name from his native place, Nahavend, in ancient Me- dia. He not only immortalized his name by effecting a reformation and consolidation in the opinions of his sect, and by being next in importance to Anan, the founder of this sect, but he greatly distinguished him- self as an expositor of the Hebrew Scriptures. He wrote (in Hebrew), A Covimenttiry on the I'mtateuch, in which he illustrates the Mosaic enactments by co|>ious descriptions of the manners and customs of "the East (comp. Pinsker, Likute Kadmonioth, p. 72, Appendix) : — A Commentary on Isaiah, in which he denies the sup- posed Messianic prophecies (comp. Jephet on Isaiah liii) :— .4 Commentary on ihe Book of ])aniel, in which days (xii, 12) are made to mean years (comp. Pinsker, ibid. p. 32, Appendix ; Jephet, at end of Daniel) :— .4 Covi- mentary on the Five Me(/illoth—i\\c Canticles, Puth, Es- ther, Lamentations, and Ecclesiastes— inter|)reting the first and last of these allegorically. Pinsker (ihid. p. 109-111, Appendix) gives a specimen of this commenta- ry, the MS. of which exists in the Paris library:— ,4 Booh of Commands (ni2£^ *^S")r i" which he pro- pounds the Karaitic mode of explanation of Scri|)turc, in opposition to the Rabbinic expositions: — The Book of Leyul Enactments ('\'^\'''^^ D), also called TNip ^"'^"53, The Tribute of Benjamin, which treats exclu- sively of the penal and civil laws of the Mosaic code, printed at Eupatoria, 1834. Besides these exegetical and practical works, Nahavendi seems also to have com- posed a dogmatic work, which contains speculations about God and creation and the soul. The soul, in liis view, has no separate existence, but is only part of the body, and can expect no life and no retribution apart from its bodily connection. God comes into no imme- diate relation with the world. His creation and j)rovi- dence are all through mediators, second causes, spiritual forces (Svvafmc), -words (Aoyoi), angels of various kinds and degrees. Nahavendi denied that God spoke direct- ly to Moses, or that any word had come to patriarchs or prophets from one too exalted for all human inter- course, and would allow no anthropomor]ihic concep- tions of the divine nature. In several minor points of practice he departed from the teaching of Anan, )iar- ticularly as to the observance of the Sabbath, the kill- ing of the paschal lamb, and the validity of Ihe marriage bond. A lawful marriage, according to Nahavendi, re- quires more than purchase, contract, and ctdiabitation; it must have the preliminaries of betrothal, taking home, bridal presents, religious covenant, and the pres- ence of witnesses, to be lawful. That the services which he rendered for tlie cause of his co-religionists were highly appreciated by them may be seen from the fact that in consequence of his scrijitural teaching they discarded the name Ananites, and henceforth called themselves Karaites (C"X*p), i. e. So-iplni-alists, or Bene-Mikra (H'l-p^ '^".l), Baale-M ikra (S-p-3 "bv^), followers of the Bible, in contradistinction to the Btiale ha-Kabala (nbspn ""by^), fi>llowers of tradition. See Pinsker, /./At//*" Kadmonioth, \i AA ac^.; YWKt.Bill. Jiidaica, iii, 15; id. Das Co/dene Zdlalttr dir Kariii- schen Literatvr, Benj. Nahuireiidi, in Sabbath-Jilalt, 1846, p. 86; id. Gesch. d. Karderthums, i, 71 s(|., 157 sq. ; Ginsburg, in Kitto's Cyclop, s, v.; id. Ihe Ka- 7-aites, their llistort/ and Literature ; (Jriitz, (,'esrh. d. Juden, V, 203 sq., 451 sq., 4<?8 sq. ; Jost, Cesch. d. Judenth. u. s. Sekten, ii, 344. See Kakaites. (B. P.)
Nah'bi (Heb. Nachbi', "'ans, hidden ; Sept. Na/i» V. r. \o/S(i; Vulg. Kahabi^, the .son of Vophsi. of the tribe of Nai)htali ; one of the twelve spies sent by Closes to explore the land of Canaan (Numb, xiii, 14). B.C. 1657.
