"Locating Ur of the Chaldees (Hebrew: Ur Kasdim)"
16 July 2003 Updated and Revised through 26 June 2008
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Scholars are divided as to Ur's location, positing it is either Urfa in modern Turkey or Ur in Babylonia, modern Tell Mughayir alternately rendered Mugheir, Mugayyar, Muqayyer, Muqqayir or Muqqayyar. This brief article investigates the claims made by both sides. Professor Sarna, favoring it to be Babylonia, notes that the term "of the Chaldees (Hebrew: Kasdim)," dates the Abrahamic narrative to no earlier than the 7th century B.C.:
"The difficulty, however, lies with the designation "Ur of the Chaldeans." The name "Chaldeans" as applied to lower Mesopotamia does not appear before the eleventh century B.C.E., many hundreds of years after the patriarchs. The city of Ur itself could not have been called "of the Chaldeans" before the foundation of the Neo-Babylonian empire in the seventh century B.C.E. The characterization therefore, as distinct from the tradition, would seem to be anachronistic." (p. 98. "The Problem of Ur." Nahum M. Sarna. Understanding Genesis. New York. Shocken Books. 1966. reprinted 1970)
If Professor Sarna is correct, that the term "Ur of the Chaldeans" must have arisen after the rise of the Neo-Babylonian Empire of the seventh century B.C., then Genesis and the Pentateuch was probably composed no earlier than this period.
2 Kings 25:27 gives a date of ca. 562-560 B.C., this period of time being the reign of the Babylonian king Evil-Merodach, suggesting the sixth century B.C., for the composition of the National History (Genesis to Kings). "Ur of the Chaldeans" serves as a marker that the text is not earlier than the seventh century B.C. (Ur not being a part of Chaldea before that date). The Medus myth of the 7th century B.C. is another marker, it being cited by Darius I's Median general, Datis, as one of the reasons for Persia's invasion of Greece in 490 B.C.
A Jewish savant writing at the time of the Hasmoneans (2d-1st century B.C.) notes that Terah and Abraham FLED Ur of the Chaldees, when their MONOTHEISTIC CHALLENGE was "rejected" by the POLYTHEISTIC populace.
Note that this author understands his Hebrew ancestors were ORIGINALLY CHALDEANS _NOT_ARAMEANS (contra De 26:5), and that ORIGINALLY THEY LIVED IN CHALDEA _NOT_ ARAM (Syria and Haran, here rendered "Mesopotamia"). He also understands that AS CHALDEANS THEY WORSHIPPED MANY GODS, but while IN CHALDEA they came to be aware that there was only ONE GOD, and they were driven from Chaldea (Babylonia) by their CHALDEAN KINSMEN for refusing to worship any longer the ancestral gods. In other words, this anonymous Hasmonean Jewish savant understood that "monotheism" began with Yahweh revealing himself to Terah and Abraham in Chaldea (cf. Ge 11:31-32) rather than at Haran in Aram/Syria (cf. Ge 12:1-4). I have noted, below, that the adventures and feats of Enki/Ea of Eridu, in what later came to be identified with Chaldea by Hasmonean times, were preserved in cuneiform clay tablets at Ur of the Chaldees (a temple to Ea was found at Ur). Ea creates man to work in his Eridu fruit-tree garden, he has man serve him in a state of nakedness denying him the knowledge it is wrong to be naked, he gives man forbidden knowledge but denies him immortality, he causes the one language of mankind to become many languages to spite his brother-god Enlil, and he warns Ziusudra of Shuruppak of a worldwide Flood intended to destroy mankind. And on the 7th day, the sebittu day, Ea with his fellow gods can now at long last achieve a "rest" from man's constant noise, the Flood having destroyed mankind. I am sure that this Jewish Hasmonean savant had _no_ knowledge of Enki/Ea of Eridu in Chaldea being one of the prototypes of Ehyeh, Yah, Yahweh-Elohim, and he probably was also unaware of Enki/Ea's shrine/temple in Ur of the Chaldees (tell Muquyyar) unearthed by archaeologists. Did Terah and Abraham worship Enki/Ea in Ur of the Chaldees at this shrine?
