Ancient Peoples of the West Called Themselves Hebrews (9 June, 2014, 11 Sivan, 5774).
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Note:
This article is a rewritten version of:
Hebrews or Yew Trees?? What Did the Celts Call Themselves?
http://www.britam.org/HebrewCelt.html
On some points more complete reference sources and/or additional discussion are to be found in the above article.
Contents:
1. Should the Term Celt be Replaced with Hiberi?
2. What Does the word Hebrew Mean in Hebrew?
3. Were the Ancient Hebrews the Same as the Habiru?
4. Abaris and the Hyperboreans
5. Other Explanations and an Ethnonym for Celtic Peoples
6. Who Were the Celts?
7. Semitic Linguistics amongst the Celts
8. The Celts and the Term Iberi meaning Hebrew.
9. The Iberian Peninsula: Spain and Portugal
10. A Suggested Water Source Root for the Name Eber
11. Yew Tree Root
12. The IBOR (Boar) Thesis in Germany, Austria, and Czechia
13. Other Occurrences of the Eber Names: Italy, Gaul, Britain, Ireland, etc.
14. Dacians (Denmark) also called Hiberi!
15. Scotland and Wales
16. The Iberi People of Scotland and Ireland
17. Conclusion. The Name Eber meaning Hebrew was applied to Hebrews!
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1. Should the Term Celt be Replaced with Hiberi?
Celtic Culture was spread over a good portion of Europe. Bearers of this civilization are referred to as Celts. This is a modern term and not what they called themselves. Greek and Roman sources apply the terms Galli, Galatae, and Celtae to different sections of these peoples on the Continent. The three terms may alternately all be derived from the one word-root. They may not all have been of one stock. They did however share linguistic and cultural traits and their ruling classes may have been of the same source.
We find amongst them the name Iber or Hiber or derivations of it. This recurs in place-names and eponymous ancestors or representatives.
Names bearing the element Ober, Hiber, Aber, Iber all derive from the word-root IBER. It appears to be an ethnonym and related to a particular people that was spread throughout the Celtic world and may have ruled over them. It is in fact derived from the Hebrew word, IBRI, meaning Hebrew, as we shall explain.
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2. What Does the word Hebrew Mean in Hebrew?
The name Hebrew in Hebrew is derived from the root "IBR". This may give rise to forms such as "over, aver, aber, ober, iber, iver," etc.
This root means "over", or "beyond".
The word Hebrew in the HEBREW LANGUAGE could be pronounced something like Iber or Ivri. Since in Hebrew vowels are somewhat elastic it could also have possibly taken the forms of Hiberi, Eberi, oberi, aberi. The "B" sound could also have been pronounced as v or as p.
The word Hebrew (IBRI, ivri) comes from the root IBR which connotes "over, other, pass over, other side, etc". The word could refer to those who are moving around i.e. nomadic, wandering.
[The English words "over" and "other" also derive from the same source.]
The word aver in Hebrew may also mean a crossing over.
In Hebrew the "Ha-" prefix is the equivalent of the definite article "the" so that "Ibri" and "Ha-Ibri" (Hiber) mean the same.
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3. Were the Ancient Hebrews the Same as the Habiru?
The Ancient Israelites called themselves Hebrews.
This name as far as we can tell was unique to them. Contrary opinions exist based mainly on a misunderstanding of some Middle Eastern sources.
We interpret the word Hebrew in the Bible as pertaining ONLY to Israelites.
There are scholars who claim that originally this word was applied in the Middle East to a social class of outcasts and/or sundry groups at the fringes of society. It is suggested that somehow these elements coalesced into groups that acquired ethnic characteristics. This gave rise, they say, to the Hebrews from whom emerged the Israelites.
This interpretation to our mind derives from a linguistic misunderstanding. Two different word-roots, "IBRI" and ChBR, have been confused.
Before clarifying let us see what is being said:
Wikipedia: Extracts
Hiberu and Apiru
## Habiru or Apiru or pr.w (Egyptian)[1] was the name given by various Sumerian, Egyptian, Akkadian, Hittite, Mitanni, and Ugaritic sources (dated, roughly, between 1800 BC and 1100 BC) to a group of people living as nomadic invaders in areas of the Fertile Crescent from Northeastern Mesopotamia and Iran to the borders of Egypt in Canaan.[2] Depending on the source and epoch, these Habiru are variously described as nomadic or semi-nomadic, rebels, outlaws, raiders, mercenaries, and bowmen, servants, slaves, migrant laborers, etc.
The names Habiru and Apiru are used in Akkadian cuneiform texts. The corresponding name in the Egyptian script appears to be pr.w, conventionally pronounced Apiru (W,or u-vowel "quail-chick" being used as the Egyptian plural suffix). In Mesopotamian records they are also identified by the Sumerian logogram SA.KAS (or SA.GAZ), of unknown pronunciation. The name Habiru was also found in the Amarna letters, which again include many names of Canaanite peoples written in Akkadian. etc, etc. ###
The Habiru mentioned above are considered to have been the original Hebrews.
This however depends on an optical illusion. Its convincing points rely on the understanding of speakers of European tongues who are not familiar with Hebrew.
Habiru and Hebrew are not the same word.
Habiru only sounds like Hebrew when both words are transliterated into English.
Habiru is derived from a root "chaber" connoting union or band. This also explains the application of this name to sundry groups of different status on the outskirts of society.
