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James Henry Breasted, History of Europe Ancient and Medieval, 1920

Page 42: 63. The Plain of Shinar (or Babylonia). As on the Nile, so also in Tigris-Euphrates history the earliest of the three chapters will be found in the lower valley near the rivers' mouths. This earliest chapter is the story of Babylonia. As the Two Rivers approach most closely to each other, about one hundred and sixty or seventy miles from the Persian Gulf, they emerge from the desert and enter a low plain of fertile soil, formerly brought down by the rivers. This plain, lying at the eastern end of the Fertile Crescent, is best known as Babylonia. But during the first thousand years of its known history, the city of Babylon, from which it was afterward named, either did not yet exist or was only an insignificant village.

This plain was originally called Shinar. It was rarely more than forty miles wide and contained probably less than eight thousand square miles of cultivable soil — roughly equal to the area of New Jersey. It lies in the Mediterranean belt of rainy winter and dry summer, but the rainfall is so scanty (less than three inches a year) that irrigation of the fields is required in order to ripen the grain. When properly irrigated the Plain of Shinar is prodigiously fertile, and the chief source of wealth in ancient Shinar was agriculture. This plain was the scene of the most important and long-continued of those frequent struggles between the mountaineer and the nomad, of which we have spoken.

Page 43: 64. Sumerian Mountaineers in Shinar and their Civilization. We can find no relationship in race between the mountaineers and the Semitic nomads of the Arabian desert. We find the mountaineers shown on monuments of stone as having shaven heads and wearing heavy woolen kilts, and we know that they were a white race called Sumerians. Long before 3000 B.C. they had entered the Plain of Shinar and had reclaimed the marshes around the mouths of the Two Rivers. The southern section of the Plain of Shinar therefore came to be called Sumer, after the Sumerians.

Page 44: 65. The Sumerian Temple-Towers, Houses, and Towns. Almost in the center of the Plain of Shinar rose a tall tower. It was of sun-dried brick, for there was no stone in all Babylonia. It was the dwelling of Enlil, the great Sumerian god of the air. The tower served as an artificial mountain, probably built in memory of some ancient temple on a hilltop in the form mountain home of the Sumerians.

Page 45: ISimilar towers became common in the Plain of Shinar, and it was such a temple-tower in Babylon which later gave rise to the story of the "Tower of Babel" among the Hebrews. The Sumerian temple-tower was the ancestor of our church steeple (Ancient Times, Fig. 272).

Page 46: 67. Sargon of Akkad — Earliest Semitic Supremacy (about 2750 B.C.). The Semitic tribesmen from the desert had early begun to migrate into the Plain of Shinar, north of Sumer. By the middle of the twenty-eighth century B. C. they had established a kingdom there known as Akkad. This region comprised the narrow strip of land where the Two Rivers approach each other most closely (see map, p. 42). The men of Akkad, or Akkadians, under a bold and able leader named Sargon, descended the Euphrates and conquered the Sumerians. Thus arose the first Semitic kingdom of importance in history, and Sargon I, its founder (2750 B.C.), is the first great name in the history of the Semitic race.

Page 48: 69. Hammurapi—the Second Semitic Supremacy. Centuries of struggle between the Sumerians and Semites ensued. Not long before 2200 B.C. a tribe of Amorites (§61) came in from the west and seized the little town of Babylon. Hammurapi, one of their later kings, fought for thirty years and conquered all Babylonia (about 2100 B.C.). Again the desert won, as this second great Semitic ruler, Hammurapi, raised King Naram-Sin of Akkad, one of the successors of Sargon I (§ 67), has pursued the enemy into a mountain stronghold. His heroic figure towers above his pygmy enemies, each one of whom has fixed his eyes on the conqueror, awaiting his signal of mercy. The sculptor, with fine insight, has depicted the dramatic instant when the king lowers his weapon as the sign that he grants the conquered their lives Babylon, thus far a small and unimportant town, to be the leading city in the Plain of Shinar. Beginning with Hammurapi we may more properly call the plain "Babylonia."

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James Henry Breasted, Survey of the Ancient World, 1919

Page 58: 98. The Plain of Shinar (or Babylonia), the scene of the earliest chapter of Tigris-Euphrates history.

Page 59: 99. Area of the Plain of Shinar; its fertility.

This plain was originally called Shinar. It was rarely more than forty miles wide, and contained probably less than eight thousand square miles of cultivable soil — roughly equal to the area of New Jersey or that of Wales. It lies in the Mediterranean belt of rainy winter and dry summer, but the rainfall is so scanty (less than three inches a year) that irrigation of the fields is required in order to ripen the grain. When properly irrigated the Plain of Shinar is prodigiously fertile, and the chief source of wrath in ancient Shinar was agriculture. this plain was the scene of the most important and long-continued of those frequent struggles between the mountaineer and the nomad, of which we have spoken.

Section 11. The Earliest Babylonians.

100. Sumerian mountaineers enter the Plain of Shinar.

We can find no relationship in race between the mountaineers and the Semitic nomads of the Arabian desert. We find the mountaineers shown on monuments of stone as having shaven has and wearing have woolen kilts, and w know that they were a whit race called Sumerians. Long before 3000 B.C. they had entered the Plain of Shinar and had reclaimed the marshes around the mouths of the Two Rivers. The southern section of the Plain of Shinar therefore came to be called Sumer, after the Sumerians.

Page 61: Almost in the center of the Plain of Shinar rose a tall tower. It was of sun-dried brick for there was no stone in all Babylonia. It was the dwelling of Enlil, the great Sumerian god of the air. The tower served as an artificial mountain, probably built in memory of some ancient temple on a hilltop in their former mountain home. Similar towers became common in the Plain of Shinar and it was such a temple-tower in Babylon which later gave rise to the story of the “Tower of Babel” among the Hebrews. The Sumerian temple-tower was the ancestor of our church steeple. Such “nature gods’ as Enlil, god of the air, played a great part in Sumerian life; and the temple in each community was the center of the town.

Page 63: The Semitic tribesmen from the desert had early begun to migrate into the Plain of Shinar, north of Sumer. By the middle of the twenty-eighth century B.C. they had established a kingdom there known as Akkad. This region of Akkad comprised chiefly the narrow strip of land where the Two Rivers approach each other most closely. These men of Akkad, or Akkadians, under a bold and able leader named Sargon, descended the Euphrates and conquered the Sumerians. Thus arose the first Semitic kingdom of importance in history, and Sargon I, its founder (2750 B.C.), is the first great name in the history of the Semitic race.

Page 66: Section 12. The Age of Hammurabi and After.

Centuries of struggle between the Sumerians and Semites ensued. Not long before 2200 B.C. a tribe of Amorites came in from the west and seized the little town of Babylon. Hammurabi, on of their later kings, fought for thirty years and conquered all Babylonia (about 2100 B.C.). Again the desert won, as this second great Semitic ruler, Hammurabi, raised Babylon, thus far a small and unimportant town, to be the lading city in the Plain of Shinar. Beginning with Hammurabi we may more properly call the plain “Babylonia.”

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James Henry Breasted, Ancient Times: A History of the Early World, 1916

Page 105: The Plain of Shinar (or Babylonia), the scene of the earliest chapter of Tigris-Euphrates history.

Page 106: Area of the Plain of Shinar; its fertility.

Page 107: Rarely more than forty miles wide, the Plain of Shinar contained probably less than eight thousand square miles of cultivatable soil — roughly equal to the state of New Jersey or the area of Wales. It lies in the Mediterranean belt of rainy winter and dry summer, but the rainfall is so scanty (less than there inches a year) that irrigation of the fields is required in order to ripen the grain. When properly irrigated the Plain of Shinar is prodigiously fertile, and the chief source of wealth in ancient Shinar was agriculture. This plain was the scene of the most important and long-continued of those frequent struggles between the mountaineer and the nomad, of which we have spoken. We are now to follow the story of the first series of those struggles, lasting something like a thousand years, and ending about 2100 B.C.

Page 108: Section 14. Rise of Sumerian Civilization and Early Struggle of Sumerian and Semite.

The mountaineers were not Semitic and show no relationship to the Semitic nomads of the Arabian desert. We are indeed unable to connect the earliest of these mountain peoples with any of the great racial groups known to us. We find them shown on monuments of stone as having shaven has and wearing shaggy woolen kilts. While they were still using stone implements, some of these mountaineers, now known as Sumerians, pushed through the passes of the eastern mountains at a very early date. Long before 3000 B.C. they had reclaimed the marshes around the mounts of the Two Rivers. They gradually took possession of the southern section of the Plain of Shinar, and the region they held at length came to be called Sumer.

Page 112: Almost in the center of the Plain of Shinar rose a great tower. It was of baked brick, for there was no stone in all Babylonia. This tower was the sacred mount of Enlil, the great Sumerian god of the air, at the ancient town of Nippur, a holy place greatly revered among all the Sumerian communities. This temple-mount was in shape a building tapering upward somewhat like a pyramid. Around the outside of the square towerlike building was a broad steep footway, which rose as it turns, till it reached the top. The Sumerians erected this building at Nippur, probably in the effort to give their god a home on a mountain top such as he had once occupied, before they left their mountain home to dwell on the Babylonian plain. Other towns also adopted the idea, and the temple tower at Babylon in later ages gave rise to the tale of the Tower of Babel (or Babylon), as preserved by the Hebrews. This Babylonian temple tower is the ancestor of our church steeple.

