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In the Sumerian King List Sumerian King List - Wikipedia, this pattern is repeated: “Then Akshak was defeated and the kingship was taken to Kish.” It puzzled me a while, until I realized the culture of the Bible at this time is caravan city-states. They had the culture of priest-kings. So I do think it is a bad translation and it means something like, the caravan was here, and then it was taken to here. So when historians look at this list of people as kings, instead it’s listing prominent names of the household in that place.
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After clicking through so many names, I started to see patterns. For instance, you can tell which are the honorary titles - here are some examples: Puzur, Lugal-zage-si, Sargon. After you look at a lot of the names, you can see each language has a slightly different word for the same thing - some seem very related words, and some not.
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On the list, I believe Nimrod is named multiple times. But here’s where Sargon is most prominently listed. Dynasty of Akkad There are too many similarities between Sargon and Naram-Sin to be different people. Some historians think so too. But it says “son of” - so I thought perhaps that translation is wrong and the abu/bin are interchangable, you have to know the context back then. Plus they still like lots of titles and family/tribal names in the Middle East today.
Here’s Genesis 10 again:
The sons of Ham were Cush, Mizraim, [c]Put, and Canaan. 7 The sons of Cush were Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabtechah; and the sons of Raamah were Sheba and Dedan.
8 Cush begot Nimrod; he began to be a mighty one on the earth. 9 He was a mighty hunter before the Lord; therefore it is said, “Like Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lord.” 10 And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. 11 From that land he went to Assyria and built Nineveh, Rehoboth Ir, Calah, 12 and Resen between Nineveh and Calah (that is the principal city).
- So I would think that it’s fairly obvious Cush = Kish. While I was clicking I also decided that his name in other languages was Accad, Sin, and Suen. Interestingly, this is the cuneiform for Kish is 𒆧𒆠 Of course, what does that look like? It’s a bull. The other symbol means “place of” He was the firstborn of Ham’s family, and later there’s a lot of places that began to worship cows…Israel and the golden calf…anyway
It seemed fairly obvious after looking at it, that a lot of the idolatry was from venerating family members and then people forgot they were real people and turned them into gods.
So obviously in the timeline first we have the flood, then the Tower of Babel…
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So the text of Genesis mentions the first city of Nimrod’s kingdom as Babel, and I had found a source that said “He (Sargon) dug up the dirt of the pit of Babylon and made a counterpart of Babylon next to Agade” - I believe this sentence is actually referring to later when he had power and was trying to build a tower or temple. He had already had a place near Agade/Accad that he called Babel or Babylon. But of course I’m guessing based on the biblical text.
Biblical scholars never know whether to translate this Babel or Babylon. It’s really both. Again guessing - I think he liked the idea of the tower and its accomplishments and no one stopped him. (bad idea) -
So then the legends mention Sargon getting involved with Ishtar. Not sure if she’s his mother or sister. But likely his mother. Eventually Ur-Zababa (who I think is his dad Cush) sends him away to be killed. From the Birth legend:
53-56In those days, although writing words on tablets existed, putting tablets into envelopes did not yet exist. King Ur-Zababa dispatched Sargon, the creature of the gods, to Lugal-zage-si in Unug with a message written on clay, which was about murdering Sargon.
Unug here is Uruk/Erech the second city listed in Genesis. I find it funny here the writer has to mention this is the first letter ever sent (it was after the flood, he knew no one had done this before). From looking up Lugal-zage-si, it was pretty obvious this later referred to Nimrod, so I think it’s merely a title. If I remember right - Lugal means king.
So that legend is cut off, but there’s another one that relates the event.
“He conquered the city of Uruk, destroyed its walls, defeated the people of Uruk (in battle), he smashed with the tun.kara-weapon. He defeated Lugalzagesi, the king of Uruk, and captured him and led him off to the gate of Enlil in a neck stock. Sargon, the king of Agade, defeated the people of Ur, smashed with the tun.kar-weapon, conquered his city, and destroyed its walls. He conquered E-Ninmarki, and destroyed its walls. He conquered the territory from the neck of the land, (that is) city of Lagash, to the (lower) sea and washed his weapon in the sea. He defeated the people of Umma, smashed with the tun.karaweapon, and he conquered his city, destroyed its walls.”
This account sort of smashes everything together, but there’s a story called the Great Revolt (I only watched a YouTube video, so I don’t have the text) where a bunch of people fight Sargon. My guess is that all the extended family find out Nimrod/Sargon has conquered his brother - go out to fight him, but he defeats all of them too. Obviously he has some help.
- From Genesis 10: “Calneh, in the land of Shinar” - I wasn’t 100% sure of where Calneh was, but Mari seems to have been a prominent city, so it’s possible. Shinar is what we’d call today Sinjar
Another legend:
Sargon the King bowed down to Dagan in Tuttul. He (Dagan) gave to him (Sargon) the Upper Land: Mari, Iarmuti, and Ebla, as far as the Cedar Forest and the Silver Mountains
This matches the Biblical account really well. “10 And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. 11 From that land he went to Assyria and built Nineveh, Rehoboth Ir, Calah, 12 and Resen between Nineveh and Calah (that is the principal city).”
Cedar Forest, obviously Lebanon. I believe Calah maybe is Ebla - it’s in NW Syria. At this point again, there were mostly caravan sites, few actual cities with walls I think. The Silver Mountains are the Sinjar Mountains in Sinjar/Shinar.
That area became famous for where the Yazidis fled from ISIS and eventually Americans helped them get off the mountains.
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Genesis 11:31 mentions Terah leaving Ur of the Chaldeans. “And Terah took his son Abram and his grandson Lot, the son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Abram’s wife, and they went out with them from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan; and they came to Haran and dwelt there.” Genesis 11:28: And Haran died before his father Terah in his native land, in Ur of the Chaldeans. Next in the text is Abram being called from Haran to the land of Canaan and immediately after that in the text Abram goes to Egypt because of a famine. “Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to dwell there, for the famine was severe in the land.”
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The story the “Curse of Agade” mentions Sargon and Naram-Sin: “In the dust as if it were a mighty bull, and then Enlil had given the rulership and kingship from the south as far as the highlands to Sargon, king of Agade – at that time, holy Inana established the sanctuary of Agade” and Naram-Sin “Its king, the shepherd Naram-Suen, rose as the daylight on the holy throne of Agade.” As far as I could tell, it’s the only text that seems to indicate those two names are the same person. So of course it’s considered a later fabrication. But it also covers all the gory details of a horrible famine.
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So Genesis 11 seems to be saying Haran lived in Canaan, but died in Ur. So then Terah leaves and takes up residence where his son used to live. Some time passes and there’s a famine. It seems like it’d make sense for Terah and his family to move away if Nimrod had taken over in that area, and then for Abram to leave the land God had just called him to, it had to be a pretty horrific famine. He was so worried he let Pharaoh take his wife as his own. Not pretty.
Those are the basics of some of the facts that match Genesis and all of my guesses at putting this puzzle together. It’d be tough to prove it; I went by instinct and patterns.