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=> Re: Challenge to Tiglath - Part I

Re: Challenge to Tiglath - Part I
Posted by Paul Younan (Guest) - Sunday, August 22 2004, 17:21:55 (CEST)
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Khizmie David,

I know one name like "Ishmael" occuring in Akkadian and Amorite cuneiform texts during the lifetime of Oraham might not be convincing enough...I mean, it's only *one* name.

How about if I told you that the names "Serug," "Nahor," "Terah," "Haran," and "Laban" occur at Mari? Variations of "Abraham" and "Jacob" have also been found at Mari, but no occurrence of "Isaac" has yet to turn up. (c.f., C.L. Gibson, "Light From Mari On The Patriarchs," Journal Of Semitic Studies, 7 (1962), pp. 51-52.)

As you know Khizma, Mari sat on the Euphrates between the ancient Mesopotamian cities of Haran and Ur - one the later home, and one the birthplace of Abraham. The language of the ancient cuneiform text is Akkadian and the period of the texts in question covers from 1800-1750 B.C. This period encompasses the last three kings of Mari and ends when Hammurabi conquered the city in the thirty-fourth year of his reign. Exactly the timeframe when Oraham left Ur and went to Harran, and from there westwards to Canaan.

Besides this rootedness in history, there is a great deal of information we can interpret from the names of the biblical Patriarchs themselves, in order to determine whether or not their names were genuinely Akkadian and reflect the genre of ancient Mesopotamia.

For instance, the name "Laban" in Akkadian means "white" referring to the white moon. "Sarah-Sarai" means "princess" referring to the goddess Ningal which in Akkadian is Sarratu and who is identified as the spouse of the moon god Sin. This is very significant in that it is generally recognized that Abraham's family and especially his father, the priest and idol-maker Terah, were worshippers in the lunar cult of Sin.

My objective here Khizma is to answer your challenge of how we know that Oraham was from Mesopotamia. You had raised doubts on the issue, and you had rejected the Old Testament as a historical source. I've now provided you with historical evidence from Akkadian texts in Mari of the rootedness of the names of the Patriarchs.

Farid - I know you concede the point that Oraham was from Beth-Nahrin - but Tiglath disputes this as a historical fact. It's Tiglath's dispute I am trying to address here - r-e-l-a-x.

-Paul



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