Judith 5:5-9 RSV
"Then Achior, the leader of all the Ammonites, said to him, "Let my lord now hear a word from the mouth of your servant, and I will tell you the truth about this people that dwells in the nearby mountain district. No falsehood shall come from your servant's mouth. THIS PEOPLE IS DESCENDED FROM THE CHALDEANS. At one time they lived in Mesopotamia, because THEY WOULD NOT FOLLOW THE GODS OF THEIR FATHERS WHO WERE IN CHALDEA. FOR THEY HAD LEFT THE WAYS OF THEIR ANCESTORS, and they worshipped THE GOD of Heaven, THE GOD they had come to know; hence THEY DROVE THEM OUT FROM THE PRESENCE OF THEIR GODS; and THEY FLED TO MESOPOTAMIA, and lived there a long time. Then their God commanded them to leave the place were they were living and go to the land of Canaan. There they settled, and prospered..."
(Herbert G. May & Bruce M. Metzger. Editors. The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha. [Revised Standard Version]. New York. Oxford University Press. 1977)
Where possibly is the anonymous author of Judith getting his notions of Terah and Abraham being originally polytheists? Perhaps it is from Joshua's statement that Terah, Nahor and Abraham worshipped "many" gods:
Joshua 24:1-3 RSV
"Then Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and summoned the elders, the heads, the judges, and the officers of Israel; and they presented themselves before God. And Joshua said to all the people, "Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, "YOUR FATHERS lived of old beyond the Euphrates, TERAH, the father of ABRAHAM and NAHOR; and THEY SERVED OTHER GODS. Then I took your father Abraham from beyond the River and led him through all the land of Canaan, and made his offspring many."
Genesis has Yahweh revealing to Abraham just how to worship him. In light of the above assertion by the anonymous Jewish Hasmonean Savant, it would appear that Abraham's concepts of the deity _ought to be traceable_ to CHALDEAN precepts, or some "re-working" and "transformation" of CHALDEAN beliefs regarding the relationship between man and God:
Genesis 26:5 RSV
"...Abraham obeyed my voice and KEPT my CHARGE, my COMMANDMENTS, my STATUTES, and my LAWS."
Scholars understand that "Ur of the Chaldees" is an _anachronism_ when applied to Abraham who is understood to have flourished circa the 22d century B.C. (Others suggest the 21st, 20th, or 19th Century B.C.). The city did not become a part of Chaldea until the 8th-6th centuries B.C., when Chaldean tribes who inhabited the marshlands south of Babylonia and extending to Elam, seized the area and ruled it under a "Chaldean dynasty". Thus the 2nd century B.C. Hasmonean savant is applying the term Chaldean to Abraham from a "late" Jewish geographical convention which equated Babylonia with Chaldea and Babylonians with Chaldeans since the 8th-6th centuries B.C.
The following articles suggest for me, that Ur is in Lower Mesopotamia:
Kasdim (Old Babylonian "kasdu"), referred originally to the Babylonians *before* the Chaldeans took control of Babylon in the 8th century B.C. It was only after Babylon became a Chaldean city, that the older term Kasdim was transferred to the Chaldeans themselves.
Weisberg notes a location appearing in Babylonian texts from the time of Nebuchadnezzar called "Pikhat Khusetu sha Khashidia (URU NAM khu-si-e-tum sha khash-di-ia), which looks to me like Hebrew Kasdim (cf. entry 13, p.75. "Index of Geographical Names, Cities, Towns, Forts, Gates, Wharves, Regions." David B. Weisberg. Texts From the Time of Nebuchadnezzar. [Yale Oriental Series, Babylonian Texts, Vol. XVII], New Haven. Yale University Press. 1980)
Weisberg also mentions a location called Uru, followed by Uruk (Unug.ki, cf. the 23rd & 24th entries, p.75), could these be the biblical Ur and Erech of Genesis fame?
