Arpachshad

Arpachshad , Son of Shem

Arpachshad or Arphaxad or Arphacsad (Hebrew: אַרְפַּכְשַׁד / אַרְפַּכְשָׁד, Modern Arpakhshad Tiberian ʾArpaḵšaḏ / ʾArpaḵšāḏ ; Arabic: 'أرفخشذ', Ārfakhshad‎; "healer," "releaser") was one of the five sons of Shem, the son of Noah (Genesis 10:22, 24; 11:10-13; 1 Chron. 1:17-18). His brothers were Elam, Asshur, Lud and Aram; he is an ancestor of Abraham. He is said by Gen. 11:10 to have been born two years after the Flood, when Shem was 100.

Arpachshad's son is called Shelah, except in the Septuagint, where his son is Cainan (קינן), Shelah being Arpachshad's grandson. Cainan is also identified as Arpachshad's son in Luke 3:36 and Jubilees 8:1.

Other ancient Jewish sources, particularly the Book of Jubilees, point to Arpachshad as the immediate progenitor of Ura and Kesed, who allegedly founded the city of Ur Kesdim (Ur of the Chaldees) on the west bank of the Euphrates (Jub. 9:4; 11:1-7) — the same bank where Ur, identified by Leonard Woolley in 1927 as Ur of the Chaldees, is located^[1].

Donald B. Redford has asserted^[2] that Arpachshad is to be identified with Babylon. Until Woolley's identification of Ur, Arpachshad was understood by many Jewish and Muslim scholars to be an area in northern Mesopotamia, Urfa of the Yazidis. This led to the identification of Arpachshad with Urfa-Kasid (due to similarities in the names ארפ־כשד and כשדים) - a land associated with the Khaldis, whom Josephus confused with the Chaldean.

Another Arpachshad is referenced in the deuterocanonical Book of Judith as being the "king of the Medes" contemporary with Nebuchadnezzar II, but this is thought to be a corruption of the historical name Cyaxares (Hvakhshathra).

References

See also

• Ur Kaśdim