Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Karl Randolph" <kwrandolph AT email.com>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Peter Kirk" <peterkirk AT qaya.org>
> 
> On 10/05/2005 00:17, kwrandolph wrote:
> 
> > ...
> >
> > Further, Abraham was not even from Sumer, but from Ur of the 
> > Chaldeans, which spoke a different language. Would Abraham have 
> > even known about the Sumerian legends? That there are 
> > similarities between the Sumerian and Biblical flood accounts 
> > could also be the result of a common source for those and all 
> > flood accounts around the world.
> 
> 
> Hold on, Karl. I agreed with you that Ur of the Chaldees MIGHT not 
> be the traditional Ur, a major Sumerian city in southern 
> Mesopotamia. But you are going too far to imply that it CERTAINLY 
> WAS not. We just don't have enough information. Anyway, many of the 
> Sumerian myths are known to have been translated or reworked in 
> Akkadian, a Semitic language close enough to what Abraham might 
> have spoken that these myths would surely have been known in a form 
> which he could understand.
> 
> This is not an argument for you to disbelieve the Bible or assume 
> that Genesis is simply a reworking of Sumerian myths. But it does 
> allow for cross-fertilisation between different ancient accounts of 
> the Creation and the Flood.
> 
> -- Peter Kirk
> peter AT qaya.org (personal)
> peterkirk AT qaya.org (work)
> http://www.qaya.org/

Peter:

We have all heard about Kirkland, Washington, U.S.A., but how many of us know 
about Kirkland, Quebec, Canada? Similarly Moscow is the capital of Russia, 
but that is not Moscow, Idaho, U.S.A. Today Las Vegas, Nevada is known world 
wide for its gambling, but as late as 1950 it was less well known than Las 
Vegas, New Mexico. Thus when the Bible talks about a Ur of the Chaldeas, I 
find it pretty hard to relate it to Ur of the Sumerians, especially when I 
find out that the Sumerians spoke an Indo-European language. That there was 
an ancient town in a Semitic language speaking area with a name whose 
pronunciation was almost identical to the Biblical Ur pretty much clinches it 
for me.

As for the spread of the flood story, did it come to the Sumerians via the 
Chaldeans, or did the Chaldeans get it from the Sumerians, or did both get it 
from a third source independently of each other? The same with other stories 
known among both groups. The problem is that too much information has been 
lost from then to now, and archeology is too imprecise a tool to give an 
answer.

Karl W. Randolph.

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