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  • From: JimStinehart AT aol.com
  • To: leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il, b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Terah
  • Date: Thu, 3 Jun 2010 14:35:08 EDT


Prof. Yigal Levin:

1. You wrote: “Yes, the Hebrew text says "Kasdim", not "Chaldeans". But
all "Chaldeans" is is the Greek rendering of "Kasdim", which was adopted by
most English translations as well. The Bible uses "Kasdim" for the 1st
millennium Babylonians in books like Kings, Jeremiah and Daniel, because at
that
time, the Neo-Babylonian Empire was in fact ruled by a "Kasdi/Chaldean"
dynasty (this includes the infamous Nebuchadnezzar).”

Why are you relying on Greek and Daniel in evaluating the Patriarchal narra
tives? The Patriarchal narratives are not referring “to the 1st millennium
Babylonians [as is done centuries later] in books like Kings, Jeremiah and
Daniel”. Rather, the Patriarchal narratives are a Late Bronze Age
composition
that is referring to the people in southern Mesopotamia in the Late Bronze
Age. Those were the Kassites.

2. You wrote: “And yes, during the Amarna Period (that is, what in Canaan
we call the Late Bronze Age), Babylon was ruled by the non-Semitic
"Kassites".”

We agree as to that.

3. You wrote: “But the fact is, that Genesis calls Abraham's birthplace
"Ur
Kasdim", NOT "Ur Kassim".”

In a Late Bronze Age historical context, your proposed “Kassim” would
refer to the Cushites in Africa. Abdi-Heba of Jerusalem refers to the
African
Cushites as “Kasites” [ka-$i-yi] at Amarna Letter EA 287: 33.

The historically-documented Kassite name we are dealing with here, rather,
is Karaduniyash or Karadunishe (per Amarna Letter EA 1: 1 and variant
spellings of this Kassite name in other Amarna Letters). Given the prominent
D in
Karaduniyash, the presence of the dalet/D in K%DYM is not unexpected at
all. If there is confusion in these very different types of languages
between
R and %, as many scholars have suggested is the case, then K%DYM might
likely be the expected way for Karaduniyash (or the people of Karaduniyash)
to be
referred to in Biblical Hebrew in the mid-14th century BCE.

An historical analysis helps clarify the situation. The formerly grand
city of Ur, in southern Mesopotamia, basically did not exist after the 2nd
millennium BCE. The Chaldeans do not appear in historical records until the
9th
century BCE. Thus Ur and the Chaldeans do not overlap. By contrast, Ur
was still an important provincial city in the mid-2nd millennium BCE, when
the
Kassites ruled southern Mesopotamia. Ur remained the best-known place to
buy lapis lazuli at wholesale. A reference to “Ur of the Kasdim” makes
perfect sense in a mid-2nd millennium BCE historical context, if the Hebrew
word
“Kasdim” is coming from the Kassite word for southern Mesopotamia, “
Karaduniyash”. A reference to “Ur of the Chaldeans” makes no sense in any
context.

4. You wrote: “As far as I know, the Kassites are not mentioned in the
Bible at all.”

Only in the Patriarchal narratives, because the only prose section of the
Bible that was composed prior to the 1st millennium BCE was the Patriarchal
narratives. Later Biblical authors knew nothing of the Bronze Age Kassites.

5. You wrote: “Now IF "Ur Kasdim" is the famous southern Ur, then calling
it Ur Kasdim in Genesis is an anachronism - which I personally have no
problem with.”

Au contraire, such phrase makes perfect sense in the historical context of
the mid-14th century BCE, if Karaduniyash, or the people of Karaduniyash, in
the Amarna Letters might be expected to come out in Biblical Hebrew as
K%DYM.

6. You wrote: “On the other hand, the reference COULD be to a more
northern Ur (such as the long-standing tradition of identifying Abraham's
birthplace at Urfa), in the Kasdi homeland in northern Syria, nearer to Haran
(which
makes a lot of sense anyway), precisely in order to distinguish it from the
southern Ur. The main thing that leaves me undecided is the fact, which Jim
pointed out, that both Haran and (southern) Ur were known centers of the
cult of Sin, the moon-god, and I do think that the names Terah, Laban
("Whitey"), Milkah and Sarah (both referring to the Queen of Heaven) hint
that
Terah's family were moon-worshippers. But that's not really proof of
anything.”

The people of Urfa spoke Hurrian in the Late Bronze Age. “Its original
name, Urhai, may suggest connections with the Hurrians….”
_http://www.livius.org/ea-eh/edessa/edessa.html_
(http://www.livius.org/ea-eh/edessa/edessa.html) That does not square with
the west Semitic names of Terakh and his sons
Haran and Abram.

Moreover, if Terakh was indigenous to Urfa, then why was he trying to go to
Canaan as an old man? And how could Terakh be portrayed as getting stuck
in Harran (which is only 48 km from Urfa)? The story makes total logical
sense if Terakh is indigenous to Canaan, with both Terakh and 2 of his 3 sons
having west Semitic names, and they are all on a long caravan trip from
Canaan out to Ur in southern Mesopotamia to buy lapis lazuli. Haran dies in
Ur,
at the farthest point of the trip. An old and heartbroken Terakh cannot
make it past Harran in trying to return home to Canaan. Nahor stays with his
father in Harran to take care of Terakh in Terakh’s extended old age. Of
Terakh and his 3 sons, only Abraham is the lucky one who makes it back home
to
Canaan.

7. You wrote: “Jim, you are correct in saying that the Terah family's
names are all Western-Semitic. Which is one more reason to think that their
home was in
Syria, not southern Iraq.”

In the Late Bronze Age, most people in Syria spoke Hurrian, not west
Semitic. “Urfa” is a Hurrian name! In fact, the name of Terakh’s middle
son,
Nahor/NXWR, is not west Semitic meaning “snorer” (what sense would that
make?), but rather is based on a Hurrian word, N-XW, that references the bed
of
Hurrian goddesses. That indicates that Nahor, unlike Terakh, “went native”
when he got stuck living in the Hurrian state of NHRYM at Harran.

8. You wrote: “But even in the "Kassite" period, most people in southern
Mesopotamia spoke and wrote Akkadian. The (non-Semitic) Kassite language was
used mostly by the ruling class of Kassite invaders.”

That’s true. In trying to keep my prior post short, I did not go into
those details. But as I showed in an earlier post on this thread, the
Akkadian
words for “moon”/Sin and “caravan”/harranu don’t match the name TRX at
all. No, it’s the west Semitic words that match. Terakh/TRX is accurately
portrayed in the Patriarchal narratives as being indigenous to Canaan.
Hebrew
is a virgin pure west Semitic language, and the names TRX, HRN and )BRM are
virgin pure west Semitic names, having nothing to do with Mesopotamia, and
everything to do with Canaan.

Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois



  • Re: [b-hebrew] Terah, JimStinehart, 06/03/2010

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