Page 122: But while the city-kingdoms of Sumer were thus often fighting among themselves, they were also called upon to meet an enemy from the outside. The Semitic nomads of the desert early began to settle north of Sumer. This region called Akkad, where the Two Rivers are closest together, was on the main road from the Two Rivers to the eastern mountains, and the leading Semitic tribe there bore the name Akkadians. These desert wanderers had never learned discipline and drill in war like the Sumerians. They depended on their skill as archers, and they gave battle therefore at a distance. Or if they came to close quarters, they fought single-handed, in open order. Their thin and open line was evidently at first no match for the heavy phalanx of the Sumerians. Thus two hostile races faced each other on the Plain of Shinar: in the North the half-settled Semitic nomads of Akkad, and in the South the one-time mountaineers of Sumer. The long struggle between them was only one of the many struggles between nomad and mountaineer along the Fertile Crescent.

Section 15. The First Semitic Triumph: The Age of Sargon.

About 2750, that is, about the middle of the twenty-eighth century B.C., there arose in Akkad a Semitic chieftain named Sargon. So skillful in war was he, that he succeeded in scattering the compact Sumerian spearmen, and making himself lord of all the Plain of Shinar. The old Sumerian city-kings were defeated and the Sumerian towns down to the mouths of the Two Rivers submitted to him. He led his swift Akkadian archers from the astern mountains of Elam westward up the Euphrates to the shores of the Mediterranean. There, as we remember, the Pharaoh’s galleys were already moored in the harbors of the Phoenician cities. Some day chance may disclose to us the messages, written on clay tablets, which now probably passed between the lord of the Euphrates and the lord of the Nile living in the splendors of his pyramid-city at Gizen. Sargon was the first great leader in the history of the Semitic race, and h was the first ruler to build up a great nation in Western Asia, reaching from Elam to the Mediterranean and far up the Two Rivers northward. His splendid conquests made an impression upon the Tigris-Euphrates world which never faded, and he left them to his sons, one of whom, Naram-Sin, even extended them.

Page 126:  Section 16. Union of Sumarians and Semites: The Kings of Sumer and Akkad.

When at last the Semites of Akkad were enfeebled by the town if which they had adopted, the line of Sargon declined. As a result the Sumerian cities of the South were able to recover control of the country not long after 2500 B.C. Headed by the ancient city of Ur, three of the old Sumerian cities gained the leadership one after another. But the Semites of Akkad were henceforth recognized as part of the unified nation on the ancient Plain of Shinar, which now for the first time gain a national name. It was called “Sumer and Akkad.” The kings of this age, who called themselves “Kings of Sumer and Akkad,” we both Sumerians and Semites. They have left us no great buildings or imposing monuments, but the new United States of Sumer and Akkad prospered greatly and survived for over three centuries. For the first time literature flourished.

Page 139: Questions. …… Section 14. Who were the early dwellers in the Plain of Shinar? Describe their life. Describe their writing materials and their writing. Summarize their civilization. Describe their buildings and towns. What are such towns like today? What do we find in them? Were the Sumerians all united in one nation/ What progress had they made in war? ……. Section 17. Who were the Amorites, and what city in the Plain of Shinar did they seize? Who was their greatest king? Describe his administration as seen in his letters. Tell about his achievements in adjusting the laws of Babylonia. Discuss Babylonian commerce. What did it carry to the peoples along the west of the Fertile Crescent? Describe Babylonian divination, education, architecture. What happened at Hammurabi’s death? How long had the first chapter of civilization on the Two Rivers lasted?

Page 140: Section 18. Early Assyria and her Rivals. The second chapter of history along the Two Rivers carries us up-river from Babylonia to the northeast corner of the desert-bay. Here, overlooking the Tigris on the east and the desert on the west and south, was an easily defended elevation, possessing a natural strength unknown to the towns in the flat Plain of Shinar. The place was known as Assur, and it later gave its name to the land of Assyria.

Page 141: By 3000 B.C. a Semitic tribe of nomads from the desert-bay had settled at Assur, as their kindred of Akkad were doing at the same time in the Plain of Shinar. As Semites they spoke a Semitic dialect like that of the Semites of Babylonia, with differences no greater than we find between the dialects of different parts of Germany. The men of Assur at first form a tiny city-kingdom like those of their Sumerian neighbors in the South. It is evident that they were in close contact with the Sumerian towns, whose sculpture and writing they adopted. They likewise received the Sumerian calendar and most of the conveniences of Sumerian civilization. There may even have been some Sumerians among the early population of the town.

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George Cormack, Egypt in Asia: A Plain Account of Pre-Biblical Syria and Palestine, 1908

It is well known from classical testimony that Babylonia was the peculiar home of astronomy and astrology. Ample evidence to the same effect is found in the native cuneiform writings. A numerous class of these documents treat of the interpretation of omens, and they are found to evince a close and even profound knowledge of the sky; the same is less directly shown in the hymns and other literary remains of this land. In the opening of his treatise, “De Divinatione,” Cicero ascribes the astronomical science of the Assyrians (by which the Babylonians are to be understood) to their inhabiting a vast plain, which enabled them to observe an exceptionally wide region of heaven. There seems to be some penetration in the remark, since it was with celestial occurrences on or near the horizon that the Babylonian astronomy was chiefly concerned. Under the Roman empire the word Chaldean came to imply a profession rather than a nationality. It is just to recall that the rejection of astrology from the circle of the sciences is a recent matter. Only two or three centuries have passed since learned and cultivated minds relinquished the belief that human destinies are written in the sky. This faith is a remnant of the Babylonian lore, and might properly be called a science until it ceased to agree with observed facts. It is now asserted that the learned men who lived in the plain of Shinar before the date of the oldest extant monument, had drawn from astronomical observations and analogies a theory of the universe which was rounded and consistent, and comprised all that now would be distributed under the heads of philosophy, theology and science. It is admitted that no written compendium of their lore exists (any more than the biblical system of theology is found in a collected form). The doctrine is to be pieced together by a comprehensive study of existing cuneiform inscriptions and other evidence. This is what the sponsors of the theory have done, and the system of ideas thus reconstructed, they have named the astrallehre, or astral doctrine.

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Theodore Emanuel Schmauk, Bible Geography for Schools, 1899

Page 115: The Human Race After the Flood. — Noah and his three sons made their way out of the ark in the highlands of Armenia. Their descendants continued together, and gradually want southward doubtless following the banks of the river Euphrates until they reached the flat land in the south, called the Plain of Shiner. In order to avoid the possibility of destruction by another flood, they resolved to build a tower (with the clay and slime in which the region abounded) so high that they might defy any effort of God to submerge it with water.

Questions. — 1. Who survived the flood? 2. Where did the survivors go out from the Ark? 3. Whither did the race finally wander? 4. What did they resole to do in the Plain of Shiner? 5. Why? 6. What were the materials used?

The Tower of Babel. — The Tower of Babel is mentioned only once in Scripture (Genesis 11:4-9). It was in the plain of Shiner. Babylonia contains three great architectural masses for each of which the claim has been made that it is a remnant of the Tower of Babel. Local tradition identifies the extremely ancient and imposing mound of ruins call the Birs Nimrod, on the west bank of the Euphrates, with the Tower of Babel, and most Assyriologists seem willing to accept the tradition. The objection to this view is the distance of the mount from Babylon. But even though ti be not the tower itself, it is the most perfect representative of that class of building. It is an immense mountain of fire-burnt brick. The bricks contain inscriptions on their sides. The top of the mount is broken and is rent by a large fissure. Parts of it have been converted into vitrified masses by the section of fire, perhaps by lightning, operating from above.

Page 116: The Dispersion of the Races. — After their failure to build Babel, Noah’s descendants, who constitute the whole human race, scattered over the face of the earth. The races that sprung from Japheth went westward to the coasts of the Mediterranean in Europe and Asia Minor, northward to Armenia, Media and Persia, and eastward as far as India. They are called “the Gentiles” in Scripture. In the language of science they are termed Indo-European, or Aryan family of races.

The descendants of Shem, constituting the Semitic races, occupied the southwestern corner of Asia, including Palestine and Arabia. Of Shem’s five sons, Arphaxad was the ancestor of the Hebrews, Arabs and other kindred tribes. The children of Aram, another of Shem’s sons, settled north of the Hebrews and Arabs in the highlands of Syria and Aremnia-Asshur, representing Assyria, and Elam remained near the plain of Shinar in the southeastern part of the valley of Tigris. The Lydians, children of Lud, settled in Asia Minor. The races of Ham, the other son of Noah, settled in Africa and mingle with the Semitic races in Arabia, Palestine, Asia Minor, Crete and Cyprus.

