Nadene Goldfoot
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The First Dynasty of Ur was a 26th-25th century BCE dynasty of rulers of the city of Ur in ancient Sumer. It is part of the Early Dynastic period III of the history of Mesopotamia. It was preceded by the earlier First Dynasty of Kish and the First Dynasty of Uruk. History can go WAY BACK.
Abram will even later migrate with his family to Haran, a trading town of NW Mesopotamia and center of a moon cult. Instead of continuing to Canaan, they stopped and settled in Haran where Terah died at the age of 205. Abraham’s departure from Haran is recorded on the Biblical Timeline Chart around 2004 BC. which was his age of 75. People of Ur were not Semites. They would not understand each other, so the Chaldeans will become a bi-lingual people.
Assyrian inscriptions from this time mention a Habiru (Hebrew) settlement in the vicinity which some scholars link with Abraham's father, Terah's home there. They the 12th century CE, a small Jewish community still was in existence-found by Benjamin of Tudela, historian.
Sir Woolsey mentions that "the Chaldaeans and Aramaeans emerged as major political forces. The city of Ur retained some vestiges of independence within the territory of the Chaldaean tribe of Bir-Jakin. Actually, I found that there had been 5 tribes of Chaldaeans. This was the period when it might most appropriately have been known as "Ur of the Chaldees." The question now is, which tribe did Abram and Terah belong? We can see that Abram was an individualistic thinker among his own Chaldean people, his own tribe, even; unique, like an Einstein.
We should be very familiar with the title of Abraham's city of birth being Ur of the Chaldees, and the question came up as to why not just Ur and what was the Chaldees suffix? We've learned that there was a small nation of Chaldea lying more in the land of Persia further eastward that had migrated into the lands of the Euphrates River to the city of Ur and through the centuries, those immigrants and their descendants had become the mightier force of the city. They were Semitic people, and that means they were Hebrew or Arabic speakers of some blend or other, while the native population were not.
It could even be that Ur had its Chaldean neighborhoods, just like minorities have their neighborhoods today in large cities. Since they had become a more powerful influence on the city, it could even be that the Royalty were Chaldeans. The history handed down to Moses who wrote all this in Genesis was that Abraham (name now changed to signify his changes) was from Ur of the Chaldees...the Chaldees area of Ur and its people, not the general original native population.
Come, let us make a city and a tower": Pieter Bruegel the Elder's Tower of Babel and the Creation of a Harmonious Community in Antwerp - Journal of....
The people of Babylon, known to us in the Bible as the Land of Shinar or of the Kasdim (Chaldees) after they became powerful to become the leading people.
From the earliest periods, Nanna/Su'en was the patron deity of the city of Ur. The name of his main sanctuary in Ur was é-kiš-nu-gál, the name also used for the moon god's sanctuaries in Babylon and Nippur (George 1993: 114). From the Akkadian period until the middle of the Old Babylonian period, the daughter of the reigning king was appointed to be the high-priestess of the moon god at Ur (Krebernik 1993-98b: 367-9). ... Other Mesopotamian cult places for the moon god include Ga'eš, a place in the neighbourhood of Ur,... Beyond the alluvial plains of Mesopotamia, a cult centre of Nanna/Su'en is attested at Harran, south-east of modern Urfa, from the Old Babylonian period onwards, where the temple name was é-húl-húl "House of Rejoicing" (Krebernik 1993-98b: 368). At Harran a long inscription was found on a stele, which commemorates Adda-guppi, the mother of Nabonidus, and which celebrates her reverence of the moon god. Another stele inscription from Harran describes Nabonidus' accession to the throne,...
Abraham's message to the world, coming to him from G-d, was that there was but ONE G-d, not a multitude of gods, ONE power that created the world. He had lived with the people in Haran who had worshipped the moon god, Nanna and his wife, etc, yet came to this conclusion anyway.
After Abraham's day lived Hammurabi, the king in Babylon (1728-1686 BCE) who was the great lawgiver. His famous legal code was recently discovered concerning social life and its penalties that were so severe, all rooted in Mesopotamian culture.
Moses, according to Jewish time, was born later in Egypt (1391-1271 BCE who gave us his original Ten Commandments and then more, adding up to 613. He was a Prince of Egypt and was educated there, capable of reading and writing.
Much later in Babylon, their king Nebuchadnezzar II (604-561 BCE) inherited the Assyrian empire when he conquered our last of the 10 tribes, Judah in 597 and again in 586 BCE when he exiled these to Babylon. Cyrus, the next king of power had permitted the Judeans (Jew) to return to Jerusalem in 539 BCE, but not all took him up on this offer. It was a hard trek; they were born in Babylon and had only heard about Jerusalem from grandparents. So the population became intermingled with Jews, especially in the towns of Nehardea, Nisibis, Mahoza with all Jewish populations.
During the Roman occupation in Judaea of about (98-117 CE )the Babylonian Jews rose against emperor Trajan in a revolt due to his oriental policy that led to a major clash. The Roman commander, Lucius Quietus (116 CE) suppressed it. Trajan had ordered a massacre of the Jews in Mesopotamia. Judea itself was kept under firm control by Lucius. The suppression of the various risings ended the prosperity of the Jewish settlements in Egypt, Cyrenaica and Cyprus.
Jews of Babylon enjoyed an extensive measure of internal autonomy under both Persian and Parthian rule that followed. They had an exilarch of Davidic descent who was the king's representative, while the community was governed by a council of elders. At this time the produced the Babylonian Talmud. They were learned in Jewish studies and had produced works of literary merit like Ezekiel, Daniel, and Tobit.
Babylon had earned a good name by the beginning of the new 3rd century and became the main center of rabbinic studies, academics being founded by Samuel at Nehardea and by Rav at Sura, while in the later 3rd century, the academy of Pumbedita was founded to replace that at Nehardea that was destroyed in 261. By 425 Babylon had become the spiritual center for all Jewry.
Then persecutions happened in the 5th century which led to the Jewish revolt under Mar Zutra II who held out for 7 years but was finally captured and killed in 520. He had been a Babylonian exilarch and at the age of 15 had succeeded his father, Huna, who had been killed in the religious persecutions instigated by Firuz of Persia. Revolting in 513 against king Kohad, Zutra established an independent Jewish state in the district of Mahoza, which lasted for 7 years. After his defeat, he and his grandfather, R Hananiah, were crucified. His son, Mar Zutra III, born on the day of his death, was taken to Palestine, where an unsuccessful attempt was made to revive the Patriarchate for him.
Do you notice that everywhere, people fight for their independence? They don't like to be told what to do by others, what they can or cannot be allowed to do.
The Talmud was finished at about this period. the position of the Jews continued to be difficult until the Arab conquest of the 7th century. Just think of that. Arab made life much better for Jews ! What a history we have had!
These outstanding Jews could have all been descendants of Abraham, Moses, and King David, and Hillel. All would have been from a little Semitic tribe of Chaldea East of Ur.
Resource:
Book: UR "of the Chaldees" by Moorey-about Woolley and Ur
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
https://amazingbibletimeline.com/blog/abraham-75-years-old-departed-with-lot-from-haran/
Tanakh (Bible) Genesis 11:31-32; Genesis 12
http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/amgg/listofdeities/nannasuen/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mar-Zutra_II
https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/15307-zutra-mar-ii
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/a-jewish-kingdom-in-ancient-babylon-452113
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