Ur of the Chaldees: Unlocking the mystery

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“Ur of the Chaldees” or “Ur Kasdim” is a place-name mentioned in the Bible as the birthplace of biblical Abraham.
The original Hebrew name of this place is: “אוּר כַּשְׂדִּים”, usually transliterated in English as: (ʾŪr Kaśdīm) or (‘uwr Kašdīm).

Contrary to the popular belief, the real etymology and the exact location of “ʾŪr Kaśdīm” are still debated by biblical scholars.

Translation & Transliteration

– Septuagint:

In Septuagint, the earliest Greek translation of the Old Testament, “ʾŪr Kaśdīm” is translated as: “χώρα τῶν Χαλδαίων”, (khôra ton Khaldion).

אוּר –→ χώρα (Khôra)
כַּשְׂדִּים –→ Χαλδαίων (Khaldaion)

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– Vulgate:

The Vulgate is the Latin translation of the Bible (from Hebrew and Greek).

“ʾŪr Kaśdīm” is written in Latin as: “Ur Caldeaium”, and from Latin into English as: “Ur of the Chaldees”. (or Chaldeans).

אוּר –→ Ur (a Latinization of the Hebrew: ʾŪr)
Χαλδαίων –→ Caldeaium (a Latinization of the Greek: Khaldaion)

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The Greek translators decided to “translate” “אוּר” as: “χώρα” (Khôra)
The Latin translators decided to “transliterate” “אוּר” as: “Ur”.

Translation: gives you the meaning of a word that’s written in Hebrew.
Fortunately, the corresponding Greek for “אוּר” is “χώρα”, a common Greek word meaning: land, country, region, countryside or desert.

Transliteration: doesn’t tell you the meaning of the word, but it gives you an idea of how this word is pronounced in Hebrew.
Unfortunately, the corresponding Latin for “אוּר” is NOT given.

Hebrew: “כַּשְׂדִּים/Kašdīm” and Greek: (Χαλδαίων/Chaldees) are considered variants of the same name. This name is generally believed to be an ethnonym, a name for a people known in history as “the Chaldees”. (or the Chaldeans), but this interpretation has been doubted and challenged.

(ô) pronounced as: “o” in (horse)
(Ū) pronounced as: “oo” in (stool)
(ś) & (š) pronounced as: “sh” in (show)
(ī) pronounced as: “ee” in (steel)
[Kh] is the Hebrew: (כ), Arabic: (خ), Akkadian (ḫ), Greek (x) or (ch) in Scottish English: “loch” and German: “Bauch”
[kh] & [k] are free variants.

Ūr & Khôra

1- Ūr (אוּר)

In biblical Hebrew, “אוּר/Ūr” means: illumination, luminary, bright, clear, day, light (-ning), morning, Sun, fire, region of light, or east. [1],[2].

According to the commentator Menachem ben Seruk (as cited by Rashi on Genesis 11:28) אוּר can mean a valley or a lowland.

However, the intended contextual meaning of “Ur” in “Ur of the Chaldeans” is still debated by biblical scholars: is it:

“the light of the Chaldeans”?
“the Sun of the Chaldeans”?
“the fire of the Chaldeans”?
“the valley of the Chaldeans”?
“the lowland of the Chaldeans”?
or what?

2- Khôra (Χώρα or χώρας)

Hebrew “אוּר/Ūr”, in ancient Greek, means “Χώρα/Khôra”. Understanding the etymology of “Χώρα” helps to determine the contextual meaning of “אוּר”.

“χώρα/Khôra” or “χώρας/Khôras”, is a common Greek word, transliterated in English as “chora” or “khora“.

In Modern Greek, χώρα means: land, territory, region, tract and country.

In ancient Greek, “χώρα/Khôra” had several denotations, some of them can be found in specialized lexicons and ancient literary works, such as:

01- “dictionnaire grec-français”, a Greek-French dictionary published in 1895.

“χώρα/Khôra”, according to this dictionary , means:

• espace, intervalle entre. (Space, space between two limits)
• pays, contree, region. (Country, countryside, region)
• territoire d’une ville. (territory of a city)
• campagne.

