The Bible not only calls the ancestors of Abraham wandering Aramians,it calls Abraham a Hebrew and claims that he came from Ur of the Chaldees.It doesn't say that Abraham was a Chaldean,although He may have been.The Biblical scribes may have only been making a distinction between Ur of the Chaldees in Syria and Ur of the Babylonians in southern Mesopotamia.The verses also help to distinguish the Hebrews from other Semites.While every Israelite may have been a Hebrew,not every Hebrew was an Israelite and not every Semite was a Hebrew.Most every Chaldean was a Babylonian,and not every Babylonian was a Chaldean.The Babylonians were in Mesopotamia at the time of Abraham,contrary to what critics believe.They did not have the same influence over the Levant they had in the 7^th century bce,although they built an Empire in central and Northern Mesopotamia.The cuneiform tablets of Ebla mention a city designated "Ur in the territory of Haran",which is probably the birthplace of Abraham.That is generally accepted by archeologists today,which would mean that,in reality,Abraham was a Syrian.The Bible also indicates that Abraham's homeland was near Padan-Aram in Syria.The Biblical Chaldees were not originally Mesopotamians as the critics believe.As one writes:
"The evidence shows local tradition and place names- but where was "the Chaldees"? Ur is referred to as "Ur of the Chaldees",yet the only mention of Chaldea after this in the Bible is referring to the Chaldean dynasty of Babylon in Nebuchadnezzar's time, which was almost 1,700 years later!"
The Bible mentions the Chaldees only as a means to show the location of Abraham's birthplace.The Israelites had no contact with the Babylonians until the time of Nebuchadnezzer,and no need to mention them.The mention of Ur of the Chaldees was an attempt to avoid the same confusion that critics and some Bible scholars have now created.Ur of the Chaldees was not the same city as Ur of the Sumerians,near the Persian gulf. The Babylonians did not suddenly appear out of nowhere with a ready made Empire.The Chaldees were a much more ancient group than the Babylonians,who were only referring to themselves by a very ancient god,which they had apparently dropped by the time of the Babylonian Empire in the 7^th century bce,which archaeologists call the new Babylonian empire.Perhaps that could be used as a hint that there was an old Babylonian empire.That could help clear up the misunderstanding that it was Nebuchadnezzer that founded the Babylonian empire.The first inhabitants of central and eastern Turkey and Armenia are recognized as being Chaldees.They were the Hurrians and Urartian,from which came the name Ararat.Inscriptions show that the Urartuans had at least 79 different gods- and this conglomeration of gods were called "Khaldis" (Chaldees).In the inscription of Argistis near Van,it states:
"This is the spoil of the cities which I obtained for the people of the Khaldis in one year.To Khaldis,the giver,to the Khaidises,the supreme givers,the children of Khaldis the mighty..."
Interestingly, these were the people who years later still lived in the region near and around where the ark came to rest.And one thing noted later about the Chaldeans was their great knowledge,especially in astrology.There is a great deal of logic in assuming that the people who remained closest to Noah and his immediate family would have had access to the greatest amount of knowledge.It was the Chaldeans that gave the knowledge of astrology to the Babylonians.With this information,along with inscriptions from Assyria,we can now confidently place Abraham as living in Urfa on the Balikh River.The Babylonians were the late comers and a splinter group of the Chaldees,who came down from Armenia and settled in Northern Mesopotamia and Syria.They were from the same ancient group of people as the "Arameans".They belonged to a group known as the Nairi tribal union,dating back at least as far as 6,000 BCE. The Assyrians called them "People of the Nairi." Their national god was Haldi (Kaldi) and the conglomeration of gods,which included Selardi,Urartu,Shiwini,Siwini,Ur,Astvats-arm and Tesheba The name,Khaladu(Khaldee), has always implied a collection of people rather than a single nation.They were one of the groups that divided from the main group of "People of the Nairi". The united Nairi broke up around 1700 BCE,at which time different groups began calling themselves by their gods.The god name Arm also shows the possibility of Aram being in Canaan during the time of Moses,as the Bible claims,and makes the reference to “wandering Aramian” correct.An inscription from Tiglath-Pileser of Assyria ,around 1300 BCE is evidence of the Aramians being in Syria long before critics say they existed:
"I crossed the Euphrates twenty eight times...in pursuit of the Arameans."
