Abraham Article II
Who exactly was
Nimrod?
When the flood waters receded to an acceptable level, Noah
and his wife, Emzara disembarked from the Ark along with their sons, Shem, Ham,
and Japheth, and their respective wives.
The descendants of Shem became the Shemites, or Semites
(Semitic line of descent); the descendants of Japheth, the Indo-European nations, also known as the
Gentiles; and the descendants of Ham, the Canaanites, Babylonians, Egyptians,
and the Philistines.
Since we’re exploring Nimrod, it should be noted that the
story of Ham, observing and taking delight in seeing his father, Noah, naked,
is a metaphor for Ham’s rebellion against God. In light of this, it is
understandable that Ham’s son, Cush, and his grandson, Nimrod, might also be
rebellious against God. Nimrod proved to be that and more. In fact, it might be
said that it became his life’s work, his passion to persuade people away from
God. His reputation of being a mighty hunter might come more from his capturing
of men than from hunting down wild game.
As Nimrod’s influence grew, he established the Cities of
Erech, Nineveh, Babel, and Akkad among others, which would become the land of
Shinar, or Sumer, the beginning of the kingdom of Babylonia.
It has been suggested that Nimrod and Ninus (In Greek
mythology, King of Assyria and founder of the city of Nineveh) was the same
person. Even more interesting, theories have emerged, which indicate that
Nimrod might have actually been Gilgamesh, the hero of a Babylonian epic,
inscribed on ancient clay tablets, that parallels the Biblical story of Noah
and the flood. According to the tablets, Gilgamesh was from Erech, a city
attributed to Nimrod. Genesis 10:8-11, states that Nimrod established a
kingdom. Since the Babylonian kingdom seems to be one of the earliest, if not
the first kingdom on earth, it stands to reason that such an event would be
recorded in extra-Biblical literature. And it was. Not only was the epic of
Gilgamesh recorded on Sumerian tablets, but similar tales are found among the
Assyrian and Hittite cultures as well.
Scholars and translators of the cuneiform tablets that
contain the Gilgamesh Epic agree that the text was composed around 2000 BC
while the material written about, the numerous episodes of adventure, relate to
a much earlier time period, probably not long after the flood. There are many
similarities between Nimrod and Gilgamesh. Both were known as great builders
and might warriors, they were from the same area, and arguably lived around the
same time period. Nimrod seemed to be obsessed with the occurrence of a second
flood. He built the tower of Babel, which was most likely a Mesopotamian
Ziggurat, a pyramid shaped structure with staircases and ramps that led to a
shrine on top, with the hope of constructing it high enough to escape the flood
waters.
Nimrod was also obsessed with something else. Being a
descendant of Ham, he feared that a descendant of Shem would someday show up
and challenge his authority. That descendant would be Abram, later known as
Abraham. I’ll cover more of this in the next post.
Pictured below is an example of clay tablet containing Gilgamesh Epic
No comments:
Post a Comment