Nadene Goldfoot
In the narrow sense, Mesopotamia is the area between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, north or northwest of the bottleneck at Baghdad
Abraham was born in the 2nd millennium BCE, which means about 2,000 BCE, or more like the year 1948 BCE. His father, Terah, had emigrated there from the Euphrates River south to Ur along with others. Ur is found in Iraq, almost where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers join. This was about 4,000 years ago. Terah was an idol-maker, so he opened up a shop there, making many clay idols.
Many clay tablets have been found in excavations. " Many hundreds of clay tablets show how the foreign trade was organized. The “sea kings” of Ur carried goods for export to the entrepôt at Dilmun (Bahrain) and there picked up the copper and ivory that came from the east. The clay tablets were found in the residential quarter of the city, of which a considerable area was excavated.
Terah and Abraham lived either under the rule of King Hammurabi of Babylon in about the 18th Century BCE or before. Hammurabi was a Semite who ruled from 1728-1686 BCE. He is known for his famous legal code that was only discovered in the beginning of this century. It concerns many aspects of social life, and its penalties are generally severe, enforcing the JUS TALIONIS (Retaliation authorized by law, or-an eye for an eye). It resembles the Biblical legislation of Moses that came along several hundred years later. There are many sections highly improved by Moses. These differences result from the secular and political nature of Hammurabi's legislation, which is based on custom and obedience to the king's will. This contrasts to the religious and ethical nature of the Torah with its appeal to the human conscience.
"Many large state temples were excavated, as were some small wayside shrines dedicated by private persons to minor deities, the latter throwing a new light upon Babylonian religious practices; but the domestic chapels, with their provision for the worship of the nameless family gods, are yet more interesting and have a possible relation to the religion of the Hebrew patriarchs."
For that period, the Hammurabi Code does give people something to measure their behavior by as well as the king, of course. It was a beginning step that have even followed something before this time of a uniform legal tradition rooted in Mesopotamian culture.
The moon was worshipped by these Babylonian people. " The excavation at al-ʿUbayd, a suburb of Ur," unearthed "a small temple also of a type previously unsuspected, richly decorated with statuary, mosaics, and metal reliefs and having columns sheathed with coloured mosaic or polished copper. The inscribed foundation tablet of the temple, stating that it was the work of a king of the 1st dynasty of Ur, dated the building and proved the historical character of a dynasty that had been mentioned by ancient Sumerian historians but that modern scholars had previously dismissed as fictitious.
Resource: https://www.britannica.com/place/Ur.
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia-Hammurabi
http://www.ushistory.org/civ/4c.asp
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marduk
Abraham was born in the 2nd millennium BCE, which means about 2,000 BCE, or more like the year 1948 BCE. His father, Terah, had emigrated there from the Euphrates River south to Ur along with others. Ur is found in Iraq, almost where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers join. This was about 4,000 years ago. Terah was an idol-maker, so he opened up a shop there, making many clay idols.
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| Terah, father of Abram: Abraham He left Ur of the Chaldees to travel to Canaan with Abraham and his nephew, Lot. On the way they settled in Haran where Terah died. Terah was a devout idolator challenged in his beliefs by Abraham. They had many gods, as it was a polytheistic society. |
Many clay tablets have been found in excavations. " Many hundreds of clay tablets show how the foreign trade was organized. The “sea kings” of Ur carried goods for export to the entrepôt at Dilmun (Bahrain) and there picked up the copper and ivory that came from the east. The clay tablets were found in the residential quarter of the city, of which a considerable area was excavated.
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| Hammurabi-sitting in this relief "An eye for an eye ..." is a paraphrase of Hammurabi's Code, a collection of 282 laws inscribed on an upright stone pillar. The code was found by French archaeologists in 1901 while excavating the ancient city of Susa, which is in modern-day Iran. (We have 613 laws given us by Moses) Hammurabi explains his code and himself: who feared God, to bring about the rule of righteousness in the land, to destroy the wicked and the evil-doers; so that the strong should not harm the weak; so that I should rule over the black-headed people like Shamash, and enlighten the land, to further the well-being of mankind.....
Hammurabi didn't fool around. How about this ruling:
If any one is committing a robbery and is caught, then he shall be put to death.
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Terah and Abraham lived either under the rule of King Hammurabi of Babylon in about the 18th Century BCE or before. Hammurabi was a Semite who ruled from 1728-1686 BCE. He is known for his famous legal code that was only discovered in the beginning of this century. It concerns many aspects of social life, and its penalties are generally severe, enforcing the JUS TALIONIS (Retaliation authorized by law, or-an eye for an eye). It resembles the Biblical legislation of Moses that came along several hundred years later. There are many sections highly improved by Moses. These differences result from the secular and political nature of Hammurabi's legislation, which is based on custom and obedience to the king's will. This contrasts to the religious and ethical nature of the Torah with its appeal to the human conscience.
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| The Dragon belonging to Marduk, god of Babylon |
"Many large state temples were excavated, as were some small wayside shrines dedicated by private persons to minor deities, the latter throwing a new light upon Babylonian religious practices; but the domestic chapels, with their provision for the worship of the nameless family gods, are yet more interesting and have a possible relation to the religion of the Hebrew patriarchs."
For that period, the Hammurabi Code does give people something to measure their behavior by as well as the king, of course. It was a beginning step that have even followed something before this time of a uniform legal tradition rooted in Mesopotamian culture.