Na'hor (Heb. Xachor', "linj, snortiny; Sept. and N. T. 'Saxiop : Josephus "Sax^'ipiK ? Vulg. Xachor : A. y. " Nachor," Josh, xxiv, 2 ; Luke iii, 34), the name of two men.
NAHOR
827
NAHUM
1. Son of Serug, father of Terah, and grandfather of Abraham (Gen. xi, 22-25; Luke iii, 34). He died at the age of 148 years. B.C. 2174.
2. Grandson of the preceding, being a son of Terah, and brother of Abraham and Haran (Gen. xi, 26 ; Josh, xxiv, 2). The order of the name of Terah is not im-
GENEALOGY OF ABRAHAM'
Tei-ah
I
No certain traces of the name of Nahor have been recognised in Mesopotamia. Ewald {Geschichte, i, 359) proposes Haditha, a town on the Euphrates just above Hit, and bearing the additional name of el-Naura ; also another place, likewise called el-Nahira, mentioned by some Arabian geographers as lying farther north ; and
FAMILY.
I Abraham
Milcah to Nauou to Reuniah
III II
Huz Buz Kemuel Chased Hazo. (i.e. Uz) I I (father of
I Chasdini, or
I I I Chaldiieaus).
Job. Elihu. Aram (Ram, Job xxsii, 2).
probably inverted in the narrative; in which case Na- hor, instead of being younger than Abraham, was really older. B.C. ante 1203. He married Milcah, the daughter of his brother Haran ; and when Abraham and Lot mi- grated to Canaan, Nahor remained behind in the land of liis birth, on the eastern side of the Euphrates — the boundary between the Old and the New World of that early age — and gathered his family around him at the sepulchre of his father (Gen. xi, 27-32 ; comp. 2 Sam. xix, 37). Coupling this with the statement of Judith V, 8 and the universal tradition of the East, that Terah's departure from Ur was a relinquishment of false wor- ship, an additional force is given to the mention of " the god of Nahor" (Gen. xxxi, 53) as distinct from the God of Abraham's descendants. Two generations later Na- hor's family were certainly living at Haran (Gen. xxviii, 10 ; xxix, 4). Like Jacob, and also like Ishmael, Na- hor was the father of twelve sons ; and further, as in the case of Jacob, eight of them were the children of his wife, and four of a concubine, Reumah (Gen. xxii, 21- 24). Special care is taken in speaking of the legitimate branch to specify its descent from Milcah — " the son of Milcah, which she bare unto Nahor." It was to this pure and unsullied race that Abraham and Rebekah in turn had recourse for wives for their sons. But with Jacob's flight from Haran the intercourse ceased. The heap of stones which he and " Laban the Syrian" erect- ed on Mount Gilead (Gen. xxxi, 46) may be said to have formed at once the tomb of their past connection and the barrier against its continuance. Even at that time a wide variation had taken place not only in their language (ver. 47), but, as it would seem, in the Object of their worship. The " God of Nahor" appears as a distinct divinity from the " God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac" (ver. 53). Doubtless this was one of the "other gods" which before the call of Abraham were worshipped bj^ the family of Terah, whose images were in Rachel's possession during the conference on Gilead, and which had to be discarded before Jacob could go into the presence of the " God of Bethel" (Gen. xxxv, 2; comp. xxxi, 13). Henceforward the line of distinc- tion between the two families is most sharply drawn (as in the allusion of Josh, xxiv, 2), and the descendants of Nahor confine their communications to their own im- mediate kindred, or to the members of other non-Israel- itish tribes, as in the case of Job the man of Uz, and his friends, Elihu the Buzite of the kindred of Ram, Eliphaz the Temanite, and Bildad the Shuhite. jMany centuries later David appears to have come into collision —sometimes friendly, sometimes the reverse — with one or two of the more remote Nahorite tribes. Tibhath, probably identical with Tebah and INIaacah, are men- tioned in the relation of his wars on the eastern frontier of Israel (1 Chron. xviii, 8 ; xix, 6) ; and the mother of Absalom either belonged to or was connected with the latter of the above nations..