Enciclopedia Cattolica

HEBER

Volume VI · p. 815 · 1951

English translation · Testo originale italiano

Machine translation of the 1948–1954 Italian original. The original text is authoritative.

HEBER. - A name from the Old Testament, corresponding to two Hebrew forms: 'Ebher and Hebher.

1. 'Ebher. Grandson of Arpachshad, son of Shem, ancestor of Abraham the Hebrew (Gen. 14:13); Gen. 10:21, 24-25; 11:14-17; 1 Chron. 1:18-19, 25. Also the head of a priestly family at the time of Joiakim (Neh. 12:20); one from the tribe of Gad (1 Chron. 5:13-14); two from the tribe of Benjamin (1 Chron. 8:12, 22). The same name was given to the region beyond the Euphrates, on this side of it, subject to Assyria: Num. 24:24 (wrongly in the Greek and Vulgate = Hebrews).

2. Hebher. An Israelite of the tribe of Asher and head of the Heberites (Gen. 46:17; Num. 26:45; 1 Chron. 7:31-32); the hundred (Vulgate, Haber) husband of Jael (q.v.; Judg. 4:11, 17, 21; 5:24); one of the descendants of Judah (1 Chron. 4:18); a Benjaminite (1 Chron. 8:17).

BIBL.: A. Clamer, Les Nombres (La Ste Bible, ed. L. Pirot, 2), Paris 1940, pp. 404, 415; F. Zorell, Lexicon Hebraicum, Rome 1940, pp. 399, 401, 402; A. Vaccari, La S. Bibbia, I, Florence 1947, pp. 83, 97, 407.

ARCHAEOLOGY. - The patriarch 'Ebher was depicted in the series of painted medallions in S. Croce in Gerusalemme in Rome (1123-44), accompanied by the legend: (vixit) H. quadringentis sexaginta tribus annis.

BIBL.: G. Biasiotti-S. Pesarini, Pitture del XII sec. scoperte nella basilica di S. Croce in Gerusalemme a Roma, in Studi romani, 1 (1913), p. 253.