Genesis 14:13 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Abram, the Hebrew— It is disputed whether Abram was called the Hebrew from his father Eber, or as coming from beyond the river Euphrates. Those who are inclined to the first, urge, that it was usual to denominate nations and people from some great progenitor; and as Eber was the father of this branch, it was natural to denominate Abram, and so his faithful descendants, from him: that if Abram had been so called only from passing the Euphrates, the name would not have descended to his posterity, who did not come from beyond the river: and that עבר eber, signifying only beyond, it seems too much to add the river to it. But Le Clerc, who is the strongest advocate for the second derivation, remarks, that eber, or heber, signifies the other side, whether of a river, sea, or any other thing: in which sense some people are called transmarine, transalpine, and the like. Accordingly the LXX and Aquila translate it περατης, the stranger, from beyond the river; as if it had been an appellation given to Abram and his family by the Canaanites. Nor can any good reason be offered, why Abram should be called a Hebrew from eber, rather than a Terahite from Terah, &c. Add to this, that it is very improbable, that the Canaanites should know any thing of Abram's being descended from Eber, whereas it was natural for them to distinguish him by the name of περατης, the Trans-Euphratian, or foreigner, because he not only came from beyond the Euphrates, but shunned all alliance with the Canaanites. And this, at the same time, gives a good reason, why the Ishmaelites, Edomites, and other descendants of Abram, were not called Hebrews; namely, because they incorporated with the Canaanites by marrying their daughters, and so insensibly wore out the distinction. Besides, the name derived from that source, was a perpetual memorandum to all his posterity of their great forefather's faith in relinquishing his own country, and coming a stranger into a foreign land, at the call of God. And probably, the word eber, though it signifies only beyond, might be used for the sake of shortness: the river, the Euphrates, being perhaps originally added to, but in common phrase dropt from, the sentence. The English word over seems to come from the Hebrew eber, as well as aber in the Welch, which signifies the fall of a lesser water into a greater, and in North-Wales a brook, a stream: from which word, and the name of the river joined to it, are derived many names of towns in Wales, as well as in Scotland, as Aber-deen, Aber-nethy, Aber-gavenny, &c. See Richard's Welch Dictionary.