Calneh
Calneh (כַלְנֵה) was a city founded by
The verse in Genesis reads:- וַתְּהִי רֵאשִׁית מַמְלַכְתֹּו בָּבֶל וְאֶרֶךְ וְאַכַּד וְכַלְנֵה בְּאֶרֶץ שִׁנְעָֽר׃
- "And the beginning of his kingdom was KJV)
Historical scholarship proposed candidate locations for the city of "Calneh", but it is now considered most likely, in a suggestion going back to W.F. Albright (1944), that the word did not in origin refer to a city but has been corrupted from an expression meaning "all of them".[2] In the Revised Standard Version, the English translation of the verse reads:
- The beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, and Accad, all of them in the land of Shinar.
Calneh ("Chalanne") was identified with
Eusebius of Caesarea.[1]
Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary silently follows Sir Henry Rawlinson in interpreting the Talmudic passage Joma 10a[3] identifying Calneh with the modern Nippur, a lofty mound of earth and rubbish situated in the marshes on the east bank of the Euphrates, but 30 miles distant from its present course, and about 60 miles south-south-east from Babylon
.
A second Calneh is mentioned in the
Canneh, mentioned in theTyre carried on trade was associated with Calneh by A.T. Olmstead, History of Assyria. Xenophon mentioned a Kainai on the west bank of the Tigris below the Upper Zab.[5]
References
- ^ a b Jewish Encyclopedia, s.v. "Calneh"; A. S. Yahuda, "Calneh in Shinar" Journal of Biblical Literature 65.3 (September 1946:325-327).
- Masoretic text. Palacios, Isaac Asimov ; maps by Rafael (1981). Asimov's guide to the Bible : the Old and New Testaments (Reprint [der Ausg.] in 2 vol. 1968 - 1969. ed.). New York: Wings Books. p. 49.ISBN 978-0517345825.)
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link - ^ Rawlinson is credited in the Jewish Encyclopedia; A "guess", according to E.G. Kraeling and J.A. Montgomery "Brief Communications: Calneh Gen. 10:10", Journal of Biblical Literature 1935:233.
- ^ Albright 1944:255; Yahuda 1946:327.
- ^ Xenophon, Anabasis ii.4, noted in this connection by I J. Gelb, "Calneh" The American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures 51.3 (April 1935:189-191) p. 189 note 2.