upper Euphrates. The traditional Jewish location of Ur Kasdim (at
EdessaEdessa is the historical name of a Syriac town in northern Mesopotamia, refounded on an ancient site by Seleucus I Nicator. For the modern history of the city, see Şanlıurfa.-Names:...
) and the Balikh itself lie west of the Khabur implying that the second river was understood to be the latter by those maintaining this tradition. Jubilees however associates the city of Ur Kesed (Ur Kasdim) not with the descendants of Aram who received Aram Naharaim as an inheritance, but rather with those of
ArpachshadArpachshad or Arphaxad or Arphacsad was one of the five sons of Shem, the son of Noah . His brothers were Elam, Asshur, Lud and Aram; he is an ancestor of Abraham. He is said by Gen...
, his brother, who was Abram's ancestor and ancestor of the Chaldeans.
See also
- Aramaeans
The Aramaeans are a West Semitic semi-nomadic and pastoralist people who lived in upper Mesopotamia . Aramaeans never had a unified empire; they were divided into independent kingdoms all across the Near East...
- Beth Nahrain
Beth Nahrain is the Syriac name for Mesopotamia . It refers to the Euphrates and Tigris rivers of Iraq and Syria...
- Aram (Biblical region)
Aram is the name of a region mentioned in the Bible located in central Syria, including where the city of Aleppo now stands.-History:...
- Aram Damascus
Aram Damascus was an Aramaean state around Damascus in Syria, from the late 12th century BCE to 734 BCE.Sources for this state come from texts that can be divided into three categories: Assyrian annals, Aramaean texts, and the Hebrew Bible....
- Aram Rehob
Aram Rehob was an early Aramaean kingdom, of which the chief city was Rehob or Beth-Rehob, associated with Aram-Zobah as hostile to King David. Num. xiii.21 and Judges xviii.28 place a Beth-Rehob in the Lebanon region near Tel Dan. Moore conjecturally identifies it with Paneas....