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Shem son of the Biblical Patriarch Noah

 

Also Sem. Literal meanings are named or renown (father of the Semitic races - Shemites). The sons of Shem were:

Elam "eternity" (sons were Shushan, Machul and Harmon) - (Elamites, Persians); 

 

Arphaxad "I shall fail" (sons were Shelach, Anar and Ashcol) - (Chaldeans/Southern Iraqis, Hebrews/Israelis/Jews, Arabians/Bedouins, Moabites/Jordanians/Palestinians, and related groups); 

 

The Chaldeans were people who lived in southern Babylonia which would be the southern part of Iraq today.   The land of the Chaldeans was the southern portion of Babylon or Mesopotamia. It was generally thought to be an area about 400 miles long and 100 miles wide alongside of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers.

 

The Chaldeans were an intelligent and sometimes aggressive, warlike people. In 731 BC Ukinzer, a Chaldean, became king of Babylon; however, his reign was short-lived. A few years later Merodach-Baladan, also a Chaldean, became king over Babylon. Then in 626 BC Nabopolassar, another Chaldean, began what would be an extended period of time during which Babylon was ruled by a Chaldean king. During this time the word Chaldean became synonymous for Babylon, and we see many verses in Scripture where the word Chaldean was used to refer to Babylonians in general (Isaiah 13:19; 47:1, 5; 48:14, 20). Successors to Nabopolassar were Nebuchadnezzar, Amel-Marduk, Nabonidus and then Belshazzar, “king of the Chaldeans” (Daniel 5:30).

At the height of the Babylonian Empire, the Chaldeans were an influential and highly educated group of people. Some historians believe that, after Persia conquered Babylon, the term Chaldean was used more often to refer to a social class of highly educated people than to a race of men. The Chaldeans influenced Nebuchadnezzar’s decision to throw Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego into the fiery furnace (Daniel 3:8) and were well known as wise men and astrologers during the time of Jewish captivity in Babylon. (Daniel 1:4;2:10; 4:7; 5:7, 11). At the time of Daniel, Babylon was the intellectual center of western Asia, and the Chaldeans were renowned for their study and knowledge of astrology and astronomy. They kept detailed astronomical records for over 360 years, which can help us understand how the wise men from the East would have been able to recognize and follow the star that would lead them to the King of the Jews (Matthew 2:2).

 

Located about 60 miles (100 kilometers) south of Baghdad in modern-day Iraq, the ancient city of Babylon served for nearly two millennia as a center of Mesopotamian civilization.

 

One of its early rulers, Hammurabi, created a harsh system of laws, while in later times the Babylonian language would be used across the Middle East as a way of communicating across borders. Another great accomplishment, if the ancient stories are true, is the construction of the Hanging Gardens, a wonder of the ancient world, which some believe was built by the biblical king Nebuchadnezzar II.

 

Today, Babylon is a site in peril, a place impacted by modern-day wars and in need of extensive conservation and archaeological work. Its history, however, is one that continues to thrive in religious stories, ancient artifacts and popular culture.

 

“Babylon, in all its manifestations, is at once remote to us and all around us. Like no other city, its history has become bound up with legend...” write researchers Irving Finkel and Michael Seymour in the book "Babylon" (Oxford University Press, 2008).

 

Early beginnings

 

Archaeologically little is known about the early history of Babylon. Ancient records suggest that more than 4,000 years ago, at a time when the city of Ur was the center of an empire, Babylon appears to have been a provincial administration center. “Babylon had not been an independent city,” writes researcher Gwendolyn Leick in her book "The Babylonians" (Routledge, 2003).

 

 

She notes that in 1894 B.C., after the Ur-based empire had collapsed, the city was conquered by a man named Samu-abum. He was an Amorite, a Semitic-speaking people from the area around modern-day Syria. He proceeded to turn Babylon into a petty kingdom made up of the city and a small amount of nearby territory. Babylon would remain this way until, six kings later, a man named Hammurabi (1792-1750 B.C.) ascended the throne. He was the ruler who would go on to turn this once small kingdom into a great empire.

 

The empire of Hammurabi

 

Leick notes that Hammurabi had to be patient before he could expand. Located between two larger kingdoms at Larsa and Ashur, he was cautious. He used his time wisely. “At home he concentrated on improving the economic basis of his kingdom by building canals and strengthening fortifications,” she writes.

 

With the death of the king of Ashur, and the power vacuum resulting from it, Hammurabi was able to expand. After a series of campaigns, he defeated Rim-Sin, the ruler of Larsa, a man who had ruled a large kingdom for nearly 60 years. “This victory signalled the annexation of all the old urban centers, such as Ur, Uruk, Isin and Larsa,” Leick writes. Further campaigns against Assyria and Mari further expanded Hammurabi’s empire.

