Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadMcClintock Biblical Encyclopedia: Arphaxad
Subjects in this Topic:
(Heb. Arpakshad', àִøְôִּëְùִׁã [on the signif. see below]; Sept. and N.T. Á᾿ñöáîÜä , Josephus Á᾿ñöáîÜäçò ), the name of two men.
1. The first postdiluvian patriarch, son of Shem, and father of Salah; born one year after the end of the Deluge, and died B.C. 2075, at the age of 438 years (Gen_11:10-13; 1Ch_1:17-18; Luk_3:36). From Gen_10:22; Gen_10:24, it appears that the region settled by this patriarch's descendants likewise took his name. The conjecture of Bochart (Pkaleg, ii, 4) has been adopted by several others (Michaelis, Suppl. p. 129; Orient. Bibl. 17:77 sq.; Mannert, v, 439), that it is the province Arrhapachitis ( Á᾿ῤῥáðá÷ῖôéò ), in northern Assyria, near Armenia (Ptol. 6:1), the primitive country of the Chaldaeans (Josephus, Ant. i, 6, 4; comp. Syncell. Chronicles p. 46), whose national title ( ëִּùְׂãִּéí , Kasdin) appears to form the latter part of the name Arphaxad ( ëְּùִׂã ); the first part being referred by Michaelis (Spicileg. i, 73 sq.) to an Arabic root signifying boundary (q. d. "border of the Chaldaeans"), but with as little felicity (see Tuch, Genesis p. 256) as the derivation by Ewald (Isr. Gesch. i, 333) from another Arabic root signifying to bind (q. d. "fortress of the Chaldaeans"). (See Gesenius, Commentar ub. Jesa. 23:13; and comp. Niebuhr, Gesch. Assur's, p. 414, note.) Bohlen (Genesis in loc.), with even less probability, compares the Sanscrit Arjapakshata " (a land) by the side of Asia;" comp. Porussia, i. q. Po-rus, i.e. near the Russians. (See Schlozer in the Repert. f. bibl. Lit. 8:137; Lengerke, Kenaan, i, 211; Knobel, Volkertofel d. Genesis, Giess. 1850.)
2. A king of Media at Ecbatana, which city he had fortified during an open campaign and siege'by his contemporary Nebuchadnezzar (Judith i, 1 sq.). From the connection of his name with Ecbatana he has been frequently identified with Deioces (Ctes. "Artaeus"), the founder of Ecbatana (Herod. i, 98); but as Deioces died peaceably (Herod. i, 102), it seems better to look for the original of Arphaxad in his son Phraortes (Ctes. "Artynes"), who greatly extended the Median empire, and at last fell in a battle with the Assyrians, B.C. 633 (Herod. i, 102). But this would disagree with the date and circumstances of Nebuchadnezzar; moreover, the half-fabulous book of Judith abounds with statements respecting the Median kings scarcely reconcilable with genuine history. SEE MEDIA; SEE JUDITH. Niebuhr (Gesch. Assur's, p. 32) endeavors to identify the name with "Astyages" =Ashdahak, the common title of the Median dynasty, and refers the events to a war in the twelfth year of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, B.C. 592 (Ibid. p. 212, 285). SEE NEBUCHADNEZZAR.