Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Jonathan D. Safren" <yonsaf AT beitberl.beitberl.ac.il>]

Niels Peter Lemche wrote:

> By the way, CANE does not have anything about Arameans before the Iron Age
> (Vol II, the overview of Aramean history and civilization by Paul Dion). Nor
> does Liverani, Stora (1988), nor Kuhrt, The Ancient Near East, 1995.

[JDSafren] True, that is what I claimed. The 12th century BCE is the 
beginning of the
Iron Age.

> Kuhrt
> dos not reckon any source mentioning the Chaldeans before the 9th century
> (but says that they probably were in southern Mesopotamia befofre that date.

[JDSafren] I am not talking about Southern Mesopotamia, and am oposed to the
groundless claim that Ur Kasdim was located in Southern Mesootamia.
The Aramaic-speaking Chaldeans entered Southern Mesopotamia around the same 
time that
the Aramaic-speaking Arameans entered Syria, It was because of this that 
Babylonia
slowly went over from Akkadian to Aramean. It is to be concluded that both 
kindred
peoples had originatedin the same area.

BTW, you must take into account that in the Bible the Chaldeans are called 
kasdim
<kasdu, whereas in the Babtlonian inscriptions they are already called kaldu 
- shift
of $d . ld like the  shift of $t > lt, as in  i$stu > ultu). In other words, 
the
gentilic kasdim entered the Hebrew vocabulary before the consonantal shift had
occurred, which is, I believe (my GAG is not handy) before NB and NA.
Sincerely,
--
Jonathan D. Safren
Dept. of Biblical Studies
Beit Berl College
Beit Berl Post Office 44905
Israel