Centuries later in 620 BC, Nebuchadnezzar, a successor to Nimrod, became the ruler of Babylon and would demonstrate that founders of a nation inject their spiritual DNA into their offspring. In Jeremiah, (Jeremiah 39:3-13,) the president of the priests belonged to the highest class in the kingdom, and is called gmbr, rab-mag, a word of Persian origin, and clearly applicable to the office as described by Daniel. To understand aright the history of these times, we must take a cursory glance at the period both preceding and following that of the great Chaldean chieftain. The word Chasdim in the Hebrew and Chasdaim in the Chaldee dialects, is clearly the same as the Greek Caldai~oi; and Gesenius supposing the root to have been originally card, refers them to the race inhabiting the mountains called by Xenophon Carduchi. 13.Hist. The Bible Knowledge Commentary of the O.T., edited by Walvoord and Zuck, 1985, p. 1344, gives this chronological history of the time between Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar.. Nebuchadnezzar died in 562 B.C. 9. Judaic interpreters as early as Philo and Yochanan ben Zakai (1st century AD) interpreted "a mighty hunter before the Lord" (Heb. 1 See his Notes on Isaiah, chapter 23. p. 132; and Herod. The Belus-Nimrod equation or link is also found in many old works such as Moses of Chorene and the Book of the Bee. 6 chapter. Other than the Lee letter and the Tressell novel, the first recorded use of "nimrod" in this meaning was in 1932. 9 c. 40 and 41, also Strabo, lib. Unfortunately, certain scholars have used Nebuchadnezzars Tower of Babel Stele to say that the tower Nebuchadnezzar built became the inspiration for the Israelites tower of Babel storythat it was from this late, c. 600 b.c.e. Just as in the time of Nimrod, when the whole world spoke the same language and had one ruler, Nebuchadnezzar also ruled the whole world. Whether we adopt the view of Bishop Lowth or not, that Ninus lived in the time of the Judges, 1 we may correctly assume that some successful conqueror enlarged and beautified Babylon, five hundred years before the Chaldean era of Nabonassar, 747 A.C. Whatever the source of this wealth, whether derived from the spoils of conquered nations, according to Montesquieu, or from intercourse with India through Egypt, according to Bruce, 2 the lately discovered remains imply a very high style of art at a very remote period in the history of Assyria. The Syriac Cave of Treasures (c. 350) contains an account of Nimrod very similar to that in the Kitab al-Magall, except that Nisibis, Edessa and Harran are said to be built by Nimrod when Reu was 50, and that he began his reign as the first king when Reu was 130. Despite the claims of critics (particularly those who try to pass off the Bible as a late forgery of overly imaginative writers), archaeological finds such as Nebuchadnezzars cylinders and Tower of Babel Stele continue to provide sound evidence that backs up the biblical account. Some accounts have a gnat or mosquito enter Nimrod's brain and drive him out of his mind (a divine retribution which Jewish tradition also assigned to the Roman Emperor Titus, destroyer of the Temple in Jerusalem). He was known for his military might, the splendour of his capital, Babylon, and his important part in Jewish history. While men after the flood were likely vegans who continued to fear animals, Nimrod showed uncharacteristic fearless bravery in not only hunting animals but also eating them. Their devotion to philosophy and their practice of astronomy gained them great credit with the powerful, which they turned to account by professing to predict the future and to interpret the visions of the imaginative and the distressed. It is not easy to assign with certainty the correct dates to each of these kings, the reckoning of Josephus is here followed, which he derives from Berosus. So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. When Abraham went into the furnace and survived, Haran was asked: "Whose [follower] are you?" -- The original language of this people is a point of great interest to the biblical critic. The Nimrod Fortress (Qal'at Namrud in Arabic) on the Golan Heights[19] - actually built during the Crusades by Al-Aziz Uthman, the younger son of Saladin - was anachronistically attributed to Nimrod by later inhabitants of the area. Rawlinson (known as the father of Assyriology) translated the inscriptions as follows: I am Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon my great lord has established me in strength, and has urged me to repair his buildings the Tower of Babylon, I have made and finished the Tower of Borsippa had been built by a former king. From the Cyropaedia (Book 7:24) we ascertain that the Syriac was the ordinary language of Babylon. Etemenanki was the central tower in later Babylon, and Eurmeiminanki was the Borsippa