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Iraq in the Bible
Author: Paul S. Taylor
We are becoming increasingly familiar with the topography of Iraq as we watch TV news reports and read newspaper accounts of events unfolding there. Iraq, about the size of
click for larger view
Iraq in the Bible
Author: Paul S. Taylor
We are becoming increasingly familiar with the topography of Iraq as we watch TV news reports and read newspaper accounts of events unfolding there. Iraq, about the size of California, is ancient Mesopotamia, Greek for “in the midst of the rivers.” The rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates, played a key role in the development of civilization in this region. The easternmost river, the Tigris, has its headwaters in eastern Turkey and flows past Mosul (ancient Nineveh), Tikrit, Baghdad, Kut and Basra. The Euphrates begins in east-central Turkey and flows past Karbala, Hilah (ancient Babylon) and Nasiriyah.
Located ten miles southwest of Nasiriyah, Ur is most famous as the hometown of Abraham. He migrated from Ur to Haran in southern Turkey, the actual homeland of the Patriarchs, and then to Canaan (Genesis 11:31; 12:1-5).
Evidence for a very advanced culture from Abraham’s day has been unearthed at Ur. Its restored ziggurat, or temple tower, is often shown in news reports. A temple to the moon god Nanna, or Sin, was situated on the top of the tower. The name of the Babylonian king Belshazzar (Daniel 5) appeared for the first time in a text found in a foundation deposit of the temple. Scholars once said the Bible was wrong in naming Belshazzar as king when the Persians conquered Babylon, since the known records indicated that Nabonidus was the last king of Babylon.
What the foundation deposit tablet, along with other subsequently found texts, revealed was that Belshazzar was the son of Nabonidus and coregent with his father. While Nabonidus was away campaigning, which he loved to do, Belshazzar was left to run the country from Babylon. Thus, Belshazzar offered Daniel the position of “third highest ruler in the kingdom” if he would decipher the handwriting on the wall (Dan. 5:16). This was the highest available office in the kingdom, since Nabonidus was number one and his son Belshazzar was number two. Instead of being in error, the Bible precisely reflected the political situation that existed in ancient Babylon at the time of its fall to the Medes and Persians.
Twenty-five miles east of Samawah is Uruk (Erech), another of the world’s earliest cities built by Nimrod (Gen. 10:10). Excavations there have shown that it indeed was one of the oldest cities in the world and a key city in the Sumerian culture.
The expansive ruins of Babylon are located a few miles north of Hilah and about 25 miles south of Baghdad. Founded by Nimrod (Gen. 10:10), it was one of the most famous cities in the ancient world. Babylon was capital of the Babylonian empire that ruled the world from 612 to 539 BC.
Five of its kings are named in the Bible: Merodach-Baladan (2 Kings 20:12), Nebuchadnezzar II destroyer of Jerusalem in 586 BC (2 Kgs 24–25, etc.), Evil-Merodach (2 Kings 25:27-30; Jer. 52:3-34), Nergal-Sharezer (Jer. 39:3, 13) and Belshazzar (Dan. 5).
Many important finds have been made at Babylon, including the foundations of the “Tower of Babel” (Gen. 11:1-8), the royal palace built by Nebuchadnezzar where God pronounced judgment on the Babylonian Empire by means of the handwriting on the wall (Dan. 5), records detailing rations given to King Jehoiachin and his family who had been taken to Babylon as captives (2 Kings 24:15), the Babylonian Chronicle recording the capture of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar March 16, 597 BC, and the Cyrus Cylinder describing the fall of Babylon (in fulfillment of Biblical prophecy) in 539 BC and the subsequent freeing of captives so they could return to their native lands as was the case with the Judeans (2 Chr 36:23; Ezra 1:2-4, 6:3-5).
One of the tragedies of the war in Iraq, and perhaps the greatest archaeological tragedy of all time, was the looting of the National Museum following the capture of Baghdad by U.S. forces. Mobs ransacked the museum, grabbing treasures dating back to the dawn of civilization in Mesopotamia. “They have looted or destroyed 170,000 items of antiquity…They were worth billions of dollars,” said deputy director Nabhal Amin, weeping. Some of the world’s most important ancient finds, chronicling the achievements of the Uruk, Sumerian, Babylonian, Assyrian, Persian and early Islamic civilizations were there.
Included were mankind’s earliest written documents, ancient mathematical texts, ancient sculptures and other 