GeoCreationism.com

Devotional: Luke 16:10 - Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.

Noah > Shem > Aram

Though not part of the Messianic line, the name/word Aram, Aramean, and Aramaic appear in 144 verses in the Bible. In the little research I have done, there is no clear connection between Aram and the people eponymously named for him. While the Aramaic language and Mandaeism religion would appear to at least refer back to him, these do not appear to be significant to Jewish or Christian prophecy, theology, or eschatology.  Still, their level of interaction does not appear to be insignificant, suggesting something to gain by breaking down, grouping, and analyzing the biblical references for patterns.

References to Aram’s Ancestry

1. Genesis 10:22 - The sons of Shem: Elam, Ashur, Arphaxad, Lud and Aram.
2. Genesis 10:23 - The sons of Aram: Uz, Hul, Gether and Meshek.
3. Genesis 22:21 - Uz the firstborn, Buz his brother, Kemuel (the father of Aram),

Note that Uz and Aram in 22:21 are not the same Uz and Aram in Genesis 10. Uz in 22:21 is however Abram’s nephew, and Aram in 22:21 seems related somehow as well. At the moment, their ancestry is unclear to me, but I find it interesting that they live in the Paddam-Aram, probably the land of Shem’s son Aram.

References to the Place Paddan-Aram (means “field of Aram”) - I also include references to Laban the Aramean (who lived there), Harran (the city in Paddam-Aram where Laban lived) and Aram Naharaim where Paddam-Aram is located (Abram’s brother Nahor lived there):

1. Genesis 11:31 - Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and together they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. But when they came to Harran, they settled there.
2. Genesis 11:32 - Terah lived 205 years, and he died in Harran. 
3. Genesis 12:4 - So Abram went, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran. 
4. Genesis 12:5 - He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Harran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there.
5. Genesis 24:10 - Then the servant left, taking with him ten of his master’s camels loaded with all kinds of good things from his master. He set out for Aram Naharaim and made his way to the town of Nahor.
6. Genesis 25:20 - and Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebekah daughter of Bethuel the Aramean from Paddan Aram and sister of Laban the Aramean.
7. Genesis 27:43 - Now then, my son, do what I say: Flee at once to my brother Laban in Harran.
8. Genesis 28:2 - Go at once to Paddan Aram, to the house of your mother’s father Bethuel. Take a wife for yourself there, from among the daughters of Laban, your mother’s brother.
9. Genesis 28:5 - Then Isaac sent Jacob on his way, and he went to Paddan Aram, to Laban son of Bethuel the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, who was the mother of Jacob and Esau.
10. Genesis 28:6 - Now Esau learned that Isaac had blessed Jacob and had sent him to Paddan Aram to take a wife from there, and that when he blessed him he commanded him, “Do not marry a Canaanite woman,” 
11. Genesis 28:7 - and that Jacob had obeyed his father and mother and had gone to Paddan Aram. 
12. Genesis 28:10 - [ Jacob’s Dream at Bethel ] Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Harran.
13. Genesis 29:1 - [ Jacob Arrives in Paddan Aram ] Then Jacob continued on his journey and came to the land of the eastern peoples. 
14. Genesis 29:4 - Jacob asked the shepherds, “My brothers, where are you from?” “We’re from Harran,” they replied.
15. Genesis 31:18 - and he drove all his livestock ahead of him, along with all the goods he had accumulated in Paddan Aram, to go to his father Isaac in the land of Canaan.
16. Genesis 31:20 - Moreover, Jacob deceived Laban the Aramean by not telling him he was running away. 
17. Genesis 31:24 - Then God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream at night and said to him, “Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.”
18. Genesis 33:18 - After Jacob came from Paddan Aram, he arrived safely at the city of Shechem in Canaan and camped within sight of the city. 
19. Genesis 35:9 - After Jacob returned from Paddan Aram, God appeared to him again and blessed him. 
20. Genesis 35:26 - The sons of Leah’s servant Zilpah: Gad and Asher. These were the sons of Jacob, who were born to him in Paddan Aram.
21. Genesis 46:15 - These were the sons Leah bore to Jacob in Paddan Aram, besides his daughter Dinah. These sons and daughters of his were thirty-three in all. 

So, it seems that Isaac and Jacob both married into Aram’s family, as Laban lived in Harran, which is in the “field of Aram” (”the land of the eastern peoples” according to Genesis 29:1), which is part of Aram-Naharaim. Every reference I have found places this off the Euphrates:



Our map is thus updated to:



Balaam

In Numbers 23, Balaam was brought from the land of Aram to prophecy against Israel. God did in fact give him a prophecy, but in Israel’s favor. Knowing now that he may have been Shem’s descendent, from the same land where Abraham was from, perhaps this is not as surprising as it has always seemed to me.

Enemy of Israel

Starting in Judges 3, God set Aram against Israel to keep Israel in check. Most of the rest of the verses in the Old Testament regarding Aram and the Arameans shows that the land of Aram was generally Israel. After Israel split into Israel and Judah, they aligned themselves with Israel against Judah. By the time of King David, the Arameans were acting of their own accord against Israel. By the bookd of Amos, God was punishing Aram, and then rescuing them.

New Testament References to Aramaic Terms

PLACES

1. John 5:2 - Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades.
2. John 19:13 - When Pilate heard this, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judge’s seat at a place known as the Stone Pavement (which in Aramaic is Gabbatha). 
3. John 19:17 - Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha).

STATEMENTS 

1. John 19:20 - Many of the Jews read this sign, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the sign was written in Aramaic, Latin and Greek.
2. John 20:16 - Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”). 
3. Acts 21:40 - After receiving the commander’s permission, Paul stood on the steps and motioned to the crowd. When they were all silent, he said to them in Aramaic :
4. Acts 22:2 - When they heard him speak to them in Aramaic, they became very quiet. Then Paul said: 
5. Acts 26:14 - We all fell to the ground, and I heard a voice saying to me in Aramaic, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’

This entry was posted on Monday, January 17th, 2011 at 9:03 pm and is filed under Shem, Noah, Lineage, Aram. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.