A recent feature article was syndicated to Australian newspapers from Rome entitled “Was Israel In Syria?”. The basis of the material discussed was tablets unearthed at Tell Mardikh in northern Syria, site of the ancient city Ebla, dated to the third millennium BC. This makes Ebla Continued on page 13
contemporary with the times of Abraham, Melchisedek and the city of Salem. Note particularly the statement, “Ebla, in about 2500 BC was the centre of a commercial empire, trading with central Anatolia, Cyprus, the Sinai Peninsula, Iran and Mesopotamia. Ebla had elected kings, double
SEVENTEEN THOUSAND Tablets And fragments in the National Museum of Aleppo may prove that the original homeland of the Hebrews was just beyond the Euphrates River, in Syria.
The tablets are from the Royal Archives of the North Syrian city of Ebla and date to the third millennium BC.
The implications of the discovery could be momentous for the history of third millennium BC, not just for understanding the Old Testament but also for the current Middle Eastern situation: Syrian authorities would hardly welcome identification of the Hebrew homeland as deep in their territory.
God’s covenant with Abraham in Genesis 15:18 was “to your seed I give the land from the River of Egypt to the Great River Euphrates.” Later in the Old Testament, the Promised Land of Canaan was much less extensive. Moreover, many scholars have maintained that Canaan did not have any historical reality before the Late Bronze Age (1500-1200 BC).
The tablets, however, suggest to some scholars that Abraham should be seen in a third millennium context rather titan that of the second century BC as previously thought and that at that time Canaan may have stretched from the Nile to the Euphrates. In other words, although God’s Covenant with Abraham was expressed in a figure of speech, the recent finds could encourage those who want to interpret the words literally.
In 1974, after digging for a decade. a Rome University archeological mis- sion began to unearth tablets at a huge artificial mound, Tell Mardikh, on the North Syrian plateau. The tablets proved it had been the site of the city of Ebla which, in about 2500 BC, was the centre of a commercial empire trading with Central Anatolia, Cyprus, the Sinai Peninsula. Iran and Mesopotamia. Ebla had elected kings, double taxation, 11,400 civil servants, mercenaries and beer.
Obviously them had been a highly-developed civilisation in a zone which bad been considered merely a cross-roads of culture inhabited mainly by nomads. Previously it was thought that Mesopotamia and Egypt, two “river” civilisations, were the only ones developed at that time. Now, however, it became clear that there had been a third autonomous cultural centre around Ebla with its own artistic, commercial, psychological and religious personality. It could be described as “Mediterranean” as Ebla is only 80 kilometres from the sea and did most of its trading through Byblos, north of present-day Beirut.
Links were discerned between the Ebla tablets and the Old Testament which suggested they could provide a check on the Old Testament, For instance, some scholars think they may indicate Abraham was a historical figure, which has been widely questioned.
Other scholars, more cautiously, say the culture being pieced together from the Ebla tables tells us something about Abraham’s cultural ambience. Consequently it could throw light on the Old Testament patriarchal period. Previously Mesopotamnian culture was taken as a reference point both because it was considered the prevailing culture and because it was thought Abraham had come to Harran, when he sea out for Palestine, from Ur in Mesopotamia. Nov k is thought that the Ur in question was near Haman which is only as far from Ebla as Naples from Rome.
Some archeologists are impatient with attempts to link Abraham with Ebla for they point out that while Ebla was a sophisticated urban culture, Abraham was a nomad. Others answer he was probably an urban dweller who also had flocks,
rather Mitchell Dahood, an American Jesuit of Lebanese descent, says he is confident that the Ebla discoveries will affect understanding of the Old Testament although it is too early to say precisely to what extent Father Dahood is professor of Ugaritic and Phoenician language and literature at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome.
“I’ve been working the Ugaritic- Hebrew vein for 30 years,” said Father Dahood, interviewed in Rome.
“In 1929, Ugarit was discovered on the North Syrian coast only 80 kilometres from Ebla. After 50 years, perhaps IS per cent of the Ugarit site has been explored: It is slow work, by hand On such sites, it is often difficult to ensure long-term finance as it cannot be certain what’ll be found.
“The Tell Mardikh mound where Ebla was discovered covers 70 hectares so they could be digging it for a few hundred years yet — the digging season is for two months from mid-August each year.
“The discovery of Ugarit has profoundly affected our understanding of the Old Testament although, even after 50 years, it is still too early to give a definitive account of its influence. Obviously it has affected translations. It gives us an insight into the era just before the Old Testament. began to be written.