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| The God Marduk and his pet dragon |
Oldest Code Known
The oldest known evidence of a law code are tablets from the ancient city Ebla (Tell Mardikh in modern-day Syria). They date to about 2400 B.C.E. — approximately 600 years before Hammurabi put together his famous code. Ebla (Arabic: إبلا, modern: تل مرديخ, was one of the earliest kingdoms in Syria. Its remains constitute a tell located about 55 km (34 mi) southwest of Aleppo near the village of Mardikh.
4,500 Years Old Ebla Tablets Confirm the Name of God as Yahweh & Prophets
The Ebla tablets comprise of as many as 1800 complete clay tablets, 4700 fragments and many thousand minor chips were found in the palace archives of the ancient city of Ebla in Syria.
The Ebla tablets were discovered by Italian archaeologist Paolo Matthiae and his team in 1974 - 75 during their excavations at the ancient city of Tell Mardikh. They all date to the period between 2500 B.C. and the destruction of the city 2250 B.C. .
This Ebla tablet is found at Ebla in Syria. The word Yahwe is found inscribed in the Ebla tablet.
The Ebla tablets contain many Semitic names such as Adam, Abraham, Esau, Ishmael, David and Saul. They also discussed the Canaanites and Hittites and refer to ancient Urusalima (Jerusalem), Hazor, Meggido and other cities mentioned in the Bible.
The moon was worshipped by these Babylonian people. " The excavation at al-ʿUbayd, a suburb of Ur," unearthed "a small temple also of a type previously unsuspected, richly decorated with statuary, mosaics, and metal reliefs and having columns sheathed with coloured mosaic or polished copper. The inscribed foundation tablet of the temple, stating that it was the work of a king of the 1st dynasty of Ur, dated the building and proved the historical character of a dynasty that had been mentioned by ancient Sumerian historians but that modern scholars had previously dismissed as fictitious.
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| Sargon II |
A few personal inscriptions confirmed the real existence of the almost legendary ruler Sargon I, king of Akkad, who reigned in the 24th century BCE, and a cemetery illustrated the material culture of his time." A" ziggurat, a three-storied solid mass of mud brick faced with burnt bricks set in bitumen, rather like a stepped pyramid" had "on its summit a small shrine, the bedchamber of the moon god Nanna (Sin), the patron deity and divine king of Ur."
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| 4th millennium BCE pottery found in Susa It looks to me that they had invented the pottery wheel. |
In an ancient cemetery from an earlier period " kings were buried along with a whole retinue of their court officials, servants, and women, privileged to continue their service in the next world. Musical instruments from the royal tombs, golden weapons, engraved shell plaques and mosaic pictures, statuary and carved cylinder seals, all are a collection of unique importance, illustrating a civilization previously unknown to the historian." Tombs uncovered " produced royal tombs containing almost incredible treasures in gold, silver, bronze, and semiprecious stones."
"The houses of private citizens in the Larsa period and under Hammurabi of Babylon (c.18th century BCE, in which period Abraham is supposed to have lived at Ur) were comfortable and well-built two-story houses with ample accommodation for the family, for servants, and for guests, of a type that ensured privacy and was suited to the climate. In some houses was a kind of chapel in which the family god was worshipped and under the pavement of which members of the family were buried.
By working back to an even earlier period, to the " 4th millennium BCE, the city was founded by settlers thought to have been from northern Mesopotamia, farmers still in the Chalcolithic phase of culture. There is evidence that their occupation was ended by a flood, formerly thought to be the one described in Genesis. From the succeeding “Jamdat Nasr” (Late Protoliterate) phase, a large cemetery produced valuable remains allied to more sensational discoveries made at Erech (Uruk- was an ancient city of Sumer (and later of Babylonia), situated east of the present bed of the Euphrates river, on the dried-up, ancient channel of the Euphrates, some 30 km east of modern Samawah, Al-Muthannā, Iraq.[.)
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| Cyrus the Great II died in 529 BCE, King of Persia. He had conquered many places including overrunning the Babylonian Empire which included Eretz Yisrael. He was different than other monarchs in that he had an enlightened policy towards his subject peoples. In 538 BCE he granted permission to the exiles of Judah held captive in Babylon to return to their homeland of Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple of Solomon that Nebuchadnezzar had destroyed. Cyrus was even thought of being the son of Queen Esther, the Jewish niece of Mordecai written about who saved all the Jews from being slaughtered by the King's edict-the desire of Haman, Chief Minister of his court. That would have made Cyrus's father King Ahasuerus. |
"The last king to build at Ur was the Achaemenian Cyrus the Great, whose inscription on bricks is similar to the “edict” quoted by the scribe Ezra regarding the restoration of the Temple at Jerusalem. The conqueror was clearly anxious to placate his new subjects by honouring their gods, whatever those gods might be. But Ur was now thoroughly decadent; it survived into the reign of Artaxerxes II, but only a single tablet (of Philip Arrhidaeus, 317 BCE) carries on the story. It was perhaps at this time that the Euphrates changed its course; and with the breakdown of the whole irrigation system, Ur, its fields reduced to desert, was finally abandoned."
Resource: https://www.britannica.com/place/Ur.
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia-Hammurabi
http://www.ushistory.org/civ/4c.asp
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marduk