Page 117: The race of Cush, one of Ham’s sons, was in Africa (Ethiopia particularly), but Nimrod, one of the mightiest kings of this Semitic race, reign in the plain of Shinar, founding Babylon, and ruling over Accad from whence probably came the Accadians, the originators of ancient civilization and culture.

From Babylonia went forth Asshur, of whom we have spoken above and founded Nineveh which came the capital of Assyria. Mizraim, another son of Cush, settled in Egypt. The race of Canaan, who was still another son of Cush, settled in Phoenicia and in Palestine, which accordingly was called the land of Canaan.

Page 190: The Territorial Divisions of the Land in the Basins of the Tigris and the Euphrates. — The lowest territory in the Euphrates is Chaldea, the country at the head of the Persian Gulf. It stretches westward from the lower waters of the Euphrats to the Syrian desert. It is called in the Bible the plain of Shiner. It is a vast alluvial plain. Ur lis in its southern and Babylon on its northern border. The second of these divisions is Mesopotamia, or the district lying above Chaldea and between the two rivers, Euphrates and Tigris. A third district is Babylonia, which is the great alluvial plain between the low course of the Tigris and the Euphrates with the Syrian desert on its west. The fourth is Assyria proper, which lay northeast of the Tigris River and west of the Zagros Mountains. A fifth country is Armenia or the highland region between Asia Minor and the Caspian Sea. Media lay to the east of Assyria.

Page 193: The Places Where Human History Began. — The point on this earth’s surface where the history of mankind began is located by the Bible in the great plain or basin between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. “And it had come to pass,” says the Book of Genesis, “as they journeyed in the east, that they came to a plain in the land of Shiner; and they dwelt there.” They came from the region of Mt. Ararat, and they dwelt in the land of Shiner. In this plain of Shinar the Scriptures place the building of Babel, the first great city spoken of after the deluge; and there occurred the dispersion of races. The excavations made in our own century in this plain show that here indeed the earliest history of the world began, and the inscriptions which have been found upon the slabs that lined interiors of buried palaces and temples have been translated, and they agree with the records of the Bible as to the antiquity of this part of the world. The first empires arose in the valley of the Euphrates, and then in the valley of the Nile. In these two alluvial regions, remarkable for their extraordinary fertility, a large population could easily cultivate and gather abundant food.

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Alexander MacWhorter, The Edenic Period of Man, 1880

Page 88: THE BABEL DISPERSION.

A special, or Babel dispersion is mentioned in the Genesis accounts as having taken place from the plain of Shinar on the occasion of the first attempt by “the children of Adam” to found the city of Babylon. This account directly introduces the genealogy of Arphaxad as the son of Shem and ancestor of Eber. It comes after the race table of the sons of Noah, and the distribution of the different families over the whole earth, with their division into nations after the flood. The genealogy of Arphaxad is carried down to Abram in Ur of the Chaldees, and it is stated that Haran died before his father, Terah, “in the land of his nativity, in Ur of the Chaldees.” This is the region assigned to Arphaxad son of Shem, in the race table of the sons of Noah. The name ‘Arphaxad’ denotes “neighbor of the Casdim.” According to the distinguished Assyriologist, Sayce, “the word Casdim is best explained by the Assyrian root “Casadu,” “to possess” or “conquer,” so that the Casdim will be those Semitic conquerors who first settled in Sumir or Shinar, and finally succeeded in extirpating the power and language of their Accadian predecessors.” In connection with the above it is remarked, “The land of Kaldu or Caldu is first mentioned by Assurnatsirpal in B.C. 878, and in B.C. 850 his son Shalmaneser speaks of the district as lying below Babylonia on the Persian Gulf.

Page 89: It was not till a later period that the Caldu occupied Babylonia, and under Merodach Baladan made themselves so important and integral a part of its population as to give their name to the whole country.”

“Ur of the Casdim" or “Conquerors” was therefore the land of the nativity of the Arphaxad line. These “conquerors” were, according to Sayce, a Semitic people who drove out the Accadians, or “Highlanders,” a population from Elam who had preceded them in the plain of Shinar. There must then have dwelt together from the earliest period of the occupation of the lower Euphrates region two branches of the Semitic family, one the descendants of Arphaxad, who appear to have preserved the Elohist and Yahvist records, and the other the descendants of Asshur, brother of Arphaxad. The Semites of the Asshur line in connection with representatives of every branch of the human family gave that colossal development to the Bel religion the evidences of which we find today on the plain of Shinar. Asshur then was the apostate branch of the sacred Semite line, and great must have been the adversative feeling between the two divisions when they dwelt together in the valley of the Euphrates.

The story of the Babel dispersion appears to belong to the Arphaxad family records. It is related of a people who came from the east to the plain of Shinar and dwelt there, and has the point of view of a narrator already on the ground who regarded these newcomers as interlopers. The tower which they attempted to build was to be dedicated to their god Bel, and called Babel, or gate of Bel. Sufficient time had elapsed since the flood for many dialects to arise in the universal language, and the plain of Shinar having been from the remotest times a centre for the gathering together of varieties of peoples and dialects, it is likely that misunderstandings on this account led to quarrels, and to the final abandonment of the work of building the tower, and to the scattering of the people engaged in it. The scattering was of the people, rather than of the language, the narrator stating that Jehovah did at that spot confuse the universal language so that Babel, “the Gate of Bel,” became “Balal,” the city of confusion. We look upon this lively narrative as simply an account in the Arphaxad records, by an old inhabitant, of the manner in which the first Babel builders came to grief in their attempt to make the Tower and Gate of Bel a world centre.

Page 90: THE YAHVIST WRITER.

The Yahvist writer of the Babel account, in the strength of his adversative feeling, and dramatic way of presenting historic events, bears a strong resemblance to the Yahvist narrator, not only of the Eden apostasy, and the career of Cain and his descendants, but also to the Yahvist historian of the Noetic Deluge. There is a unity of purpose evident in his short histories, viz.: to show Jehovah Elohim as the manifesting Elohim of the Sethite sacred line working against and punishing the crimes of the “sons of men” or “sons of Adam,” Adam being the representative apostate from the Jehovah Elohim religion. The Elohists, or “Sons of Elohim,” and Yahvists were both adherents of the primary Garden religion, but the Yahvists appear to have been the special representatives of the Messianic expectation founded on the Edenic promise. The origin of this school of Elohists is given as in the days of Enos the son of Seth.

Throughout the whole compilation of these accounts, from Adam to Abraham, this distinction between the “Sons of Elohim” and the sons of Adam, the primary apostate to the nature religion, is a key to the understanding of the history intended to be conveyed in these records. It is a key to the serpent story of Eden, to the career of the pre-Noetic Cainites, and to the account of the first attempt by the children of Adam to reestablish the worship of Bel in the plain of Shinar, and the means employed by Jehovah, the God of the Sethites, to frustrate their work. This Yahvist writer is from the beginning to the end of his histories upon the Euphrates, since in the Eden narrative he states that to be the river on which he is located. His style is maintained throughout all the Yahvist accounts down to that of the Babel narrative given from the same Euphrates standpoint. His point of view is that of a recorder of the Arphaxad line, and of that family in its early residence in the Euphrates valley. The statement which he throws in, that Arphaxad was born two years after the flood, connects very closely his own records with those of pre-Noetic times. These records provide then for the handing down of the Sethite cosmogonic ideas and traditions through Noah to the descendants of Arphaxad, in which branch of the Semitic family the sacred line was continued in shortening periods of individual lives to Abraham. These Sethite cosmogonic ideas were those of the Elohist cosmogony, and of the Garden period. Everywhere throughout the sacred books of the Hebrews and the writings of the Apostles appear expressions and conceptions framed upon the standpoint of this cosmogony, which cannot be explained as derived from any other source, and are only interpreted in the grandeur of their conceptions by the light of the latest results of geological science.

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Edward Hayes Plumptre, The Bible Educator, 1874

Page 151: The sin was not theft merely, but sacrilege. That which was to have been wholly devoted to the Lord had been appropriated by one of those whom God had appointed to execute his will; “they,” the whole nation being compromised by the guilty deed of one, “have even taken of the sacred thing, and have also stolen, and dissembled also, and they have also put it among their own stuff.” The lot was to be resorted to, to determine the guilty party. Once more, with that characteristic promptitude we have so often occasion to remark in him, Joshua “rose up early in the morning,” and gathered all Israel together “by their tribes,” for the solemn decision. Gradually the circle narrowed. First the tribe; then the family; then the household; then the man was taken; and “Achan, the son of Zebdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah,” was declared as “the troubler of Israel.” In answer to the solemn adjuration of Joshua, as the father of the nation, to acknowledge the truth, the unhappy man makes frank and full confession of his crime. A richly embroidered robe from the plain of Shiner, two hundred shekels of silver, and an ingot of gold among the spoils, had proved an irresistible temptation. He had seen, he had coveted, he had taken them. “Behold, they were hidden in the art in the midst of his tent.” Messengers run will all speed, remove the earth at the spot indicated, “and behold, it was hid in the tent, and the silver under it.” Sentence and its execution follow immediately.