tower described earlier, located about 11 miles away. He describes this tower as an important ancient Babylonian edifice built by a former king that, for some reason or other, the workers stopped short in finishingthey did not finish its head. Why not? 6 Volume 2, chapter 1., Babylon, p. 147, Eng. The following version of the confrontation between Abraham and Nimrod appears in the Midrash Rabba, a major compilation of Jewish Scriptural exegesis. The commentaries on this Surah offer a wide variety of embellishments of this narrative, one of which by Ibn Kathir, a 14th-century scholar, adding that Nimrod showed his rule over life and death by killing a prisoner and freeing another. Other traditional stories also exist around Nimrod, which have resulted in him being referenced as a tyrant in Muslim cultures. 8 Vaux quotes Dicaearchus, a Greek historian of the time of Alexander the Great, as alluding to a certain Chaldean, a king of Assyria, who is supposed to have built Babylon; and in later times, Chaldea implied the whole of Mesopotamia around Babylon, which had also the name of Shiner. The Ge'ez Conflict of Adam and Eve with Satan (c. 5th century) also contains a version similar to that in the Cave of Treasures, but the crown maker is called Santal, and the name of Noah's fourth son who instructs Nimrod is Barvin. Cyclop., Art. [17], The hunter god or spirit Nyyrikki, figuring in the Finnish Kalevala as a helper of Lemminkinen, is associated with Nimrod by some researchers and linguists.[18]. Several ruins of the Middle East have been named after him.[3]. volume viii., and Winer's Chaldee Gr., Introd., also Adelung's Mithridat, th. Bible Based.We believe in solo-scriptura. The views of Hengstenberg are usually so correct, that the student may generally adopt them at once as his own. Strabo also informs us that the same language was used throughout all the regions on the banks of the Euphrates. The cylinders, bearing parallel inscriptions, were found inserted into the walls of a massive, heavily damaged tower at the site. (, , etc.) Diodorus Siculus calls the Chaldeans the most ancient inhabitants of Babylonia, and assigns to their astrologers a similar position to that of the Egyptian priests. [citation needed], In some versions, Nimrod repents and accepts God, offering numerous sacrifices that God rejects (as with Cain). who uses precisely the same expression, recording its circumference as four hundred and eighty stadia, with high and broad walls. And the Babylonian kingdom continued until it fell to the Medes and Persians in 539 BC. The view of Gesenius in his Lectures at Halle in 1839, quoted in "The Times of Daniel," appears preferable, -- "The Chaldeans had their original seat on the east of the Tigris, south of Armenia, which we now call Koordistan; and, like the Koords in our day, they were warlike mountaineers, without agriculture, shepherds and robbers, and also mercenaries in the Assyrian army; so Xenophon found them." Our aim is to share the Word and be true to it. 4 3, 5 6, 7 8. 16. Son of Cush and grandson of Ham; his name has become proverbial as that of a mighty hunter. However, Ephrem the Syrian (306373) relates a contradictory view, that Nimrod was righteous and opposed the builders of the Tower. Among the ancient cities of the world, Nineveh is conspicuous for its grandeur. As it had been in ancient times, so I built up its structure . The Bible reveals that at the core of . Despite the claims of critics (particularly those who try to pass off the Bible as a late forgery of overly imaginative writers), archaeological finds such as Nebuchadnezzars cylinders and Tower of Babel Stele continue to provide sound evidence that backs up the biblical account. Michaelis and Sehlozer consider their origin to be Sclavonic, and, consequently, distinct from the Babylonians, who were descendants of Shem. regaled in the Bible as God's "shepherd" and "His anointed" (Isaiah 44:28-45:13), was not the same caliber of man as Nebuchadnezzar. [29] At this point some commentaries add new narratives like Nimrod bringing forth two men, who were sentenced to death previously. If Abraham wins, I shall say: "I am of Abraham's [followers]", if Nimrod wins I shall say "I am of Nimrod's [followers]". [citation needed] Some Jewish traditions also identified him with Cyrus, whose birth according to Herodotus was accompanied by portents, which made his grandfather try to kill him. They are supposed to have brought with them to Babylon a knowledge of astronomy superior to any then known, since they reduced their observations on the sun, moon, five planets, signs of the zodiac, and the rising and setting of the sun, to a regular system; and the Greeks are said by Herodotus to have derived from them the division of the day into twelve equal parts. Nimrod, Nebuchadnezzar & The Goddess Connection 14,225 views Premiered