“Campagne” in French is defined as: “Grande étendue de pays plat, peu habitée, par opposition à la ville”.

This can be translated as: “Large expanse of flat country, sparsely populated, as opposed to the city”.

02- Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance.

–Strong’s #5561/χώρα: (Khôra): “empty expanse; room, i.e. a space of territory (more or less extensive; (often including its inhabitants), coast, county, fields, ground, land, region.”

–Strong’s #2048/ἔρημος (érēmos): “Undefined desert, desolate, solitary, wilderness of uncertain affinity; lonesome, i.e. (by implication) waste (usually as a noun, G5561 (χώρα) being implied)”

03– in “Republic 495c”, Plato used the word: “χώρα/Khôra” to depict the “barren place” of philosophy resulting from the polluting of young minds by sycophants and flatterers in the Polis.[16]

04- In Plato’s dialogue Sophist 254a, “χώρα” is used to depict the bright region in which the philosopher resides, as opposed to the Darkness that enshroud the Sophist. The Stranger tells Theaetetus that it is difficult to look at the philosopher, because the “Khôra” is filled with so much light that it dazzles those who are ignorant. [16]

Ὁ δέ γε φιλόσοφος, τῇ τοῦ ὄντος ἀεὶ διὰ λογισμῶν προσκείμενος ἰδέᾳ, διὰ τὸ λαμπρὸν αὖ τῆς χώρας οὐδαμῶς εὐπετὴς ὀφθῆναι· τὰ γὰρ τῆς τῶν πολλῶν ψυχῆς ὄμματα b καρτερεῖν πρὸς τὸ θεῖον ἀφορῶντα ἀδύνατα.

05- χώρα can be interpreted as “desert” [03]:

06- χώρα/Khôra is a doublet of χωρίς/khôris, which means: “barren of, without”. χώρα is also a doublet of χήρα/kherē, which means: “derelict, deserted“.

07- χέρρος/khôris is a by-form of χώρα/Khôra.
in Attic Greek, χέρρος means: desert, barren land, bare land and scorched land.

According to these sources, χώρα/Khôra, denotes: barren place, flat country, wilderness, desert, region of light, Sunny place, coast and, figuratively: brightness or dazzling light.

Clearly, there are semantic aspects, between Greek “χώρα” and Hebrew “אוּר”.

Semantic equivalents

As mentioned earlier, ancient Greeks translated “אוּר/ Ūr” as “χώρα/Khôra”. This has led some scholars to infer that these two words, (Ūr & Khôra), are close in meaning, or as.. Wikipedia put it: “The Septuagint translation of Genesis does not include the term: Ur ; instead it describes the: Land of the Chaldees, (Greek χώρα , Khôra). Some scholars have held that biblical Ur was not a city at all, but simply a word for land.”

One of those scholars is (Shanks, 2000), who held that: “Ur, as used in the Bible refers not to a city, but to a region“. [4]

That’s to say:

1- “אוּר/Ūr” has an “obsolete sense” which is: “land” (or sand).

2- “אוּר/Ūr” and “χώρα/Khôra” share “semantic aspects”, and they could be “semantic equivalents”.

Semantic equivalents: are words in two different languages that have similar or practically identical meanings. They may be cognate, but usually they are not. For example, the German equivalent of the English word “cow” is “Kuh”, which is also cognate, but the French equivalent is “vache”, which is unrelated. [5]

Obsolete sense

To investigate more about this “obsolete sense” of “אוּר/Ūr”, we need to do some “cognate comparison”.

The existing senses of “אוּר/Ūr” are: illumination, luminary, bright, clear, day, light (-ning), morning, Sun, fire, region of light, or east.

This Hebrew word has cognates in other Semitic languages, but ultimately Sumerian in origin.

