Nimrod
Nimrod (; ; arc, ܢܡܪܘܕ; ar, نُمْرُود, Numrūd) is a biblical figure mentioned in the Book of Genesis and Books of Chronicles. The son of Cush and therefore a great-grandson of Noah, Nimrod was described as a king in the land of ...
, mentioned twice in the
Hebrew Bible
The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach" '' ''Jewish Encyclopedia'', ''s.v.'' "Calneh" A. S. Yahuda, "Calneh in Shinar" ''Journal of Biblical Literature'' 65.3 (September 1946:325-327).
The verse in Genesis reads:
:
:"And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar" (
KJV
The King James Version (KJV), also the King James Bible (KJB) and the Authorized Version, is an English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England, which was commissioned in 1604 and published in 1611, by sponsorship of K ...
)
Historical scholarship proposed candidate locations for the city of "Calneh", but it is now considered most likely, in a suggestion going back to
W.F. Albright (1944), that the word did not in origin refer to a city but has been corrupted from an expression meaning "all of them". In the Revised Standard Version, the English translation of the verse reads:
:''The beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, and Accad, all of them in the land of Shinar.''
Calneh ("''Chalanne''") was identified with Ctesiphon in
Jerome
Jerome (; la, Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus; grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος Σωφρόνιος Ἱερώνυμος; – 30 September 420), also known as Jerome of Stridon, was a Christian priest, confessor, theologian, and historian; he is co ...
Sir Henry Rawlinson
Sir Henry Creswicke Rawlinson, 1st Baronet, KLS (5 April 1810 – 5 March 1895) was a British East India Company army officer, politician and Orientalist, sometimes described as the Father of Assyriology. His son, also Henry, was to bec ...
in interpreting the
Talmud
The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law ('' halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the ce ...
ic passage Joma 10a identifying Calneh with the modern Nippur, a lofty mound of earth and rubbish situated in the marshes on the east bank of the
Euphrates
The Euphrates () is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of Western Asia. Together with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia ( ''the land between the rivers''). Originating in Turkey, the Eup ...
, but 30 miles distant from its present course, and about 60 miles south-south-east from Babylon.
A second Calneh is mentioned in the
Book of Amos
The Book of Amos is the third of the Twelve Minor Prophets in the Old Testament (Tanakh) and the second in the Greek Septuagint tradition. Amos, an older contemporary of Hosea and Isaiah, Harris, Stephen L., ''Understanding the Bible''. Palo Alt ...
, and some have also associated this place with ''Calno'' which is mentioned in similar terms in the Book of Isaiah. (, ) This is identified by some archaeological scholars as Kulnia, Kullani or Kullanhu, modern ''Kullan-Köy'', between
Carchemish
Carchemish ( Turkish: ''Karkamış''; or ), also spelled Karkemish ( hit, ; Hieroglyphic Luwian: , /; Akkadian: ; Egyptian: ; Hebrew: ) was an important ancient capital in the northern part of the region of Syria. At times during it ...
on the Euphrates River and Arpad near Aleppo in Northern Syria, about ten kilometers southeast from Arpad.
''Canneh'', mentioned in the
Book of Ezekiel
The Book of Ezekiel is the third of the Latter Prophets in the Tanakh and one of the major prophetic books, following Isaiah and Jeremiah. According to the book itself, it records six visions of the prophet Ezekiel, exiled in Babylon, during ...
27:23 as one of the towns with which Tyre carried on trade was associated with Calneh by A.T. Olmstead, ''History of Assyria''.
Xenophon
Xenophon of Athens (; grc, Ξενοφῶν ; – probably 355 or 354 BC) was a Greek military leader, philosopher, and historian, born in Athens. At the age of 30, Xenophon was elected commander of one of the biggest Greek mercenary armies o ...
mentioned a ''Kainai'' on the west bank of the
Tigris
The Tigris () is the easternmost of the two great rivers that define Mesopotamia, the other being the Euphrates. The river flows south from the mountains of the Armenian Highlands through the Syrian and Arabian Deserts, and empties into the ...
below the Upper Zab.Xenophon, ''
Anabasis
Anabasis (from Greek ''ana'' = "upward", ''bainein'' = "to step or march") is an expedition from a coastline into the interior of a country. Anabase and Anabasis may also refer to:
History
* ''Anabasis Alexandri'' (''Anabasis of Alexander''), a ...
'' ii.4, noted in this connection by I J. Gelb, "Calneh" ''The American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures'' 51.3 (April 1935:189-191) p. 189 note 2.