Nimrod


Nimrod, a biblical figure described as a king in the land of Shinar, was, according to the Book of Genesis and Books of Chronicles, the son of Cush. The Bible states that he was "a mighty hunter before the Lord ... began to be mighty in the earth". Extra-biblical traditions associating him with the Tower of Babel led to his reputation as a king who was rebellious against God.
Attempts to match Nimrod with historically attested figures have failed. Nimrod may not represent any one personage known to history and various authors have identified him with several real and fictional figures of Mesopotamian antiquity, including the Mesopotamian god Ninurta or a conflation of two Akkadian kings Sargon, his grandson Naram-Sin, and Tukulti-Ninurta I.

Biblical account

The first biblical mention of Nimrod is in the Table of Nations. He is described as the son of Cush, grandson of Ham, and great-grandson of Noah; and as "a mighty one in the earth" and "a mighty hunter before the Lord". This is repeated in the First Book of Chronicles 1:10, and the "Land of Nimrod" used as a synonym for Assyria or Mesopotamia, is mentioned in the Book of Micah 5:6:
Genesis says that the "beginning of his kingdom" were the towns of "Babel, Erech, Akkad and Calneh in the land of Shinar" —understood variously to imply that he either founded these cities, ruled over them, or both. Owing to an ambiguity in the original Hebrew text, it is unclear whether it is he or Ashur who additionally built Nineveh, Resen, Rehoboth-Ir and Calah. Sir Walter Raleigh devoted several pages in his History of the World to reciting past scholarship regarding the question of whether it had been Nimrod or Ashur who built the cities in Assyria.

