Biblical Hebrew Forum

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

----- Original Message -----
From: "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.

Whoops, you’re right. I was going by what I had been told, and that had been 
wrong.

Sumerian seems to have had no cognates, at least none recognized.
> 
> > ... 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/

Would you have been happier had I written, “The only text that mentions 
Abraham rules out that he was from Sumer”?

Karl W. Randolph.

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