Akkadian: “urrû; urru; urra”: to shed light, daylight, morning, daytime. “ārā, aru; eru; erû; irû; eriu, uru”: land, empty, destitute, nakedness, naked, to strip bare, to clear out. [7],[8]

Sumerian: “ara; ar; rà; ùru”: light, lustrous, bright, glowing, clear, polished, luminous object. watchfire, to shine; to blaze.
“aria; arua; éria”: desert, waste land, district.
“uru; iri; ri; iri”: immediate vicinity, adjacent place, village. [12].[13]

Syriac: (ܥܪܐ), (ܥܲܪܝܵܐ): (ᶜara), (ᶜaria): Lay bare, strip naked, kindled, started (fire), stripped, lacking covering, abraded.
(ܐܰܥܪܺܝ): (aᶜri): to light, to torch, to start fire, to lay bare.
(ܚܘܵܪܵܐ): (ḥura): white, a blank, a landscape, an extensive view.
(ܟܳܪ): (her): hot, burning, sultry, ardent. [9], [10]

Arabic: ḥar (حَر): heat, rural region, side.
ḥariah deverbal adjective (حَرّية): sandy land, (أرض حَريّة)
ḥarra (حَرّة): scorched land, lava field.
ᵓuar (أوار): heat of fire, flame.
ᶜaraᵓ (عراء): nakedness, nudity, barren land, desert.
ᶜara (عرا) or (عرى): side, piazza, suburb, province.
ᶜar (عر): side, rural region.
ᶜurian (العُريان): sand dune. [11]

Now compare these Semitic words with their Hebrew cognate (“אוּר/Ūr”) in: Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance

In these languages, words such as: (hot, blazed, bright, scorched, parched, naked, and blank), are used figuratively to denote: “exposed land”, “bare soil”, “barren desert”, “sands”, or broadly: “land”.

Open spaces, plains, deserts and dunes are usually associated with clarity, light, heat or whiteness, in contrast with the dark, shady and cool dwellings or wooded areas.

Here are some examples:

– Sumerian: “Kur”: to light up, to burn, east, land, country.

– Mandaic language: “Ber”: Shine out, burn with anger, desert, vacant land.

– Latin word ‘harena’ or ‘arena’: sandy desert, another meaning of this Latin word is Fire or Lava.

– English word “shire” (suburb/country): derived from old English ‘Scir’ (pronounced Shir) which means ‘bright’ or ‘clear’.

– English ‘plains’ refers to ‘treeless level expanses’, its literal meaning is: “clearly visible”.

Diachronically, the figurative sense, may become the general meaning of the word, or one of its lexical denotations. Some or one of these denotations may become archaic or obsolete, no longer used, no longer understood.

“Obsolete denotation” refers to the case of a word which had more than one meaning, but which, in the course of time ‘lost’ one of its meanings. [15] This “lost meaning” is called: “obsolete denotation” or “obsolete sense”.

All this leads to the conclusion that Hebrew “אוּר/Ūr” has an obsolete sense, which is: “desert” or “sands”, and broadly: “land”.

In Summation so far: Biblical Hebrew: “אוּר/Ūr” and ancient Greek :”χώρα/Khôra” are “Semantic equivalents”, they both denote: Light, bright, desert, sand or open land.

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Conclusion:

“Ur” in “Ur of the Chaldeans” is a Semitic and Sumerian word, with several byforms, meanings and derived senses. In these languages: “Ur” denotes: light, fire, heat, region of light, east, desert and land. This is not uncommon, for example, the Latin word ‘harena’ or ‘arena’ means: “Lava, fire and sandy desert”. Also the English word “shire” which means: “suburb/country” is derived from old English “Scir”, an adjective meaning: ‘bright’.

Biblical “Ur” was translated into Greek as “khora”. In ancient Greek “khora” denotes: countryside, outskirts, unoccupied land, region of light, scorched land and desert.

In a nutshell: “Ūr” and “Khôra” are “Semantic equivalents”, they both denote: light, bright, region of light, heat, sand, desert and open land.

Kašd or Chaldee?

– כַּשְׂדִּים (Kaśdīm)

“Kašdīm” is a plural noun: (“Kaśd” + plural suffix “-īm”). This name is generally believed to be an ethnonym, a name for a people known in history as “the Chaldees”. (or the Chaldeans), but this interpretation has been doubted and challenged.

– Χαλδαίων (Khald-aion)

“Χαλδ/Khald” is believed to be a byform of “כַּשְׂדִּ/Kaśd”, a variant form of the same name. It is the English: “Chaldee”.”

