Biblical Hebrew Forum

[John Ronning <ronning AT nis.za>]

NPLemche wrote:
 

> A lot of things to do to
> find a alternative place for Ur kasdim. However, I believe this was
> originally Cyrus Gordon's idea.

And just to remind us what Gordon said, there are lots of
other UR's, and the only point of writing 'ur kasdim would
be to distinguish it from the one everyone knew about (if
you say just Rome, everyone assumes you mean Italy, but if
you mean Rome New York you have to say so (unless you're a
local talking to locals).  Gordon also said no one in his
right mind would stop at Haran on the way to Canaan from Ur
in the south (which is referred to hundreds of times in
cuneiform sources, not a single time as Ur Kasdim).  There
was some report of relevant Ebla material but I suppose
we'll have to wait another 20 years to find out if it's
valid.

Jonathan's point about a couple other cities in the Haran
area being like names of Abraham's ancestors is also a good
one and reminds me that )R-KSDM could be related to another
of Abram's ancestors )RPKSD, as one of my teachers thought.

John Ronning