Based on quite consistent evidence Tareh, Abraham’s father, is the same person as the great Mithani emperor Saushsha-Tar. The only serious counter-argument would seem to be the racial group to which each of them belonged. Saushsha-Tar was a Mithani, certainly Aryan, while Tareh descended in a direct line from Shem and is, therefore, considered to be the prototype of the Semites.
A certain number of populations, spread throughout the area from Mesopotamia to Ethiopia, are indicated as Semites; the common denominator that links them is the similarity between their languages and Hebrew. But what was Abraham's mother-tongue?
That which we now call Hebrew was widely diffused throughout Palestine long before Abraham arrived there. To be more precise, it was the language spoken by the Canaanites.11 The Jews simply adopted it following the conquest of Palestine by Joshua; from that time on the Canaanite language was called Hebrew and was defined as the Semite language "par excellence." But this is a gross blunder, since Genesis itself, in 10,15, states that the Canaanites, and with them the Jebusites, the Amorites, the Girgashites, the Hivites and so on--that is all the races that peopled Palestine before Abraham arrived--descended from Ham. If, therefore, we wish to use the Biblical indications in a precise manner, we must accept that the present Hebrew is to be defined not as a "Semitic," but as a "Hamitic" language.
Abraham's mother tongue must have been that of the place where he was born and grew up, Ur of the Chaldeans. Whatever language it may have been is not important at this point; knowing it would not aid us much in establishing to which racial stock the Patriarch belonged. This we can only establish on the basis of his physical characteristics. Was he tall, short, dark, fair, red-haired, bearded, hairy, smooth-skinned, etc? The Bible does not tell us. But although we do not have a description of Abraham's physical makeup, we do have that of a close blood-relative, whose appearance must have been very similar to that of Abraham. We have a description of a grandson, “pure-blooded”, because he was not mixed with elements outside the family. Esau was the son of Isaac and Rebekah, the former being Abraham's son by his sister Sarah, the latter being the daughter of Bethuel and Milcah, both being close blood-relations to Abraham. He was a "genuine product," therefore, who can be considered representative of the family's race.
Esau was red-haired, so much so as to merit the nickname Edom, that is, "the Red" (Gen.25,25); he was hairy and stockily-built. There is no indication regarding his twin brother Jacob's hair color; but he too was stockily-built (Gen.29.10). Could it be possible that the "Red" one's mother was short and dark? Could it be that her close relations were, too? Possible, certainly, but not very probable. If we judge from this direct, close descendant, we must conclude that Abraham was of light complexion, with light red or tawny hair, quite hairy and of heavy build; to sum up, a decisively Aryan physique. This is consistent with the conclusion that Abraham was the son of a Mithani prince; further confirmation of this conclusion will be demonstrated later, when we discuss the Horites of Seir.
It is quite significant that these same racial characteristics should turn up again among Abraham's descendants. In the 11th century B.C., when the Jews decided they needed a king, they gave Samuel the assignment to choose a ruler (1Sam. 8,5). Since the candidates were the whole of Jacob's descendants, the assignment proved to be by no means an easy one, because no precise standard for the choice existed. The holy man should have been inspired from on High, or at least so it was meant to be understood, but from what we learn in the first Book of Samuel it seems that the only criterion upon which the choice was based was the physical appearance of the candidates. The first king, Saul, was in fact chosen because of his stature, being a head taller than any of the others (1Sam.10,23). No mention is made of his hair color, but it is certain that his competitor and successor, David, had tawny hair. Samuel chose him, seemingly, for just this physical detail; in fact he ordered all Jesse's sons to be paraded before him and only when he saw the boy with the tawny hair did he indicate him as the future king (1 Sam.16,12).
This standard, based on physical appearance, seems rather coarse, but we certainly cannot accept that Samuel's motives were purely aesthetic; for the man who was to be the first king of Israel, Samuel was seeking someone who proved with certainty to be a direct descendant of Abraham and who possessed all his qualities. The only objective criterion he had to go on in order to evaluate the fitness of any candidate, was the physical aspect, which had to parallel as closely as possible that of his great ancestor. So, the fact that Samuel sought someone who was tall and had reddish-yellow hair constitutes a further clue that this was also Abraham's physical aspect.
Furthermore, the clamorous success that Sarah enjoyed in the Abimelech episode is an indication not to be lightly discarded; it gives the impression that she looked very different physically from the short and dark local women. Proof that during the 18th Dynasty individuals with Aryan characteristics were to be found in those localities, evidently coming from the Mesopotamian region, is to be seen in Egyptian paintings in the various tombs of the period. If, therefore, we are to judge on the basis of biblical indications, we have to accept without hesitation that Abraham had the look of an Aryan; this is in accord with the conclusion that he was the son of the great Mithani ruler Saushsha-Tar.
Abraham’s mother tongue, therefore had to be more like Sanskrit or Greek than Hebrew. A really surprising confirmation can be found in the books of the Maccabees, where it is reported that the high priest Jason flew from Jerusalem to seek refuge in Sparta, where he hoped to be welcome “because of their common origin”. (2 Mac, 5,9)
This common origin was also stated in a letter written by the king of Sparta, Areus, certainly Aryan, to the high priest Onia: “Areus, king of the Spartans, to the high priest Onia, hi! We have found in a holy book, in relation to the Spartans and the Jews, that they are brothers as they both descend from the race of Abraham.” (1Mac.12,20; 12,7)
Abraham, founder of the Hebrew people, was, therefore, a prince of "pure Aryan race." How tragically ironic this last statement sounds can only be judged personally by each one of us.