T. G. Pinches noted that some Jews of the Talmudic era had identified Uruk (south of Babylon) as being Ur of the Chaldees:
"The tradition in the Talmud and in certain early Arabian writers, that Ur of the Chaldees is Warka, the `Orecha of the Greeks and the `Orech of the Septuagint, need not detain us, as this site is certainly the Erech of Gen 10:10, and is excluded by that circumstance."
(p.193, "Abraham," Theophilus G. Pinches, The Old Testament In the Light of the Historical Records and Legends of Assyria and Babylonia, London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, [1903], revised edition of 1908)
Excerpts from appended articles follow, below (ABD is the Anchor Bible Dictionary, 1992, 6 vols. by Doubleday):
Joel C. Slayton (ABD, "Chesed," 1992):
" CHESED (PERSON) [Heb kesed]. The fourth son of Nahor and Milcah (Gen 22:22). Although it occurs only once in the Bible, this name has been associated with the people known in the Bible as the Chaldeans. Chesed is orthographically and phonologically related to the Kasdim (Heb kas d m), and this group is identified throughout the Bible with the Chaldeans (e.g. Gen 11:28; Job 1:17; and elsewhere). The Old Babylonian term kasdu, which became kaldû in Assyrian documents, is the equivalent of this term, which the LXX translates chaldion. A connection could be drawn between the clan of Chesed and these Mesopotamian "Chaldeans," but to do so based on the similarity of terms only is unadvisable."
Professor Hess on Chaldea:
"A. The Form of the Name and Its Appearance in Genesis
The distinction between the Heb kas d m (cf. also Aram) and the Gk chaldaioi (cf. also Akk kaldu) may be explained linguistically either as the "sibilant + d" being assimilated to ld in Akkadian (Millard 1977: 70-71), or as an original Arabic (?) consonant "d\" lying behind both forms (Edzard RLA 5: 296). The LXX follows the Akkadian rather than the Hebrew/Aramaic spelling. The Chaldeans are associated with Ur, where Haran, brother of Abram, died, and whence Terah, Abram, and their family set forth for Harran and Canaan (Gen 11:28, 31; 15:7; Acts 7:4). To Nahor, Abram's other brother, was born Kemuel, father of Aram, and Chesed (Gen 22:22; cf. however Saggs 1960: 208-09). The Hebrew consonants of Chesed and kas d m are identical.
B. Other Biblical References
The Chaldeans were a people with whom Judah sought an alliance which the prophets condemned using images of lust and harlotry (Ezek 16:29; 23:14-16). The Chaldeans were understood to have been brought against the people of God as a judgment (Job 1:17; Ezek 23:23; Hab 1:6). The term is applied to the Neo-Babylonian army which brought to an end the kingdom of Judah (2 Kgs 24:2; 25: 4, 5, 10, 13; 2 Chr 36:17; Jer 21:4; 22:25; 32:4-5, 24-25, 28-29; 33:5, 43; 37:5, 8-11, 13-14; 38:18-19, 23; 39:8; 43:3; 52:7, 17) and who supervised the land afterward (2 Kgs 25:24-26; Jer 40:9-10; 41:3, 18)...the Deuterocanonical narrative of Judith, the Chaldeans are a polytheistic people from whom Israel is descended (Jdt 5:6-7)."
(cf. p. 886. Vol. 1. Richard S. Hess. "Chaldea." David Noel Freedman. Editor. The Anchor Bible Dictionary. New York. Doubleday. 6 volumes. 1992)
In conclusion, then, I would suggest that the term Kasdim (Old Babylonian "kasdu") doesn't have to apply only to the Chaldean era (8th-6th centuries B.C.), it could apply to the pre-Chaldean period, giving the Abraham narratives a pre-8th century basis, and making them not neccessarily "a late tradition". But the notion that there is *no extra-biblical evidence* suggesting Ur of the Chaldees is not Babylonia/Chaldea, is not supported by some Jewish traditions as early as the 2nd century B.C.