By contrast,
the word IBRI (Hebrew) comes from the root "IBR which could also be pronounced as EBR or ABR or ever OBR.
This means wanderer or other-sider.
# Abraham stood on one side and all the world stood on the other # (Midrash).
Ibri is from the root IBR (ivr) meaning "over" and the English words "over" and "other" may ultimately derive from the same root.
The word for Hebrew and the word for Chaver in Akkadian may theoretically have been spelt in the same way (by the Akkadians) and become confused in their applications.
Or it may not. This is a theoretical proposal. No concrete example showing that such was ever the case is known of.
It is also worth noting that the word "Chaver" and its plural "chaverim" [which is related to the term Habiru] in the Talmud is used for different specific groups of people and may have negative or positive implications.
It no-where means the same as Hebrew!
We also have the Egyptian word Apiru which has been interpreted to mean Hebrew and to also have been the equivalent of Habiru.
The original meaning of Apiru in Egyptian is unknown.
Here too the same reservations exist but the Egyptian Apiru does seem to fit the word Hebrew in the sense of inhabitants of the Land of Israel or as slaves prior to the Exodus from Egypt.
It could be that the 19th century European scholars took the fact that Apiru seemed to parallel both Habiru and Hebrew to deduce that Habiru and Hebrew paralleled each other.
Such is not necessarily the case.
From an historical point of view it does not really matter what the origin of the word Hebrew was once we accept the fact that in Biblical Times it had already become synonymous with the word "Ibri" (Ha-Ivri) in the sense of Israelite.
"I AM AN HEBREW; AND I FEAR THE LORD, THE GOD OF HEAVEN, WHICH HATH MADE THE SEA AND THE DRY LAND" (Jonah 1:9). *
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4. Abaris and the Hyperboreans
Greek Mythology spoke of Abaris the Hyperborean, son of Seuthes (Seth), a legendary sage, healer, and priest of Apollo. Seuthes the father of Abaris may be Seth an ancestor of the Hebrews and in Egyptian Mythology (under the name Set) a representative of them. Strabo identified Abaris as a Scythian thus equating Hyperborea with Scythia.
Abaris had learned his skills in his homeland of Hyperborea.
The term Abaris was inspired by the Semitic Iber. Iber was sometimes rendered as Aber. Abaris represents the Iberi.
Hyperborea means beyond the north wind i.e. hyper-borea. This too is a Hellenic rationalization of the term Iber and Iberia. In Hebrew one of the meanings of Iber is over, or beyond. The p and b sounds in Semitic languages often interchanged. The Greek word hyper (meaning beyond) is derived from the Semitic Iber. The hyper element in the name Hyperboreans means "beyond" and is a rationalization of the Hebrew "aber" or Iber also pronounced as aver, or over.
The Hyperboreans in the far north represented the Iberi.
Herodotus placed the Hyperboreans in the far north of Scythia. Others located them near the Caucasus.
Ptolemy (Geographia, 2. 21) and Marcian of Heraclea (Periplus, 2. 42) both placed Hyperborea in the North Sea which they called the 'Hyperborean Ocean'.
Heraclides Ponticus and Antimachus in contrast identified the Rhipean Mountains with the Alps, and the Hyperboreans as a Celtic tribe (perhaps the Helvetii) who sat just beyond them. Homer placed Boreas in Thrace, and therefore Hyperborea in his opinion was somewhere to the north of Thracian territory, perhaps Dacia.
Plutarch connected the Hyperboreans with the Gauls who had sacked Rome in the 300s BCE.
Others also identified the Western Celts as Hyperboreans.
Hecataeus of Abdera and others believed Hyperborea was Britain.
Returning to Greek and Roman usage we are reminded that they recorded the Hyperboreans in the far north. These have been identified with the Celts and Scandinavians.
The early Greeks thus identified the northern peoples as Hyperboreans meaning Hebrews.
This should not sound far-fetched.
They (or their Roman successors) also equated the Israelites with descendants of Cronus (Saturn) whom they said had been exiled from the Middle East and gone to live on one of the British Isles.
This legend reflects the Exile of the Ten Tribes of Israel who went to the west and a portion of whom from an early date did indeed settle in Britain.
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5. Other Explanations and an Ethnonym for Celtic Peoples
The frequent presence of the word-root "iber" amongst Celtic and other northern peoples has been recognized by scholars.
Different explanations have been given concerning the origin of the word root. These include words meaning water source, the yew tree, and the boar, along with other possibilities. None of these alternate claims hold up. They may however in some cases have been used as secondary applications. This happens often in linguistics. The original usage and spread of the Iber ethnonym may be best explained as deriving from the Hebrew word for Hebrew which could be pronounced as Iber, Heber, or Ivri. In the Hebrew language the word IBRI derives from the root IBR connoting pass over, go beyond.
The Greeks also understood the Celtic application of this name to mean the same. They therefore rendered it Hyper-borean i.e. beyond the north wind.
In Scotland and Wales the root was rendered as ABER and here too it could connote an area of passing or crossing over. The use of this term as an ethnic appellation (i.e. Hebrew) for peoples of Celtic culture together with a great deal of additional evidence shows that the said peoples encompassed a significant proportion of Israelites within their ranks.
Indications exist that this name was the ethnonym of an important element amongst the Celtic Peoples. It was their national name. It was what they called themselves.
