Nimrod: A Hunter against God

nowadays calling someone a nimrod probably isn't the way to win friends the name nimrod has a long history that stretches back to when humanity started cultivating civilization as we know it so who was nimrod and should we be insulted if someone yells that name at us first it is important to establish that nimrod is a biblical figure no historical record has been found that refers to him despite the ancient assyrian city of nimrud bearing great similarity to his name some biblical scholars now believe that nimrod refers to a mesopotamian people rather than an individual although others feel the evidence shows he was without a doubt a specific person it has been speculated that the story was derived from an old babylonian tale yet the name nimrod has never been found in any babylonian records however one ancient babylonian epic may be linked to nimrod but more on that later in the video everything we know about nimrod comes straight from the bible and he is described in genesis 10 8-12 1 chronicles 1 10 and micah 5 6. although his name does not appear in the quran islamic scholars believe that the king who argued with ibrahim was nimrod in genesis we learn cush was the father of nimrod who became a mighty warrior on the earth he was a mighty hunter before the lord that is why it is said like nimrod a mighty hunter before the lord the first centers of his kingdom were babylon uruk akan and kalna in shinar from that land he went to assyria where he built the neva rehoboth ear kala which is between nineveh and kalah which is a great city of course nowadays there are many versions of the bible in some versions state nimrod was the first on earth to be a mighty man while others read he was the first on earth to be a hero some people believe that the original english translation from hebrew is completely wrong and the passage should read kush begat nimrod he began to be a tyrant in the earth he was a tyrannical hunter in opposition to the lord thus it is said nimrod the tyrannical opponent of yahweh this postulation is due to the hebrew word gebor which potentially means tyrant but as the bible uses gabor many other times to describe champions and warriors the conclusion that the passage should read that nimrod was a flat out tyrant is rather tenuous while much about nimrod is disputed one thing widely agreed upon is that he was the great grandson of noah by way of ham and then cush in the old testament 1 chronicles 1 10 backs up the early statement cush was the father of nimrod and micah only alludes to nimrod when talking about assyria who will rule the land of assyria with the sword the land of nimrod withdrawn sword as kush has now been linked to the ancient cushites of sudan it seems strange that nimrod would be placed in mesopotamia some historians explain this discrepancy by postulating that cush actually refers to the cassites who once ruled babylon or kashta a region in asia minor many scholars consider that land of shinar where kush is said to have lived in the land of sumer dr david p livingstone suggests that the sumerian city of kisch took its name from cush and was the first city to be established after the biblical flood he also believes that migrations from mesopotamia took the name of cush to modern-day ethiopia which was once the land of cush given the scant information about nimrod and the lack of any historical evidence the number of myths and legends attributed to him is astounding the fact that the name survives today regardless of its association is a feat in itself as the supposed founder of babylon amongst other ancient mesopotamian cities nimrod is often credited with being the founder of human civilization however many also paint him as an ego maniacal tyrant who built the tower of babel in defiance of god but the stories don't end there according to some internet sources nimrod was a nephilim giant who built babylon with divine technology and aided by extraterrestrials constructed a space-time travel portal called the tower of babel with so many post-biblical tales linked to nimrod the only way we can fully explore this legend is by reviewing the traditions and stories about him hebrew and christian cultures firmly placed nimrod as the king who ordered the construction of the tower of babel several judaic sources cite that king amraphel abraham's rival in genesis is really nimrod which echoes islamic beliefs about the king who wars with ibrahim jewish scholar and priest flavius josephus was amongst many ancient historians to rewrite and embellish biblical stories he attributed the building of the tower of babel to nimrod writing now it was nimrod who excited them to such an affront and contempt of god he also said he would be revenged on god if he should have a mind to drown the world again for that he would build a tower too high for the waters to reach now the multitude were very ready to follow the determination of nimrod and to esteem it a piece of cowardice to submit to god and they built a tower when god saw that theta acted so madly he caused a tumult among them by producing many diverse languages the place wherein they built the tower is called babylon because of the confusion of that language for the hebrews mean by the word babel confusion josephus wrote this around 2100 years ago however we should also remember that he was adding to an already ancient story while the dating of genesis is highly contested babylon was founded around 2300 bce so more time has passed since the founding of babylon and the birth of josephus than between josephus's death and today other contemporaries of josephus interpreted the line a mighty hunter before the lord to mean that he was in opposition to the lord and he is described as the archetypal wicked king supposedly as a young man nimrod possessed the garments of adam which gave him supernatural powers to subdue any animal and sway people this story greatly influenced his reputation