Traditions and legends

In Hebrew and Christian tradition, Nimrod is considered the leader of those who built the Tower of Babel in the land of Shinar, though the Bible never actually states this. Nimrod's kingdom included the cities of Babel, Erech, Akkad, and perhaps Calneh, in Shinar. Flavius Josephus believed that it was likely under his direction that the building of Babel and its tower began; in addition to Josephus, this is also the view found in the Talmud, and later midrash such as Genesis Rabba. Several of these early Judaic sources also assert that the king Amraphel, who wars with Abraham later in Genesis, is none other than Nimrod himself.
Since Accad was destroyed and lost with the destruction of its Empire in the period 2200–2154 BCE, the stories mentioning Nimrod seem to recall the late Early Bronze Age. The association with Erech, a city that lost its prime importance around 2,000 BCE as a result of struggles between Isin, Larsa and Elam, also attests the early provenance of the stories of Nimrod. According to some modern-day theorists, their placement in the Bible suggests a Babylonian origin—possibly inserted during the Babylonian captivity.
Judaic interpreters as early as Philo and Yochanan ben Zakai interpreted "a mighty hunter before the Lord" as signifying "in opposition to the Lord"; a similar interpretation is found in Pseudo-Philo, as well as later in Symmachus. Some rabbinic commentators have also connected the name Nimrod with a Hebrew word meaning 'rebel'. In Pseudo-Philo, Nimrod is made leader of the Hamites, while Joktan as leader of the Semites, and Fenech as leader of the Japhethites, are also associated with the building of the Tower. Versions of this story are again picked up in later works such as Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius.
The Book of Jubilees mentions the name of "Nebrod" only as being the father of Azurad, the wife of Eber and mother of Peleg. This account would thus make Nimrod an ancestor of Abraham, and hence of all Hebrews.
Josephus wrote:
An early Arabic work known as Kitab al-Magall or the Book of Rolls states that Nimrod built the towns of Hadāniūn, Ellasar, Seleucia, Ctesiphon, Rūhīn, Atrapatene, Telalān, and others, that he began his reign as king over earth when Reu was 163, and that he reigned for 69 years, building Nisibis, Raha and Harran when Peleg was 50. It further adds that Nimrod "saw in the sky a piece of black cloth and a crown". He called upon Sasan the weaver and commanded him to make him a crown like it, which he set jewels on and wore. He was allegedly the first king to wear a crown. "For this reason people who knew nothing about it, said that a crown came down to him from heaven." Later, the book describes how Nimrod established fire worship and idolatry, then received instruction in divination for three years from Bouniter, the fourth son of Noah.
In the Recognitions, one version of the Clementines, Nimrod is equated with the legendary Assyrian king Ninus, who first appears in the Greek historian Ctesias as the founder of Nineveh. However, in another version, the Homilies, Nimrod is made to be the same as Zoroaster.
The Syriac Cave of Treasures contains an account of Nimrod very similar to that in the Kitab al-Magall, except that Nisibis, Edessa and Harran are said to be built by Nimrod when Reu was 50, and that he began his reign as the first king when Reu was 130. In this version, the weaver is called Sisan, and the fourth son of Noah is called Yonton.
Jerome, writing c. 390, explains in Hebrew Questions on Genesis that after Nimrod reigned in Babel, "he also reigned in Arach , that is, in Edissa; and in Achad , which is now called Nisibis; and in Chalanne , which was later called Seleucia after King Seleucus when its name had been changed, and which is now in actual fact called Ctesiphon." However, this traditional identification of the cities built by Nimrod in Genesis is no longer accepted by modern scholars, who consider them to be located in Sumer, not Syria.
The Ge'ez Conflict of Adam and Eve with Satan also contains a version similar to that in the Cave of Treasures, but the crown maker is called Santal, and the name of Noah's fourth son who instructs Nimrod is Barvin.
However, Ephrem the Syrian relates a contradictory view, that Nimrod was righteous and opposed the builders of the Tower. Similarly, Targum Pseudo-Jonathan mentions a Jewish tradition that Nimrod left Shinar in southern Mesopotamia and fled to Assyria in northern Mesopotamia, because he refused to take part in building the Tower—for which God rewarded him with the four cities in Assyria, to substitute for the ones in Babel.
Pirke De-Rabbi Eliezer relates the Jewish traditions that Nimrod inherited the garments of Adam and Eve from his father Cush, and that these made him invincible. Nimrod's party then defeated the Japhethites to assume universal rulership. Later, Esau, ambushed, beheaded, and robbed Nimrod. These stories later reappear in other sources including the 16th century Sefer haYashar, which adds that Nimrod had a son named Mardon who was even more wicked.
In the History of the Prophets and Kings by the 9th century Muslim historian al-Tabari, Nimrod has the tower built in Babil, Allah destroys it, and the language of mankind, formerly Syriac, is then confused into 72 languages. Another Muslim historian of the 13th century, Abu al-Fida, relates the same story, adding that the patriarch Eber was allowed to keep the original tongue, Hebrew in this case, because he would not partake in the building. The 10th-century Muslim historian Masudi recounts a legend making the Nimrod who built the tower to be the son of Mash, the son of Aram, son of Shem, adding that he reigned 500 years over the Nabateans. Later, Masudi lists Nimrod as the first king of Babylon, and states that he dug great canals and reigned 60 years. Still elsewhere, he mentions another king Nimrod, son of Canaan, as the one who introduced astrology and attempted to kill Abraham.
In Armenian legend, the ancestor of the Armenian people, Hayk, defeated Nimrod in a battle near Lake Van.
In the Hungarian legend of the Enchanted Stag, King Nimród, is the first person referred to as forefather of the Hungarians. He, along with his entire nation, is also the giant responsible for the building of the Tower of Babel—construction of which was supposedly started by him 201 years after the event of the Great Flood. After the catastrophic failure of that most ambitious endeavour and in the midst of the ensuing linguistic cacophony, Nimród the giant moved to the land of Evilát, where his wife, Enéh gave birth to twin brothers Hunor and Magyar. Father and sons were, all three of them, prodigious hunters, but Nimród especially is the archetypal, consummate, legendary hunter and archer.
Both the Huns' and Magyars' historically attested skill with the recurve bow and arrow are attributed to Nimród.. Hungarian legends held that twin sons of King Nimród, Hunor and Magor were the ancestors of the Huns and the Magyars respectively, siring their children through the two daughters of King Dul of the Alans, whom they kidnapped after losing track of the silver stag whilst hunting. The 16th-century Hungarian prelate Nicolaus Olahus claimed that Attila took for himself the title of Descendant of the Great Nimrod.
The demon Nyyrikki, figuring in the Finnish Kalevala as a helper of Lemminkäinen, is associated with Nimrod by some researchers and linguists.
The Nimrod Fortress on the Golan Heights - actually built during the Crusades by Al-Aziz Uthman, the younger son of Saladin - was anachronistically attributed to Nimrod by later inhabitants of the area.

