Abraham settled in Canaan, and life seems – at least, from the Bible’s version of it – to have been relatively uneventful. When God promised him an heir “from his own... Read more
To briefly recap the history of Sumer so far, it’s something like this; remember, these earliest dates are not locked in stone, and could easily be moved decades in either direction. I list them... Read more
We have so far taken the long age of Noah and others in the Bible at face value; but it’s worth pausing to see if we can establish real reasons to take these ages seriously. After all, we radically... Read more
The original author of the SKL must have had access to king lists and histories from various cities in Mesopotamia such as Uruk, Kish, Ur, and so on which he copied down and arranged in a way that... Read more
Abraham left Egypt a rich man and went back to Canaan, the land God had promised to give his heirs one day. Upon arriving, he and Lot divided the grazing land among them, and Lot chose the plains of... Read more
It is clear that God told Abraham to leave his home country and his father’s house, and that was the reason he left Haran (Genesis 12:1). Yet Genesis 11:31 tells us that “Terah took Abram his... Read more
Quite a while ago now, I raised the question we are now finally prepared to answer: how did Abraham find himself in Ur, when his family’s inheritance was the Indus Valley? Since the Bible doesn’t... Read more
So we’ve talked a lot about Noah’s sons, but what about Noah himself? He simply disappears from the Bible’s record, never mentioned alive again after that embarrassing wine incident. Yet he... Read more
In the next chapter of the Enmerkar-Aratta saga, which scholars call Enmerkar and Ensuhkeshdanna, we find Aratta not only unsubmissive, but actively demanding that Uruk submit to it! Ensuhkeshdanna... Read more
One of the many mysteries about ancient Sumer is the identity of their mortal enemy known “Aratta.” It is mentioned frequently in Sumerian texts, where it appears as a holy place, a trading... Read more
Surprisingly little is said in the Bible about Noah and his three sons; after the sacrifice outside the ark, the only time we hear of any of the four men is when Noah got drunk, presumably at Gobekli... Read more
Genesis 10:22-25 The children of Shem… Arphaxad… And Arphaxad begat Salah; and Salah begat Eber. And unto Eber were born two sons: the name of one was Peleg; for in his days was the earth... Read more