Wed., 12/11

Turn in Field Notes Nos. 23 & 24 today (Wed.) and/or tomorrow (Thu.).

Do Now—Exercise 24A: Name the two “IV’s” whom Tukulti-Ninurta defeated in battle. Hint: One was Hittite, the other Babylonian. Find the answers / check your spelling in Ch. 38. Answers: Tudhaliya IV Kashtiliash IV

Annotate: ‘Who was Nimrod?’ (see below) Also review the footnote that begins on p. 269.

Exercise 23E: Write the DQ (after “DQ – ”): Who was Nimrod? Then respond (after “Response – ”) to this DQ with two or more complete sentences. Be sure to include all three possibilities and their literary sources.

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WHO WAS 'NIMROD'?

“Nimrod” is not a name that has a neat correspondence to the Assyrian king, Tukulti-Ninurta I. There are many confused references to “Nimrod” in the Hebrew Bible and other ancient and classical sources, and some scholars now identify Nimrod as Gilgamesh.

First, what does the name Nimrod mean? It comes from the Hebrew verb marad, meaning “rebel.” Adding an “n” before the “m” it becomes an infinitive construct, “Nimrod” (David Livingston).

References to Nimrod in the Hebrew Bible include:

Cush was the father (or ancestor) of Nimrod, who became a mighty warrior on the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord… (Genesis 10:8-9).

And he [one who will be ruler over Israel] will be our peace when the Assyrians invade our land and march through our fortresses. We will raise against them seven shepherds, even eight commanders, who will rule (or crush) the land of Assyria with the sword, the land of Nimrod with drawn sword (or Nimrod in its gates) (Micah 5:5-6).

In the Book of Jubilees (probably written 160 – 150 B.C.) “Nebrod” (Greek for “Nimrod”) appears as an ancestor of Abraham and therefore all Jews. The commentator, Flavius Josephus (c. 37 – c. 100 A.D.), states (Antiquities of the Jews, 1:4:2-3):

Now it was Nimrod who excited them to such an affront and contempt of God. He was the grandson of Ham, the son of Noah, a bold man, and of great strength of hand. He persuaded them not to ascribe it to God, as if it was through his means they were happy, but to believe that it was their own courage which procured that happiness. He also gradually changed the government into tyranny, seeing no other way of turning men from the fear of God, but to bring them into a constant dependence on his power. He also said he would be revenged on God, if he should have a mind to drown the world again; for that he would build a tower too high for the waters to be able to reach! and that he would avenge himself on God for destroying their forefathers!

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. It was built of burnt brick, cemented together with mortar, made of bitumen, that it might not be liable to admit water. 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 divers languages, and causing that, through the multitude of those languages, they should not be able to understand one another. The place wherein they built the tower is now called Babylon, because of the confusion of that language which they readily understood before; for the Hebrews mean by the word Babel, confusion.