Нимрод: Библейский царь и легенды о нем

Biblical figure
the biblical king

Nimrod ('/n//ɪ//m//r//ɒ//d/; ; ; نُمْرُود) is a biblical figure mentioned in the Book of Genesis and Books of Chronicles. The son of Cush and therefore a great grandson of Noah, Nimrod was described as a king in the land of Shinar (Lower Mesopotamia). The Bible states that he was "a mighty hunter before the Lord [and] began to be mighty in the earth". Later extra biblical traditions identified Nimrod as the ruler who commissioned the construction of the Tower of Babel or Jacob's Ladder based on the Biblical dream of Jacob in Genesis 28:11–19, which led to his reputation as a king who was rebellious against God. Nimrod has not been attested in any historic, non biblical registers, records or king lists, including those of Mesopotamia itself which are both considerably older and more diverse than the later biblical texts. Historians have failed to match Nimrod with any historically attested figure, or find any historical, linguistic or genetic link between Mesopotamia and the kingdom of Cush, although one recent suggestion among the exclusively Mesopotamian figures is Naram Sin of Akkad, grandson of Sargon. Several ruins of the Middle East have been named after him during the Islamic Era.

The first biblical mention of Nimrod is in the Table of Nations.

The Quran states, "Have you not considered him who had an argument with Abraham about his Lord, because God had given him the kingdom (i. e. he was prideful)?" Abraham says, "My Lord is He Who gives life and causes death." The king answers, "I give life and cause death". Then Abraham says, "Indeed, God brings up the sun from the east, so bring it up from the west." 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 Surat al Anbiya 21:68 and Surat al Ankabut 29:34, where Abraham was thrown in the fire but emerged unharmed through God'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 (Sulayman in Islamic texts) and Dhul Qarnayn, and the two disbelievers were Nebuchadnezzar II and Nimrod. No one but they gained power over it."

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 (Chapter 38, 13), 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. (בראשית רבה ל"ח, יג)( ) He [Abraham] was given over to Nimrod. [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! [Abraham] said to him: If so, shall I worship the cloud, which carries the water? [Nimrod] told him: Worship the cloud! [Abraham] said to him: If so, shall I worship the wind, which scatters the clouds? [Nimrod] said to him: Worship the wind! [Abraham] said to him: And shall we worship the human, who withstands the wind? Said [Nimrod] 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 [Abraham's brother] was standing there. He said [to himself]: what shall I do? If Abraham wins, I shall say: "I am of Abraham's [followers]", if Nimrod wins I shall say "I am of Nimrod's [followers]". When Abraham went into the furnace and survived, Haran was asked: "Whose [follower] are you?" and he answered: "I am Abraham's!". [Then] they took him and threw him into the furnace, and his belly opened and he died and predeceased Terach, his father. [The Bible, Genesis 11:28, mentions Haran predeceasing Terach, but gives no details. ]|—

Historians, Orientalists, Assyriologists and mythographers have long tried to find links between the Nimrod of biblical texts and real historically attested figures in Mesopotamia. No king named Nimrod or with a similar name appears anywhere on any pre biblical, extra biblical or historic Sumerian, Akkadian, Assyrian or Babylonian king list, nor does the name Nimrod appear in any other writings from Mesopotamia itself or its neighbours in any context whatsoever during the Bronze Age, Iron Age or pre Christian Classical Age. Since the city of Akkad was destroyed and lost with the destruction of its Empire in the period 2200–2154 BC (long chronology), the much later biblical stories mentioning Nimrod seem to recall the late Early Bronze Age. The association with Erech (Sumero Akkadian Uruk), a city that lost its prime importance around 2000 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 invading 8th century AD Muslim Arabs, including the ruins of the Assyrian city of Kalhu (the biblical Calah), which contrary to biblical claims was in reality built by Shalmaneser I (1274–1244 BC)