Ethnonym
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnonym
An ethnonym (from the Greek: , ethnos, "nation" and , onoma, "name") is the name applied to a given ethnic group. Ethnonyms can be divided into two categories: exonyms (where the name of the ethnic group has been created by another group of people) and autonyms or endonyms (self-designation; where the name is created and used by the ethnic group itself).
It would seem that IBERI (EBER) was the endonym, i.e. ethnonym of their own choosing, of an important element amongst Celtic Peoples.
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6. Who Were the Celts?
The Celts or Kelts are defined as,
# ... an ethnolinguistic group of tribal societies in Iron Age and Medieval Europe who spoke Celtic languages and had a similar culture, although the relationship between the ethnic, linguistic and cultural elements remains uncertain and controversial. #
Bearers of Celtic Civilization have been identified in Ireland, Britain, Spain, France, Netherlands, Germany, Czechia, Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Turkey, and other places. Celtic Langauges survived in the British Isles and Brittany (Western France). In Brittany the continuation of Celtic dialects was at least in part due to an infusion of settlers after ca. 400 CE from the British Isles.
A few points should be clarified:
These days there is some debate as to what the word Celtic means? Some claim that the inhabitants of the British Isles were not really Celts. They merely spoke Celtic-type languages and had a Celtic type culture. For the purposes of our study this would qualify them and all others like them as Celts.
Celtic Civilization had emerged from the Urnfield and Halstatt Cultures of Central Europe. On to this was grafted La Tene groups that came from the east, conquered the Halstatt groups, and then progressively moved westward reaching their terminal stations in the British Isles. Other peoples existed in Europe whom the bearers of Celtic Culture were super-imposed upon and influenced.
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7. Semitic Linguistics amongst the Celts
In the British Isles (including Ireland) and the Atlantic coastline the original inhabitants had spoken a Semitic Language or a Semitic-Hamitic tongue. This may have been similar to Hebrew or a combination of Hebrew and a branch of Egyptian, or of Hebrew and Canaanite with the Canaanites being of Hamitic stock.
This is an important point in our discussion. The suggested appearance of the ethnonym eber meaning Hebrew amongst Celtic Peoples does not take place in a vacuum. It occurs in an ambiance where numerous words have Hebrew (or related West Semitic) origins and the grammatical structures of the local languages parallel those found in the Hebrew tongue.
Theo Vennemann finds the Semitic and Hamitic (Egyptian type) element throughout the Celtic area.
See:
Theo Vennemann and Brit-Am
http://www.britam.org/Venneman.html
Others based on names, short quotations here and there, etc, are inclinded to the view that Celtic Languages on the Continent were more "Indo-European" in nature or had become such.
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8. The Celts and the Term Iberi meaning Hebrew.
The claim that the Celts of Britain called themselves Iberi is to be found in old "British-Israel" works.
Just for the record, British-Israel, was not, and even today is not, anti-Jewish. There were however, and still are, anti-Jewish elements who in modern times attached themselves to British-Israel and gave it a bad name. It was not always like that. In the past serious scholars were to be found amongst its ranks who did important work. These were often pro-Jewish or at the least not Judaeophobes.
In some older British-Israel sources will be found the statement that Ptolemy reported that the inhabitants of Britain were merchants and called themselves Iberi. We have not been able to trace such a statement in the editions of Ptolemy we have come across. This does not mean it is not there. No authoritative scientific edition of Ptolemy has yet been produced despite the enormous benefit such a work could have for historical research. The statement about the Iberi in Britain may yet turn up in older editions; or it may be a later interpolation; or it may not exist. Ptolemy did call the island of Ireland "Iouerni" and this is considered to be a form of the name Iberni. Dionysius of Alexandria in Egypt (ca. 190-264 CE) referred to the inhabitants of Britain as Iberi.
Whatever the case as to whether or not  Ptolemy referred to the British as also Iberi we believe it to reflect an historical truth.
Not only that but our impression, and that of scholars who went before us, is that a leading element amongst peoples of Celtic Culture in general called themselves Iberi.
We also consider this term to be derived from the Hebrew word, IBRI, which in the Hebrew Language is how the name Hebrew is pronounced.
Such a notion may sound far-fetched but it fits the facts as the following notes show.
Pytheas of Massilia (c. 320 BCE), called the island of Ireland, Iern, and this too is probably a form of the name Iberni.
Earlier sources traced the word-root Eber to an ancestral figure.
A legendary early king of Britain, recalled by Geoffrey of Monmouth (1100-1155 CE), was named Ebraucus. This name bears the EBER root. It was recognized that the word-root Eber related to an ancestral figure.
Ebraucus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebraucus
Ebraucus (Welsh: Efrawg/Efrog) ...founded Kaerebrauc (City of Ebraucus) (later York) north of the Humber, (see Eboracum) and Alclud in Albany, (see Dunbarton, capital of Strathclyde). He had twenty wives who produced twenty sons and thirty daughters. All his daughters he sent to his cousin Silvius Alba in Alba Longa (Italy) to be married to the other Trojan descendants. Except for Brutus Greenshield, all of Ebraucus's sons, led by Assaracus, went to Germany, creating a kingdom there. Brutus thus succeeded Ebraucus upon his death.
One of the names of Ireland was Hibernia.
