Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>]

On 11/05/2005 20:29, Karl Randolph wrote:

> ...
>
> 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. ...

This point is not true. As for the rest, you may well be right, but you 
need some more convincing evidence to be sure.

> ... 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.
>  

Precisely. That is why I objected to your unqualified "Abraham was not 
even from Sumer".


--
Peter Kirk
peter AT qaya.org (personal)
peterkirk AT qaya.org (work)
http://www.qaya.org/



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