Is the name "Barak" Jewish or Arabic?

Question

I find a man named Barak in the Book of Judges who, together with Deborah, went to war aganist Sisera.( I know that the guy running for president spells his name "Barrack" but I just wondered about the name.)

Thank you and Shalom Rav!!!!!

Or maybe the politician spells his name in some other way....well that's not the point anyway so please excuse my spelling. Thanks.

Answer 1

Its both actually.

There are lots and lots of Names that are both Hebrew and Arabic.

The most famous one is Adam, but Barak (whatever way you choose to spell it, it doesn't really matter in English) is another example.

It means lightning in both languages, both being semetic languages.

Answer 2

Here is some background information about the Bible character:
(Ba´rak) [Lightning].

Son of Abinoam of Kedesh in the territory of Naphtali. During an early period in the time of the judges the Israelites fell away from true worship, and so for 20 years God permitted them to be oppressed by Jabin, the king of Canaan. They cried out to Jehovah for relief, and it was then that Barak became their God-appointed leader. (Jg 4:1-3) Whereas the Israelites’ Canaanite oppressors were heavily armed, “a shield could not be seen, nor a lance, among forty thousand in Israel.” (Jg 5:8) However, in Barak’s day, Jehovah gave Israel victory over their foes, a triumph that was not forgotten. (Ps 83:9) The two accounts of these matters in Judges (chapter 4, and in the exultant song of Deborah and Barak in chapter 5) complement each other and paint a vivid picture of what occurred at that time.

The prophetess Deborah, who was then judging Israel, spurs Barak to take the initiative in freeing his people. Barak consents, but on the condition that Deborah accompany him. She agrees, though telling Barak that Jehovah will sell Sisera, chief of Jabin’s forces, into the hand of a woman.—Jg 4:4-9.

Barak recruits 10,000 men from Naphtali, Zebulun, and other tribes of Israel (Jg 4:6; 5:9-18) and ascends Mount Tabor. Hearing of this, Sisera and his forces, equipped with 900 chariots having iron scythes, advance toward the Israelites along the dry bed of the Kishon (in the Plain of Jezreel). With Barak in the lead, the Israelite army, being only lightly equipped, courageously descends from Mount Tabor, ready for the fray with the fully armored Canaanites. However, the Kishon became an overwhelming torrent, immobilizing the enemy chariots. Indeed, “from heaven did the stars fight, from their orbits they fought against Sisera. The torrent of Kishon washed them away.” Barak and his men press their advantage, and the account states: “All the camp of Sisera fell by the edge of the sword. Not as much as one remained.”—Jg 5:20-22; 4:10-16.

Sisera himself, having abandoned his chariot and his beleaguered army, flees and finds refuge in the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber, a Kenite who is at peace with Jabin. Jael extends hospitality to Sisera, but while he sleeps, she kills him by driving a tent pin through his temples and into the earth. When Barak comes along, Jael invites him into the tent, where he sees that Jehovah’s word has come true; Sisera has actually been sold into the hand of a woman. (Jg 4:17-22; 5:24-27) Thereafter, the hand of the victorious Israelites “went on getting harder and harder against Jabin the king of Canaan, until they had cut off Jabin.” Consequently, that area of Israel “had no further disturbance for forty years.”—Jg 4:23, 24; 5:31.

Barak is cited as a faithful example among those “who through faith defeated kingdoms in conflict, . . . became valiant in war, routed the armies of foreigners.”—Heb 11:32-34.

Barak may be the “Bedan” of 1 Samuel 12:11 (if LXX and Sy are followed).—See BEDAN No. 1.

Answer 3

Baruch (Hebrew), Barack (Arabic, borrowed in Swahili) means 'blessed'.

Answer 4

I believe the name is of Egyptian origin.

Answer 5

arabic

Answer 6

IT'S JEWISH. IT MEANS "LIGHTNING".

Answer 7

Dear Friend,

As you said,

Barak (Hebrew: בָּרָק, "Lightning") is a military general in the Book of Judges in the Bible.

Barak was the son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali. For twenty years Israel was oppressed by the Canaanites, whose army had chariots with iron scythes.

The story of the victory of the Israelites under the prophetic leadership of Deborah and the military leadership of Barak, her commander, is related in prose (chapter 4) and repeated in poetry (chapter 5, which is known as the Song of Deborah). Chapter 4 makes the chief enemy Jabin, king of Hazor (present Tell el-Qedah, about three miles southwest of Hula Basin), though a prominent part is played by his commander in chief, Sisera of Harosheth-ha-goiim (possibly Tell el-'Amr, approximately 12 miles (19 km) northwest of Megiddo).

Deborah said that Barak would win, but Sisera would be killed by a woman. In the battle at Mount Tabor, a cloudburst occurred, causing the river to flood, thus limiting the manoeuvrability of the Canaanite chariots. Sisera fled, seeking refuge in the tent of a Kenite woman, Jael. Jael gave Sisera a drink of milk and he fell asleep from weariness. Then she pounded a tent peg through his head. When Barak came along, she let him see Sisera dead in her tent. Later Israel slew King Jabin.