A number of attempts to connect him with historical figures have been made without any success. 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 (in reality Chaldea was a small state historically not founded until the late 9th century BC), identified him with Nimrod. George Syncellus (c. 800) also had access to Berossus, and he too identified the also historically unattested 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 (c. 200 AD) 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 (Ni) of Marad and Nimrod. He mentioned how Dr. Kraeling was now inclined to connect Nimrod historically with Lugal Banda, a mythological Sumerian king mentioned in Poebel, Historical Texts, 1914, whose seat was at the city Marad. According to Ronald Hendel the name Nimrod is probably a much later polemical distortion of the Semitic Assyrian 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, and that 'Cush' is a mistranslation of Kish, a Mesopotamian city. 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 (a powerful king of the Middle Assyrian Empire) as the inspiration for Nimrod. Alexander Hislop, in his tract The Two Babylons (1853), identified Nimrod with Ninus (also unattested anywhere in Mesopotamian king lists), who according to Greek mythology was a Mesopotamian king and husband of Queen 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. 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. but variations of them are accepted among some groups of evangelical Protestants. 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. Others have attempted to conflate Nimrod with Amraphel, a supposed king in Mesopotamia, but yet again, one who is himself historically unattested in Mesopotamian records. George Rawlinson believed Nimrod was Belus, based on the fact Babylonian and Assyrian inscriptions bear the names Bel The word Nibru in the East Semitic Akkadian language of Akkad, 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. More recently, Yigal Levin (2002) suggests that the fictional Nimrod was a recollection of Sargon of Akkad and also of his grandson Naram Sin, with the name "Nimrod" derived from the latter. He argues that:
The biblical Nimrod, then, is not a total counterpart of any one historical character. He is rather the later composite Hebrew equivalent of the Sargonid dynasty: the first, mighty king to rule after the flood. Later influence modified the legend in the Mesopotamian tradition, adding such details as the hero's name, his territory and some of his deeds, and most important his title, "King of Kish". The much later editors of the Book of Genesis dropped much of the original story and mistakenly misidentified and mistranslated the Mesopotamian Kish with the "Hamitic" Cush, there being no ancient geographical, ethnic, linguistic, cultural, genetic or historical connection between Cush (in modern northern Sudan) and Mesopotamia.

The term "nimrod" is sometimes used in English to mean either a tyrant or a skillful hunter. In modern North American English, the term "nimrod" is often used to mean a dimwitted or a stupid person, a usage perhaps first recorded in an 1836 letter from Robert E. Lee to a female friend. Lee describes a "young nimrod from the West", who in declining an appointment to West Point expressed the concern that "I hope my country will not be endangered by my doing so." Although Lee may have been sarcastically referring to the student as a "tyrant or skillful hunter", the modern usage more closely fits his message. The nickname 'Nimrod' was used mockingly in the 1914 novel by Robert Tressell in The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists. The sarcastic moniker was used towards the foreman (named Hunter) of a gang of workmen as a play both on his surname and on his supposed religious beliefs and sense of self importance. Other than the Lee letter and the Tressell novel, the first recorded use of "nimrod" in this meaning was in 1932. The usage is often said to have been popularized by the Looney Tunes cartoon character Bugs Bunny sarcastically referring to the hunter Elmer Fudd as "nimrod" to highlight the difference between "mighty hunter" and "poor little Nimrod", i. e. Fudd. However, it is in fact Daffy Duck who refers to Fudd as "my little Nimrod" in the 1948 short "What Makes Daffy Duck", although Bugs Bunny does refer to Yosemite Sam as "the little Nimrod" in the 1951 short "Rabbit Every Monday". Both episodes were voiced by Mel Blanc and produced by Edward Selzer. The name is also used in the modern sense (i. e., a stupid or worthless person) in the 1994 Quentin Tarantino feature film Pulp Fiction by the character Vincent Vega when referring to a common criminal: "Jules, if you give that nimrod $1,500, I'm gonna shoot him on general principle."