Irish tradition said that the name Hibernia came from an ancestor named Iber, or Heber, or Eber, thus showing that the different forms are all considered of the same origin, as in Hebrew.
Hibernia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hibernia
The High King Brian Boru (c. 941-1014) based his title on being emperor of the Irish people, which was in Latin: "Imperator Scottorum", as distinct from claiming to be Emperor of the island of Ireland. From 1172 the Lordship of Ireland gave the King of England the additional title "Dominus Hibernie" (sic, for Hiberniae; also "Dominus Hybernie"), Lord of Ireland. The Kingdom of Ireland created the title Rex Hiberniae, King of Ireland, for use in Latin texts. Gerard Mercator called Ireland "Hybernia" on his world map of 1541. In 1642 the motto of the Irish Confederates, a Catholic-landlord administration that ruled much of Ireland until 1650 was: Pro Deo, Rege et Patria, Hibernia Unanimis. (In English: For God, King and Fatherland, Ireland is United).
We also find the Iberni in southwest Ireland and the Eborone people in what is now Belgium as well as the Hiberi soldiers from Dacia. We see therefore that it was an ethnic designation.
We are in effect raising two points:
(a) A leading (or at least important) element amongst the Celts called themselves IBERI.
(b) Iberi in Hebrew means Hebrews. The ethnic element in question was of Israelite origin.
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9. The Iberian Peninsula: Spain and Portugal.
The Tagus (Tajo) River (in the center of Spain) was formerly known as the Iber or Iberos River. This name was also applied to the Ebro River in the northeast.
[Iberos and Ebro are two forms of the same name.]
The Ebro River may have originally received its name due to being mistaken by the Greeks for the Iberos (Tagus).
The Romans said that in honor of the Ebro River all inhabitants of Spain were later referred to as Iberi by the Greeks who established settlements along the eastern Spanish coast and in southeast Gaul (France). This however may have been an attempt at rationalizing a previously existing name for inhabitants of the country who were no longer present in Roman times.
Since ca. 1610 CE the areas of Spain and Portugal have been referred to as the Iberian Peninsula.
Iberi or Hiberi was not a name the natives of the Iberian Peninsula had applied to themselves.
[Alternately peoples identified as Iberi had dwelt in Spain and then moved out to the north but left their name behind them. This happens often in history.]
Archaeology shows that settlers from the central Syrian coast (including what was then Israel) settled in southeast Spain after ca. 700 BCE.
See:
BRIGETTE TREUMAN-WATKINS, 'Phoenicians In Spain', BA (Biblical Archaeologist), vol.55, no.1, March 1992.
RICHARD J. HARRISON, 'Spain At The Dawn of History', London, U.K., 1988, p.46
Ilan Sharon p.35 in "Phoenician and Greek Construction techniques at Tell Dor, Israel", BASOR no.267, August 1987.
Roman records, plus Irish legends, together with archaeological evidence shows that the settlers from the Syrian and Israelite area later moved to the northwest and the British Isles.
Roman explanations of the name Iberia often use such expressions "Other side of" or "this side of " the river Iberos etc. Perhaps we are misreading the Romans. Presumably they mean "the other side" or "this side" is the origin of the name. This would coincide with the root "IBER" in the Hebrew language which gives us "Ibri" meaning Hebrew.
According to Strabo prior historians used the term "Iberia" to mean the country "this side of the (Iberos)" as far north as the Rhone river in southern France. Polybius identified Iberia as stretching from the Pyrenees along the Mediterranean side as far south as Gibraltar, with the Atlantic side having no name.
The Ebro river was known as Iberos in ancient Greek and Iberus or Hiberus in Latin. The river appears in the Ebro Treaty of 226 BC between Rome and Carthage, setting the limit of Carthaginian interest at the Ebro. Polybius states that the "native name" for the river was Iber, apparently the original word, stripped of its Greek or Latin -os or -us termination.
Other names with this root in the Iberian Peninsula include:
Ebora (Evora) Portugal.
Ebora Edcatanum (by Ebro River, Spain).
Eborobrittium (Obidos, Portugal). A similar name was also found in Gaul.
Ebora Baetica (southeast Spain).
Ebora Gallaecia (northwest Spain).
Hubert and others believed that this word-root in the Iberian Peninsula was everywhere it was found an offshoot of Celtic influence. Strabo held that originally Iberia had been the name of Celtic Spain and Gaul but was later re-applied to the region beyond them. The point that the name in Spain and Portugal is found only in areas once held by the Celts would be pertinent to all the above examples except that of Ebora Baetica (in the southeast of Spain) where Celts were not to be found. Hebrew settlers or at the least settlers of Phoenician culture from the Syrian coastline had however been dominant in Baetica in the period of ca. 700 -500 BCE after which they moved to the northwest, to Gallaecia which was, or later became, an area of Celtic Culture.
From this area came the Gaels (Milesians) who conquered Ireland and to whom the ancestral figure HEBER (Iber) belonged.
In the 1900s (see Rawlinson on Herodotus) there existed an opinion that the name Iberi was originally applied to the Celtic inhabitants of Spain. These were driven out by the Carthaginians and other newcomers from North Africa who received the name Iberi in their place.
Meanwhile the Iberi Celts became the Galatians who attacked Rome and revitalized Celtic civilization in Europe.
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10. A Suggested Water Source Root for the Name Eber.