Page 263: Looking at the list of names which appears in Genesis 10, we can have no hesitation in selecting Babel, Asshur, Nimrod, Nineveh, as the most prominent, and as such giving the clue, as it were, to the rest. Of these Asshur and Nimrod appear as names of persons, Nimrod as the son (i.e., descendant) of Cush, and grandson of Ham (ver. 8), Asshur as the second son of Shem (ver. 22). The same account seems to tell us that Nimrod built Babel and Asshur built Nineveh, a statement on which we shall have occasion to remark presently. "We notice, also, that Nimrod was "a mighty one in the earth," and that Babel, in the land of Shinar, "was the beginning of his kingdom" (ver. 10). The account of the tower of Babel in Genesis 11, seems to toll us that as men journeyed from the east they found a plain in the land of Shinar, that they made bricks there, and used slime (i.e., bitumen) for mortar (Genesis 11:2, 3). It goes on to describe the building of the city and tower whose name was called Babel, the Divine visitation which befell it, and its consequences (vs. 5—9).

Where, then, was the land of Shinar'? We find mention made of Amraphel, a king of Shinar, in Gen. 14:1, and the name Shinar applied to the Assyrian country in Isaiah 11:11; Daniel 1:2; Zechariah 5:11; and also in the original of Joshua 7:21, where our version renders the words " a robe of Shinar " by "a Babylonish garment," a term which proves the manufacturing celebrity of the district, and its commercial intercourse with the land of Canaan at the time spoken of. Now, to the northwest of the town of Mosnl, on the Tigris, is a range of hills, and also a district bearing the name of Sinjar, in whose neighborhood was once a fortified town of importance, called Siugara. There was also perhaps, another town of the same name on the Tigris. This similarity of name has led many persons to identify the Sinjar district with the plain of Shinar, 300 miles distant in tho south. But the character of the two districts is quite different. Sinjar is hilly and rocky, whereas the plain of Shinar is a low alluvial soil, utterly destitute of stones, but abounding in clay for bricks, and in "slime" for mortar. Unless, then, the name Shinar acquired in later times a more extensive signification, and travelled upwards to the mountains, we must suppose that the two names Shinar and Sinjar do not denote one and the same region.

It has been suggested that Shinar was the Hebrew name for the plain of Mesopotamia, as this name has not been found on the native monuments, and we read, as mentioned above (Genesis 14). of a king of Shinar in the time of Abraham, a date certainly later than that of the foundation of Babylon. Either the influence of Babylon must have been confined to a portion only of the region, or tho name Shinar was used by the Hebrew writer to denote the whole. (Ptolemy v. 18. 2, 9; Auiiu. Marc. 20:6 ; Dion. Cass, lxviii. 22; Niebuhr, Voy., ii. 314.)

But about the general situation of Babel or Babylon, notwithstanding the present ruin of tho whole, and the doubts concerning the city's extent, there has never been any doubt; and the name Babel is still given by the Arabs to a portion of the vast remains. (Loftus, Chald., pp. 17,18.)

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Susan Bogert Walker, The Word: Walks from Eden, 1866 [Fiction?]

Page 102: "Uncle Sam, is anything of the Tower of Babel there yet?"

"Hardly, Dan. The foundation may be there, covered up under some of Nebuchadnezzar's building; but no more. There are remains, though, of towers or temples nearly as old — at Warka, or Irak, and. at Mugheir; temples or towers built for the worship of the god Bel; and built almost as far back as the time of Nimrod's great tower."

"Oh, uncle Sam, have you seen them yourself?"

"And the plain of Shinar?" added Priscilla.

"I couldn't very well get to them without going over the plain," said uncle Sam. "Come, let us begin regularly, and look at my map, and see where we are. Here, you see, is the great river, the river Euphrates — and here, a little east of it, is the Tigris. The lower part of this country, between and around these rivers, at least to the west of the Tigris, is the old land of Shinar. Here is a perfectly flat plain, four hundred miles long, from the Persian Gulf up somewhere to a line drawn from Hit on the Euphrates to Tekrit on the other river, and about one hundred miles broad. It stretches somewhat west of the Euphrates, thirty miles on an average. All this plain is naturally as rich as it can be; it was the very garden of Asia. It is said to be the only place in the world where wheat grows wild; and in the old times, it used to give a yield of two hundredfold, and sometimes three hundredfold."

"Three hundred!" said Liph. "Why, how much do we get here, uncle Sam? not more than thirty, do we?"

"Something more, on good land."

"Don't it give as much nowadays?" I asked; "the plain of Shinar, I mean."

"The plain of Shinar has lost its glory, Tiny. It would be as rich as ever, if it were cultivated; but it is in a state of utter neglect. Once it was made fruitful by being watered all over; the people dug canals from the Euphrates to the Tigris, and from these other little branch canals, till the whole country was covered with them, and every part watered abundantly. Then it was all one garden of cultivation; full of people, and full of great cities; rich in grains and fruits, and everywhere grown with palm trees, which are more to the people of the East than any tree in the world is to us. Now it is all a desert."

Page 103: "What is the reason, sir? Aren't there people there?"

"Yes, but they are not protected. The country belongs to the Turkish empire; and under the Turkish governors all is going to ruin. People will not take their goods to market along a very unsafe road: and the ways are full of Bedouin robbers. The governors are in league with them, and will not put them down. So the caravan that might go from Mosul to Bagdad in six days, is obliged to make a long journey round under the Koordistan hills to escape these robbers, and be six weeks about it. Then, too, the governors tax everything and monopolize everything, till the poor people of the country have no heart to make improvements, or to cultivate the ground. More than half the plain of Shinar is a dry desert. All over it you can see the remains of old canals and watercourses that once made it fruitful; the lines of embankment sometimes look like ranges of low hills, they are so great; but all now dry, and getting choked up with sand. Where it is not a sandy desert the country is in great part a reedy marsh, where the rivers have broken from their natural beds, and overflowed great tracts of land. What was once a garden of fruits and a land of palm-trees, is 'a possession for the bittern, and pools of water.' And all this is just growing worse and worse from year to year. The marshes are almost up to the walls of Bagdad. To get into the highway to Hillah I was forced to go miles round — through ditches and over streams."

Page 111: "There must have been a nice view of the earth, as well as of the sky, from Nebuchadnezzar's tower, uncle Sam."

"In those days — yes, Tiny. There is a grand view from the top of it now; a view of waste and desolation; a view of God's judgments and promises. But we shall have a great deal more to say about that by and by — when we come back to Babylon again. We have not done with the plain of Shinar now. There is a view of a wide spread of marshes — with little villages or huts of the Arabs scattered about on island spots in the distance, I could just see them — and Arab boats flying about over the water, and flocks of black buffaloes, where the morass was firm enough to bear them. That, where there used to be the riches and the beauty of Babylon — the palms and the corn of the plain of Shinar. So much for pride. They said, 'Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name.' Well, so they did."

Page 136: “Where is Haran, then?” said my grandmother.

"Haran is in the north of Mesopotamia, about twenty or twenty-five miles from Orfa. There is no doubt of its being the true Haran; and never has been."

"That seems to me a very circuitous course to go to Palestine. All the way up there, to go round and come down again."

"It is the only way, mother, a tribe having flocks and herds could go, to get to Palestine. On the other side of the Euphrates they would have found deserts without pasture, and without water, and no doubt then as now roving bands of wild robbers who would have made their journey very insecure. You must remember, children, what sort of a journey this was. There was no train of wagons loaded with furniture. The wealth of the tribe was in flocks and cattle. The tents and the women would be packed on the backs of camels, as now; the few iron or copper cooking vessels slung upon other camels, with the carpets and tent furniture, and bags of meal and dates. Terah was an old man; but you can imagine his sons, Abraham and Nahor, galloping about on fine horses, to direct the movements of the tribe and to lead them. Very likely a long spear in the hand marked out the chiefs then as it does now. Terah would wear the scarlet cloak of the head of the tribe. The servants would be on foot, running along by the camels and donkeys, and others guiding and driving the long procession of bands of sheep and cattle and camels. And with such a party going on their travels, it would be well worth their while to take the trouble to cross the Euphrates and go up along its left bank. There they would be secure from predatory wild men of the deserts; and they would be surrounded on every hand, and from night till morning, by the rich grass and grain-growing plain of Shinar."

Page 138: "Then they must have been two or three weeks going from Ur to Haran?" said Daniel .