Jun 29, 2021 Originally Streamed live on Feb 13, 2021 Light of Yah series on Midnight Ride: MR: Nebuchadnezzar (King of. Later, Mesopotamia was conquered by Hurrians and Kassites. Now it was Nimrod who excited them to such an affront and contempt of God. ", "Surat Al-Baqarah [2:258] - The Noble Qur'an - ", "Ibn Kathir: Story of Prophet Ibrahim/Abraham (pbuh)", "Sammu-Ramat and Semiramis: The Inspiration and the Myth", "Enmerkar and the lord of Aratta: translation", Current Ummah of Islam (Ummah of Muhammad), ibn Abdullah ibn Abdul-Muttalib ibn Hashim, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nimrod&oldid=1140003548, Articles with incomplete citations from March 2017, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles containing Imperial Aramaic (700-300 BCE)-language text, Articles with unsourced statements from January 2022, Articles with unsourced statements from March 2022, Articles with unsourced statements from December 2021, Articles needing additional references from September 2021, All articles needing additional references, Pages displaying wikidata descriptions as a fallback via Module:Annotated link, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, In the Monster Hunter International series by, Mother Abiona or Amtelai the daughter of Karnebo. In the year A.C. 650, Nebuchodonosor is found on the throne of Assyria, "a date," says Vaux, "which is determined by the coincidence with the forty-eighth year of Manasseh, and by the fact that his seventeenth year was the last of Phraortes, king of Media, A.C. 634. Sieb., also lib. [Nimrod] told him: Worship the Fire! Ed., 1848. A notable example is "Quando el Rey Nimrod" ("When King Nimrod"), one of the most well-known folksongs in Ladino (the Judeo-Spanish language), apparently written during the reign of King Alfonso X of Castile. The language of both Jonah and Nahum imply exactly what the buried sculptures have exhibited to us, a state of society highly organized, with various ranks, from the sovereign to the soldier and the workman, yet effeminated by luxury and self-indulgence. After lifting up his heart in pride, Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon was stricken with madness and given the heart of a beast. Modern Babylon. He is rather the later composite Hebrew equivalent of the Sargonid dynasty: the first, mighty king to rule after the flood. 13 The testimony of Cicero is precisely similar. voce Caldai'o", and other authorities quoted by Vaux, p. 41, etc., also Cicero de Divin. Indeed, Abraham's crucial act of leaving Mesopotamia and settling in Canaan is sometimes interpreted as an escape from Nimrod's revenge. To This one comes from Rawlinsons contemporary Assyriologist, Julius Oppert. It had been under the control of various peoples and empires. Borsippa is also commonly known as Birs Nimrud, due to the strong traditional connection with Nimrod. He was the grandson of Ham, the son of Noah, a bold man, and of great strength of hand. Thus, according to Diodorus Siculus, Belesys was the chief president of the priests, "whom the Babylonians call Chaldeans," 15 and governor of Babylon. "Nimrod" is spelled: nun-mem-reish-vav-dalet. [36], According to Ronald Hendel the name Nimrod is probably a much later polemical distortion of the Semitic Assyrian god Ninurta, a prominent god in Mesopotamian religion who had cult centers in a number of Assyrian cities such as Kalhu, and also in Babylon, and was a patron god of a number of Assyrian kings. 26. (4000 B.C.-3000 B.C. the sun god, and Anaita, the goddess of fertilitysimilar to Nimrod/Tammuz and Semiramis, the old Babylonian Mystery Religiongrew in popularity until . Following the first period of Sumers rule came the kingdom of Akkad, with its great Semitic monarchs Sargon and Naram-Sin. No one but they gained power over it. he was prideful)? 2 Travels, Book 2 chapter 1. There was a historical Assyrian queen Shammuramat in the 9th century BC, in reality the wife of Shamshi-Adad V, whom Assyriologists have identified with Semiramis, while others make her a later namesake of a much earlier (again, historically unattested) Semiramis. But Nebuchadnezzars own cylinder inscriptions affirm that his tower was built as an attempt to complete the most ancient [and unfinished] monument in Babylon. He was allegedly the first king to wear a crown. of Arabia, volume 1 p. 54, and volume 2 p. 210. What was the background of Nebuchadnezzars kingdom? [47] Nibru, in the Sumerian language, was the original name of the city of Nippur. : ! i. In process of time, other kings arose and passed away, till in the thirty-first year of Manasseh, Esarhaddon died, after reigning thirteen years over Assyria and Babylon united. The association with Erech (Sumero-Akkadian Uruk), a city that lost its prime importance around 2000 BC as a result of struggles between Isin, Ur, Larsa and Elam, also attests the early provenance of the stories of Nimrod. Their religion and their language are also of importance. Similarly, Targum Pseudo-Jonathan (date uncertain) mentions a Jewish tradition that Nimrod left Shinar in southern Mesopotamia and fled to Assyria in northern Mesopotamia, because he refused to take part in building the Towerfor which God rewarded him with the four cities in Assyria, to substitute for the ones in Babel. It must never be forgotten that many centuries elapsed between Noah and Solomon, and that the most ancient profane history is comparatively modern. This fits squarely with the tower of Babel (Genesis 10:10; 11:4). Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one anothers speech. However, this traditional identification of the cities built by Nimrod in Genesis is no longer accepted by modern scholars, who consider them to be located in Sumer, not Syria. And Babylonia became weaker than the controlling Hittite and Egyptian kingdoms. [42] He also claimed that the Catholic Church was a millennia-old secret conspiracy, founded by Semiramis and Nimrod to propagate the pagan religion of ancient Babylon. [Abraham] said to him: And shall we worship the human, who withstands the wind? Forster, indeed, has argued at considerable length in favor of their Arabian origin, and supposes them the well known Beni Khaled, a horde of Bedouin Arabs. As translated above, Nebuchadnezzar literally calls this monument the Tower of Babylon. Sir Walter Raleigh devoted several pages in his History of the World (1614) to reciting past scholarship regarding the question of whether it had been Nimrod or Ashur who built the cities in Assyria.[5]. When God saw that they acted so madly, he did not resolve to destroy them utterly, since they were not grown wiser by the destruction of the former sinners; but he caused a tumult among them, by producing in them diverse languages, and causing that, through the multitude of those languages, they should not be able to understand one another. 7 Geog. At a young age, Abraham recognizes God and starts worshipping him. [citation needed], The story attributes to Abraham elements from the story of Moses' birth (the cruel king killing innocent babies, with the midwives ordered to kill them) and from the careers of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego who emerged unscathed from the fire. According to chapter. 12 Lib. However, in another version, the Homilies (H 9:46), Nimrod is made to be the same as Zoroaster. ap. Prophet after prophet recognizes its surpassing opulence, its commercial greatness, and its deep criminality. Since Akkad was destroyed and lost with the destruction of its Empire in the period 22002154 BCE (long chronology), the stories mentioning Nimrod seem to recall the late Early Bronze Age. : , , ? 4 Among the evil dictators in recent history, Saddam stands unique in his insatiable lust and selfish preoccupation with his own power and glory. a word of Persian origin, and clearly applicable to the office as described by Daniel. According to the book of Genesis, the city of Babylon was part of the territory founded by Nimrod, the great-grandson of Noah (Genesis 10:8-10). I did not change its site, nor did I destroy its foundation platform; but, in a fortunate month, and upon an auspicious day, I undertook the rebuilding I set my hand to build it up, and to finish its summit. This hollow clay cylinder is inscribed with cuneiform and records the achievements of Nebuchadnezzar II, the king of Babylon. THE ANCESTORS AND SUCCESSORS OF NEBUCHADNEZZAR. Shortly after this victory, Nabopolassar died and Nebuchadnezzar became king. They are not mentioned by name again in the books of Scripture till many centuries afterwards they had become a mighty nation. The spectacular stone monument clearly shows the Tower and King Nebuchadnezzar II, who ruled Babylon some 2,500 years ago. The 16th-century Hungarian prelate Nicolaus Olahus claimed that Attila took for himself the title of Descendant of the Great Nimrod. 1, also Pliny's N. H., lib. Subscribe to receive updates and articles from the. ", ;) they were situated north of Judea, and are identical with the people who should, according to Jeremiah, destroy the temple from the north. 12 Diodorus Siculus calls the Chaldeans the most ancient inhabitants of Babylonia, and assigns to their astrologers a similar position to that of the Egyptian priests. About UsContact UsPrayer RequestsPrivacy Policy, Latest AnswersBible LessonsBibleAsk LIVEOnline Bible. In Armenian legend, the ancestor of the Armenian people, Hayk, defeated Nimrod (sometimes equated with Bel) in a battle near Lake Van. [31], Although Nimrod's name is not specifically stated in the Quran, Islamic scholars hold that the "king" mentioned was him. In still other versions, Nimrod does not give up after the Tower fails, but goes on to try storming Heaven in person, in a chariot driven by birds. It has only recently been restudied, and the conclusions have led to great excitement in the scientific community, along with a corresponding video production by the Smithsonian Channel reexamining the authenticity of the Tower of Babel story. [The Bible, Genesis 11:28, mentions Haran predeceasing Terach, but gives no details.]