Things haven't changed much since Pinches' day (1908) in regards to the various choices one can pick from on Ur of the Chaldees' location.
Pinches covers all the proposals of his day (which seem to still be with us today) for the identity of Ur of the Chaldees (Ur kasdim). He discusses each at some length. They are, Urfa in Northern Syria, Tell Mugheir/Muqayyar (south of Babylon, ancient Uriwa/Uru), and his own proposal that Ur is the region of northern Babylonia called Akkad by the Semites, but Uri by non-Semites (cf. pp.122 & 193, T. G. Pinches, The Old Testament, In the Light of the Historical Records and Legends of Assyria and Babylonia, London: S.P.C.K. 3rd edition: 1908).
"Eusebius quotes the following from Eupolemus concerning Abraham:
"He saith, moreover, that in the tenth generation in a city of Babylonia, called Carmarina (which, by some, is called the city of Urie, and which signifyeth a city of the Chaldeans), there lived, the 13th in descent, (a man called) Abraham, a man of a noble race, and superior to all others in wisdom." (p.146. Pinches)
"Nicolas of Damascus, apparently wishing to glorify his own city, states that Abram was king of Damascus, and went there, with an army, from that part of the country,which is situated above Babylon of the Chaldeans, afterwards transferring his dwelling to the land which was at that time called Canaan, but is now called Judea. Justin also states that Abraham lived at Damascus, from which city he traces the origin of the Jews." (p.147, Pinches)
"We see, therefore, from the 11th chapter of Genesis, that Abraham was a Babylonian from Ur, now known as Mugheir (Muqayyar), or (better still) from that part of the country which lay north of Babylon, known by the non-semitic inhabitants as Uri, and by the Semitic population as Akkad." (p.147. Pinches)
"There have been many discussions as to the position of Ur of the Chaldees. Some, on account of the distance from Canaan, apparently, have contended that Ur of the Chaldees is the same site known for many hundreds of years as Urfa, in Mesopotamia...Urfa or Orfa, called by the Greeks Edessa, was known as Orrha at the time of Isidore of Charax (date about 150 BC). Pocock, in his Description of the East, states that it is the universal opinion of the Jews that Orfa or Edessa was the ancient Ur of the Chaldees, and this is supported by local tradition, the chief place of worship there being called the mosque of Abraham, and the pond in which the sacred fish are kept being called Bahr Ibrahim el-Halil, 'the Lake of Abraham the Beloved." (p.193. Pinches)
"It is noteworthy that the transcription of the Babylonian name of the city, Urie, contains traces of the Akkadian termination -iwa (Uriwa) which is absent in the Hebrew form Ur. This is important, as it shows that at a compartively late date (Eupolemus lived just before the Christian era), the ending in question made itself felt in the transcription of the word, and that the form in Genesis, Ur, does not quite agree, as traces of that termination (two syllables in the Akkadian form) are altogether wanting in it. There can be no doubt, therefore, that the theory that Abraham lived and passed his earlier years at the Ur which is now represented by the ruins of Mugheir, originated with the Jews during their captivity at Babylon and in the cities of Babylonia. Eupolemus, as a student of Jewish history, would naturally get his information from a Jewish source, and the Jews had in common with most of the nations of the earth, a tendency to attribute to their own forefathers, whom they venerated so highly, the glory of being connected with any renowned city of great discovery of earlier ages. Thus, it arises that Eupolemus, following his Jewish informant, makes Abraham to be the inventor of astrology and Chaldean magic, and to have dwelt at Ur. It must have been the Jewish captives exiled in Babylonia who first identified Ur with the renowned city Uru or Uriwa, quite forgetting that the form of the name could not have been Ur in Hebrew, and that there was another Ur, much more suitable as the dwelling-place of a nomad-family like that of Terah and his sons, namely, the country of Akkad itself, called in non-Semitic idiom, Uri or Ura, a tract which included the whole of northern Babylonia." (p.197. Pinches)
Professor Clay (1923) noted that some Jews thought that Arabic Warka, ancient Uruk (Genesis' Erech) was Ur of the Chaldees (he favoring Ur to be ancient Mari):
"The identity of Mugheir in Southern Babylonia with Ur of the Chaldees, although possible, is by no means certain, and especially since the Jews who lived in Babylonia did not know the site, thinking that Warka (ancient Erech) was Ur, and also because St. Stephen refers to Ur as being in Mesopotamia (Acts 7:2). I have given reasons elsewhere for believing that `Ur (`wr) is to be identified with Mari on the Euphrates in Mesopotamia..."