Barak is remembered in the New Testament as one who "through faith defeated kingdoms in conflict". (Hebrews 11:32-34)

Then there is the name Barek \b(a)-rek\ is of Arabic origin, and its meaning is "noble."

There is also the name Bar'rak in arabic which is derivated from the word "برك" which means ponds.

Contrary to what the person above me believes. In arabic Barrak does not in anyway mean lightening. Barq, which has a different letter in arabic is not a name but it means lightening.

If you go back in history, and see the history of these languages you may be more likely to understand the origin.

The Semitic languages are a family of languages spoken by more than 300 million people across much of the Middle East, North Africa and East Africa. They constitute the northeastern subfamily of the Afro-Asiatic languages, and the only branch of this group spoken in Asia.

The most widely spoken Semitic language today is Arabic[1] (270 million total speakers), followed by Amharic (27 million first language speakers),[2][3] Tigrinya (about 6.7 million total speakers[4]) and Hebrew (5 million first language speakers[5]). Semitic languages were among the earliest to attain a written form, with Akkadian writing beginning in the middle of the third millennium BC. Maltese is the only Semitic Language written in Roman script. The term "Semitic" for these languages, after Shem son of Noah, is etymologically a misnomer in some ways (see Semitic), but is nonetheless standard.

Both Arabic and Hebrew are noth west semitic languages. The Semitic family is a member of the larger Afro-Asiatic family, all the other five or more branches of which are based in Africa. Largely for this reason, the ancestors of Proto-Semitic speakers are now widely believed to have first arrived in the Middle East from Africa, possibly as part of the operation of the Saharan pump, around the late Neolithic [4][5], although other linguists argue that, instead, Proto-Afro-Asiatic originated in the Middle East, and Semitic was the only branch to stay put[6].

In any event, Proto-Semitic itself is assumed to have reached the Arabian Peninsula by approximately the 4th millennium BC, from which Semitic daughter languages continued to spread outwards. When written records began in the mid 3rd millennium BC, the Semitic-speaking Akkadians and Amorites were entering Mesopotamia from the deserts to the west, and were probably already present in places such as Ebla in Syria.

By the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC, East Semitic languages dominated in Mesopotamia, while West Semitic languages were probably spoken from Syria to Yemen, although Old South Arabian is considered by most to be South Semitic and data are sparse. Akkadian had become the dominant literary language of the Fertile Crescent, using the cuneiform script they adapted from the Sumerians, while the sparsely attested Eblaite disappeared with the city, and Amorite is attested only from proper names.

For the 2nd millennium, somewhat more data are available, thanks to the spread of an invention first used to capture the sounds of Semitic languages — the alphabet. Proto-Canaanite texts from around 1500 BC yield the first undisputed attestations of a West Semitic language (although earlier testimonies are possibly preserved in Middle Bronze Age alphabets), followed by the much more extensive Ugaritic tablets of northern Syria from around 1300 BC. Incursions of nomadic Aramaeans from the Syrian desert begin around this time. Akkadian continued to flourish, splitting into Babylonian and Assyrian dialects.

In the 1st millennium BC, the alphabet spread much further, giving us a picture not just of Canaanite but also of Aramaic, Old South Arabian, and early Ge'ez. During this period, the case system, still vigorous in Ugaritic, seems to have started decaying in Northwest Semitic. Phoenician colonies spread their Canaanite language throughout much of the Mediterranean, while its close relative Hebrew became the vehicle of a religious literature, the Torah and Tanakh, that would have global ramifications. However, as an ironic result of the Assyrian Empire's conquests, Aramaic became the lingua franca of the Fertile Crescent, gradually pushing Akkadian, Hebrew, Phoenician, and several other languages to extinction (although Hebrew remained in use as a liturgical language), and developing a substantial literature. Meanwhile, Ge'ez texts beginning in this era, give the first direct record of Ethiopian Semitic languages.

Syriac rose to importance as a literary language of early Christianity in the 3rd to 5th centuries.

With the emergence of Islam, the ascent of Aramaic was dealt a fatal blow by the Arab conquests, which made another Semitic language — Arabic — the official language of an empire stretching from Spain to Central Asia. With the patronage of the caliphs and the prestige of its liturgical status, it rapidly became one of the world's main literary languages. Its spread among the masses took much longer; however, as natives abandoned their tongues for Arabic and as Bedouin tribes settled in conquered areas, it became the main language of not only central Arabia, but also Yemen,[6] the Fertile Crescent, and Egypt. Most of the Maghreb (Northwest Africa) followed, particularly in the wake of the Banu Hilal's incursion in the 11th century, and Arabic became the native language even of many inhabitants of Spain. After the collapse of the Nubian kingdom of Dongola in the 14th century, Arabic began to spread south of Egypt; soon after, the Beni Hassan brought Arabization to Mauritania. The spread of Arabic continues even today in Sudan and Chad, both by peaceful sociolinguistic processes, and by wars such as the Darfur conflict.