"Probably. And look at the map. At first their road would lie among the rich grass and corn of the plain of Shinar; then, no doubt, fertile and fruitful. The Euphrates would be always at hand to supply water for the flocks. Let them get as high as Hit, and from there the character of the country changes. The land is no longer so low; the banks of the rivers are higher, and canals could not be made to draw the water off through the whole country as was later done below. The land between the two rivers is again one immense plain; but not the plain of Shinar. It is different at different times of the year. In spring after the rains, it is an unbroken spread of the richest verdure, giving supplies of pasturage without end; and adorned with multitudes of flowers. They are not scattered about, spotting the grass here and there like our dandelions; but they stretch out in thick carpets and patches of red, and yellow, and blue, as far almost as you can see. The dogs come in from roving about after game, with their hides dyed with the color of the flowers where they have been. That is the way Abraham and Terah found it, if they went in spring. In the middle of March it is in its glory. When summer comes, these vast flowery plains are dried up, and nothing but a sandy desert stretches across from river to river. But even then, Abraham would have found no difficulty; for along the course of the rivers there is always delicious shade to be had, and plenty of good pasture. Up along those grassy plains the long lines of camels and sheep went slowly on, while the chiefs of the tribe, as Arab chiefs do now, went very likely on fine horses to lead the way; or galloped off to the right or left on a course after game. At night, nothing could be or can be more pleasant than an encampment in the desert. The spring evenings are soft and mild; the air comes perfumed from the fields of flowers; the cattle are moving about, the horses are led to water; the groups of tents and scenes of busy life around you are set off by the wide desert horizon and the unbroken vault of the blue sky. At evening, however, there would be one point of difference between the way of things now, and in Abraham's journey. One great difference. A Bedouin Arab, if he prays at all, about which he is not always very particular, turns his face towards Mecca as near as he can, and makes Moslem prostrations. But Abraham, in those evenings of his pilgrimage, sought a place to be alone with the true God, whom he was obeying, and to enjoy His presence."

Page 139: “Abraham's obedience had not cost him much, so far," said Liph.

"Not in the matter of this desert life, for there are few things more pleasant. But remember, he obeyed at any cost. 'He went out not knowing whither he went.' He did not know now. He followed where the Lord led, as every child of God has done since; not seeking to choose for himself. Children, that is faith, and it is the faith that works by love, too. He had left one of the richest lands that the sun shines upon.

"This desert that I have been speaking about, lasts till you come to a little river, the Khaboor, which curves round here and cuts the northern part of Mesopotamia in two. Crossing this and going on northward, they would come to a still different region, where Haran lies. It is an open country also, rolling or plain, with no trees at all, but with large tracts that will bear rich cultivation. It is not like the plain of Shinar. Stony, and thin, and bare land comes in between great corn and grass districts. Here it is not so fiercely hot; the climate is delicious in early summer, when I was there; no dews, and nice cool airs blowing over from Mount Taurus here in the northwest. And in the hill country a little beyond there is rich vegetation and plenty of fruit trees. This open country is Padan Aram; 'the district at the foot of the hills ;' the cultivated high land of Aram; that is what the name means. And here, for some reason, the company with whom Abraham was traveling made a stop. Half of them had no idea of going to Canaan. They were merely suiting themselves with a resting place; and 'they came unto Haran and dwelt there.' Here is Haran, you see, in the far north of Mesopotamia; there is no doubt of this being the place. How long they dwelt there before Abraham left them, we do not know; but it must have been some time, for mention is made of the 'substance' that Abraham and Lot had gathered there, and 'the souls that they had gotten;' that is, the slaves they had become possessed of. The whole tribe abode there at any rate until the death of Terah."

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John Parker Lawson, A Cyclopedia of Biblical Geography, 1866

Page 327: It appears that this colony, when they reached the plain of Shinar, or Sennaar, invited by its beauty and fertility, intended to settle there, which was in actual disobedience of the Divine command to replenish the earth. Josephus affirms that Nimrod, the "mighty hunter," was the leader of this migration, which is certainly sanctioned by the inspired historian, who says that the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, or more properly Babylon, "in the land of Shinar," Genesis 10:10, implying that he founded the city of Babylon. The inspired historian thus narrates the beginning of this remarkable enterprise: —After they resolved to settle in the plain of Shinar, they said one to another, "Go to, let us make brick, and burn them throughly; and they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar." In the low and fertile plain of Shinar no stone could be found, and hence Herodotus, Justin, and other ancient writers, describe the walls of Babylon as built of burnt bricks. Assyria abounds with the cement or slime which they used for mortar, probably bitumen, both in a liquid and solid state. Having thus prepared themselves, they soon developed their intention, which was to build an immense and lofty tower. "And they said, Go to, let us build us a city, and a tower whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth," Genesis 11:4.

Page 332: The inspired historian informs us, that the beginning of Nimrod's kingdom was "Babel and Erech and Accad and Calneh, in the land of Shinar." These were certainly Nimrod's principal towns. As the greatest kingdoms in those times seldom consisted of more than a single town and the surrounding district, we may reasonably conclude that Nimrod's kingdom was comprehended within very narrow limits at its commencement, and that those most ancient cities must have been at no great distance from each other. Babel, no doubt, was the original of Babylon; and Accad is generally admitted to be the Sittace of the Greeks, and the Akkerkoof of modern times. It is situated about nine miles west from the Tigris, at a place where that river makes its nearest approach to the Euphrates; and its subsequent names of Sittace and Akkerkoof, both of which contain elements of the name Accad, seem to identify it with its original. Here stands the monument called by the Arabs, Tel Nimrood, and by the Turks Nimrood-Tepassé, both of which appellations signify the hill of Nimrod. It consists of a large mound surmounted by a mass of building which resembles a tower at a distance, or an irregular pyramid, according to the point from which it is viewed. This mass is three hundred feet in circumference at the bottom, and rises upwards of one hundred and twenty-five feet above the elevated mound on which it stands; and the mound which constitutes the foundation of this structure, is, like most of the ruins of Babylon, supposed to be rubbish formed by the decay of the superstructure. The different layers of sun-dried bricks, of which this tower is composed, can be distinctly traced, cemented together by lime or bitumen, and divided into courses varying from twelve to twenty feet in height. The solid and lofty appearance of this pile renders it probable that it was one of those immense edifices erected for the worship of the heavenly bodies, built more or less after the model of the great tower of Babel. The worship of the heavenly bodies originated in the country in which this pile exists, and buildings of this description appear to have been common in the primitive cities of the plain of Shinar. The Tel Nimrood, therefore, probably indicates the site of Accad, or some other ancient town; but it has no pretensions to be considered, as some travellers allege it to be, the tower of Babel, or the temple of Belus. The following is a view of the Tel Nimrood.

Page 479: CALNEH, kal'nee. a city built by Nimrod in the plain of Shinar, and the last mentioned as belonging to his kingdom, Gen. 10:10. It is supposed to be the Calno of Isaiah 10:9, and the Canneh of Ezekiel 27:23. These prophets join it with Haran, Eden, Assyria, and Chilmad, which traded with Tyre; and hence it is inferred that it was situated in Mesopotamia. The site of this city, it is now generally admitted, was that afterwards occupied by the great city of Ctesiphon, the winter residence of the Persian and Parthian monarchs, situated upon the eastern bank of the Tigris, and about eighteen miles below Bagdad. Opposite to and distant three miles from it stood Seleucia, built by Seleucus, who ruined Babylon by this undertaking. After the lapse of some centuries, Ctesiphon, which had been previously in existence as a small town, began to assume importance as a rival to Seleucia, and it latterly became a magnificent city. Seleucia at length fell before the ascendency of Ctesiphon and the Parthians, the implacable enemies of the Greeks, and became a sort of suburb to its rival under the name of Coche. Both were identified by the Arabs under the name of Al-Modain, or the Cities. Ctesiphon was taken by the Arabs, A.D. 637, and from that period it rapidly declined, its ruins furnishing materials for the city of Bagdad.

Page 527: CHALDEA, kal-de'-a, a country often spoken of as identical with Babylonia or the plain of Shinar; but tbe country of Chaldea in its limited extent lay south of Babylonia, the whole of which is described under that head. Its right name is not Chaldea, as it was called by the Greeks and Romans and is translated in our Bibles, Jeremiah 1:10, 51:24, 35, Ezek. 16:29, 23:16, but Chasdia and Chusdia, as it is written in the Hebrew text; and the inhabitants were termed Chasdim and Chusdim or the children of Cush, the son of Ham and grandson of Noah. Various opinions, however, have been maintained by the learned respecting the origin of the Chaldeans. Michaelis considers them to have been a foreign race in Assyria, and is inclined to derive them from the Chalybes of the Greek geographers, who are called Chaldi by Stephen Byzantium. His chief reason for this opinion is founded on the names of the Chaldean or Babylonian kings, preserved in Scripture, and also mentioned by Ptolemy, which differ from the Assyrian names, and bear an apparent resemblance to those of some northern nations of Slavonic origin. On the other hand, Adelung contends that all these names are resolvable Into the Hebrew or its cognate dialects, and he considers the Chaldeans or Chasdim as a mountaineer people from the north of Mesopotamia, but belonging to the Assyrian or Semitic race. One thing at least is certain, that the Chaldeans and Babylonians are generally mentioned as the same people, from which we may infer that they were of the same origin; and when they came to reside in the same country there could be no difference between them. There were nevertheless some tribes who were eminently distinguished by the name of Chaldeans. These were celebrated for philosophy and divination, from whom emanated the magi, the aruspices, and the soothsayers, from whom and from the Egyptians, according to Strabo, the learning of Greece was derived; but how the term Chaldeans, which originally belonged to a people, became limited to a priesthood, can never be satisfactorily ascertained.

