78:4:6 These Andites were
adventurous; they had roving dispositions. An increase of either Sangik
or Andonite stock tended to stabilize them. But even so, their later
descendants never stopped until they had circumnavigated the globe and
discovered the last remote continent.
78:5:2 These Andites inaugurated
new advances throughout Eurasia and North Africa. From Mesopotamia
through Sinkiang the Andite culture was dominant, and the steady
migration toward Europe was continuously offset by new arrivals from
Mesopotamia. But it is hardly correct to speak of the Andites as
a race in Mesopotamia proper until near the beginning of the terminal
migrations of the mixed descendants of Adam. By this time even the
races in the second garden had become so blended that they could no
longer be considered Adamites.
Curiously, Victor Mair made the discovery of Andite mummified descendents from the Sinkiang (Xinjiang) region of China in 1994. They were taller than the Chinese, looked like western man, were reddish colored, and wore Celtic Tartan clothing. See The Tarim Mummies, J. P. Mallory and Victor H. Mair, Thames and Hudson, London, 2000.
According to Bishop Ussher’s 17th century chronology, based on Genesis entries, Abram (Abraham) lived from about 1996 BC to 1821 BC, 175 years. More recent studies put it at 2053 BC to 1878 BC.
https://bibletimeline.net/biblehistoryblog/biblical-timeline-abraham/#sthash.MdG71mrP.dpuf
We can question whether it was Michael who spoke
with Abraham or if it may have been Melchizedek standing in for Yahweh. In Gen 14:18-19 we are told that "Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High, 19 and he blessed Abram.
The first name, Abram, is easy. It is composed of Ab and ram. Ab is the Hebrew name for father. ram means high, or lofty, or exalted.
But when we encounter Abraham we run into a seriously difficult problem. The first part, Ab, we know = father. The second part, raham, has given untold trouble to biblical scholars. Everybody and his brother has speculated about the origin since it has no known etymology. This speculation has been going on for centuries. For example we find remarks like:
The original and proper form of this name seems to be either "Abram" or "Abiram" (I Kings, xvi. 34; Deut. xi. 6), with the meaning, "my Father [or my God] is exalted." The form "Abraham" yields no sense in Hebrew, and is
probably only a graphic variation of "Abram," the h being simply a letter, indicating a preceding vowel, a; but popular tradition explains it "father of a multitude" (ab hamon), given as a new name on the
occasion of a turning-point in the patriarch's career (Gen. xvii. 5). The name is personal, not tribal; it appears as a personal name in Babylonia in the time of Apil-Sin (about 2320
2. Etymology: Until this latest discovery of the
apparently full, historical form of the Babylonian equivalent, the best that could be done with the etymology was to make the first constituent "father of" (construct -i rather than suffix -i), and the second constituent "Ram," a proper name or an abbreviation
of a name. (Yet observe above its use in Assyria for a woman; compare ABISHAG; ABIGAIL). Some were inclined rather to concede that the second element was a mystery, like the second element in the majority of names beginning with 'abh and 'ach, "father" and
"brother." But the full cuneiform writing of the name, with the case-ending am, indicates that the noun "father" is in the accusative, governed by the verb which furnishes the second component, and that this verb therefore is probably ramu ( = Hebrew racham)
"to love," etc; so that the name would mean something like "he loves the (his) father." (So Ungnad, also Ranke in Gressmann's art. "Sage und Geschichte in den Patriarchenerzahlungen," Zeitschrift fur alttestamentliche Wissenschaft (1910), 3.) Analogy proves
that this is in the Babylonian fashion of the period, and that judging from the various writings of this and similar names, its pronunciation was not far from 'abh-ram.
3. Association: While the name is thus not "Hebrew" in origin, it made itself thoroughly at home among the Hebrews, and to their ears conveyed associations quite different from its etymological signification. "Popular etymology" here as so often doubtless led
the Hebrew to hear in 'ab-ram, "exalted father," a designation consonant with the patriarch's national and religious significance. In the form 'ab-raham his ear caught the echo of some root (perhaps r-h-m; compare Arabic ruham, "multitude") still more
suggestive of the patriarch's extensive progeny, the reason ("for") that accompanies the change of name Gen 17:5 being intended only as a verbal echo of the sense in the sound. This longer and commoner form is possibly a dialectical variation of the shorter
form, a variation for which there are analogies in comparative Semitic grammar. It is, however, possible also that the two forms are different names, and that 'ab-raham is etymologically, and not merely by association of sound, "father of a multitude" (as
above). (Another theory, based on South-Arabic orthography, in Hommel, Altisraelitische Ueberlieferung, 177.)
(from International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia)
The term raham does not appear as such in Hebrew although it does in Arabic, leading some scholars to conclude that raham was an archaic Hebrew term, whose use was discontinued by the time the Genesis story was written down, thus necessitating the explanatory "the father of a multitude" for the benefit of those unfamiliar with the meaning of the raham portion of the name of Abraham. Some scholars, attempting to find a Hebrew etymology for the name appropriate to the biblical context, suggest that the ham of Abraham is an abbreviated form of the word hamon, meaning multitude, and that the name Abraham is actually Abir (chief)-ham or "chief of multitude." (Francis Brown, S.R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, eds., A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, p.4.) It has also been suggested that raham is nothing more than an embellishment on the word ram to further exalt the bearer of the name (Joshua Steinberg, Millon ha Tanahk, p.8.)
The Trials of Abraham: The Making of a National Patriarch, Martin Sicker, iUniverse, Lincoln, NE, 2004.
This ruminating about the origin of Abraham's name led to the following amusing remark, which I reproduce in full here:
https://www.abarim-publications.com/Meaning/Abraham.html#.UcyfEfm1E0J