The widespread presence of names bearing this root (iber, ober, aber, eber) is widely recognized.
Different explanations have been suggested.
The name has been linked to word roots meaning water source, yew tree, boar. Examples of such suggestions follow below. We believe that the ethnonym IBER does not derive from these sources but in some cases the name may have acquired a secondary meaning in align with them. The points below illustrate the case for these other sources after which we shall reply to them.
The frequent occurrence of this word root has been discussed by others. One suggestion traces it to Basque origin. The Basques live in north Spain in the west Pyrenees region and southwest France.
River Ebro : (Iberus or Hiberus-Latin, Ebre-Cat)
http://www.iberianature.com/
Quote:
... Ultimately the word may well derive from the Basque words ibai (river) and ibar (valley), and these from ur meaning water. Linguists have noted similarities with the names of 200 other European rivers and streams (e.g. Ibar in Serbia, Ebrach and several Eberbach in Germany, Irwell in The UK) giving a tantalising clue as to a form of Basque being once spoken throughout Europe before the arrival of Indo-European tribes and languages.
End Quote
So too, another form of the name Eber is Abar as found in Wales and Scotland. This name has also been related to a word meaning water.
http://www.electricscotland.com/
etexts/scottish_gael.txt
Abar is a compound word, from Ab, an obsolete Gaelic term for water, which, as may be seen in many names still existing, became softened into Av. "Bar," is a heap, a height, or point.
It is also worth noting that,
"In Egyptian, the word Eebre, (Hebrew Eber) referred to rivers and to water".
http://www.irishoriginsofcivilization.com/appendices/etymology.html
Answer to the Hydronym (Water Source) Thesis.
Not all of the Eber names adjoined rivers though it is common for townships to do so.
People need water. In Olden times most settlements would have been established besides a river or stream.
Choose any place name you like and you will probably find a water source near it.
The Basque hypothesis is far-fetched if only because the names are only vaguely similar and the Basques were far away.
In addition we have the similarity of the eber names in Spain to those found in Celtic areas to the north.
There are numerous explanations for the root iber/eber in Celtic place and ethnic names.
None of these explanations can explain every case.
What is more we have a phenomenon of secondary rationalization, i.e. a name already exists but is explained or even re-formed to fit meanings applied by peoples who came later.
Regarding the words we have collected with the word-root "eber", these all seem to pertain to Celtic place or ethnic names. Water-sources do not seem to be prominent amongst them. The Ebro River in Spain may have received its name by being mistaken for the nearby Iberos (Tagus, Tajo) River to the west. Or it may not .We thus have only one possible water source out of the Celtic examples and even this is not certain.
Names however undergo secondary usage or reinforced application.
York in England for instance was variously named Eboracum, Eburacum or Eburaci in Roman times.
It was said to have been named after an eponymous Ebraucus.
After being conquered by the Angles, York was known as Eoforwic which retains the sound of the former name BUT ALSO may have been understood in the Anglian tongue to be based on a root EOFOR (from EBOR) meaning "Boar".
Similarly in some cases the name may [or may not] have been re-interpreted to associate it with a water-source name but there is no real evidence that this was the source of the word.
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11. Yew Tree Root
It has been claimed that the root name for Celtic Peoples and settlembers, IBER, is derived from a name for the yew tree, "Ibor", though this may be based on a linguistic misconception and not applicable in all areas of Celtic speech.
The Eoganachta rulers of Munster in southern Ireland are reported to have considered the yew tree sacred.
They considered themselves descendants of Heber eldest son of King Milesius from the northwest of Spain (modern-day Galicia).
Nevertheless even if in some case the name did receive a re-interpretation associating it with the yew tree this was not the original source. The yew tree was not the only tree considered sacred by some of the Ancient Celts.
The Yew Tree Thesis Refuted.
The idea that the IBER root is derived from a name for yew tree is not serious. Much later the yew tree did become highly valued but this was not necessarily the case all over the Celtic World despite some possible local exceptions.
The yew tree was later to be esteemed due to its suitability for making long bows but such was not the case in earlier times.
The Celts did not use the long bow at that time. They were not noted for archery by the Romans. The composite bow made out of bone and wood from the Steppes to the east may have made a mark in the Age of Invasions but this did not especially need yew tree wood.
The yew tree only became important for its archery attributes after ca. 1150 CE and then at first mainly in Wales and England.
It has also been claimed that the yew tree was considered a sacred tree by the Druids.
The Druids did revere sacred trees in their worship but there is no real evidence that the yew tree was especially favored.
There were also the oak, the cypress, the alder, and the ash, and in Ireland the hazel, and rowan, alongside the yew.
The yew tree is a conifer, an evergreen more suited to colder climates yet we find what seem to be the earliest known usage of EBER place-names in warmer Mediterranean regions.
The yew tree thesis for want of better evidence may therefore be placed on a back-burner. The yew tree was not valued for making archery bows at that time: It may have been sacred along with with other trees but not necessarily especially so; it did not grow everywhere that we find the IBER place-names.
Irish tradition said that the name Hibernia came from an ancestor named Iber, or Heber, or Eber, thus showing that the different forms are all considered of the same origin, as in Hebrew.
We also find the Iberni in southwest Ireland and the Eborone people in what is now Belgium as well as the Hiberi soldiers from Dacia. We see therefore that it was an ethnic designation.