as a mighty hunter and enabled him to entice people into idolatrous worship his name has also been linked to a hebrew word for rebel murad some scholars believe that this implies that he was given the name nimrod because of his rebellion against god and that nimrod was not his original name but instead a description of his character in jewish and islamic traditions nimrod clashes with abraham nimrod sets about killing infant boys after being told by diviners that a new baby would challenge his power however abraham manages to escape the call many stories surround this conflict one such story details how abraham confronts nimrod about his idol tree and nimrod orders that abraham be burned at the stake some accounts detail the exchange between abraham and nimrod in which nimrod commands abraham to worship fire abraham retorts that they should worship water since water puts out fire abraham then leads nimrod down a logical path of honoring clouds that hold the water or wind which blows the clouds and finally lands on worshiping humans some say that abraham's reasoning is because humans can withstand wind and others claim that it was because the word for wind was synonymous with the term for the human spirit whatever abraham's reasoning nimrod became angry and accused abraham of playing with words declaring that he only worshipped fire he ended his rant with an order that abraham be cast into his furnace for four years nimrod's subjects gathered firewood yet abraham walks away unscathed when the fire is lit in the quran ibrahim discusses the power of god with an unnamed king and many assigned the role to nimrod ibrahim states that allah gives life and causes death after which the king asserts that he is the one who gives life and causes death ibrahim then angers the king by challenging him to bring up the sun in the west as allah brings it up in the east however according to genesis genealogy nimrod and abraham may have lived up to 300 years apart nimrod was the great grandson of noah but several generations separate abraham from his forefather shem who was noah's son the issue of time can be resolved due to the long life spans described in genesis it is said that shem and his descendants lived for up to 500 years the bible does not detail the age of ham or kush when they have their children and since nimrod was part of this family by the same logic he could have been hundreds of years old when abraham was born nimrod also appears in kitab el-magal an early arabic work this work adds more details to nimrod's life saying he reigned for 69 years and that he received divine inspiration to commission and where the first crown ever worn by a king and that he and his followers worshiped fire in idolatry speculation about nimrod is still rife with some suggesting that he was the mesopotamian hero gilgamesh citing similarities between the two legendary figures the story of gilgamesh seems to parallel that of noah in the flood gilgamesh comes from eric a city included in nimrod's kingdom and it could be argued that they are from the same era both nimrod and gilgamesh are described as mighty warriors and great builders and both are concerned with the return of a great flood the link between nimrod and the hebrew word for rebel is also cited with some believing that gilgamesh's name was deliberately omitted instead he is just referred to as the rebel however as the stories of nimrod's rebellion as retribution for god's flood came centuries after the original mention of nimrod and genesis it is possible that inspiration for nimrod's backstory came from oral traditions concerning gilgamesh another claim that links nimrod to babylonian texts is that the tales of nimrod inspired the babylonian god marduk as nimrod nmrd is related to the word murad mrd it isn't too much of a stretch to connect the name to marduk marduk was also portrayed as a hunter warrior and king pointing to further similarities between the two figures it seems that myth continues to follow the name even today modern legend has it that bugs bunny or daffy duck was the first to turn the name nimrod into an insult by using the moniker to describe elmer fudd however like with most other stories about nimrod nothing is proven and no one has been able to identify the episode in which the supposed slur occurred perhaps the name nimrod is destined to be unexplainably dragged through the mud after all there doesn't seem to be much supporting evidence for the move from someone described as a mighty warrior and hunter to a tyrannical king obsessed with defying god when reviewing the myths concerning nimrod the only clear thing is that nimrod is an enigmatic figure equal parts evil king and mighty hero he continues to capture people's attention to this day so if anyone ever does call you a nimrod you can easily take it as a compliment to learn more about mesopotamian legends check out our book mesopotamia a captivating guide to ancient mesopotamian history and civilizations including the sumerians and sumerian mythology gilgamesh ur assyrians babylon hammurabi and the persian empire it's available as an ebook paperback and audiobook also grab your free mythology bundle ebook while it's still available all links are in the description if you enjoyed the video please hit the like button and subscribe for more videos like this

Channel: Captivating History

Views: 70,980

Keywords: Nimrod, Mesopotamia, History of Mesopotamia, Babylonian History, History of Babylonia, babylonian gods and goddesses, Mesopotamian Civilization, babylonian mythology, biblical nimrod, Assyrian city of Nimrud, Mesopotamian people, nimrod bible story, gibbor Hebrew word, Old Testament Nimrod, Kushites of Sudan, myths and legends of Nimrod, founder of Babylon, The Tower of Babel, post-biblical tales, mighty hunter before the Lord, Nimrod supernatural powers

Id: mTiZVqhwFa8

Length: 11min 58sec (718 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 30 2022