The Ur of Sumeria was built by the group of Semites that split from the Eberites,which the builder Nimrod was a part of. The Assyrians and Babylonians were very familiar with Nimrod,who was given credit for building the tower of Babel. Nimrud was an actual king,and would have had the ability to build cities and temples,and the ability to find workers.Some ancient texts tell of Nimrud being ruthless and blood thirsty.It is not beyond reason to assume that Nimrud may have used slave labor to build the tower,as well as the cities he has been given credit for building.Gen 10:8-12,claims that Calah was built by Nimrod in the land of Assyria.That would place Calah in North Mesopotamia,not in Babylonia.The cities of Babel,Erech and Calneh were in the the land of Shinar,which later became Babylonia.The Babylonians are believed by some to have been the the kasdiym of the Bible,who settled the area of central and southern Mesopotamia.The name kasdiym is also much more ancient than the Babylonians,and has it's roots in the word kisad,the name for an area between the Tigris and Euphrates the river where the soil was extremely fertile,while the south is marshy and the north mountainous.The kisad,or bank,was within the confines of Edin.Inscriptions from Lagish call the entire district Gu-Edinna,the Sumerian equivalent of the Semitic Kisad Edini,the bank of Eden.It was a virtual garden with an abundance of water,and the most populated region of Babylonia.In reality the Babylonians were more closely related to the kasydim than the Khaldees.The name,according to some archaeologists,comes from Arpachsad,son of Shem,son of Noah.He left his legacy in the name arpakhsadiym, meaning "decendants of Arphachsad.It is also believed by some that the name was retained in the group calling themselves Kassites.One recently discovered inscription ,from Gu-Edinna,was among the artifacts taken when the Baghdad Museum was looted in 2003.
   Another group that critics say did not exist as early as the Bible implies were the Arameans.Historians place the rise of the Arameans around 1400 BCE.They were considered powerful enough by the Hittites to be a problem.Even if they had come into existence as a powerful nation without requiring some time to set up a nation,1400 BCE is quite some time prior to the 9th century BCE.They were a separate nationality recognized by the nations of Mesopotamia and Anatolia 400 hundred years prior to the critical date.There's no reason to believe they could not have been a separate nationality at the time of Abraham.There is no doubt that the Aramiac language existed much earlier and according to linguists,that's one of the things that define different people.The name ibri is Aramiac for Eber the father of the Hebrews.The Assyrians associated Ibri with the "People of the Nairi,"who gave their name to Naran,Aram and the Syrian area of Padan-Aram,mentioned in the Bible.In other words,the ancient Assyrians,The biography of Amenemhab,written in the the 15th century BCE claims:
"Asiatics, three men as prisoners, alive.
When his majesty reached Naharain 5 I brought thither the three men as
booty, whom I placed before thy majesty, as living prisoners
Another time I captured (it was in the expedition to the country of
mount Uan, to the west of Aleppo), and I brought back 7 (certain)
captured Asiatics, as living prisoners 13 men, 70 asses alive, 13
basons of iron /// basons of worked gold ////// "
   The Aramiac area of Naharan named for the "people of Nairi" was known to the Egyptian by at least the time of Thutmose III.Naharain apparently stretched to the Euphrates river:
8 "////// Another time I captured (it was in an expedition to the
country of Carchemish) and brought away . . . 9 ////// as living
prisoners. I traversed the water of Naharain without letting them
escape, 10 [and] I [set] them before my master. Behold, therefore,
he rewarded me with a great reward, namely 11 ////// I saw the victory
of the king, the king of the south and of the north, even
Ra-men-kheper, the life-giver, in the country of Senzar.
He made ////// 12 ////// them."
