Hebrew, Hebrews, Hebraic
Archimandrite Nikifor’s Biblical Encyclopedia
(sojourner) (Gen. 14:13) — words used to denote the Hebrew people, descended from Abraham. The word “Hebrew” derives either from the patriarch Eber, son of Shelah, one of Abraham’s ancestors, or from the Hebrew verb ʿabar (“to cross over”), meaning “sojourner,” a stranger from another land. The people known by the name of Hebrews came into the land of Canaan by crossing the Euphrates, and so it was natural for the Canaanites to call them Hebrews, that is, newcomers from another country, just as we generally say of some foreigner that he has arrived “from over the sea.” Nevertheless, the first opinion is supported by the circumstance that Eber, being the father of Peleg (Gen. 10:25; 11:16), in whose lifetime the division of the peoples took place, could easily have transmitted his name to his descendants.
This opinion is held by Eusebius and others, in preference to the rest. The Hebrews began to be called Jews only in a later period of their history — a name derived from Judah. Some time before Christ, however, the designation “Hebrew” reappeared, and we find it in the book of Acts (6:1) and in some of the epistles (2 Cor. 11:22; Phil. 3:5).