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12. The IBOR (Boar) Thesis in Germany, Austria, and Czechia
It has been claimed that in areas where Germanic languages prevailed names based on the word-root EBER derive from a Germanic root (Ibor or Ivor) meaning boar, i.e. male pig.
though even here other opinions exist, e.g. a boy's name is of Scandinavian and Old Norse origin, and the meaning of Ivor is "bow, army".
http://www.thinkbabynames.com/meaning/1/Ivor#yp6Uufs5o640K1Ao.99
In Scotland the swine was considered taboo and seldom eaten. A group of Galatians from Gaul had made their way to the east eventually settling in Phrygia in Anatolia (Turkey). Amongst these too a section avoided the consumption of pig meat.
See: THE SCOTTISH-ISRAELITE FOOD TABOOS
http://britam.org/traditions10.html
Nevertheless most Cletic and Germanic-speaking peoples ate pork with a zest. The curing of ham was an important industry.
It will be remembered that at the beginning most of Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and France, Belgium, and the Netherlands and vast regions to the east had been occupied by peoples of Celtic Culture who spoke Celtic languages. In the period ca. 200-500 CE many of these regions were conquered by Barbarians who spoke Germanic dialects. These peoples were called Barbarians. The term German was at firsty applied only to a few of them. Barbarian is from the Greek and is said to have meant someone who is uncultured and wild. It may however had ethnic connotations. The Encyclopedia Judaica quotes from Ancient Mesopotamian sources to the effect that the terms "Habiru" (or "Chaberu") and Barbar were interchangeable. Habiru has been equated with "Hebrew". We however have shown that this is mistaken. Habiru probably originally meant something member of a union, or gang, or a bandit. Later however it may have become conflated with the word for Hebrew.
See:
Were the Ancient Hebrews the Same as the Habiru?
http://www.britam.org/Hiberu.html
Anyway the possibility exists that the word Barbarian as an ethnic designation is also pertinent to our IBER origin considerations, i.e. Bar-Bar from Ibar?
As for the "ibor meaning boar thesis" this could have something to it but we doubt that its importance reflected more than a secondary application.
Most places bearing the Iber name root even in Germanic areas are to be associated with the Celts.
This is not just our opinion but seems to be also that of Celtic scholars.
We saw how York was originally named Eboracum but after being conquered by speakers of Germanic languages the name was altered to suit a possible IBOR connotation.
Ibor is a root in Germanic tongues. The same usage being one of secondary application probably held everywhere else.
Places in the Germanic-language sphere (Germany, Alsace, and Austria) with the eber element include:
Eboreshemium (Strasbourg, Alsace, east France)
Eberacum (Bamberg, Bavaria)
Ebertinus Bavaria
Ebersberg (Bavaria)
Eberogomum (Munich, Bavaria, Germany)
Eborodunum (southeast Germany)
Eboresheim, Eporestal, Eburingen: all Celtic place names in Germany.
Ebersberga (Austria)
Ebersdorf (Chemnitz, south-east Germany)
Eburodunon (Brnno, Brunn) in Czechia
Some of these names (e.g. Eborodunum) are similar to those found also in Gaul. Most of the names may be attributed to Celtic influence. Some of them may have been named directly in honor of the boar without having been preceded by a previous Celtic EBER place name.
At all events the Celts had once dominated the region of Bavaria and Austria. It would seem that the word root EBER in these regions is primarily of Celtic origin and the IBOR (boar) association where (and if) it existed was a secondary application.
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13. Other Occurrences of the Eber Names: Italy, Gaul Britain, Ireland, etc.
Italy:
Eburini (Lucania in southern Italy)
Eborica (North Italy)
Eporedia (Ivrea in Turin, North Italy).
Ebora (Etruria, central west Italy).
Gaul (France, Belgium, Switzerland):
Eborica (Navarre, southeast France)
Eborones Belgium
Ebronium (Evre, Mayenne, northwest France.)
Eborovices (Veneti, Brittainy in Gaul)
Eburodunum: also known as Embrun in the French Alps of ancient Gaul.
Evorolocum: in Auvergne, Gaul.
Eborobritum: Beira, Gaul, .
Eborovices: Evreux, in Gaul
Eborobriga: Yonne, in Gaul.
Eboromagus: (in the region of Aude, in Gaul) also known as "Hebromagus" and close to Narbonne .
Eborodunum: Yverdon, in Switzerland, once dominated by the Celtic Tribe of Helveti.
British Isles:
Eboracensis Comitatus (northeast of Durham in Yorkshire).
Eboracum (York, England).
Hibernia: name for Ireland.
Heber - an ancestral figure in Irish Mythology.
Iberni in southwest Ireland.
Iberni Ocean east of Ireland.
Hebrides: islands off the northwest coast of Scotland, a Celtic region.
Other examples of the name:
Ybora: mouth of Halys River in Anatolia (Turkey), place of a Galatian colony.
Hebros River: in Thrace, scene of Celtic presence.
Iberia: in the Caucasus, north of Assyria, legendary area of exiled
Israelite Ten Tribes re settlement, cultural connections with the proto-Celts.
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14. Dacians (Denmark) also called Hiberi!