(p. 43. Albert T. Clay. The Origin of Biblical Traditions, Hebrew Legends in Babylonia and Israel. New Haven. Yale University Press. 1923)
I am not aware of any "extra-biblical source" existing before the second century B.C. (Judith 5:5-9) in regards to pin-pointing what region Ur of the Chaldees is in.
As noted earlier, the Book of Judith (5:5-9), believed by some scholars to date from the late 2nd century B.C., identifies Israel's ancestors as being "polytheistic" Chaldeans _not_ Arameans. Eupolemus who flourished ca. 150 B.C., (the 2nd century B.C.), also understands Abraham is from Babylonia/Chaldea. Nicholas of Damascus (late 1st century B.C., a contemporary of Herod the Great) identified Damascus as Abraham's city. Now Urfa is in Syria like Damascus, so perhaps the notion that "Ur is in Syria" arose in the 1st century B.C., or sometime thereafter?
Ur is probably to be identified with ancient Uriwa/Uru, (Tell Muqayyir) south of Babylon, not Northern Syria and Urfa near Harran. Sarna's observation that Ur in Babylonia did not become a part of Chaldea until after 612 B.C., dates the composition of the Abrahamic narratives to no earlier than the 7th century B.C., Chaldea being earlier called Kaldu by the Assyrians, and associated with the marshlands to the south of Babylon and Ur.
Some scholars have noted that a number of motifs appearing in Genesis also exist in earlier Sumerian and Babylonian myths and have proposed that the Hebrews at some later time borrowed, reinterpreted and transformed these motifs about the earlier pagan gods of Lower Mesopotamia and ascribed them to their God, Yahweh-Elohim. I concur with such proposals.
In the 2d millennium B.C. Flood myth called Atrahasis, the king of the city of Shuruppak, called variously, Ziusudra, Utnapishtim or Atrahasis, is warned by the god Enki (called in Semitic Ea, Aya or Ayya) of the coming Flood and to build an ark to save his family and animals. In another myth Enki tells his servant Adapa not to eat the bread and water which will be offered him by the supreme god Anu for it is the bread and water of death. In reality, if consumed, it will bestow upon him and through him, all of mankind, immortality like a god. Enki does however give Adapa forbidden wisdom reserved for the gods only. A number of scholars suggest these motifs were reworked by the Hebrews into Yahweh-Elohim warning Adam and Eve not to eat of the two trees in Eden or they would surely die, and I agree. Another Mesopotamian myth has Enki confounding the ONE language of the world into a babel of many languages.