|. 1 cap. Lee describes a "young nimrod from the West", who in declining an appointment to West Point expressed the concern that "I hope my country will not be endangered by my doing so. 10 The lunar year was in common use, but the solar year, with its division of months similar to the Egyptian, was employed for astronomical purposes. This was the first time one Sumerian city succeeded in doing this. b. Nimrod therefore paved the way for men to start eating meat and changed their diets from vegan to omnivore. "The question," says Heeren, "what the Chaldeans really were, and whether they ever properly existed as a nation, is one of the most difficult which history presents." The main god of the Babylonians was Marduk, who, since the time of the First Dynasty, more than a 1000 years earlier, had generally been named Bl. (Jeremiah 1:13, 14, etc.) Another Muslim historian of the 13th century, Abu al-Fida, relates the same story, adding that the patriarch Eber (an ancestor of Abraham) was allowed to keep the original tongue, Hebrew in this case, because he would not partake in the building. The Bibleas well as early secular historiesprovide the explanation. Nebuchadnezzar was then restored and even wrote part of the book of Daniel contained in the Holy Bible. Since then, it has been kept as part of the private Norwegian Schyen Collection. He supposedly had vast armies at his disposal, and when he began to enslave men for his kingdom, he decided to have them build a tower to the heavens. 10, and Freret Rcch. [Nimrod] said to him: Worship the wind! 16, and Euseb. Thus, according to Diodorus Siculus, Belesys was the chief president of the priests, "whom the Babylonians call Chaldeans,", ,) the president of the priests belonged to the highest class in the kingdom, and is called. This article is about the biblical king. The Bible states that he was "a mighty hunter before the Lord [and] began to be mighty in the earth". In the Recognitions (R 4.29), one version of the Clementines, Nimrod is equated with the legendary Assyrian king Ninus, who first appears in the Greek historian Ctesias as the founder of Nineveh. 104, 105. Both were wicked and destroyed the people of God, King Nebuchadnezzar converted to Judism in the end. To determine the question which was raised in our last, , we must investigate the origin of the Chaldeans, as it was the tribe whence Nebuchadnezzar sprung. From such a beginning, it is likely that Nimrod began to rule, and to force others to submit. From the fourth verse of chapter 2 (Daniel 2:4) we learn that they spoke the Aramaic dialect, which the Alexandrine Version, as well as Theodotion's, denominates the Syriac. The son of Cush and therefore a great-grandson of Noah, Nimrod was described as a king in the land of Shinar (Mesopotamia). Accounts considered canonical place the building of the Tower many generations before Abraham's birth (as in the Bible, also Jubilees); however in others, it is a later rebellion after Nimrod failed in his confrontation with Abraham. This Amorite Empire, of which Hammurabi was the most significant king, came to embrace all of Mesopotamia and spread into Syria, like the Akkadian Empire of Sargon. Now the multitude were very ready to follow the determination of Nimrod, and to esteem it a piece of cowardice to submit to God; and they built a tower, neither sparing any pains, nor being in any degree negligent about the work: and, by reason of the multitude of hands employed in it, it grew very high, sooner than any one could expect; but the thickness of it was so great, and it was so strongly built, that thereby its great height seemed, upon the view, to be less than it really was. Specify between which dates you want to search, and what keywords you are looking for. This victory at Ragau, or Rhages, occurred A.C. 634, just "fifty-seven years after the loss of Sennacherib's army." On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. 8 Anab. The voice of Zephaniah is soon followed by the sword of Arbaces, and Sennacherib and Sardanapalus are eclipsed by the rising greatness of Nabopolassar and Cyaxares. : , ? Later, the book describes how Nimrod established fire worship and idolatry, then received instruction in divination for three years from Bouniter, the fourth son of Noah.