The Arameans were not new comers to Northern Mesopotamia or Eastern Syria.Historians tell us they began settling greater Syria in the 13th century.Settling an area indicates they came from somewhere and were not created in Syria in the 13th century BCE.The city of Ebla,in Syria was destroyed by the Akkadian Naram-Sin in 2300 BCE.He also destroyed the city of Arman,believed to have been Aleppo.The name Aram-Naharaim means "Aram of Two Rivers," placing the area between the Euphrates and the Balikh near the city of Haran.According to the historian Cyrus Gordan author of "The Ancient Near east:
"Although there is evidence of the Aramaic language in records of the second millennium B.C. the historic texts begin in the eighth century in the city-states of Aram or inland Syria when it displaced as the lingua franca in Syria and nearby coastal Asia Minor. "
The Aramaic speaking people were related to the Hebrews,the Assyrians and the Babylonians,and tracing the ancient history of one can often lead to evidence of the others.
   The discoveries at Calah can be traced back to the most ancient of times, when civilization first began.The ancient city had been trading with the city of Ur,in Lower Mesopotamia.Calah was rebuilt by Shalmaneser I (1274-1245 B.C.),but had been a settled city a thousand years prior to that.Linguists agree that all languages sprung from a common one,as the Bible states.Their theory is consistent with that given in the Table of Nations.We can now say with accuracy that Abraham was a Hebrew,and that he was from the same parent group as the Arameans.He not only came from the area first settled by the Khaladu,he was a distant relative.His more distant ancestors came from a place called Eden in Mesopotamia.Due to a flood,that devastated the entire valley,the survivors were forced to live in Armenia for awhile where they migrated back south into Syria and Mesopotamia..Some ancient texts claim that it was Nimrod who decided to build the tower of babel.Most critics believe that the story of the tower was also fabricated,but the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar claimed to have rebuilt the remains of a tower and left behind an inscription stating that the tower was ancient at the time:
   “I have completed its magnificence with silver, gold, other metals, stone, enameled bricks, fir and pine. The first which is the house of the earth’s base, the most ancient monument of Babylon; I built and finished it. I have highly exalted its head with bricks covered with copper. We say for the other, that is, this edifice, the house of the seven lights of the earth, the most ancient monument of Borsippa. A former king built it, (they reckon 42 ages) but he did not complete its head. Since a remote time, people had abandoned it, without order expressing their words. Since that time the earthquake and the thunder had dispersed the sun-dried clay. The bricks of the casing had been split, and the earth of the interior had been scattered in heaps. Merodach, the great god, excited my mind to repair this building. I did not change the site nor did I take away the foundation. In a fortunate month, in an auspicious day, I undertook to build porticoes around the crude brick masses, and the casing of burnt bricks. I adapted the circuits, I put the inscription of my name in the Kitir of the portico. I set my hand to finish it. And to exalt its head. As it had been in ancient days, so I exalted its summit.”
   Borsippa was a twin city of Babylon,and much more ancient.,believed to have been founded around 3800 BCE.The earliest mention of Babylon was from an inscription from the reign of Sargon of Akkad, dating back to the 23rd century BC.The Babylonians took their name from the city of Babylon,which originated from Babel.According to the inscription,the tower was never completed and work was abandoned suddenly just as the tower in the Bible.Historians tell us Babel comes from the Akkadian babili,,or from the Babylonian bab-ilu,or the Sumerian baa-el.which meant "the gate of the gods",or the Hebrew word "balal" meaning to confuse.The word El originated in Sumer,long before the Akkadians or the Babylonians entered the scene.It is more likely that the combination of words Baab and El was adopted by later nations and became synonymous with gate of the gods.There is a possibility that it may have had something to do with confusion originally.The Sumerians had longed recognized that their many gods,at time up to 3,000,were a confusion to many,especially the traveler.Anyone passing through the land was expected to worship the local gods,but few travelers knew what the gods required of them.They were subject to being punished without notice,and if the offense was great enough they might face death.The laws of the gods changed often and differed according to the kingdom the traveler was in at the time.The same god might have different laws in the city than in the country.It was just a matter of time before someone rejected all the gods for one supreme God.There are several Sumerian words that contain ba and baa.Ba-ab-si means sufficient or the be full.Ba-ra means to spread out.The Sumerian il-la actually means to lift and to hang,in which case it could be construed to mean tower.Most of the other words using a combination along with ba,or baa denote a negative,or being insufficient which is akin to confusion.It is more likely that the Sumerian word could have easily became one with a meaning that describes the tower work being insufficient due to the confusion of communication between builders.The original meaning could,therefore,have been the confusion of the godsor the confusion caused by the gods.The book of Jasher claims that many of the workers were killed due to workers on the tower not understanding commands and allowing material to drop on workers below.The Hebrew language derived from Sumerian and not Babylonian.It's difficult to understanding the original meaning of Sumerian words,which were adopted and changed by every nation in the middle east and Egypt.The Hebrews got their name from Eber,although making that claim has caused some controversy.Evidence from different sources lead to the fact that the Hebrews were not only the Eberites,but they were also the Habiru.As one critic is quick to point out:
“Unfortunately, recent and thorough reappraisals of these sources have shown beyond any doubt
that the Habiru have nothing in common with the Hebrews but a similitude of name.