How does one account for these parallels between Genesis' Yahweh-Elohim (Moses' "I AM that I AM," Ehyeh asher Ehyeh, Hebrew: hayah [Exodus 3:14]) and Enki/Ea/Aya/Ayya? A possible answer is to be found in the Bible. We are told Terah and Abraham are originally of Ur of the Chaldees, identified by some scholars with Tell al-Muqayyar to the south of Babylon. Ur is actually located south of Shuruppak the city Enki appeared in to warn the Mesopotamian Noah, Ziusudra, of the coming Flood. To the south of Ur lies the city of Eridu which was the main shrine or residence of Enki, a location also famed for Enki's sacred fruit orchards (please click here for a map showing Shuruppak, Ur and Eridu). If the Bible is correct in identifying Ur of the Chaldees as being the original home of Terah and Abraham, it would make sense that the myths about Enki and mankind were perhaps transformed by either Terah or Abraham into a new story about One God, Yahweh-Elohim and Adam and Eve in Eden (Eden being a transformation of the Mesopotamian land of Dilmun in the marshes near Eridu). Perhaps Terah and Abraham's migration to Haran was because the local inhabitants rejected their "new vision" of God? That is to say, they hoped a less hostile audience at Haran might accept their reinterpretations of the Lower Mesopotamian myths about the relationship between the Gods and Mankind?
The notion that Yahweh-Elohim creates a world in 6 days and nights, resting on the 7th day, the Sabbath (Hebrew: Shabbat) and intending this to also be a day of rest for mankind, I have identified as a later Hebrew transformation and reworking of Lower Mesopotamian myths associated with the Flood in the Epics of Gilgamesh and Atrahasis. Please click here for the "Pre-biblical Origins of the Hebrew Shabbat" from the Mesopotamian Flood myths. In these myths vengeful gods in 6 days and nights destroy the world attempting to annihilate mankind for disturbing the gods' rest with his unceasing noise or clamor. These myths explain that man's clamor is because the gods WILL NOT GIVE ANY REST from his god-imposed toil. Instead of giving man a "rest from toil" they seek to annihilate him. When he is destroyed by the 6th day in the Flood (except those on Utnapishtim's ark), the clamor ceases and now, on the SEBITTU DAY, the SEVENTH DAY, _ALL_ the gods are able to REST. I have argued that a Hebrew savant, perhaps either Terah or Abraham, via an INVERSION, turned the 6 days of destruction of the earth into 6 days of creation. The demise of man on the 6th day becomes his creation on that day and the ALL the gods resting on the 7th day, the Sebittu day (Sebittu means "seven" in Akkadian/Babylonian) becomes only ONE God resting. The god's DENIAL of rest to mankind becomes Yahweh graciously setting aside a day of rest on the 7th day for mankind.
Leick on Ur, and its long history as a repository of written accounts of the myths of Lower Mesopotamia, which I understand Terah and Abraham were exposed to, and reworked and transformed while residing there (Genesis 11:31); I also understand that Israel's observance of New Moons as a type of Sabbath are because Terah and Abraham dwelt at two cities, Ur and Haran, that were centers of the Mesopotamian Moon-god cult :
"Ur, modern Tell Muqqayir, in southern Iraq (originally by the ancient coast of the Arabian Sea); ancient Sumerian city which spans the whole of Mesopotamian history. Ur was the city of the Moon-god; it was also the seat of several dynasties and one of the most important Mesopotamian sites, and a large number of Sumerian and Babylonian texts have been found there, dating from all levels of the city's occupation." (p. 174. "Ur." Gwendolyn Leick. A Dictionary of Ancient Near Eastern Mythology. London & New York. Routledge. 1991, 1996, 1997. ISBN 0-415-19811-9 pbk)
"What we define here as Babylonian myths are a number of texts which were written Akkadian during the second millennium BC...Most of these compositions, however, are preserved on tablets that were found in the great Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian archives, notably those of Nineveh, Uruk, _Ur_ and Babylon. We know from colophon entries and other reports that the majority of the texts were copies of older material...The oldest editions of some texts date from the Old Babylonian period...The Babylonians inherited the culture and religious structures of the Sumerians. The scribes of the Old Babylonian period copied and translated a number of Sumerian mythological texts...But there is also much that owes more to Syrian and Amorite concepts than Sumerian tradition." (pp. 23-24. "Babylonian Mythology." Gwendolyn Leick. A Dictionary of Ancient Near Eastern Mythology. London & New York. Routledge. 1991, 1996, 1997. ISBN 0-415-19811-9 pbk)
Leick's above observation about some of the mythological material's indebtedness to Syrian (Called "Amorite") influences, recalls to mind for me the statement in the Bible that Israel's father was "a wandering Syrian, ready to perish," (De 26:5) alluding perhaps to Abraham's second "homeland" of Haran in North Syria. Were Terah and Abraham "Syrians" who ancestors had earlier settled at Ur of the Chaldees, and who, from a Syrian point-of-view, objected to the portrayal of the relationship between gods and man in the myths ? Thus they reworked these myths into what was later the Genesis story via a series of "inversions" ?