“Kašdu” (or ḫašdu) is originally an Akkadian word. This word is also spelled: “Kaldu“, “ḫaltu” or “ḫalīdu” in that language. (Akkadian was the language of the Assyrians & the Babylonians).

ḫ (h with breve below) represents (kh sound). “kh” (as in the Scottish “loch” or German “Achtung”) is often used in romanized forms to represent the sound of the Greek letter Chi (Χ, χ). 

According to Assyriologists, “kašd”, “khašd”, “kald” and “khald” are variants of the same word, the earlier is: “Kašd”.

Most scholars have concluded that “Kašd” is preserved in the Hebrew text as: (כַּשְׂדִּ), while “khalīdu” is preserved in the Greek text as: (Χαλδαί).

Sumerian and Akkadian words are characterized by their multiple “spelling variants”, and “many cuneiform signs can be pronounced in more than one way and often two or more signs share the same pronunciation” [6]

Why this variation?
Because in “Middle Babylonian” “š sound” in /šd/ or /št/ clusters, pronounced: “L”.

(š + dental stop) → (L + dental stop)

For example: Old Babylonian “ištakan” (= quieten down) pronounced in Middle Babylonian as “iltakan“. Also, “ḫaštu” → “ḫaltu” (= a kind of stone) and “ašṭur” → “altur” (= to write)

Middle Babylonian is a linguistic term describing the language of documents written in Akkadian in Babylonia (southern Mesopotamia) in the sixteenth through eleventh centuries BCE..

Old Babylonian is a term that denotes “an ancient dialect of the Akkadian language spoken and written in Mesopotamia between c. 2100–1400 BCE.”

Etymology of Kasdim

“Kasdim” in “Ur Kasdim” is usually interpreted as being an ethnonym (a name given to an ethnic group, tribe, or people), but this interpretation has been questioned. “Kasdim”, in this context, can be a geonym (a name of a geographical feature), in plural form.

Some scholars hold that Akkadian Kaldu (or Kašdu) and Hebrew כַּשָׂדִּים (kašdim) are connected with Akkadian (lexical word): kašādu”. [01]

Online Akkadian Dictionary also suggests that “kašd-im” “chaldee(s)” is a deverbal noun, derived from the Akkadian verb: “Kaṣadum“. [02]

Based on an etymological observation, this is more likely to be the case.

Prototypical meaning & extended senses

The prototypical meaning of [k-š-d] (or [k-l-d] ) and its variants, is: to hold.

The derived senses include: to hold back, to restrain, to detain. To be held, to be surrounded, to be confined, to be locked.

The definitions of Old Akkadian (OA) “Kald” & “kasad“, according to “Concise Dictionary of Akkadian” & Online Akkadian Dictionary:

Words derived from [k-š-d] (or [k-l-d]), and its variants, are used to describe, (or to name): confined, locked, recessed or deep places, such as caves, pits, valleys, lakes, pools, marshes, gulfs, narrow streams and dams. This is not uncommon, for example, English word” pond” is a variant form of the word pound, meaning a confining enclosure.

Examples:
–ḫaltu (Khaltu), and khaštu (ḫaštu, ḫaštum): a ditch.
–mekaltu: water reservoir, streamlet.
(me- is a grammatical element, a prefix)
-Kuš (from [k-š]): water channel.

In other Semitic languages:
-Arabic: “qalt/قلت” or “galta“: A natural water pool that forms in a rocky cavity, (borrowed into English as: guelta). The original sense of “qalt/قلت” is: “cavity”.
-Arabic: “qalut/قلوط”: A medieval counterpart of “septic tank”.
-Arabic:, after metathesis: [g-l-d] > [g-d-l] = “gadwal” ( = streamlet).

-Hebrew:”גַל/gal” (from [k-l]): water well, fountain.

This Mesopotamian word found its way into Indo-European languages, compare:
–Old Norse “kelda“: bog, quagmire, water spring.
–Danish “kilde“: spring, well, water source.
–Greek “κοιλάδα/koiláda“: valley, (having a river or stream running along the bottom).