Evil Nimrod vs. the righteous Abraham

A confrontation between Nimrod and Abraham is said to have taken place, according to several Jewish and Islamic traditions. Some stories bring them both together in a cataclysmic collision, seen as a symbol of the confrontation between Good and Evil, and/or as a symbol of monotheism against polytheism. On the other hand, some Jewish traditions say only that the two men met and had a discussion.
According to K. van der Toorn and P. W. van der Horst, this tradition is first attested in the writings of Pseudo-Philo. The story is also found in the Talmud, and in rabbinical writings in the Middle Ages.
In some versions, Nimrod is a man who sets his will against that of God. In others, he proclaims himself a god and is worshipped as such by his subjects, sometimes with his consort Semiramis worshipped as a goddess at his side.
A portent in the stars tells Nimrod and his astrologers of the impending birth of Abraham, who would put an end to idolatry. Nimrod therefore orders the killing of all newborn babies. However, Abraham's mother escapes into the fields and gives birth secretly. At a young age, Abraham recognizes God and starts worshipping Him. He confronts Nimrod and tells him face-to-face to cease his idolatry, whereupon Nimrod orders him burned at the stake. In some versions, Nimrod has his subjects gather wood for four whole years, so as to burn Abraham in the biggest bonfire the world had ever seen. Yet when the fire is lit, Abraham walks out unscathed.
In some versions, Nimrod then challenges Abraham to battle. When Nimrod appears at the head of enormous armies, Abraham produces an army of gnats which destroys Nimrod's army. Some accounts have a gnat or mosquito enter Nimrod's brain and drive him out of his mind.
In some versions, Nimrod repents and accepts God, offering numerous sacrifices that God rejects. Other versions have Nimrod give to Abraham, as a conciliatory gift, the giant slave Eliezer, whom some accounts describe as Nimrod's own son.
Still other versions have Nimrod persisting in his rebellion against God, or resuming it. Indeed, Abraham's crucial act of leaving Mesopotamia and settling in Canaan is sometimes interpreted as an escape from Nimrod's revenge. Accounts considered canonical place the building of the Tower many generations before Abraham's birth ; however in others, it is a later rebellion after Nimrod failed in his confrontation with Abraham. In still other versions, Nimrod does not give up after the Tower fails, but goes on to try storming Heaven in person, in a chariot driven by birds.
The story attributes to Abraham elements from the story of Moses' birth and from the careers of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego who emerged unscathed from the fire. Nimrod is thus given attributes of two archetypal cruel and persecuting kings – Nebuchadnezzar and Pharaoh. Some Jewish traditions also identified him with Cyrus, whose birth according to Herodotus was accompanied by portents, which made his grandfather try to kill him.
A confrontation is also found in the Quran, between a king, not mentioned by name, and the Prophet Ibrahim. Some Muslim commentators assign Nimrod as the king. In the quranic narrative Ibrahim has a discussion with the king, the former argues that Allah is the one who gives life and causes death, whereas the unnamed King replies that he gives life and causes death. Ibrahim refutes him by stating that Allah brings the Sun up from the East, and so he asks the king to bring it from the West. The king is then perplexed and angered. The commentaries on this Surah offer a wide variety of embellishments of this narrative, one of which by Ibn Kathir, a 14th-century scholar, adding that Nimrod showed his rule over life and death by killing a prisoner and freeing another.
Whether or not conceived as having ultimately repented, Nimrod remained in Jewish and Islamic tradition an emblematic evil person, an archetype of an idolater and a tyrannical king. In rabbinical writings up to the present, he is almost invariably referred to as "Nimrod the Evil".
Nimrod is mentioned by name in several places in the Baha'i scriptures, including the Kitáb-i-Íqán, the primary theological work of the Bahá'í religion. There it is said that Nimrod "dreamed a dream" which his soothsayers interpreted as signifying the birth of a new star in heaven. A herald is then said to have appeared in the land announcing "the coming of Abraham". Nimrod is also mentioned in one of the earliest writings of the Báb. Citing examples of God's power, he asks: "Has He not, in past days, caused Abraham, in spite of His seeming helplessness, to triumph over the forces of Nimrod?"
The story of Abraham's confrontation with Nimrod did not remain within the confines of learned writings and religious treatises, but also conspicuously influenced popular culture. A notable example is "Quando el Rey Nimrod", one of the most well-known folksongs in Ladino, apparently written during the reign of King Alfonso X of Castile. Beginning with the words: "When King Nimrod went out to the fields/ Looked at the heavens and at the stars/He saw a holy light in the Jewish quarter/A sign that Abraham, our father, was about to be born", the song gives a poetic account of the persecutions perpetrated by the cruel Nimrod and the miraculous birth and deeds of the savior Abraham.