Leick also noted a shrine honoring Enki existed at Ur :
"Enki...one of the major Mesopotamian gods...Enki was considered to be the most approachable among the 'great gods'...His main cult-centre was the lagoon-based Eridu...but as one of Mesopotamia's most prominent dieties he also had numerous temples elsewhere...Babylon...Ur, Uruk, etc..." (p. 40. "Enki." Gwendolyn Leick. A Dictionary of Ancient Near Eastern Mythology. London & New York. Routledge. 1991, 1996, 1997. ISBN 0-415-19811-9 pbk)
Leick on Eridu and its god of Wisdom, Enki, being honored, revered and preserved at Ur:
"All these narratives about Enki and Eridu emphasize the connection between the locality, especially the apsu, creation and fertility. Eridu is both primorial and immanent, the place where the world first became inhabitable, where brick and the city were invented...Fuad Safar had hoped that, in the excavation of the ruins of Eridu, 'being the most ancient and important shrine of Ea-Enki, as well as the seat of an important oracle, we should expect to find a Sumerian temple library, or at least, groups of tablets, connected with a centre of theological learning.' No such library was discovered. Except for a few inscribed bricks, no written records were found...As early as the Uruk period Eridu was tied to Ur. Some cities operated like twin cities, one as the symbolic religious centre, the other as the administrative and residential quarters...During the Ur III empire, the revitalization of ancient cult centres became a priority to further legitimacy of the great gods of Sumer. Enki's shrine was not only local, it was also one of the most ancient and prestigious. The vast expenditure on the ziggurat of Enki was justified as a means of re-establishing the proper functioning of the shrine -for the benefit of the whole country, courtesy of the king of Ur. At Ur there was an important scribal centre and most of the texts concerning the god Enki were preserved and perhaps composed at Ur...Throughout the ages, Mesopotamian tradition identified Eridu as the most ancient of cities, as a holy place, the very site of creation." (pp. 26-29. "Eridu Stories." Gwendolyn Leick. Mesopotamia, The Invention of the City. London. Penguin Books. 2002)
Leick on Eridu being the Mesopotamian equivalent of Genesis' "Garden of Eden" :
"Eridu is the Mesopotamian Eden, the place of creation...the Mesopotamian Eden is not a garden but a city...mankind is created to render service to god..." (pp. 1-2. "Eridu." Gwendolyn Leick. Mesopotamia, The Invention of the City. London. Penguin Books. 2002)
Kramer on Enki's visit to Ur and his blessing of it on behalf of the god Enlil :
"Enki then goes to Ur, no doubt the capital of Sumer at the time our poem was composed, and decrees its fate :
"To Ur he came, Enki, king of the abyss, decrees the fate: "O city, well-supplied, washed by much water, firm standing ox, shrine of abundance of the land, knees opened, green like the 'mountain', Hashur-forest, wide shade...heroic, thy perfected decrees he has directed, 'the great mountain', Enlil, in the universe has uttered thy exalted name; O thou city whose fates have been decreed by Enki, O thy shrine Ur, neck to heaven mayest thou rise." (p. 60. Samuel Noah Kramer. Sumerian Mythology, A Study of Spiritual and Literary Achievement in the Third Millennium BC . Philadelphia. University of Pennsylvania Press. 1944, revised 1961; reprint 1972. ISBN 0-8122-1047-6 pbk)
It would appear to me, that Enki and his exploits would be "well-known" to the citizens and residents of Ur of the Chaldees, including Terah and Abraham.