Page 528: Yet all these, according to Strabo and other ancient writers, were applied to establish the credit of judicial astrology, by which those called the Chaldeans, of whom we read in the book of Daniel, or the college of the magi, maintained their authority and influence in the state. They employed their pretended skill in calculating nativities, in foretelling the weather, predicting good and bad fortune, and other practices of a similar nature. The Chaldean priesthood was not strictly hereditary, for we find, in the case of the prophet Daniel and his companions, that even foreigners might be admitted into it, if fitted for it by early education. At their head was the master of the magicians, whose influence was considerable, if the statement of Josephus is correct, that upon the death of the father of Nebuchadnezzar, which took place when that prince was absent on a military expedition, the high magician administered the affairs of the kingdom until his arrival. They were divided into the several classes of interpreters of dreams, astronomers, and soothsayers. If they had any sacred writings they would be the expounders of them to the initiated. They did not confine their residence to Babylon, but resided in various places throughout the plain of Shinar. Their character was similar to that of the Persian magi, with whom they are often confounded by the Greek historians. The influence they possessed was undoubtedly founded on their pretensions to knowledge; yet their power appears never to have been so great at Babylon as it was in the Persian court, if we are to judge of the manner in which they were treated by Nebuchadnezzar, who threatened them with the most summary vengeance if they did not recall to his recollection the dream which he had forgotten, and explain it to his satisfaction.

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J.H. Headley, The Sacred Plains, 1856

Page 9: I. THE PLAIN OF SHINAR.

The first plain of which we have any account in the sacred record was one in the land of Shiner. In the plain but emphatic language of Scripture, “As the generations of earth journey from the last, they found a plain in the land of Shiner, and they dwelt there.”

This plain is supposed to be a part of that tract of level country lying between the River Euphrates, on the north and east, and the Desert of Arabia, on the south and west. But of the extent, fertility, and general appearance of that portion known as the Plain of Shiner, we have no record by the sacred historians. From the nature of the case however, we are led to infer that it was of large extent, but not of extraordinary fertility. The former we necessarily infer from its capacity to support so large a population, and the latter from the nature of the materials dug out of its bowels to build the city and the two, whose top they presumptuously designed to reach unto heaven. “Let us make us a name,” said they, “lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.” So they commenced the foundations of the city and tower, using brick for stone and slime for mortar. Day by day the work progresses. All is order and regularity.

Page 23: It is spring. On the Plain of Shiner a group of wise men or Magi are gathered together. There are shepherds, astrologists, star-gazers and astronomers among them. With surprise and admiration their eyes are fixed upon a star of more than ordinary splendor, which, flashing up the eastern sky, rivals the moon in brightness. It is no comet, for there is no tail stretching away from it. It is no meteor, for its  light is calm and serene. As they gaze earnestly, it seems to expand, until its rays assume the form of a crown. Then, indeed, do the wise men kneel down, and thank God for the glorious sign. “The King is born in Judea; the Messiah has come at last,” exclaim they, one to another; “Let us hasten to worship him.” Over all the eastern world the tradition had gone forth that a great Prince or Messiah would appear among the Jews, whose advent would be ushered in by a star. The Israelites, during their captivity in Babylon, had frequently spoken of it. The sacred records they had left behind had positively declared it. “There shall come a star out of Jacob, and a scepter shall arise out of Israel.” Now the bright and glowing star, shining in the eastern sky, clearly indicated to these learned Magi that the time had come; for the star appeared in the constellation of Pisces, the astronomical symbol of Judea; so they hastened to Jerusalem, and inquired of Herod, “Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east and have come to worship him.” There was no doubt, no hesitation. They had brought him presents of gold, frankincense and myrrh. While they yet inquiry for him, lo, the star came and stood over where the young child was. Then did these wise men fall down and worship him, and present the gifts unto him; and being warned of God in a dream, returned not to Herod, but departed to their own country another way.

Page 26: Hallowed by the footsteps of Jehovah — the scene of the first miracle — the Plain of Shinar stands preeminent as the first sacred plain of earth.

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John Bunyan, Works: An Exposition on the First Ten Chapters of Genesis, 1850

‘They found a plain.’ Or, place of fatness and plenty, as usually the plains are; and are, upon that account, great content to our flesh: This made Lot separate from Abraham, and choose to dwell with the sinners of Sodom; why, the country was a plain, and therefor fat and plentiful, even like the garden of the Lord, and the land of Egypt. Here therefore they made a stop; here they dwelt and continued together. A right resemblance of the degenerators’ course in the days of general apostasy, from the true apostolical doctrine, to the church of our Romish Babel. So long as the church endured hardship, and affliction, she was greatly preserved from revolts and backsliding; but after she had turned her face from the sun, and had found the plain of Shinar; that is, the fleshly contents that the pleasures, and profits, and honors of this world afford; she forgetting the word and order of God, was content, with Lot, to pitch towards Sodom; or, with the travelers in the text, to dwell in the land of Babel.

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Arthur James Johnes, Philological Proofs of the Original Unity and Recent Origin of the Human Race, 1846

The Scriptural narrative, in describing the Creation of our species, does not define the first abode of man any further than by fixing it in “the East," (Genesis, 2:8,) an expression corroborative, as Adelung observes, of the Indian traditions, for in the time of Moses this expression was applicable to the regions of the Indus. On the other hand, the common interpretation of Genesis, 8:4, which assumes that Ararat in Armenia was the centre of diffusion of population after the Flood, is irreconcilable with those accounts, this locality being not to the East but to the North of all the Syro-Phoenician or Scriptural regions. But according to Bohlem, the impression that Ararat in this verse means the mountain of that name in Armenia, which is inaccessible, crowned with perpetual snow, and anciently had a different name, is erroneous. Ararat, he observes, does not mean a mountain but a country in this verse and elsewhere in Scripture. Thus the sons of Sennacherib escaped into the land of Ararat, (2 Kings 19:37,) and the Prophet Jeremiah calls upon the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashchenaz to rise up together with the Medes against Babylon, (Jeremiah 51:27-8) Ararat in these passages, it may be suggested, may naturally be interpreted to apply generally to the kingdoms and regions of the unexplored table-land of Central Asia, which commences on the Persian borders, immediately to the East of Assyria. Moreover the supposition that the Ararat of Scripture was in Armenia may be regarded as irreconcilable with another important passage, Gen., 11:2, which distinctly implies that the emigrants who reached the plain of Shinar, and who, it may be inferred, were the first colonists of South Western Asia, had journeyed thither from some region far to the "East" of all the Semitic countries, of which Shinar or Mesopotamia forms the Eastern border!

It is remarkable that the expressions of this passage — "And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the East, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there" — harmonize in the most perfect manner not only with the Indian remains, but also with the passages first referred to from the Scriptural narrative itself with respect to the first abode of the human race, for it will be seen by the map that 1, Cashmire lies in a direct line to "the East" of Shinar or Mesopotamia! 2, The whole intervening territory is occupied by the Central-Asiatic table-land of Persia or Iran, which, as previously noticed, forms one continual descent from its highest elevation on the borders of Cashmire to its termination near the plain of Shinar! Ar-ar-at may reasonably be inferred to be nothing else than a term commonly applied in the East to "a country of lofty mountains," an expression highly appropriate to the Persian table-land both at its centre, and at its junction with the Semitic regions, near the banks of the Tigris and the Euphrates!

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William Goodhugh, The Pictorial Dictionary of the Holy Bible, 1845

In the plain of Shiner, a colony of emigrants established themselves, and set about building the celebrated Tower of Babel, for some evil purpose; not to reach to Heaven, for the words, “whose top may reach to Heaven,” are shown by St. Cyril to be a Scriptural phrase, merely meaning very much elevated. It was most probably an idolatrous temple, for the word ’she,,’ a name, “let us make us a nam,” is understood by many of the Jews to mean a God, the name of a God; as when we say “the Holy Name,” in many instances, we mean God Himself.

It has been conjectured that it was dedicated to the sun or celestial fire, which was a prevalent worship in early times. Hebrew traditions constantly represent Nimrod as a fire-worshipper.

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Joseph Hart Clinch, The Captivity in Babylon and Other Poems, 1840

Page 1: I. Not through the maze of philosophic song, Nor o’er the wilds of metaphysic lore, Although to these unnumbered themes belong, The muse today on trembling wing would soar; — In homely guise she seeks to wander o’er The fields of simple Narrative gain, And, taught by voices from the Past, to pour Her descant wild, commingled with the strain Which swept from Judah’s harps o’er Babel’s spacious plain.

Page 2: II. Broad is the plain of Shinar, and as fair As it is broad and fertile; vineyards is And waving cornfields glimmer here and there Through groves of spreading palms: the cloudless skies Bend in blue arch above — the South wind’s sighs Breathe perfume round, and the Euphrates, slow, Deep and majestic, like a mirror lies Catching morn’s earliest glory, as still low The orient sun springs up, bidding all nature glow.

