Post by Occam's Spork on Nov 24, 2012 8:01:09 GMT 10
Abram’s native city is not simply Ur in the OT (Gen. 11:31, etc.) but "Ur of the Chaldees [Chaldeans]." The qualifying phrase "of the Chaldeans" is not an anachronism as many critics hold, but as in the case of numerous archaic place names, is a later scribal gloss to explain to a subsequent age, when Ur and its location had utterly perished in southern Babylonia. This is where after 1000 B.C. the race of the Chaldeans became dominant and eventually established the Neo-Babylonian or Chaldean Empire, which the Hebrew scribe defined the then incomprehensible foreign name (Hebrew - K(ah)Sh(uh)D(ee)M, Kasdite; K(ah)S(uh)D(ee), Kasdiy, Kas-dee’, with a possible connection to Kesed, a relative of Abram) by an appellation customary in his own day.
The polytheistic eastern ancestry of the Hebrews is indicated in Joshua 24:2: "Your fathers dwelt of old time beyond the River, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nahor (Nachor): and they served other gods." This idolatrous environment out of which Abram came has been illuminated by the excavations of Ur. Until 1854 this site was completely unknown as far as being the location of the ancient city of Ur was concerned. The Arabs called it al Muqayyar, "the mound of bitumen." In that year J. E. Taylor conducted some simple excavations which yielded cuneiform cylinders stating that Nabonidus of Babylon (556-539 B.C. ) had there restored the ziggurat of Ur-Nammu. Further excavations by H. R. Hall in 1918, and C. L. Woolley (1922-1934) have made Ur a very well known site.
In Louis Waddell’s list of Sumerian Kings shown during Urash’s Dynasty of "Panch" in the Great Gap (3180 B.C.-2751 B.C.) of 430 years is named as No. 24 Rumau or Pashipadda ("Mesanni-padda") and No. 25 was called Uruduki Raman Durashi-padda or Rutasa Rama ("Anni-padda") which is dated around 2900 B.C.
The ziggurat of Ur-Nammu of Abraham’s day was erected on top of a smaller structure which may have been as old as the reign of Mes-Anne-pada of the First Dynasty of Ur (c. 2800-2600 B.C.), but its upper part was the work of Nabonidus. The bulk of the great artificial mountain had been constructed by Ur-Nammu, and his name and title were discovered stamped on the bricks. The tower was a solid mass of brickwork, 200 feet long, 150 feet wide and about 70 feet high. The facing, covering the inner core of unbaked brick, consisted of baked brick set in bitumen, eight feet in thickness. This was an artificial hill made by men to worship their gods on mountain tops on a flat plain, called "the hill of heaven" or the "mountain of God."
At Ur of Chaldees, the birthplace of Abram, that divinity of the tower of Babel was Nannar, the moon god, and his most sacred shrine was located on the top-most stage, for Ur was dedicated to this their supreme deity. A whole quarter of the city of Ur was set apart for him, and he was called "the Exalted Lord," "the Crown of Heaven and Earth," "the Beautiful Lord who Shines in Heaven." Nannar was also the king of Ur. In Ur the temenos or sacred area of Nannar was a 400 by 200 yard platform raised above the level of the town. The shrine contained the statue of the god and his bedchamber. On the terrace was the ziggurat, with twin temples, the day houses of the moon god and his consort, the goddess Nin-Gal. Another temple was called "The House of Great Plenty," this was the secret ritual of a harem, of the moon god. It also was evident that Ur was a city with an inseparable cult in Abram’s day.
www.mazzaroth.com/ChapterFour/EvidenceOfAbram.htm
The polytheistic eastern ancestry of the Hebrews is indicated in Joshua 24:2: "Your fathers dwelt of old time beyond the River, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nahor (Nachor): and they served other gods." This idolatrous environment out of which Abram came has been illuminated by the excavations of Ur. Until 1854 this site was completely unknown as far as being the location of the ancient city of Ur was concerned. The Arabs called it al Muqayyar, "the mound of bitumen." In that year J. E. Taylor conducted some simple excavations which yielded cuneiform cylinders stating that Nabonidus of Babylon (556-539 B.C. ) had there restored the ziggurat of Ur-Nammu. Further excavations by H. R. Hall in 1918, and C. L. Woolley (1922-1934) have made Ur a very well known site.
In Louis Waddell’s list of Sumerian Kings shown during Urash’s Dynasty of "Panch" in the Great Gap (3180 B.C.-2751 B.C.) of 430 years is named as No. 24 Rumau or Pashipadda ("Mesanni-padda") and No. 25 was called Uruduki Raman Durashi-padda or Rutasa Rama ("Anni-padda") which is dated around 2900 B.C.
The ziggurat of Ur-Nammu of Abraham’s day was erected on top of a smaller structure which may have been as old as the reign of Mes-Anne-pada of the First Dynasty of Ur (c. 2800-2600 B.C.), but its upper part was the work of Nabonidus. The bulk of the great artificial mountain had been constructed by Ur-Nammu, and his name and title were discovered stamped on the bricks. The tower was a solid mass of brickwork, 200 feet long, 150 feet wide and about 70 feet high. The facing, covering the inner core of unbaked brick, consisted of baked brick set in bitumen, eight feet in thickness. This was an artificial hill made by men to worship their gods on mountain tops on a flat plain, called "the hill of heaven" or the "mountain of God."
At Ur of Chaldees, the birthplace of Abram, that divinity of the tower of Babel was Nannar, the moon god, and his most sacred shrine was located on the top-most stage, for Ur was dedicated to this their supreme deity. A whole quarter of the city of Ur was set apart for him, and he was called "the Exalted Lord," "the Crown of Heaven and Earth," "the Beautiful Lord who Shines in Heaven." Nannar was also the king of Ur. In Ur the temenos or sacred area of Nannar was a 400 by 200 yard platform raised above the level of the town. The shrine contained the statue of the god and his bedchamber. On the terrace was the ziggurat, with twin temples, the day houses of the moon god and his consort, the goddess Nin-Gal. Another temple was called "The House of Great Plenty," this was the secret ritual of a harem, of the moon god. It also was evident that Ur was a city with an inseparable cult in Abram’s day.
www.mazzaroth.com/ChapterFour/EvidenceOfAbram.htm