Please click here for my article arguing that Eridu is _one of the prototypes_ behind Genesis' Garden of Eden.
Professor Allan R. Millard has an on-line article noting that Urfa of modern day Turkey near Harran (favored by the late Jewish scholar Professor Cyrus H. Gordon) and Ur south of Babylon (favored by Millard), as sites being in contention with each other for the honor of being Ur of the Chaldees; cf. his article titled "Where was Abraham's Ur ?"
I have argued, along with others, that the Hebrews have apparently transformed the Mesopotamian myths in Genesis, but how does one account for this from a biblical point of view ? Where's the "LINK"? Perhaps the "MISSING LINK" is _Ur of the Chaldees_, where lived Terah and his son Abraham before their departure to Haran in northern Syria ? Excavations at Ur (Tell el Muqqayar, south of Babylon) have uncovered tablets from all periods of the city's long history, and some preserve the myths of this region dating back to Sumerian times. Leick noted that at times Syrian (Amorite) influence is detectable in some of these myths, they are not "purely" Sumerian, they have been reworked and augmented. Perhaps Terah and Abraham's ancestors were Syrians who had earlier settled at Ur? Did a "Syrian" Terah and Abraham later come "to make a break" with the local myths and develop their own interpretation of the relationship between God and Man, via inversions of the local myths? Did they leave Ur because the local populace rejected their new insights or "revelations" and return to their ancestral homeland of Haran, to promulgate their new vision to a less hostile audience?
Professor Kramer on Abraham of Ur being Genesis' "missing link":
"To be sure, even the earliest parts of the Bible, it is generally agreed, were not written down in their present form much earlier than 1000 B.C., whereas most of the Sumerian literary documents were composed about 2000 B.C. or not long afterward. There is, therefore no question of any contemporary borrowing from the Sumerian literary sources. Sumerian influence penetrated the Bible through the Canaanite, Hurrian, Hittite, and Akkadian literatures -particularly through the latter, since, as is well known, the Akkadian language was used all over Palestine and its environs in the second millennium B.C. as the common language of practically the entire literary world. Akkadian literary works must therefore have been well known to Palestinian men of letters, including the Hebrews, and not a few of these Akkadian literary works can be traced back to Sumerian protoypes, remodeled and transformed over the centuries.
However, there is another possible source of Sumerian influence on the Bible, which is far more direct and immediate than that just described. In fact, it may well go back to Father Abraham himself. Most scholars agree that the Abraham saga as told in the Bible contains much that is legendary and fanciful, it does have an important kernel of truth, including Abraham's birth in Ur of the Chaldees, perhaps about 1700 B.C., and his early life there with his family. Now Ur was one of the most important cities of ancient Sumer; in fact, it was the capital of Sumer at three different periods in its history. It had an impressive edubba [scribal school]; and in the joint British-American excavations conducted there between the years 1922 and 1934, quite a number of Sumerian literary documents have been found. Abraham and his forefathers may well have had some acquaintence with Sumeriabn literary products that had been copied and created in their home town academy. And it is by no means impossible that he and the members of his family brought some of this Sumerian lore and learning with them to Palestine, where they gradually became part of the traditions and sources utilized by the Hebrew men of letters in composing and redacting the books of the Bible." (p. 292. "The Legacy of Sumer." Samuel Noah Kramer. The Sumerians, Their History, Culture, and Character. Chicago. The University of Chicago Press. [1963] reprint 1972. ISBN 0-226-45237-9. paperback)
Below: A map of Ur of the Chaldees, the home of Abraham (cf. p. 167. map titled: "Plan of the City of Ur, according to the latest Excavations." James Henry Breasted. Ancient Times A History of the Early World. Volume I, The Ancient Near East. Boston. Ginn & Co. 1916, 1963. Second Revised Edition).