–Russian: “колодец/kolodet”: water well (the original sense of this word is: hole sunk into the ground).

“Kasdim” (in Genesis 11:28) is commonly believed to be an ethnonym, a name for a people known in history as “the Chaldees”. (or the Chaldeans), but this is not necessarily accurate.
Kasdim can be a geonym, a name of a natural feature, in plural form, such as: marshes, caves or fountains.

Accordingly, there are three possible meanings of “Ur kasdim” (in Genesis 11:28):
01-Land of marshes.
02-Land of fountains.
03-Land of caves.

Where is Ur Kasdim?

Ur Kasdim is generally believed to be in the land of Chaldea. [26]

Where is Chaldea?

According to the Jewish encyclopedia: Chaldea “was the name of a small sporadically independent migrant-founded territory under the domination of the Neo-Assyrian Empire (911–605 BC) in southeastern Babylonia, extending to the western shores of the Persian Gulf”. [27]

Chaldea is called in Assyrian: ‘mat Kaldi’, that is, ‘land of Chaldea, But there is also used, apparently synonymously, the expression ‘mat Bit Yakin’, It would appear that (Bit Yakin) was the chief or capital city of the land; and the king of Chaldea is also called the king of Bit Yakin, just as the kings of Babylonia are regularly styled simply king of Babylon, the capital city. In the same way, the Persian gulf was sometimes called “the Sea of Bit Yakin, instead of ‘the Sea of the Land of Chaldea’ (Tamtu ša Kaldi)”. [27] “Sargon II mentions ‘Bit Yakin’ as extending as far as Dilmun or ‘sea-land’ (littoral Eastern Arabia)”. [28]

As mentioned above, Chaldea encompasses the Northern and the North Western shores of the Gulf.

“Land of fountains” ( or Land of caves) can be found within this territory.

References:

[1] – Strong’s Concordance: H216.
[2] – Concise Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon.
[3] – Sahas, D. J. (2021): Byzantium and Islam. Netherlands: Brill. p211
[4] – Hershel Shanks, Biblical Archaeology Review 26:2, March/April 2000.
[5] – Wikipedia: cognate.
[6] – Sumerian Lexicon by John A. Halloran
[7] – Concise Dictionary of Akkadian, 2nd Printing.
[8] – The Chicago Assyrian Dictionary (CAD).
[9] – Chaldean-Arabic Dictionary by: J.E.Manna. page: 563
[10] – Syriacdictionary.net
[11] – Lisan al-Arab by Ibn Manzur.
[12] – Sumerian Lexicon by John A. Halloran
[13] – The Electronic Pennsylvania Sumerian Dictionary (ePSD)
[15] – Shivtiel, A. (2013). Obsolete Meanings and Words. In G. Khan (ed.)
[16] – Mikuriya, J. T. (2016). A History of Light. India: Bloomsbury Publishing.
[17] –Britannica.com/topic/Septuagint .
[18] – Girgis, WA (1963–64). Greek loan words in Coptic. Bulletin de la Société d’archéologie copte 17:63–73.
[19] – Etymology For Beginners. (n.d.). (n.p.): Nicky Huys.
[20] – jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/4213
[21] – Raymond Philip Dougherty, The Sealand of Ancient Arabia, Yale University Press, 1932, 66ff.
[22] – Potts, Daniel T. “Northeastern Arabia.” Expedition Magazine 26, no. 3 (March, 1984).
[23] – Encyclopædia Britannica/Gerrha

[24] – “A Study on the Origins of Loanwords in Ancient
Greek”, Joanne van der Poel, 2019.

[25] – WACHOLDER, B. Z. (1963). PSEUDO-EUPOLEMUS’ TWO GREEK FRAGMENTS ON THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM. Hebrew Union College Annual, 34, 83–113.

[26] – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ur_of_the_Chaldees

[27] – McCurdy, J. Frederic; Rogers, Robert W. (1902), “Chaldea”, in Singer, Isidore; et al. (eds.), The Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. 3, New York: Funk & Wagnalls, pp. 661–662

[28] — Raymond Philip Dougherty, The Sealand of Ancient Arabia, Yale University Press, 1932, 66ff.

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