Page 52: CII. Go on and prosper! Give to truth a voice Of trumpet tone, till through the Earth it sound Its glorious echoes, bidding man rejoice, Shaking Sin’s high-walled cities to the ground, And bidding bondage (where the mind is bound By Sin and Error,) cease the Earth to tread; That man redeemed, of every race, be found Like Judah, from the walls of Babel led, Pressing to that blest home where dwells their glorious Head!

Page 53: Note 1. Stanza II. Line 1. Plain of Shinar. The plain of Shinar, lying E. of the Euphrats, and between it and the Tigris, is nearly 300 miles in length, and about 100 in breadth. Babylon was situated near its N.W. extremity. When the historian Herodotus visited Babylon, this plain was extremely fertile, but it is now little better than a morass, covered with sedge and weds, and inhabited by loathsome reptiles, thus wonderfully verifying the words of the prophet, Isaiah 13:20, 21.

Page 55: Note 11. Stanza XXXIII. Line 9. That very plain. The plain of Dura stretched away W. of the Euphrates, and as the temple of Belus lay on the E. side of the river, strictly speaking, in the plain of Shinar, the expression “that very plain” is not literally correct; yet as the two plains are often mentioned indiscriminately, when speaking of the region around Babylon, there cannot be any great impropriety in laying the scene of the confusion of tongues on the western side of the river.

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William Fleming, A Gazetteer of the Old and New Testaments, 1838

Page 253: BABEL, or, according to some readings, by altering the second ‘beth’ into a lamed, Ballel, ‘confusion,’ or ‘mixture,’ the name of a celebrated tower, the ambitious projecting and building of which occasioned the miraculous confusion of tongues, and accelerated the dispersion of mankind throughout the world, all the inhabitants having been previously "of one language and of one speech." The time of this enterprise is generally allowed to have been about the year 2247 before the Christian era; in the year of the Flood 101, according to the Hebrew calculation; in the year 401, according to the Samaritan; and in the year 531, according to the Septuagint, after that event. The persons concerned in this transaction were the posterity of Noah, who, as they journeyed from the plains of Ararat in quest of new settlements, entered the Land of Shinar — that part of Assyria where the celebrated city of Babylon afterwards stood — called Babylonia, and dwelt there. Bryant maintains that Shem and his posterity had no concern in the enterprise, and that the chief agents in it were the Cushites, of the family of Ham, who were the ancient Titans, and early became addicted to the worship of fire; but there appears to be no reason for excluding the family of Shem in particular from a participation in this extraordinary transaction. It is evident, however, that all the then inhabitants of the world were not concerned in it. The sacred historian informs us that "as they journeyed from the East, they found a plain in the Land of Shinar, and dwelt there," which implies that it was exclusively a great colony of Noah's descendants, who, when the East, namely, the immediate vicinity of Ararat, was becoming thickly peopled, moved towards the west, for Noah was alive — if we adopt the Hebrew calculation of time, which is the same as the Bible chronology — at the time of the building of Babel, and lived two hundred and forty-nine years after the confusion of the common language of men, Gen. 10:20. It appears that this colony, when they reached the Plain of Shinar, or Sennaar, invited by its beauty and fertility, intended to settle there, which was in actual disobedience of the divine command to replenish the earth. Josephus affirms that Nimrod, the "mighty hunter," was the leader of this migration, which is certainly sanctioned by the inspired historian, who says that the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, or more properly Babylon, "in the Land of Shinar," Gen. 10:10, implying that he founded the city of Babylon. The inspired historian thus narrates the beginning of this remarkable enterprise: — After they resolved to settle in the Plain of Shinar, they said one to another, "Go to, let us make brick, and burn them throughly; and they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar.” In the low and fertile Plain of Shinar no stone could be found, and hence Herodotus, Justin, and other ancient writers, describe the walls of Babylon as built of burnt bricks. Assyria abounds with the cement or slime which they used for mortar, probably bitumen, both in a liquid and solid state. Having thus prepared themselves, they soon developed their intention, which was to build an immense and lofty tower. "And they said, Go to, let us build us a city, and a tower whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth," Gen. 11:4.

Page 261: The inspired historian informs us, that the beginning of Nimrod's kingdom was "Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the Land of Shinar." These were certainly Nimrod's principal towns. As the greatest kingdoms in those times seldom consisted of more than a single town and the surrounding district, we may reasonably conclude that Nimrod's kingdom was comprehended within very narrow limits at its commencement, and that those most ancient cities must have been at no great distance from each other. From the arrangement in the sacred history, this Babel, mentioned as the first postdiluvian city of which we have any record, was the original of that great city which afterwards became celebrated as the capital of the Babylonian Empire. The town, however, founded there by Nimrod could have been of little importance; and what was of it, if any buildings were erected, was probably lost after the Confusion, with the exception of the tower left in its unfinished state. But the three other cities remained, although we have no information concerning their state, and their sites are now almost lost, or left to conjectural probabilities. It is generally admitted that the city Accad of the Scriptures, built by Nimrod, is the Sittace of the Greeks, and the Akkerkoof of modern times. It is situated about nine miles west from the Tigris, at a place where that river makes its nearest approach to the Euphrates, and its subsequent names of Sittace and Akkerkoof, both of which contain elements of the name Accad, clearly identify it with its original. Here a remarkable monument is in existence, which the Arabs to this day call Tel Nemrood, and the Turks Nemrood Tepassé, both of which appellations signify the Hill of Nimrod. It consists of a large mound, surmounted by a mass of building which resembles a tower at a distance, or an irregular pyramid, according to the point from which it is viewed. This mass is three hundred feet in circumference at the bottom, and rises upwards of one hundred and twenty-five feet above the elevated mound on which it stands; and the mound which constitutes the foundation of this structure is, like most of the ruins of Babylon, supposed to be rubbish formed by the decay of the superstructure. The different layers of sun-dried bricks, of which this tower is composed, can be distinctly traced, cemented together by lime or bitumen, and divided into courses varying from twelve to twenty feet in height. The solid and lofty appearance of this pile renders it probable that it was one of those immense edifices erected for the worship of the heavenly bodies built more or less after the model of the great Tower of Babel. The worship of the heavenly bodies originated in the country in which this pile exists, and buildings of this description appear to have been common in the primitive cities of the Plain of Shinar. The Tel Nimrood, therefore, probably indicates the site of Accad, or some other ancient town; but it has no pretensions to be considered, as some travelers allege it to be, the Tower of Babel, or the temple of Belus.

Page 331: CALNEH, ‘our consummation,’ or ‘all we;’ or ‘as murmuring,’ a city built by Nimrod in the Plain of Shinar, and the last mentioned as belonging to his kingdom, Gen. 10:10. It is supposed to be the Calno of Isaiah (10:9), and the Canneh of Ezekiel (27:23). These Prophets join it with Haran, Eden, Assyria, and Chilmad, which traded with Tyre, and hence it is inferred that it was situated in Mesopotamia. The site of this city, it is now generally admitted, was that afterwards occupied by the great city of Ctesiphon, the winter residence of the Persian and Parthian monarchs, situated upon the eastern bank of the Tigris, and about eighteen miles below Bagdad. Opposite to and distant three miles from it stood Seleucia, built by Seleucus, who ruined Babylon by this undertaking. After the lapse of some centuries, Ctesiphon, which had been previously in existence as a small town, began to assume importance as a rival to Seleucia, and it latterly became a magnificent city. Seleucia at length fell before the ascendancy of Ctesiphon and the Parthians, the implacable enemies of the Greeks, and became a sort of suburb to its rival under the name of Coche. Both were identified by the Arabs under the name of Al-Modain, or The Cities. Ctesiphon was taken by the Arabs, A.D. 637, and from that period it rapidly declined, its ruins furnishing materials for the city of Bagdad. Nothing now remains of Seleucia but a portion of its ancient walls, and evident traces of its former extent on the naked surface, rendered uneven by mounds which generally mark the sites of the numerous cities which adorned the once populous Land of Shinar. But Ctesiphon has been more fortunate. Not only can its enormously thick walls be traced to a considerable extent along the Tigris, but a vast and magnificent structure of fine brick still remains, and is visible at a great distance — an object of solitary grandeur in this desolate region. It is described as being unlike any building in that part of the world, and is supposed to have been constructed by Greek artists employed by the Persian kings. It presents a facade of three hundred feet in length, pierced in the middle by an arch, the curve of which forms a large parabola rising from about half the height. The height of this arch from the apex to the ground is upwards of one hundred and three feet, and it leads to a large hall of the same height, eighty-two feet broad and one hundred and sixty in depth. It is called Tauk Kesra, or the Arch of Khosroes, and is believed to have been the palace of the Persian kings, or the White Palace, the riches and magnificence of which struck the barbarous conquerors from Arabia with astonishment. The celebrated Julian the Apostate died in the neighborhood of Ctesiphon. The country about Ctesiphon is frequently termed Chalonitis by the Greeks, which is evidently derived from its original name Calneh.

