The Diatessaron (see p. 136b). — (^asca, Tatiani Evangeliorum Harmoniae Arabice, Rome, 1888 ; Hill, The Earliest Life qf Christ, Edinburgh, 1894. F. C. BURKITT.
(TJi?). — A Benjamite who helped to put to ! inhabitants of Gath (1 Ch 8").
ARAD
flight the
ARAD {-rr;). — A city of one of the kings of the Canuanites, assigned to the tribe of Judah (Jos 12"), on the north-west border of the wilderness of Judah, to which place (if the present text be correct) a family of Kenites miCTated from Jericho (Jg I"'). It has been identified with certain ruins on the top of a hill, Tell 'Arad, about 16 miles south of Hebron, on the plateau to the south of the 1 )ead Sea. Eusebius and Jerome describe Arad as 20 Koraan miles south of Hebron in the wilderness of K;idesh. The king of Arad fought against the Israelites as they were turning awav from the south ot Palestine, but was defeated at^ormah (Nu 21' SS"). In these passages in Nu where the RV, agreeably to the Heb. text, reads ' king of Arad,' the AV less happily renders ' king Arad.'
Literati'RK.— Robinson, B«P2 ii. 101, 201 ; SrPiii. 403, 416; Budde, liicht. u. Sam. 9£f.; Moore, Judms, 32ff.
J. MACPHER.SON.
ARADUS CApaSot), 1 Mac 15=».— The Greek form of the Ileb. Arvad (wh. see).
ARAH (rriK • traveller ' ? ). — 1. In the genealogy of Asher, 1 Ch 7™. 2. His family returned with Zerubbahel, Ezr 2», Neh 6'» 7'", 1 Es S'"". See Genealogy. H. A. White.
ARAH, ARAMSIANS (c-ik, -Zipoi, Syri. AV 'Syrians' and 'SjTia'). — In On lO**-^ Aram is the son of Shem, and father of Uz, Hul, Gethor, an<i Mash, the last of whicli is Arabia Petr.i'a, the Mas of the cuneiform inscriptions (cf. Gn 25"). In Gn 22** Aram is the son of Kemuel, the son of Nahor, the two elder brothers of Kemuel being Uz (AV Huz) and Buz (Bazu in the Assyr. texts).
In the OT Aram includes the nortliem part of Mesopotamia, Syria as far south as the borders cf I'al., and the larger part of Arabia Petriua.
The inhabitants of this region were mainly oJ Sem. oririn, and spoke a Sem. language, which, with its dialects, is known as Aramaic. In some parts of it, however, as at Kadesh on the Orontes, near the lake of Homs, and at Carchemish (now JerablCis or Jerabis) on the Euphrates, the Hittitea had occupied the country ; and on the eastern bank of the Euphrates, in the neighbourhood of Carchemish, the powerful kingdom of Mitanni was established, ^\•ith a language of a very peculiar type. An Aram, dialect was spoken by the Nabata;an8 of Petra, and it is probable that the Ishmaelita tribes must be classed as Arama^ns.
In the Assyr. inscriptions the name appears aa Aramu, Arumu, and Arimu, as well as Armft. In a text of Tiglath-pileser l. (B.C. 1100) the waters on the east side of the Euphrates and westward of Harran are termed mami mat Armd, ' the waters of the land of the Aramspans.' Assur- na?ir-pal III. (B.C. 88S-823) states that he restored to Assyria certain cities which a former Assyr. king had fortified in the land of Nahri, towards the sources of the Tigris and Euphrates, and of which the ' Arumu ' had taken possession. Among the Aramaean princes whom he subdued here were Ammi-baal and Bur-Hadad, ».e. Bar-Hadad or Ben-Hadad. There were many Arama;an tribes in Babylonia (Piikudu or Pekod, J« abatu or Nabata'iins, Ru'ua, etc. ) who lived under sheikhs on the banks of the Tigris and Euplirates as well as on the coast of the Persian Gulf. They were partly traders, partly pastoral nomads, and were collectively called j\jumu. The Assyrians never gave the name to the populations westward of the Euphrates, who were included under the general titles of Hittitea and Amorites.
In the OT, on the contrary, the name is applied to the inhabitants of Syria as well as to those of Mesopotamia. The different Aramtean districts or states are distinguished by special titles. Meso- potamia is known as Aram-naharaim, 'Aram of the two rivers,' Tims and Euphrates. It corre- sponds in part to tlie Nahrima of the Egyp. in- scriptions, though the latter term denoted the district between tlie Euphrates and Orontes, as well as the kingdom of Mitanni on the eastern side of the Euphrates. In the Tel el-Amama tablets, however, it is confined to Mitanni. The Assyr. country of Nahri lay in a different ilirection, in the mountains of S. Armenia. Cushan - rishathaim, king of Arara - naharaim (AV Mesopotamia), who oppressed the Israelites for eight years shortly after their entrance into Canaan (Jg^S'"'"), was a king of Mitanni. We learn from the Tel el-Amama tablets that in the 15th cent. B.C. the kings of Mitanni or 'Nahrima' had already interfered in the affairs of Palestine, and had intermarried with the royal familj' of Egypt. The troops of Mitanni accompanied the nortliern hordes who attacked Egypt in the reign of Kamses III. (c. B.C. 1200) ; and as the king of Mitanni is not named anion" the conquered in- vaders, it is probable that he did not actuallj- enter Egypt, but remained behind in Canaan. This would have been ju-st before the Israelitish conquest of that country, and would throw light on the presence there of Cushan-rishathaim.