Islamic narrative

According to the Islamic narrative, Ibrahim has a series of discussions with Nimrod. The Quran states, "Have you not considered him who had an argument with Abraham about his Lord, because God had given him the kingdom ?" Abraham says, "My Lord is He Who gives life and causes death." The king answers, "I give life and cause death". At this point some commentaries add new narratives like Nimrod bringing forth two men, who were sentenced to death previously. He orders the execution of one while freeing the other one. Then Abraham says, "Indeed, God brings up the sun from the east, so bring it up from the west." This causes the king to exile him, and he leaves for the Levant.
Although Nimrod's name is not specifically stated in the Quran, Islamic scholars hold that the "king" mentioned was him. Two other sections of the Quran narrate Abraham's dialogues with Nimrod and his people, specifically around the verses of Sura al-Anbiya 21:68 and Sura al-Ankabut 29:34, where Abraham was thrown in the fire but emerged unharmed through Allah's mercy. Other traditional stories also exist around Nimrod, which have resulted in him being referenced as a tyrant in Muslim cultures.
According to Mujahid ibn Jabr, "Four people gained control over the Earth, east and west, two believers and two disbelievers. The two believers were Solomon and Dhul Qarnayn, and the two disbelievers were Nebuchadnezzar and Nimrod. No one but they gained power over it."

Text of the Midrash Rabba version

The following version of the confrontation between Abraham and Nimrod appears in the Midrash Rabba, a major compilation of Jewish Scriptural exegesis. The part in which this appears, the Genesis Rabbah, is considered to date from the sixth century.

נטלו ומסרו לנמרוד. אמר לו: עבוד לאש. אמר לו אברהם: ואעבוד למים, שמכבים את האש? אמר לו נמרוד: עבוד למים! אמר לו: אם כך, אעבוד לענן, שנושא את המים? אמר לו: עבוד לענן! אמר לו: אם כך, אעבוד לרוח, שמפזרת עננים? אמר לו: עבוד לרוח! אמר לו: ונעבוד לבן אדם, שסובל הרוחות? אמר לו: מילים אתה מכביר, אני איני משתחוה אלא לאוּר - הרי אני משליכך בתוכו, ויבא אלוה שאתה משתחוה לו ויצילך הימנו! היה שם הרן עומד. אמר: מה נפשך, אם ינצח אברהם - אומַר 'משל אברהם אני', ואם ינצח נמרוד - אומַר 'משל נמרוד אני'. כיון שירד אברהם לכבשן האש וניצול, אמרו לו: משל מי אתה? אמר להם: משל אברהם אני! נטלוהו והשליכוהו לאור, ונחמרו בני מעיו ויצא ומת על פני תרח אביו. וכך נאמר: וימת הרן על פני תרח אביו.
He was given over to Nimrod. told him: Worship the Fire! Abraham said to him: Shall I then worship the water, which puts off the fire! Nimrod told him: Worship the water! said to him: If so, shall I worship the cloud, which carries the water? told him: Worship the cloud! said to him: If so, shall I worship the wind, which scatters the clouds? said to him: Worship the wind! said to him: And shall we worship the human, who withstands the wind? Said to him: You pile words upon words, I bow to none but the fire—in it shall I throw you, and let the God to whom you bow come and save you from it!

Haran was standing there. He said : what shall I do? If Abraham wins, I shall say: "I am of Abraham's ", if Nimrod wins I shall say "I am of Nimrod's ". When Abraham went into the furnace and survived, Haran was asked: "Whose are you?" and he answered: "I am Abraham's!". they took him and threw him into the furnace, and his belly opened and he died and predeceased Terach, his father.


The Two Babylons

The book The Two Babylons, by the Christian minister Alexander Hislop, depicted Nimrod as the son and consort of Queen Semiramis, whom Hislop associated with the Whore of Babylon. Hislop attributed to Semiramis and Nimrod the invention of polytheism and, with it, goddess worship, and that their incestuous male offering was Tammuz. He also claimed that the Catholic Church was a millennia-old secret conspiracy, founded by Semiramis and Nimrod to propagate the pagan religion of ancient Babylon. Grabbe and others have rejected the book's arguments as based on a flawed understanding of the texts, but variations of them are accepted among some groups of evangelical Protestants.

