Article Land of The Chaldeans

Land of the Chaldeans
by: Travis Wayne Goodsell

Abrahams birthplace, the land of the Chaldeans has troubled scholars from the
beginning. With the discovery of Ur of the Chaldees in Southern Babylon comes
the confusion as to its legitimacy, since it wasnt founded until the 9th century BCE,
several centuries after the time period of Abraham. As such there are a number of
points that have convinced me that Chaldea is not supposed to be the one in
Mesopotamia, but is rather in southern Egypt, in Kush.
1) The land of Chaldees is believed to be on the other side of the Euphrates
River due to the passage in Joshua 24:2:
Thus said the LORD, the God of Israel: In olden
times, your forefathers Terah, father of Abraham and
father of Nahor lived beyond the Euphrates and
worshiped other gods.
The main problem is that Euphrates is an assumed translation of the Hebrew
word, nahar rhnh the river. The river can also be translated as the Nile River.
2) Because Ur of Chaldea wasnt founded until the 9th century BCE, scholars
believe that the Bible was redacted to place the Jewish origins in Babylon.
My own research has shown that the Genesis stories show Hebrew,
Babylonian, linguistic, influences mixed in with Paleo-Hebrew, Egyptian,
linguistic, influences. (Goodsell, An Introduction to Paleo-Hebrew Alphabet
and Grammar A New Theory [Into.])
3) The Hebrew word for Chaldea is Kasdim mdfk is connected to Egypt. Fk
is the Paleo-Hebrew word for the Egyptian land of Kush. According to my
own research on the Paleo-Hebrew alphabet, the letter daleth d comes from
the Egyptian Hieroglyph of a pyramid. (Goodsell, Intro. and Goodsell, The
Origins of the Alphabet) Therefore it serves as a third-letter suffix
determinative tying Kasdim as an Egyptian land, which Kush is.
4) Kush was founded by Kush son of Ham son of Noah, according to the
Biblical text. Yet despite this Kushs son Nimrod supposedly leaves his native
land in Africa to found Babel in Assyria. (Genesis 10:8-10) Clearly we are
dealing with another redaction.
Nimrod is drmn in Aramaic script. Narmer is the 1st King of Egypt. Narmer
would be spelled in Aramaic script as: rmrn. The Aramaic d and r are
pictorially similar and thus can easily be seen as a redactors error, such that
Nimrod is actually Narmer, the 1st King of Egypt.
This is further supported with the story of the Tower of Babel where
Nimrod/Narmer founded the place of Babel. The story falls between the
genealogical listing of the Sons of Noahs children and the account of
Abraham, such that Abraham is to be from this land where this Tower was
built. Because of the traditional Assyrian connection, the Tower is seen as a
Ziggurat. And there is even a Ziggurat in the Babylonian village of Ur. Yet
Ziggurats were built after the Pyramids of Egypt by several centuries. The
original text of the Torah as illustrated from the previous arguments would also
suggest that the Tower of Babel was the 1st attempts to build pyramids in
Egypt.
5) And then there is the controversial translations of Joseph Smith.
a) We start with the Book of Mormon in the Book of Ether, where the
Jaredites originate from from what is only called the great tower (1:3), not
the Tower of Babel. Then in chapter 2:1 is a geographical description of
the Jaredites who went down into the valley which was northward; (and the
name of the valley was Nimrod, being called after the mighty hunter). This
description does not fit a geography of Mesopotamia, but is a good fit for
the geography of Egypt, for someone coming from the south must travel
down into the Nile Valley. And what seals the deal that these Jaredites
were Egyptian is in the name for what they call a honey bee Deseret.
The name Deseret is from the Egyptian word, DSRT which represents
the Red Crown of Lower Egypt
Lower Egypt is the honey bee
; Gardiners # S3. The symbol of

; Gardiners # L2. (Whereas the symbol
of Upper Egypt is the Vulture) The language at the great tower in the
Valley of Nimrod (Narmer, the 1st King of Egypt) was Egyptian.
b) In the Book of Abraham, facsimile #1, figure 10, Joseph Smith explains
that this symbol represents, Abraham in Egypt. There are those such as
R.C. Webb in his book, Joseph Smith As a Translator and Ed Goble
who have shown that figure 10 is a part of the Rebus Theory which is that
when you break down the picture into its basic elements you get the
phonetics of the picture. In this case figure 10s basic elements is the
phonetics of Abraham. Nevertheless Joseph did not say, Abraham in
Egyptian, but Abraham in Egypt. Thus the event in Abrahams
birthplace Ur of the land of the Chaldeans where a priest of Elkenah
tried to sacrifice him, was specifically in the land of Egypt.
c) Then also in facsimile #1 Joseph explains that the canopic jars and the
crocodile are Egyptian Gods. The crocodile is the Egyptian God,
Sobek, the God of Pharaoh. Figure #5 is the Egyptian God
Qebehsenuef, a Son of the Egyptian God Horus; representing the
cardinal point West. Figures 6, 7, and 8 are also Sons of Horus and
represent the other cardinal points.
d) Elkenah is not the name of the God. There are those who believe
Elkenah is a Canaanite Deity, but again Joseph didnt say the God
Elkenah, but rather the God of Elkenah. He also has the phrases:
Priest of Elkenah, and altar of Elkenah. Elkenah therefore is either
the name of a man, or the name of a place such as a village in the land of
Ur (1:20) in the land of Chaldea.
e) Also in verse 20 is the statement that with the death of the priest of
Elkenah there was great mourning in Chaldea, and also in the court of
Pharaoh. Chaldea is a tributary of Egypt in order for the Pharaohs court

to mourn his death. Kush was a tributary of Egypt during the 18th
Dynasty.
f) And finally Abraham , if from the lineage of Shem the birthright son of
Noah, should have been given the priesthood by his fathers or even the
priests of his birthplace. Yet Abraham does not have the Priesthood and
gets it through his father Noah (verses 18 & 19) from Melchizedek
(Doctrine and Covenants 84:14), who is Shem son of Noah (Times and
Seasons). Joseph Smith goes into added explanation to describe how it
was the Egyptians who do not have the authority of the Priesthood and
that Abrahams father was led away by the Egyptians idolatry. (v. 27) If
Abrahams fathers had the authority of the Priesthood it could still be given
to Abraham despite their wickedness; as was the case with Alma a priest of
the wicked King Noah in the Book of Mormon. Abraham became a
restoring prophet obtaining the Priesthood from Shem, who had the
authority.
The facts from the scriptural records confirmed by Joseph Smith make it clear that
the land of the Chaldeans was in Kush of Egypt, not in Mesopotamia.
References
LDS Standard Works
JPS Hebrew-English TANAKH
An Introduction to Paleo-Hebrew Alphabet and Grammar A New Theory, by
Travis Wayne Goodsell
The Origins of the Alphabet, by Travis Wayne Goodsell
Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon
Egyptian Glyphary, by Bill Petty
Joseph Smith as a Translator, by R. C. Webb
Ed Gobles blog post: www.egyptianalphabetandgrammar.blogspot.com
Translating the Book of Abraham, by Travis Wayne Goodsell

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Land of the Chaldeans

by: Travis Wayne Goodsell

; Gardiners # S3. The symbol of

Pharaoh. Chaldea is a tributary of Egypt in order for the Pharaohs court

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