Shinar
Shinar (Hebrew שִׁנְעָר Šin`ar, Septuagint Σεννααρ Sennaar) was a geographical locale of uncertain boundaries in Mesopotamia. The name may be a corruption of Shene nahar ("two rivers"), Shene or ("two cities"),[1] or Sumer ("land of the civilized lords" or "native land").
It has been suggested[by whom?] that Shinar must have been confined to the northern part of Mesopotamia (the plain of Sinjar, immediately south of Mount Judi, and west of Mount Nisir), based on Jubilees 9:3 which allots Shinar (or, in the Ethiopic text, Sadna Sena`or) to Ashur. However, Jubilees 10:20 states that the Tower of Babel was built with bitumen from the sea of Shinar. David Rohl theorized that the Tower was actually located in Eridu, which was once located on the Persian Gulf, where there are ruins of a massive, ancient ziggurat worked from bitumen.[2]
The name Shinar occurs eight times in the Hebrew Bible. In the Book of Genesis 10:10, the beginning of Nimrod's kingdom is said to have been "Babel [Babylon], and Erech [Uruk], and Akkad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar." Verse 11:2 states that Shinar enclosed the plain that became the site of the Tower of Babel after the Great Flood.
In Genesis 14:1,9, King Amraphel rules Shinar. Shinar is further mentioned in Joshua 7:21; Isaiah 11:11; Daniel 1:2; and Zechariah 5:11, as a general synonym for Babylonia.[citation needed]
If Shinar encompassed both Babylon (Babel) and Erech (Uruk), then Shinar broadly denoted southern Babylonia. The Egyptian name for Babylonia/Mesopotamia[clarification needed] was Sngr (Sangara),[3] identified with the Sanhar of the Amarna letters by Sayce.[4]
After the Great Flood, the sons of Shem, Ham, and Japheth, stay first in the highlands of Armenia, and then repair to Shinar (Vuibert, Ancient History, 25).
[edit] References
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- ^ The New York Review, St Joseph's Seminary, 1907, p. 205.
- ^ Legends: The Genesis of Civilization (1998) and The Lost Testament (2002) by David Rohl
- ^ mentioned in the context of the Asiatic conquests of Thutmose III; W. Max Müller, "Asien und Europa," 1893, p. 279, cited after Jewish Encyclopedia
- ^ "Proc. Soc. Bibl. Arch." 1896, xviii. 173 et seq.; "Patriarchal Palestine," 1895, pp. 67 et seq., cited after Jewish Encyclopedia