Historical interpretations

Historians, Orientalists, Assyriologists and mythographers have long tried to find links between Nimrod and real historically attested figures in Mesopotamia.
Since the city of Akkad was destroyed and lost with the destruction of its Empire in the period 2200–2154 BC, the stories mentioning Nimrod seem to recall the late Early Bronze Age. The association with Erech, a city that lost its prime importance around 2,000 BC as a result of struggles between Isin, Ur, Larsa and Elam, also attests the early provenance of the stories of Nimrod. Several Mesopotamian ruins were given Nimrod's name by 8th-century AD Arabs, including the ruins of the Assyrian city of Kalhu, built by Shalmaneser I A number of attempts to connect him with historical figures have been made.
The Christian Bishop Eusebius of Caesarea as early as the early 4th century, noting that the Babylonian historian Berossus in the 3rd century BC had stated that the first king after the flood was Euechoios of Chaldea, identified him with Nimrod. George Syncellus also had access to Berossus, and he too identified Euechoios with the biblical Nimrod. More recently, Sumerologists have suggested additionally connecting both this Euechoios, and the king of Babylon and grandfather of Gilgamos who appears in the oldest copies of Aelian as Euechoros, with the name of the founder of Uruk known from cuneiform sources as Enmerkar.
In 1920, J. D. Prince also suggested a possible link between the Lord of Marad and Nimrod. He mentioned how Dr. Kraeling was now inclined to connect Nimrod historically with Lugal-Banda, a mythological king mentioned in Poebel, Historical Texts, 1914, whose seat was at the city Marad.
According to Ronald Hendel the name Nimrod is probably a polemical distortion of the god Ninurta, a prominent god in Mesopotamian religion who had cult centers in a number of Assyrian cities such as Kalhu, and also in Babylon, and was a patron god of a number of Assyrian kings. Nimrod's imperial ventures described in Genesis may be based on the conquests of the Assyrian king Tukulti-Ninurta I. Julian Jaynes also indicates Tukulti-Ninurta I as the origin for Nimrod. Alexander Hislop, in his tract The Two Babylons, decided that Nimrod was to be identified with Ninus, who according to Greek legend was a Mesopotamian king and husband of Semiramis, with a whole host of deities throughout the Mediterranean world, and with the Persian Zoroaster. The identification with Ninus follows that of the Clementine Recognitions; the one with Zoroaster, that of the Clementine Homilies, both works part of Clementine literature. There was a historical Assyrian queen Shammuramat in the 9th century, the wife of Shamshi-Adad V, whom some speculations have identified with Semiramis, while others make her a later namesake of a much earlier Semiramis.
In David Rohl's theory, Enmerkar, the Sumerian founder of Uruk, was the original inspiration for Nimrod, because the story of Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta bears a few similarities to the legend of Nimrod and the Tower of Babel, and because the -KAR in Enmerkar means "hunter". Additionally, Enmerkar is said to have had ziggurats built in both Uruk and Eridu, which Rohl postulates was the site of the original Babel.
George Rawlinson believed Nimrod was Belus based on the fact Babylonian and Assyrian inscriptions bear the names Bel-. The word Nibru in the Akkadian language of Assyria and Babylonia comes from a root meaning to 'pursue' or to make 'one flee', and as Rawlinson pointed out not only does this closely resemble Nimrod's name but it also perfectly fits the description of Nimrod in Genesis 10: 9 as a great hunter. The Belus-Nimrod equation or link is also found in many old works such as Moses of Chorene and the Book of the Bee. Nibru, in the Sumerian language, was the original name of the city of Nippur.
Joseph Poplicha wrote in 1929 about the identification of Nimrod in the first dynasty or Uruk
Yigal Levin suggests that Nimrod was a recollection of Sargon of Akkad and of his grandson Naram-Sin, with the name "Nimrod" derived from the latter. He argues that:

Literature

In modern American English, the term is often used sarcastically to mean a dimwitted or a stupid person, a usage first recorded in 1932 and popularized by the Looney Tunes cartoon characters Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, who both sarcastically refer to the hunter Elmer Fudd as "nimrod", as an ironic connection between "mighty hunter" and "poor little Nimrod", i.e. Fudd.

Citations