“Often I’m asked if the Ebla findings are more or less important than those of the Dead Sea Scrolls. They’re quite different. Again, historically, a lot was known about the Dead Sea Scrolls period (second century BC-first century AD) but nothing about North Syria in the third millennium BC. Moreover, the Dead Sea Scrolls relate to the New Testament whereas the Ebla discoveries could illuminate the Old Testament.”
Father Dahood spoke of his most recent, unpublished findings. The knowledge of the background culture possible through Ma, he explained, gave added resonance to Old Testament terms as it showed what was used in a theological context often had earlier commercial connotations.
He cited the Hebrew “kipper” meaning “to atone” or “compose a difference”. best known through the Day of Atonement “Yom Kippur”. In one of the Sumerian bilingual dictionaries found at Ebla the Sumerian word for copper “Urudu” has as its Eblaite equivalent Ka.Pa.Ru. This indicated’ that in the related Hebrew the verb “kipper” formed from the noun had as one of its original meanings “to copper” or “to settle a debt” which underlies the more spiritual meaning which later predominated.
“The alphabet that was discovered at Ugarit (28 letters) is the oldest, reducing some 2,000 signs to 28. Obviously the Ebla tablets are more difficult to interpret than Ugaritic texts. Ella writing is similar to contemporary Chinese in that each sign represents a syllable rather than a letter.
“We just have to wait and see what light the findings throw on the Old Testament,” Father Dahood concluded, “but the prospect is exciting. 14 as if we’d been reading Dante, with all his references to Virgil, and only now obtained Virgil’s text for the first time — coins a lot of wade wilt been- tailed deciphering taxation, 11,400 civil servants, mercenaries and beer . . . The tablets suggest to some scholars that Abraham should be seen in a third millennium context rather than that of the second century BC as previously thought . . . some scholars think they may indicate Abraham was a historical figure, which has been widely questioned”.
Once again it is being demonstrated that those who have a simple trust in the Bible record also have a more accurate picture of ancient times than those who are called higher critics and who have circulated biased and erroneous material about the Bible.
It is now thought that Ebla, only 15% of which has been explored so far, contains the most ancient forms of writing known to the world, which is of a highly developed character. Previously Sumeran script was the most ancient known and Mesopotamian civilisation thought to be the base for ancient cultures. — Again note the statement.
“Previously, Mesopotamian culture was taken as a reference point both because it was considered the prevailing culture and because it was thought Abraham had come to Harran, when he set out for Palestine, from Ur in Mesopotamia. NOW IT IS THOUGHT THAT THE UR IN QUESTION WAS NEAR HARRAN which is only as far from Ebla as Naples is from Rome.” (Our emphasis).
The material for the article which follows, which puts the same view, was assembled 11 years ago. The article was sent to the Believer for publication well before the newspaper feature was published. We are very interested to be able to place them alongside each other.
Quotations From Authorities About The Location Of Abraham’s Home
Biblical Archaeology (1962) G. Ernest Wright, Page 4.
Parham Professor of Divinity at Harvard an Old Testament Scholar and Archaeologist.
The Original Home Of The Patriarchs
Where was Abrahams original home? Later Israelites tell us it .was the Country of Paddan Aram which means field of Aram. Still another name for it in Genesis is Aram of the Two Rivers; in Hebrew, Aram — Naharaim (Genesis 24:10).
We gather that the chief city of this area in and around which Abraham’s kin were settled was Haran (Genesis 11:31 & 28:10). Where was this country? It is the land between the Euphrates and the Tigris Rivers in their upper courses, between Carchemish on the west and Nineveh on the east. Two tributaries of the Euphrates can be seen in this area, the Balikh and the Khabur. The chief city on the Balikh was Haran (Karan), that on Habur was Gozan or modem Tell Halaf (2 Kings 17:6). To be more exact therefore Paddan Aram was the region around these two tributaries, especially around the Balikh on which Haran was situated. Here then was the home of the Patriarchs. Not only did Abram come from there but, when he reached the land of Canaan, he and his descendants kept close touch with their relatives around Haran. The present text of our Old Testament tells us in Genesis 11:31 that Abram’s father Terah migrated to Haran from Ur of the Chaldees, a great Sumerian city near the Persian Gulf, but the reference is a very obscure one.
The oldest text of the Bible which we now have (the Greek translation of the 3rd. Century BC) contains no reference to the city at all. Consequently, many scholars believe that Ur here represents some textural corruption or late addition. In any event, we are safe in saying that the home with which the Patriarchs were most closely connected was Haran and there is little evidence of any South Mesopotamian influence upon their traditions.