Page 360: CHALDEA, Chasdim, …, ‘like demons,’ ‘like plunderers,’ ‘like beasts,’ or ‘like fields,’ a name often used synonymously with Babylonia, and applied to the Plain of Shinar; but the country of Chaldea in its limited extent lay south of Babylonia, the whole of which is described under that head. Its right name is not Chaldea, as it was called by the Greeks and Romans and is translated in our Bibles, but Chasdia and Chusdia, as it is written in the Hebrew text; and the inhabitants were termed Chasdim and Chusdim, or the children of Cush, the son of Ham and grandson of Noah. Various opinions, however, have been maintained by the learned respecting the origin of the Chaldeans. Michaelis considers them to have been a foreign race in Assyria, and is inclined to derive them from the Chalybes of the Greek geographers, who are called Chaldi by Stephen Byzantum. His chief reason for this opinion is founded on the names of the Chaldean or Babylonian kings, preserved in Scripture and also mentioned by Ptolemy, which differ from the Assyrian names, and bear an apparent resemblance to those of some northern nations of Slavonic origin. On the other hand, Adelüng contends that all these names are resolvable into the Hebrew or its cognate dialects, and he considers the Chaldeans or Chasdim as a mountaineer people from the north of Mesopotamia, but belonging to the Assyrian or Semitic race. One thing at least is certain, that the Chaldeans and Babylonians are generally mentioned as the same people, from which we may infer that they were of the same origin; and when they came to reside in the same country there could be no difference between them. There were nevertheless some tribes who were eminently distinguished by the name of Chaldeans. These were celebrated for philosophy and divination, from whom emanated the Magi, the Aruspices, and the Soothsayers, from whom and from the Egyptians, according to Strabo, the learning of Greece was derived; but how the term Chaldeans, which originally belonged to a people, became limited to a priesthood, can never be satisfactorily ascertained.

Page 361: Next to the Hebrews, the Chaldeans were the most ancient people among the Eastern nations who were in a general sense acquainted with philosophy. The Egyptians always maintained that the Chaldeans were a colony from Egypt, from which they derived their learning; but it cannot be denied that the kingdom of Babylon, of which Chaldea was a part, existed before the Egyptian monarchy, and it is probable that the Egyptians were rather indebted to the Chaldeans. There is little dependance to be placed on the accounts transmitted to us of the Chaldean philosophy. Our knowledge of it is chiefly derived from the Greeks, whose pride induced them to consider the Oriental nations as barbarians, and whose vanity led them to despise and ridicule their learning. The Chaldeans themselves, having adopted a symbolical mode of instruction, considerably obscured and mystified their own doctrines. About the beginning of the Christian era, moreover, a race of pretended philosophers appeared, who, in order to attract notice to their extravagant and fanciful theories, pretended that they held the opinions and taught the wisdom of the ancient Chaldeans and Persians, from spurious books which they ascribed to Zoroaster, or to some other Eastern philosopher. Astronomy, or rather astrology, formed a great branch of their learning; and whatever may have been the perfection to which they had carried that science, it is undeniable that at the time of Alexander's conquest of Babylon astronomical observations existed which are affirmed to have reached back for nineteen centuries, thus commencing shortly after the time of Nimrod. They were probably the first people who made regular observations upon the heavenly bodies, and hence, in subsequent times and in various countries, the name astronomer became synonymous with that of Chaldean. At Babylon the continual clearness of the sky and the peculiar brightness of the stars greatly facilitated their astronomical observations. Yet all these, according to Strabo and other ancient writers, were applied to establish the credit of judicial astrology, by which those called the Chaldeans, of whom we read in the Book of Daniel, or the college of the Magi, maintained their authority and influence in the state. They employed their pretended skill in calculating nativities, in foretelling the weather, predicting good and bad fortune, and other practices of a similar nature. The Chaldean priesthood was not strictly hereditary, for we find, in the case of the Prophet Daniel and his companions, that even foreigners might be admitted into it, if fitted for it by early education. At their head was the Master of the Magicians, whose influence was considerable, if the statement of Josephus is correct, that upon the death of the father of Nebuchadnezzar, which took place when that prince was absent on a military expedition, the High Magician administered the affairs of the kingdom until his arrival. They were divided into the several classes of interpreters of dreams, astronomers, and soothsayers. If they had any sacred writings, they would be the expounders of them to the initiated. They did not confine their residence to Babylon, but resided in various places throughout the Plain of Shinar. Their character was similar to that of the Persian Magi, with whom they are often confounded by the Greek historians. The influence they possessed was undoubtedly founded on their pretensions to knowledge; yet their power appears never to have been so great at Babylon as it was in the Persian court, if we are to judge of the manner in which they were treated by Nebuchadnezzar, who threatened them with the most summary vengeance if they did not recall to his recollection the dream which he had forgotten, and explain it to his satisfaction.

Page 551: EUPHRATES, ‘fruitful,’ or ‘fructifying,’ or ‘increasing,’ in Hebrew Phrat or Phrath, one of the most considerable and best known rivers of Asia, the waters of which surrounds the terrestrial Paradise, Genesis 2:14, wash the walls of the mighty Babylon, and also fertilized the Hanging Gardens of that renowned city. It is designated the Great River in the Sacred record, and is mentioned as one of the boundaries of the Promised Land, Gen. 15:18; Deut. 11:24; 1 Chron. 5:9. It rises from three sources in the mountains of Armenia, the most distant of which is near Arze, the modern Arze-Roum, where it bears the name of Kara Sou — a title which, Porter assures us, is common to streams in Persia. Its second source is about thirty miles south of Arze, and is called the West Frat; and the third rises some miles to the east. The original stream is very inconsiderable, and all three flow southwestward in separate currents through many a wild glen and rich valley, until they unite in one channel at the foot of the mountains of Cappadocia nearly opposite the source of the Tigris; and thence, winding on in full stream south and southwest in a corresponding course to that of the Tigris, the Euphrates becomes by this accession of waters a very important river, and descends rapidly nearly west by southwest to the vicinity of Samosata, where the mountain range of Ananus prevents its further progress. It then turns to the southeast, which it pursues with little variation until it reaches Circesium, south of which it enters the immense plains of Sennar. It then'turns from the Arabian side, and runs again to the southeast, approaching its great tributary the Tigris. In proportion as these two rivers approximate to each other, the intermediate country loses its elevated appearance, and is composed of meadows and morasses. This is the Mesopotamia of Scripture, the Plain of Shinar, the Land of Chaldea, where Babylon, "the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency," reared its lofty walls, from the midst of which rose the mountain tower of Belus, the Babel of the "mighty hunter." The two rivers form a junction at Korna, and under the appellation Shat-el-Arab, or the River of Arabia, roll on in one noble flood to the Persian Gulf. It has three principal mouths, the southernmost of which is the deepest in its current. The tide rises above Bussorah, and even beyond Korna, and, sweeping with violence the descending stream, raises its waters in the form of frothy billows. It is noticed in different parts of the present work that the Euphrates entered the Gulf as a separate river from the Tigris. Its whole length, including the Shat-elArab, is nearly 1150 English miles, but it does not appear to be anywhere of very great breadth. Many towns and villages are on its banks. The entrance to the river is described as being extremely dangerous to the mariner, on account of the bars of sand which it forms continually changing their situation. Its navigation is no less difficult, and hence the expedition undertaken by the British Government for this purpose was abandoned in 1836, after various disasters and the death of some of its principal officers. See Babylon and Eden.

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Alexander Young, A Discourse on the Life and Character of the Hon. Nathaniel Bowditch, 1838

It was a science that early engaged the notice of men, and, to its honor be it spoken, it has always exert a purifying and elevating influence on its votaries. Indeed, how could it be otherwise? Who can look upon those brilliant points, and not fancy them the spangled pavement of a divine abode? There is virtue as well as poetry and philosophy in them. They she down a healing and restorative influence upon their worshippers. They are the symbols of endurance and perpetuity. “When I gave upon the stars, do they not seem to look down on m as if with pity from their serene spaces, like eyes glistening with heavenly tears over the little lot of man? Thousands of human generations, all as noisy as our own, have been swallowed up of time, and there remains no wreck of them any more; and Arcturus, and Orion, and Sirius, and the Pleiades are still shining in their courses, clear and young, as when the shepherd first noted them in the plain of Shinar.”

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George Goldthwait Ingersoll, An Address Delivered Before the Literary Societies of the University of Vermont, 1837

Notwithstanding all the ingenuity of some commentators, the Hebrew account of the transactions in the plain of Shinar can never be made to mean anything else, than the miraculous originating of a number of new languages — not merely varieties of pronunciation, but new tongues with distinct radicals and peculiar grammatical structures. Here we consider ourselves as standing on safe ground, sustained by the authority of the Scriptures, and speaking their true and only meaning. The resemblances between some of the terms of these original languages (which we believe are much fewer than many philologists maintain) may be better accounted for by regarding them rather as the effects of subsequent intercourse, than of affiliation from a common stock. Those words which are styled onomatopoeias, and on which some place so much stress, form too insignificant a part of any language, when compared with the number of other radicals, to merit attention in the argument.