What appear to be Dacian soldiers in the service of the Emperor Aurelian (215-275 CE) on the Danube are referred to as Hiberi.
http://www.freefictionbooks.org/books/
h/11088-history-of-the-decline-and-fall-of-the-roman-empir?start=265
[Footnote 88: Hist. August. p. 222. Aurelian calls these soldiers
Hiberi Riporiences Castriani, and Dacisci.]
Dacia was a border area north of Thrace opposite the Celtic and Scythian spheres. It corresponded roughly to the present day Romania and Moldovia with part of the Ukraine and neighboring areas. The Dacii and the Getae were in this area and at one stage quote powerful. In 105-106 CE the Romans conquered Dacia. Most the Dacians were driven out. Those found later in the service of the Emperor Aurelian were probably remnants from border areas. The bulk of the Dacians and Getae had gone to t he north and settled in Scandinavia especially Denmark. Dacia in early Dark Age documents became another name for Denmark. Getae and Dacii are also listed by Bede as joining the Anglo-Saxon hosts in the conquest of England.
We also find indications of the Hebrew-Hebrew association in Danish tradition:
# Dan was the father of the most famous of the Norse gods, Odin. In turn they were both descended from the most powerful of the early gods, Bor, whose name is preserved in such other names as the Aurora Borealis. From the name Dan traditionally stemmed the name Denmark, or more properly Danmark. The name of Dan's father, Ypper, looks and sounds suspiciously like a corruption of Eber. #
The Key by John Philip Cohane, USA, 1975, p.186
Dan (king)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_(king)
The Lejre Chronicle
The Chronicle of Lejre (Chronicon Lethrense) written about 1170 introduces a primeval King Ypper of Uppsala whose three sons were Dan, who afterwards ruled Denmark, Nori, who afterwards ruled Norway, and Osten, who afterwards ruled the Swedes. Dan apparently first ruled in Zealand for the Chronicle states that it was when Dan had saved his people from an attack by the Emperor Augustus that the Jutes and the men of Fyn and Scania also accepted him as king, whence the resultant expanded country of Denmark was named after him. Dan's wife was named Dana and his son was named Ro.
Ypper father of Dan probably has a name derived from Eber and meaning the same as "Hebrew." The Danes of Denmark traced their ancestry to an ancient hero named Dan. Some sources equate thus Dan with the Partriarch Dan son of Jacob and forefather of the Israelite Tribe of Dan. We have evidence showing this equation to be the correct one. This too makes the Yppr-Eber-Hebrew equation more feasible.
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15. Scotland and Wales
In Scotland and Wales one finds numerous names with the root "Aber". This is another form of EBER.
The exact meaning of this word root in these areas is not certain but it appears to be linked with the meaning of crossing over. This is similar to the Hebrew meaning of the word root!
Scotland:
Aberdeen - Obar Dheathain
Arbroath - Obar Bhrothaig
Aberdour - Obar Dobhair
Aberfeldy - Obar Pheallaidh
Stirling
Aberfoyle - Obar Phuill
This root is said to connote river mouth, junction, or ford i.e. place of or passing into, or crossing over. It is thus quite similar to the Hebrew root IBR which also connotes pass over.
# The a in aber- is thought to be ath, pron. ah, a ford ; for aber- is sometimes found in a name where there is no river-junction or mouth, but where there is or was a ford, e.g., ABERNETHY, near Perth, and ARBIRLOT, the old Aberelloch. #
See:
PLACE-NAMES OF SCOTLAND.
JAMES B. JOHNSTON,
EDINBURGH: DAVID DOUGLAS
1892 XXV111
http://www.archive.org/stream/placenamesofscot00johnuoft/placenamesofscot00johnuoft_djvu.txt
Aberford
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aberford
The name 'Aberford' is of Celtic and Anglo-Saxon origin, approximately translating as 'the crossing at the confluence' (presumably of Cock Beck and the much smaller River Crow), indicating the once-strategic importance of the settlement.
Aber and Inver (placename elements)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aber_
and_Inver_(placename_elements)
Aber and Inver are common elements in place-names of Celtic origin. Both mean "confluence of waters" or "river mouth". Their distribution reflects the geographical influence of the Brythonic and Goidelic language groups respectively.
[The insertion of an "n" for euphonic reasons is also known from Hebrew.]
Aber and Inver (placename elements)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Aber_and_Inver_(placename_elements)
Place names with aber are very common in Wales. They are also common on the East coast of Scotland. They are found to a lesser extent in Cornwall and other parts of England, and in Brittany.
"Aber" is rendered into Scottish Gaelic as Oba(i)r [2], e.g. "Obar Dheadhain" (Aberdeen), "Obar Pheallaidh" (Aberfeldy), and "Obar Phuill" (Aberfoyle).
It occurs in Brittany and Cornwall, although with far less frequency.
Aber and Inver (placename elements)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aber_and_
Inver_(placename_elements)
Inver
Inver is the Goidelic or q-Celtic form, an Anglicised spelling of Scottish Gaelic inbhir (likewise pronounced with /v/), which occurs in Irish as innbhear or inbhear, going back to Old Irish indber, inbir, inber.
It is found in Scotland due to early Irish influence where the original form was aber.
# Place-names with inver are very common throughout Scotland, where they outnumber aber-names by about 3:1. They are most common throughout the Western Highlands and the Grampians. It is usually assumed that in many cases, places which originally had a name with aber experienced a substitution, and occasionally this can be verified from historical records. This must be seen in the context of the Gaelic settlement of Scotland from Ireland in the early Middle Ages.#
We thus see that the place-name word root Inver is a form of ABER.