[14]. This tradition can also be found in over twenty other medieval Hungarian chronicles, as well as a German one, according to Dr Antal Endrey in an article published in 1979). The mid-third millennium B.C.E. Their Language. This revolt is said to have taken place in the eighteenth year of King Josiah, when the powers of Media uniting with the power of Babylonia, took and destroyed the great city of Nineveh, and reduced the people under the sway of the rising monarchy. Nimrod the "mighty hunter" was the first meat eater! In the New Monthly Magazine for August and September 1845, there are two articles very full of illustration of our subject, by W. F. Ainsworth, entitled, The Rivers and Cities of Babylonia. The sarcastic moniker was used towards the foreman (named Hunter) of a gang of workmen as a play both on his surname and on his supposed religious beliefs and sense of self-importance. c. 575 BCE. Nimrod's kingdom included the cities of Babel, Erech, Akkad, and perhaps Calneh, in Shinar (Gen 10:10). [citation needed] And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language . After the catastrophic failure (through God's will) of that most ambitious endeavour and in the midst of the confusion of tongues, Nimrd the giant moved to the land of Evilt, where his wife, Enh gave birth to twin brothers Hunor and Magyar (aka Magor). 12. section. Pictured above are mudbrick ruins of Nebuchadnezzar's city along with ancient wall lines and canals in modern day Iraq. Trans. As the Medes revolted first, so the Chaldeans rebelled afterwards, according to the usual law of separation from the parent stock, when the tribe or race grows strong enough to establish its independence. He was succeeded by his son Laosduchius, the Nabuchodonosor of the Book of Judith, whose successor commenced his reign in the fifty-first year of Manasseh, being the hundred and first of the above mentioned era. 11. [Then] they took him and threw him into the furnace, and his belly opened and he died and predeceased Terach, his father. [37] Nimrod's imperial ventures described in Genesis may be based on the conquests of the Assyrian king Tukulti-Ninurta I. 4 After returning from Ecbatana, the capital of Media, the conqueror celebrated a banquet at Nineveh which lasted one hundred and twenty days. , . The records of succeeding ages are too few to enable us to follow the stream of history: we have nothing to guide us but myths, and legends, and traditionary sovereigns, whose names are but the fictions of imagination. In rabbinical writings up to the present, he is almost invariably referred to as "Nimrod the Evil" (Hebrew: ). For more information on what archaeology says about Nimrod, the original builder of the tower of Babel, read our article NIMROD: Found?, And if the Bible is accurate about the tower of Babel, then could it also be accurate about what followedthe forced spread of humanity around the world, according to languages, from this single post-Flood group? This renowned general is usually held to be the father of Nebuchadnezzar, on the authority of Berosus, as quoted by Josephus, and of the Astronomical Canon of Ptolemy. Such an event would result in some form of a tower of Babelconfusion of languages story being carried by separate cultures all over the world. ( ", ), () He [Abraham] was given over to Nimrod. was the founder of what is termed the Chaldean, or Neo-Babylonian, Empire. George Syncellus (c. 800) also had access to Berossus, and he too identified the also historically unattested Euechoios with the biblical Nimrod. More recently, Sumerologists have suggested additionally connecting both this Euechoios, and the king of Babylon and grandfather of Gilgamos who appears in the oldest copies of Aelian (c. 200 AD) as Euechoros, with the name of the founder of Uruk known from cuneiform sources as Enmerkar. "[29] This causes the king to exile him, and he leaves for the Levant. He would suffer with this affliction for 7 years, until one day when he looked up to heaven and gave God the glory. Historians, Orientalists, Assyriologists and mythographers have long tried to find links between the Nimrod of biblical texts and real historically attested figures in Mesopotamia. Haran [Abraham's brother] was standing there. : ! The late discoveries in Egypt, and the high state of civilization attained by these "swarthy barbarians," have led the learned to the conclusion that we have hitherto lost many centuries between the flood and Abraham; and since the long list of Egyptian dynasties, as given by Manetho, has been proved accurate, it may fairly be supposed that the Assyrian sculptures will rather add to the credit of Ctesias than detract from it. Yet when the fire is lit, Abraham walks out unscathed. [9] Several Mesopotamian ruins were given Nimrod's name by 8th-century AD Muslim Arabs, including the ruins of the Assyrian city of Kalhu (the biblical Calah), which was in reality built by Shalmaneser I (12741244 BC)[4], A number of attempts to connect him with historical figures have been made without any success.