Alice C. Linsley
Genesis 10 speaks of the clans of Ar who controlled the Red Sea and the Mediterranean island kingdoms of Tyre Sidon and, with other clans living in Canaan, are classified as under the general label “Canaanite.” They spread eastward with the Kushite expansion. Their Mesopotamian kin are called "Arameans" in the Bible.
The word “Arvadite” refers to residents of the Mediterranean island-city of Arvad (Arpah or Arphad in other ancient sources). Arvad is an extremely ancient city. Before the Phoenicians, it was populated seasonally by peoples passing from North Africa to Asia . Some of these were Netufians, a Kushite people. Deuteronomy 2:9 states that Ar was given to the Moabites, the descendants of Lot . These people were kin to Lot's people in Haran (Syria).
The Philistines invaded the territory of the Ar clans from the north (probably Greece Lot ’s descendants, the Ammonites. However, David was not about to allow the Philistines on the west and the Ammonite-Aramean coalition on the east to threaten his kingdom. Having dealt with the Philistines, he engaged Shoboch, the Aramean general, and defeated him. (II Sam.10:18)
The Arvadites had close ties the Egyptians and paid tribute to the Kushite Pharaohs for protection from the Assyrians. The Kushite Pharaoh Tahar-ko called the land of Canaan and Syria “Khor” which is a compound of K for Kush and Hor for Horus. Kash, Kwash, Akwanski and Kush are cognates referring to the First People who were considered deified ancestors. Horus was their divine protector.
Derek Welsby, who has been directing excavations in ancient Kush since 1982, reports that one of the earliest known Kushite kings was called K-ash-ta. (Derek A. Welsby, The Kingdom of Kush: the Napatan and Meroitic Empires, Markus Weiner Publisher, p. 7). The consonant K refers to Kush and ta is a common suffix in Proto-Saharan meaning for. So K-ash-ta is not a proper name. Instead it means something like “the Throne of Kush.” In a message sent from Tahar-ko to the King of Tyre, Tahar-ko wrote, “Oh Amun, what I did in the land of Nubia, let [ … … ], let me do it with your tribute of Khor (Syria-Palestine) which has been turned aside from you.”
The Arabic word for throne is aarsh and likely related to the scribal function associated with kings. The root AR appears to be Proto-Saharan. Among the Igbo of Nigeria, the scribe clans were called Ar or Aro. The word Ar-ab means “father is scribe.” The earliest known written communications originated along the coast lines of the Nile, the Red Sea and Phoenicia
There are Israelites who were associated by their names with the Ar patrimony. They are Aroch (1 Chr 7:39, Ezr 2:5, Neh 6:18, Neh 7:10) and Ariel (Ezr 8:16, Isa 29:1, Isa 29:1, Isa 29:2, Isa 29:2, Isa 29:7). Ariel means “Scribe/Messenger of God.” So it appears that the Ar clans were scribes or messengers. This is further suggested by the name Ar-vad. Vad means “to speak” in Sanskrit. The association of the name Ar with the scribal caste is further demonstrated by the discovery of Aramaic scrolls from Arsames, the satrap, to his Egyptian administrator Psamshek and to an Egyptian ruler named Nekht-Hor. (A.T. Olmstead, History of the Persian Empire, Chicago, 1948, pp.116-117)
More and more the so-called “Pre-history” of Genesis is confirmed by historical records. Should anyone doubt it, let him pursue references to the Ar clans in ancient texts. These are found in reference to Ar-Shem, Arsames, Artix, Araxes , and Aramean, all of whom are named in historical records.
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