SCOTTISH GAEL; BY JAMES LOGAN holds that ABER is not the point of joining of two rivers but rather the strip of land where they join i.e. the point of passing from one to the other. This ties in with the application of the name also to fords or place in the river where it was possible to pass over.
We also have a related usage in Cornwall where the name is found without connection to waterways.
# The most common place-name element in Scotland, and one prevalent in Wales and Monmouthshire, is Aber, as in Aberdeen. The generic meaning of Aber is a 'crossing', particularly of a river as in the name Hebrew, and other forms such as the name Ober, Uber, and the word 'over', are found in hundreds of place-names on the continent, extending into Russia, the Balkans, and as far as Mongolia. #
Source: The Key by John Philip Cohane, USA, 1975, p.158
The examples J. P. Cohane gives however for Russia etc are based on the root BR or BRK. We disagree with the linguistics used in his work BUT on the point of the aber name in Wales and Scotland, he has a point.
Aber is a common component of place-names in Scotland and Wales. It appears to mean "over" just as the root for Hebrew in Hebrew means "over".
One explanation for the name Hebrew in Hebrew is "Over [beyond] the River Euphrates".
We find this word root EBER or Iber used as an ethnic name amongst Eburones, Eburovices, of Gaul and the Iberi of Ireland.
Elsewhere we find it in place-names mainly of Celtic Provenance.
Suggestions as to the original meaning of the word (hydronym, yew tree, boar) all prove specious or valid only as possible secondary applications.
We did find a confirmed documented application of the name in Britain (Scotland, and Wales) where it connoted a merging point or place of crossing over.
This is similar to the Hebrew Meaning of the word root IBR!!! from which we derive the word IBER meaning Hebrew!!!!
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16. The Iberi People of Scotland and Ireland
## The name of Ireland according to Rhys [Celtic Britain p.262] is derived from Iber-land (Hibernia) the land of the Iberians or sons of Iber. ##
Joseph Ritson, in the 'Annals of the Caledonians/Picts/Scots', (Edinburgh 1828) also notes a distinction amongst the Irish. He quotes from an ancient treatise, written by saint Patrick, and entitled his "Confession" or "Apology," in which the SCOTTI, as being the conquerors, masters, and MILITARY MEN, appear as the NOBILITY, or gentry.
Ritson says that the Highlanders were divided into two groups. Both came originally from Ireland. He quotes from Dr. Moore, in his History of Ireland who says that the upper class were called Scots while the bulk of the people are named HIBERIONACES, -- from the name Hiberione, which is always applied by him to the island (of Ireland) itself
Similarly, Dr. Wylie mentions that there were TWO DIFFERENT PEOPLES dwelling in Ireland -- the HIBERNI and SCOTI. There was a MARKED DISTINCTION between the two. "The SCOTS ARE THE MILITARY CLASS; THEY ARE THE NOBLES....The latter [the Hiberni] are spoken of as the COMMONALITY, the sons of the soil." (History of the Scottish Nation, Vol. i., p. 281).
Ritson notes that the eating of pork WAS ABSOLUTELY DETESTED, and pigs were rarely to be found in the Highlands. They were considered UNCLEAN and anybody raising them was looked upon in the same light. This disgust, of course, reflected the attitude of the Israelites towards unclean meat, particularly pork, which was FORBIDDEN in the food laws of Leviticus 11.
Even though pork was eaten in Ireland and was not taboo as in Scotland traditions existed that the situation had once been different.
"It is stated in very old copies of The Book of Invasions and other ancient documents that it was the Mosaic law that the Milesians brought into Errin [i.e. Ireland] at their coming; that it had been learned and received from Moses in Egypt by Cae Cain Beathach, who was himself an Israelite, who had been sent into Egypt to learn the language of that country by the great master Fenius Farsaith, from whom the Milesian brothers, who conquered Errin, are recorded to have been the twenty second generation in descent; and it is stated in the preface to Seanchas Mord that this was the law of Errin at the time of the coming of St.Patrick". LOUIS HYMAN, "The Jews of Ireland", Jerusalem, Israel, 1972, on p.1
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17. Conclusion. The Name Eber meaning Hebrew was applied to Hebrews!
We find the IBER word to be dominant amongst Celtic peoples. This word sounds the same as the Hebrew word for Hebrew. It also apparently once meant the same as the Hebrew Iber as seen from the ABER examples in Scotland and Wales.
In regions where we find the name IBER we find traces of the Celts. We also find other names in the same vicinity that are similar to Hebrew ones as well as Hebraic (and Canaanite) customs and mythology and a linguistic substrate similar (or identical with) to ancient Hebrew.
Furthermore we have proofs from other sources identifying at least part of the peoples in question as of Israelite origin. The Eber-Hebrew equation is the most valid explanation for the appearance of the name amongst peoples of Celtic Culture. The root Eber, or its Scottish and Welsh variant Aber, was even understood to have the same basic meaning as the Hebrew word Iber meaning Hebrew. This proof stands quite strongly on its own right. When it is considered in the context of additional evidence of Israelite origins amongst Celtic peoples then it becomes even stronger.
See Also:
Biblical Proof: The Name Hebrew.
http://www.britam.org/Proof/Attributes/roleHebrew.html