What was the ethnic background of the Patriarchs according to the Old Testament? Israelite children of a later day were taught to say, A nomadic or fugative Aramean was my father (Deut 26:5). The name of their home, as already mentioned, was Field or Aram or Aram of the Two Rivers. Jacob’s cousins Bethuer & Laban are called Arameans, that is’ men of Aram (Genesis 25:20 — 28:5 — 31 :20 — 24).
The Biblical tradition, therefore, is that the Patriarchs were Arameans, a people who later became very famous in ancient history as great traders and who were able to build a state with its capital at Damascus.
Names Of Towns In Paddan Aram
First is the interesting fact that the names of several of Abrams ancestors who are listed in Genesis 11:10 are now known to be names of towns in the vicinity of Haran.
The name of one of Abraham’s brothers was Haran, almost the same as the city itself except that the two words begin with different kinds of “H” in the original. Haran was a flourishing community during the 19th and 18th centuries BC and is frequently mentioned in contempory documents and letters. The second of Abram’s brothers is Nahor, to whose city Abram sent for Rebekah (Genesis 24:10). Nahor also is now well known from the Man texts and Assyrian documents. Though its mound cannot be identified as yet with certainty, it was a town in the neighborhood of Haran. The same can be said for the name of their father, Terah, which appears in the town, Til — Turaki. Their great-grandfather was Serug, the name of the town (Serug) west of Haran. Still further back in their ancestry was Peleg, a name which has been identified with a town named Phaliga on the Euphrates just above the mouth of the Habur. Here, then is a remarkable situation. The identification of one name with an ancient town might be mere coincidence but here are several identifications in the precise area from which Abraham came.
These Biblical names of the brethren and ancestors of Abram were probably Patriarchal clan names which were either given by the clans to towns which they founded or borrowed by them from cities and villages which they seized during the disturbances around 2,000 BC.
The Pictorial History Of The World
James D. Mc Cabe. Page 36.
The tenth Patriarch from Noah, in the line of Shem was Abraham, the great ancestor of the Hebrews. His father was Terah who dwelt in Ur of the Chaldees with his family and kindred. Some writers have identified the ancient city of UR with ORFAH, in the highlands of Mesopotamia (Aram) which unite the tableland of Armenea to the valley of the Euphrates. In later stages the city was called EDESSA by the Greeks. While living there Abram was called of God to leave his home and go into a land which God would show him. In consequence of this call, the family of Terah quitted UR and removed to HARAN, or as it is more properly called in the New Testament CHARAN, east of the Euphrates. Here Terah died after a residence of some years and here Nahor, his son pleased with the beauty and fertility of the country took up his permanent abode.
Meanwhile Abram as soon as his father was buried and it would seem in obedience to a second call from God, took leave of his brother Nahor and continued his journey with Sarai his wife and his nephew Lot. He went out in implicit reliance upon the Divine Promise, his future home being merely described to him by the Almighty as “A land that I will show thee”. Crossing the Euphrates, he separated himself entirely from the land of his birth. Hence the Canaanites called him the “Hebrew” the man who crossed over the river, the emigrant from Mesopotamia.
Rise And Fall Of Chaldean Monarchy
Mc Cabe. Page 150.
We have no account of the immediate successors of Nimrod. It would seem that his conquests were followed, at some uncertain period, by an emigration of Semitic and Hamitic peoples to the northward. The Assyrians, a Semitic people, withdrew to Upper Mesopotamia and laid the foundations of their monarchy along the middle Tigris; The Pheonicians, a Hamitic race passed to the country of Canaan and settled along the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, where they founded a kingdom of their own. The race from which Abraham sprang passed into Northern. Mesopotamia.
The Bible As History In Pictures
- Keller, 1963. Page 34.
Ablate of the excavations of the Mesopotamian city of Mari half way up the Euphrates. This is the palace of Mari on the Euphrates, containing 260 apartments and courtyards and reckoned to be one of the largest royal residences in the ancient east. In a library consisting of 25,000 clay tablets, cuneiform texts were found, which contained important information concerning the Patriarchal period. Reference is made in them to places which bear the names of Patriarchs mentioned in the Bible; Peleg, Serug, Nahor, Terah and Haran.
Conclusion
The conclusion of this study, is that there is not the slightest evidence in the Scriptures that Abram and his family were inhabitants of Chaldea, but, from the days of Eber and Peleg, Abram’s ancesters were inhabitants of North West Paddan — Aram, called Mesopotamia at a later date. Because of hundreds of years of living in that land they became Arameans by nationality, but not by race, for they were of the Semetic family of Arphaxad, whilst the Arameans were descendants of Shem through Aram. We have the same circumstances in this country where hundreds of thousands of peoples of foreign lands are becoming known as Australians. Many are now Australians nationally but racially totally dissimilar.
A Perspective on how Archaeology can help us understand the Bible