Meanwhile, Semitic languages were diversifying in Ethiopia and Eritrea, where, under heavy Cushitic influence, they split into a number of languages, including Amharic and Tigrinya. With the expansion of Ethiopia under the Solomonic dynasty, Amharic, previously a minor local language, spread throughout much of the country, replacing languages both Semitic (such as Gafat) and non-Semitic (such as Weyto), and replacing Ge'ez as the principal literary language (though Ge'ez remains the liturgical language for Christians in the region); this spread continues to this day, with Qemant set to disappear in another generation.

Barak is derived from the consonents b-r-k which could be applied to both languages. Just for the sake of it let me show you what i mean:

All Semitic languages exhibit a unique pattern of stems consisting of "triliteral" or consonantal roots (normally consisting of three consonants), from which nouns, adjectives, and verbs are formed by inserting vowels with, potentially, prefixes, suffixes, or infixes.

For instance, the root k-t-b, "write", yields in Arabic:

kataba كتب means "he wrote"
kutiba كتب means "it was written" masculine
kutibat كتبت means "it was written" feminine
kitābun كتاب means "book"
kutubun كتب means "books"
kutayyibun كتيب means "booklet" dimunitive
kitābatun كتابة means "writing"
kātibun كاتب means "writer" masculine
kātibatun كاتبة means "writer" feminine
kuttābun كتاب means "writers"
katabatun كتبة means "writers"
maktabun مكتب means "desk"
maktabatun مكتبة means "library"
maktūbun مكتوب means "written" or "postal letter"

and in Hebrew (where it appears as k-t-ḇ):

kataḇti כתבתי means "I wrote"
kataḇta כתבת means "you (m) wrote"
kataḇt כתבת means "you (f) wrote"
kataḇ כתב means "he wrote" or "reporter" (m)
katḇa כתבה means "she wrote"
kataḇnu כתבנו means "we wrote"
kataḇtem (modern informal)/ktaḇtem (traditional) כתבתם means "you (plural m) wrote"
kataḇten (modern informal)/ktaḇten כתבתן means "you (plural f) wrote"
katḇu כתבו means "they wrote"
kateḇet כתבת means "reporter" (f)
kataḇa כתבה means "article" (plural katavot כתבות)
miḵtaḇ מכתב means "postal letter" (plural miḵtavim מכתבים)
miḵtaḇa מכתבה means "writing desk" (plural miḵtavot מכתבות)
ktoḇet כתובת means "address" (plural ktoḇot כתובות)
ktaḇ כתב means "handwriting"
katuḇ כתוב means "written" (f ktuḇa כתובה)
hiḵtiḇ הכתיב means "he dictated" (f hiḵtiḇa הכתיבה)
hitkateḇ התכתב means "he corresponded (f hitkatḇa התכתבה)
niḵtaḇ נכתב means "it was written" (m)
niḵteḇa נכתבה means "it was written" (f)
ktiḇ כתיב means "spelling" (m)
taḵtiḇ תכתיב means "prescript" (m)
meḵutaḇ מכותב means "a person on one's mailing list" (meḵuteḇet מכותבת f)
ktuba (note: b, not ḇ) כתובה means "ketubah (a Jewish marriage contract)" (f)

In Maltese, the consonantal roots are referred as the mamma of each word, which can be determined by reference to the masculine past tense of the applicable verb. In the case of the verb "to write", the masculine past tense would be kiteb (k-t-b), so that the following nouns and verbs can be formed, using the same mamma always in the same order, but inserting different vowels and, occasionally additional consonants:

jien ktibt means "I wrote"
inti ktibt means "you wrote" (m or f)
huwa kiteb means "he wrote"
hi kitbet means "she wrote"
aħna ktibna means "we wrote"
intkom ktibtu means "you (pl) wrote
huma kitbu means "they wrote"
huwa miktub means "it is written"
kittieb means "writer"
kittieba means "writers"
ktieb means "book"
kotba means "books"

This root survives in Tigrinya and Amharic only in the noun kitab, meaning "amulet", and the verb "to vaccinate". Ethiopic-derived languages use a completely different root (ṣ-ḥ-f) for the verb "to write" (this root exists in Arabic and is used to form words with close meaning to "writing", such as ṣaḥāfa "journalism", and ṣaḥīfa "newspaper" or "parchment").

Some such roots are found throughout most Semitic languages, while others are more restricted in their distribution.

Verbs in other Afro-Asiatic languages show similar radical patterns, but more usually with biconsonantal roots; e.g. Kabyle afeg means "fly!", while affug means "flight", and yufeg means "he flew" (compare with Hebrew uf, te'ufah and af). The answer here would be form both languages considering that both are derived from the same family.

Enjoy :)