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Aram-Naharaim ארם נהריים:Aramaic is a region that is mentioned five times in the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament. It is commonly identified with ''Nahrima'' mentioned in three tablets of the Amarna correspondence as a geographical description of the kingdom of Mitanni. In Genesis, it is used somewhat interchangeably with the names ''Paddan Aram'' and ''Haran'' to denote the place where Abraham stayed briefly with his father Terah's family after leaving Ur of the Chaldees, while ''en route'' to Canaan (Gen. 11:31), and the place to which later patriarchs obtained wives, rather than marry daughters of Canaan. ''Paddan Aram'' refers to the part of Aram-Naharaim along the upper Euphrates, while ''Haran'' is mainly identified with the ancient city of Harran on the Balikh River. According to one rabbinical Jewish tradition, the birthplace of Abraham (Ur) was also situated in Aram-Naharaim.〔(Ramban on ''Lech Lecha'' )〕 ==Location and etymology== One translation of the name "Aram-Naharaim" is "Aram of 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 Euphrates (called ''N-h-r-n'' by the Egyptians). The name ''Nahrima'' in the Amarna letters denoted the region of the Upper Euphrates and its tributaries — the Balikh and the Khabur Rivers. Both Josephus and the Septuagint translate the name as ''Mesopotamia''. Ancient writers later used the name "Mesopotamia" for all of the land between the Tigris and Euphrates. However the usage of the Hebrew name "Aram-Naharaim" does not match this later usage of "Mesopotamia", the Hebrew term referring to a northern region within Mesopotamia. The ''Book of Jubilees'' 9:5 places Aram's portion between the Tigris and Euphrates, and lying north of the Chaldeans, who are south of the Euphrates: ''And for Aram there came forth the fourth portion, all the land of Mesopotamia'' () ''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,〔Judges 3:8〕 as "Assyrians".〔(Flavius Josephus, ''Antiquities of the Jews'', Book 5, Chapter 3:2 )〕 In Hebrew, ''Ashur'' denotes the region of Assyria proper on the Tigris, and is listed as distinct from Aram Naharaim in Jubilees. Aram Naharaim lay west of ''Ashur'', as it contained Haran. Haran lies on the west bank of the Balikh, east of the Upper Euphrates. The traditional Jewish location of Ur Kasdim (at Edessa) and the Balikh itself lie west of the Khabur, and the latter may have been considered one of the "two rivers" delineating this Aramaean homeland, the other being the Euphrates. ''Jubilees'', however, clearly associates the city of Ur Kesed (''Ur Kasdim'', "Ur of the Chaldees") not with the descendants of Aram who received Aram Naharaim as an inheritance, but rather with those of Arpachshad, his brother, who was Abram's ancestor. Both Jonathan ben Uzziel and Onkelos translate Aram Naharaim "Aram which is on the Euphrates" as Joshua explicitly stated: 'Long ago your ancestors lived on the other side of the Euphrates.' (Joshua 24, 2-3) 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Aram-Naharaim」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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