They were neither a people nor a tribe, but a class of society made up of refugees,
of 'displaced persons' as we would now say, who frequently turned into outlaws”
The Habiru were wandering people without a homeland.They were not citizens of any nation,and lived in camps.
The Hebrews were wandering people without a homeland.They were not citizens of any nation and lived in camps.
The claim that they can't be bundled together is unfounded,and based on not much of anything.They are the same people that the Sumerians referred to as Sa.Gaz,which are described in other texts.They were also called Sa.gaz in several of the Amarna tablets,and Habiru in others.Aramiac texts call them ibri.The Assryians used the title ibri-niri( Nairi)The root word for Eber,abar,means to cross over,or division,whichever historian is used.According to the Bible,the Semites were divided during the time of the sons of of Eber.Coming from Armenia(ararat),they would also have had to “cross over” the Euphrates river to reach Syria.There was never any other group in Mesopotamia or Syria that fits the description of the Habiru. They were nomads,who sometimes hired out as mercenaries.They were known for fighting ability.One Sumerian texts describe them thus":
"These unclothed people who travel in dead silence."
“They are nomadic, without a settled home. "...
As for their men and their women Their men go where they please.
Their women carry spindle and spinning bowl,
Their encampments are wherever they pitch them,
the decrees of Shulgi,my king, they do not obey."
   The Sumerians showed them with ‘head’ + ‘to smash’,which has been interpreted by some to mean highway robber,but is probably not accurate.Other inscriptions with a smashed head,have been interpreted as being warrior.An inscription from Idrimi calls them warriors,not robbers:
"My horse, my chariot, and my groom I took and departed.
The wasteland I crossed and into the midst of the Sutu warriors I entered.
With them I spent the night in my covered chariot.
The next day I moved along and went to the land of Canaan.
In the land of Canaan the town of Ammiya is located.
In Ammiya dwelt people of Halab,Mukish Ni and Amau.
When they saw that I was the son of their former lord they gathered
about me and said: "It has been much for you, but it will cease.
Then I dwelt for seven years among the SA-GAZ warriors.
I interpreted(the flight of) birds;
I inspected (the intestines and livers of)lambs;
and thus seven years of Adad/Teshup turned over my head."
Another texts tells us:
"Year Irkabtum,the king,Shemuma,and the Habiru soldiers made peace."
It is now more commonly accepted that Sa.Gaz did not indicate “head smasher,”but rather “people of Gaz.” In one of the Amarna letters a Dagantakala,mentions the Sa.Gaz and robbers as different groups:
`Deliver me from mig[hty] enemies.
From the hand of the Sa.Gaz people,
the robbers, and the Šutû';
He was not referring to one group of people.The Sutu were bedoin,known from Egyptian iscriptions.The phrase “people of gaz,was probably referring to the citizens of the land of Gasu,or Girsu and Lagas in Northern Mesopotamia.One of the interesting things about the Sa.gaz and Girsu,is that they were also equated with the Hurrians,in Northern Mesopotamia.The Bible also claims that the ancestors of the Israelites were Hurrians:
"Thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan.
Thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother was an Hurrian."
They were also decendended from wandering people,as were the Hebrew,Habiru and Sa.gaz:
"When ye were but few, even a few, and strangers in it [Canaan].