 

Archaeologists know little about what Babylon itself looked like during Hammurabi’s reign. “The remains of Hammurabi’s own city at Babylon are, unfortunately, almost inaccessible as the water table has risen too high to allow them to be explored,” writes researcher Harriet Crawford in a paper published in the book "The Babylonian World" (Routledge, 2007).

 

While archaeological remains are scarce, textual remains are more illuminating. Leick writes that Hammurabi's stature was such that he became regarded as a god. She notes that parents gave their children names that meant “Hammurabi is my help” or “Hammurabi is my god.”

 

Hammurabi himself would discuss the nature of his divinity in his famous law code.

 

Law Code of Hammurabi

 

While the Law Code of Hammurabi (now in the Louvre) is well known for its “eye for an eye” style of lawmaking, it also sets out the nature of the relationship between Hammurabi, the gods and the people he ruled.

 

In his view, the gods sent him to rule, with some level of compassion, over his empire. The preamble to the code says that “then Anu and Bel [both gods] called by name me, Hammurabi, the exalted prince, 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 ...” (Translation by L.W. King)

 

While Hammurabi claimed to be compassionate, his code was harsh, making liberal use of death sentences (in some cases even for stealing) and allowing the hacking off of body parts. This is a change from anearlier law code, created centuries ago by a ruler of Ur, which was more inclined to impose fines. 

 

Leick also notes that debt slavery was a problem, and Hammurabi, and later his successors, had to occasionally cancel debts. These acts “hint at a less rosy picture of crushing debt burdens incurred through falling agricultural productivity and high interest rate on loan capital taken out to meet tax demands and other obligations.”

 

Kassite period

 

Ultimately Hammurabi’s empire was not to last, falling into decline after his death. In 1595 B.C., the Hittite ruler Mursili I captured Babylon, bringing the rule of Hammurabi’s successors to a close. Researcher Susanne Paulus notes in a 2011 paper published in the journal Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für Altorientalische und Biblische Rechtsgeschichte (Supplements to the Journal of Ancient Near Eastern and Biblical Legal History) that, adding insult to injury, the Hittites seized the statue of Marduk, who had become a principal god of the Babylonians.

 

In the chaos that followed these events, a people called the Kassites (also known as the galzu) came to power in Babylon. They had access to good horses, giving them a military advantage.

 

They appear to have made an effort to win over the people of Babylon, “they brought back the statue of the major deity, Marduk, which had been stolen by the Hittites, and restored his cult in Babylon” Paulus writes. “The Kassite kings restored the temples of the Babylonian gods, while their own pantheon had little influence.”

 

The Tower of Babel?

 

Although largely destroyed today, in ancient times the ziggurat of Etemenanki (whose name means roughly the “Temple Foundation of Heaven and Earth”) would have towered over the city, located just to the north of the Esagil shrine. Like the shrine, it was dedicated to the god Marduk.

 

The Greek writer Herodotus, who lived in the fifth century B.C., describes it as a “solid tower” which is “two hundred and twenty yards long and broad; a second tower rises from this and from it yet another, until at last there are eight ...”

He says that “in the last tower there is a great shrine; and in it stands a great and well-covered couch, and a golden table nearby. But no image has been set up in the shrine, nor does any human creature lie there for the night, except one native woman, chosen from all women by the god, as the Chaldaeans say, who are priests of this god.” (Translation by A.D Godley, through Perseus Digital Library)

Leick notes that Kassite rule “brought five hundred years of stability, prosperity and peace” to Babylon.  

 

While Babylonian writing may have become more professionalized and exclusive during this period (Leick notes there appear to have been far fewer personal letters written) the language itself became widely used across the Middle East.

It turned into a “lingua franca for the whole Near East from the fifteenth to the end of the thirteenth century,” Leick writes. Babylonian works could be found in Turkey, Syria, the Levant and Egypt, as well as Mesopotamia. “Babylonian scribes were very much in demand at foreign courts ...”

 

Herodotus may have exaggerated its size somewhat with modern-day scholars believing that it rises up seven rather than eight levels. Also Herodotus believed it was dedicated to the god Bel rather than Marduk.

Still rebuilding the structure would have been an impressive feat and, as some scholars believe, may have inspired the biblical story of the Tower of Babel. The story reads in Genesis:

 

Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. As people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there. They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.”

They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”

 

 But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.  Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.” 

 

So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. That is why it was called Babel — because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth. (Genesis 11:1-9, NIV)