In the context of this project, the key objective of analyzing other powers is to compare each empire to the Kingdom of Israel. Highlight the approximations that each empire has to the kingdom rooted in God's Law and see where they fall short.
Around
the 2
nd Millennium BC a text was produced in southern Mesopotamia
now known as the Sumerian King List. This had interesting parallels to the
genealogies described in
Genesis 5. It
is mostly a propagandistic document aiming to legitimize regents from Sumer,
Akkad. It also mentions the great flood, after which, rulers rule for a few
hundred years instead of thousands before the flood.
Two
notable mentions in this list are
Enmerkar and
Gilgamesh. Enmerkar was the
builder of
Uruk in Sumer and, like Scripture would later record of Moses, he too
was slow of speech. Gilgamesh, king of Uruk (and the first great hero of
antiguity) undertakes an adventure which shares a flood story very similar to
Noah’s. That account, along with the decline of lifespan after the flood, is
something the Mesopotamian and Biblical account have in common and serves to
support the Bible’s account.
AKKADIAN EMPIRE
The
Akkadian kingdom worshipped Ishtar, the goddess of fertility which would be a
central dirty form many subsequent empires. 1000 years after the dawn of
civilization to lower Mesopotamia region of Sumeria was still a place of small
towns. Successive kings with the most famous being Gilgamesh.
Sargon ofAkkad took over the region. He was the founder of the first empire in history. His
own autobiographical accounts speaks of his mother putting them in a basket of
reeds and pitch and lowering him into the river (just like Moses.) Sargon, like
Joseph, interpreted the dreams of the king.
The
Akkadian Empire took over Sumer, Syria and reached the northern Syrian coast of
the Mediterranean. The most bellicose ruler, Naram-Sin, crushed uprisings and
then turned against Elam. He also sailed down the Persian Gulf into Magon
(Oman) and reached Lebanon. When he had nothing left to conquer Naram-Sin turned
himself into a God and became the first king to demand worship while living.
Sumer
eventually defeated them and by 2105 BC they go back to being a region of city
states.
THIRD DYNASTY of UR
Also known
as Neo-Sumerian Empire. Appeared in Sumer after expelling the Gutians. Ur was
the land from which Abraham came.
Focussed on
southern and central Mesopotamia, Elam and Southern Iran. It was a more compact
empire than the Akkadians. They were composed of Elamites, Amorites and Akkadians.
The Empire controlled the labour of 500,000 to 1,000,000 subjects and state
slavery existed. The government had high bureaucracy with highly trained
scribes.
Kings did
not claim divinity for themselves but where nevertheless in attendance of God. Being
one of great intellect, the king alone knew how to intercede for people to God.
Animal sacrifice was already in place at this time.
The Third
Dynasty of Ur Only existed for only one century. It disappeared suddenly
probably because of over reliance on central planning.
The nomadic
Amorites and Elamites took over the land but, not knowing how to administer the
complex agricultural system established by the people of Ur, they regressed the
region into dark age. It seems God spared Abraham this period as he left Ur
when things were bad (Genesis 15:7)
AMORITES
The name
comes from Egyptian “Amar” name for their God. They were an ancient
Semitic-speaking people reaching from Syria to southern Mesopotamia. The
Amorites have the distinction, among other 21st century Middle Eastern people
to have established the first city states, the most prominent being Babylon.
One of
their Dynasties was Aleppo, overthrown by the Hittites.
FIRST DYNASTY of BABYLON
Strategically
placed at the narrow point between the two rivers, Tigris and Euphrates,
whoever controlled Babylon controlled the whole traffic in the region.
Hammurabi,
the most famous king in Mesopotamia, began 1565 BC a series of lightning
campaigns lasting 12 years. He conquered a territory as big as the third
Dynasty of Ur by defeating Elam, Larsa, Mari (c. 1531 BC), Sumer, Akkad, Isin,
Eshnunna, and Assyrian Territories in Anatolia and southern Syria.
Hammurabi
described himself as the ruler that brought peace and who's sceptre was just. Lex
Talionis (an eye for an eye) was used, just as we would find in the Hebrew law.
However the Babylonians were especially harsh with the disproportionate
sentence of Death prescribed for all offences.
Babylon
comes from a word meaning gate if the gods. This accords with the account of
the Tower of Babel (regardless of its precise location), the ziggurat which
served as a gateway to the gods. The God Marduk was the chief deity. To the
Babylonians, military campaigns were a reflection of outcomes of wars in the
heavenly realms.
The First
Dynasty had a standing army were soldiers received land in exchange for their
service. After Hammurabi, his son was faced with major rebellions in southern
Mesopotamia. 1362 BC spelled the end with conquest by King Mursili I of the
Hittites.
The key
contribution of the First Dynasty was to make Babylon the key city in
Mesopotamia for the next 1500 years.
In
Mesopotamians worshiped the sun god Shamash which represented the oppressed. When
the sun set then this meant it was moving to the underworld. It was during
night that people worshiped their god; while he was engaged in that travel
between the living and the dead.
The true
Hebrew God warned his people that these “lesser lights” – the sun, the moon,
the stars – were the created, not creation so they should not be worshiped.
The
Babylonians themselves believed in Marduk. This god had to fight with a number
of other gods to attain his right for divine rule and establish order. This is
another distinction that Yahweh has compared to all others; our God never had
to fight to acquire or maintain power. He was a supreme being all powerful from
the beginning.
CANAANITES
The most common term used to identify an ethnic group in the Bible. The
people from Canaan, also know as the Levant, especially in the south of that
area. The word is the common term to describes a greater group of different
peoples (listed below) forming the enemies of Israel. In later Old Testament
books, at time the Canaanites immigrated to Carthage (c 500 BC) they are known
as the Phoenecians.
Perizzites
Open
country dwellers and villagers of the Girgashite Canaanite nation. They
inhabited the fertile region south-west of Mt. Carmel.
Hivites
The Hivites
were one group of descendants of Canaan, son of Ham, according to the Table of
Nations in Genesis 10 (esp. 10:17).
Jebusites
Canaanite
tribe who built and inhabited Jebus (Jerusalem) before King David took it over
(c 1000 BC).
NOTE: All timeline dates prior to 664 BC are based on Rohl’s New Chronology.