Amraphel
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Amraphel was a King of ruler of::Shinar in southern Chaldea, and one of the confederates of Chedorlaomer, the king of Elam, in a war against Sodom and cities of the plain (Gen 14:1ff).
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Biblical account
Amraphel was the King of Sennaar (Shinar), or Babylonia, one of four Mesopotamian kings (along with Arioch, King of Pontus (Ellasar); Chodorlahomor, King of Elam, and Thadal (Tedal), King of Nations (Goyim)) who, according to the fourteenth chapter of Genesis, jointly invaded Chanaan and defeated the five kings of the Plains, capturing Lot and his family, together with a rich booty. On their way home they were assailed and routed in a single night by Abraham and his 318 men in the vale of Sava (Siddim), near the Dead Sea. Among the rescued prisoners were Lot and his family. Abraham, furthermore, while on his way back from his victorious attack, was met by Melchisedech, the High priest of El-Elion, at Jerusalem, who celebrated Abraham's victory by a thanksgiving offering of bread and wine, taking from him, as his sacerdotal share, the tenth part of the booty.
Identity
The identity of the name has long been a subject of controversy among Assyriologists, and is not even yet established to the satisfaction of all scholars. Schrader was the first to suggest ("Cunciform Inscriptions and the Old Testament," ii. 299 et seq.) that Amraphel was Hammurabi, king of Babylon, the sixth king in the first dynasty of Babylon, who reigned about 2250 B.C. This is now the prevailing view among both Assyriologists and Old Testament scholars, although other sources have identified him with Nimrod.
Hammurabi
Phonetic similarities
The identity of Amraphel and Hammurabi has been widely accepted by Assyriologists and Biblical critics. Phonetically, the two names are identical. The variants of the second form are Ammi-rabi, Ammu-rapi, and Hammum-rabi, etc. Hammu, or Ammu, was in all probability the name of a god, as it is found in many compound names such as Sumu-hammu, Jasdi-hammu, and Zimri-hammu. The element rabi is very common in Babylonia, and it means great; the full name, consequently, means "The god Ammu is great", on the same analogy as names like Sin-rabi, Samas-rabi, and many others. According to Dr. Lindle, followed by Sayce and others, the name was also pronounced Ammurabi, and, so Dr. Pinches was the first to point out, the form Ammu-rapi is also met with by the side of Hammurabi, and like many of the Babylonian kings of that period, he was deified, being addressed as ilu-Ammurabi or Ammurabi-ilu, i.e. "Ammurabi the god", ilu being the equivalent of the Hebrew El, which means god. Now Ammurabi-ilu or Ammurapilu is letter for letter the Amraphel, or Amrapel, of Genesis. According to another hypothesis, suggested by Dr. Husing, the l at the end of the form "Amraphel" is superfluous, for he would join it to the next word, and read: "And it came to pass in the days of Amraphel, as Arioch king of Ellasar was over Shinar, that Chodorlahomer . . ." Another, and according to Dr. Pinches perhaps more likely, explanation is that this additional letter l is due to a faulty reading of a variant writing of the name, with a polyphonous character having the value of pil, as well as bi, which form may, in fact, still be found.
Political considerations
Additionally, the political situation presupposed in Genesis Chapter 14, reflects with a remarkable degreee of probability, the condition of the times of Hammurabi's reign. The leader of the force and the suzerain to whom the Chanaanitish princes were subject was a king of Elam. Elam, therefore, must have been the predominant power at the time, and the Babylonian king must have been its vassal. The narrative, nevertheless, is dated in the reign of the Babylonian king, and not in that of the King of Elam, and it is to the reign of the Babylonian king that the events described in it are attached. Babylonia, however, was not a united country; there was another king, Arioch of Ellasar, who divided with the Amraphel of Sennaar the government of it, and like Amraphel, acknowledged the supremacy of Elam. Finally, the "nations" (goyim), whoever they were, were also subject to Elam, as well as the distant province of Chanaan. If we turn our glance to the political condition of Hammurabi's times and period, we shall find that the contemporary monuments of Babylonia are in accord with the account given in Gen. 14.
Nimrod
Some sources point out that the transformation of the name Hammurabi into the Hebrew form Amraphel is difficult of explanation, though a partial clue is perhaps furnished by the explanation of the name in a cuneiform letter as equivalent to Kimta-rapashtu (great people or family). On this basis "'am" = "Kimta" and "raphel" = "rapaltu" = "rapashtu."
In Rabbinical literature
According to Rab and Samuel, Amraphel is identical with Nimrod. Some say Amraphel was his real name, and he was called Nimrod, "the chief rebel," as leader of the tower-builders, "who led the world unto rebellion" against heaven's Ruler; others again say Nimrod was his real name, and he was called Amraphel as the one who "commanded them to cast Abraham into the fire" ('Er. 53a and Targ. Yer. to Gen 14:1). Among other fanciful etymologies the name is explained as that of one whose "commands brought darkness [destruction] on the world," or of one who "provoked and made sport of the world" (see Gen. R. xlii.; Midr. LeḳaḦ Ṭob to Gen. xiv. 1, ed. Buber, i. 63, note 4; also Beer, "Leben Abrahams," pp.130, 131).
Bibliography
- Tiele, Babylonisch-Assyrische Gesch. pp. 125, 126
- Winckler, Gesch. Babyloniens und Assyriens, pp. 60-65
- idem, Gesch. Israels, i. 130, 131
- Rogers, History of Babylonia and Assyria, i. 388-393
- Driver, in Authority and Archœology, ed. by D. G. Hogarth, pp. 39, 40.
See also
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