And when they went from nation to nation, and from one kingdom to another people."
There were many splinter groups of Sa.Gaz,as it is with any tribal group,and one group that the Hittites seemed to equate with the Hapiru were the Lulahhu,from Lullu.The Lulallu were almost always mentioned in relation to the Hurrians and Gutians as being from the same area.Narim-Sin mentioned defeating the Lullubum in the Zagros mountains.The Mari texts list the eastern tribes as Qutii and Lullu.Babylonian texts claim that the Lullumu people call their land Zamua.Archeologists tell us that In the ancient world the Kurdish people formed three kingdoms; the Gutium Kingdom, the Kingdom of Lullu and the Urartu KingdomThe Bible doesn't use the name Hebrew to signify one particular ethnic group,but like the Mesopotamians show them as a wandering people.It wasn't until the Israelites were in Canaan that they became settled.Abraham owned enough land for burials,but not even the Bible refers to Him as being a citizen of Canaan.In fact the Bible tells us that Abraham would not inherite any land and that even His decendents would be strangers in the land for four generations.From the evidence presented,the Lullumu,the Gutians,the Sa.Gas and the Hebrews originated from the same region which was near or in Armenia,the same area where Noah's Ark landed.Mesopotamian texts also portray the Lullubum as unclothed people,giving them something else in common with the Sa.Gaz.It may be referring to the men wearing a simple loincloth,much like most Egyptians did.The Hittites,in texts that mention the gods of the people of the levant,show the god of the habiru as being Ellil or El.The Assyrians mention their god as being el or elohim.
    One Assyrian merchant,in the 2nd millennium BCE,offered a reward for the return of Habiru men who were being detained at the palace of Shalahshuwe.
"Concerning the Haberi
men of the palace of Shalahshuwe who are present in custody,
I sent word to you thus: "Consult there with the princes
and the chamberlains as to whether they will return them or will not
return them.Then send word to me.If they will not return them,
redeem those men.Whatever the ransom for them the palace asks of you,
let me know in your message that I may send it to you.
Let your hand seize those men.
Whatever response the palace makes to you concerning
those men, let me know in your message.The men have much ransom money."
It is very likely that the Habiru mentioned by the Egyptians were the Hebrews.Since there is no evidence that the Sumerians,Egyptians,Babylonians,Hittites and Syrians were referring to some other group,they must have been the Hebrews.That's if defenders of the Bible are allowed to use the same "no evidence"scientific standard the critics use.In reality there is no other group that fits the description with a name anywhere close to Habiru, Ibiri,Eberu,which leaves the likely hood that they were the Biblical Hebrews.If archaeologists are correct that ibir and sa.gaz are the same,Habiru and Apiru are the people of ibir and ibri is the Biblical eber,then there is little question about the Egyptian Habiru being the Hebrews.The Amarna letters do not portray them as road agents,but as warriors who were conquering Canaanite cities,although some of them were fighting as mercenaries for the Canaanite kings.Archeology also makes the claim that the Israelites were indeed Hebrews.The Hebrews were the only people in Canaan or Syria that had a life style similar to the Habiru.The Bible is often more correct than even some scholars believe. For a long time it was uncertain if the Biblical Mizraim was actually referring to Egypt,although most archaeologists agreed that it was.The name Mitsri was mentioned in the Amarna tablets several time in reference to the king of Egypt.The ancient Egyptians called their fertile land along the Nile,Khemet,which may not have indicated black land as some believe.It probably originated in Cush,and refers to black people rather than black land.
   The book of Genesis mentions names such as Aram,Naram,Padan-Aram and Haran,which are all variations of the root Nairi,and is an indication of Abram's homeland.By the time of the Babylonian exile,these names were no longer in use,and anyone fabricating their history at that time would not have been familiar with the names.It is more likely that they were obsolete names by the time of the divided kingdom.It's amazing how the "ignorant illiterate"Hebrews knew more about linguistics 4,000 years ago,than modern man 100 years ago.
Abraham had a lot of kin folks,who were Hebrews,Aramians,Chaldeans,Assyrians,and Canaanites.The only thing left that might lead to confusion would be family reunions.

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