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Shinar (/ˈʃaɪnɑːr/; Hebrew שִׁנְעָר Šinʻar, Septuagint Σεννααρ Sennaar) is the term used in the Hebrew Bible for the general region of Mesopotamia.
Etymology
The name is derived from Hittite šanhar(a), some consider that it is a corruption of Hebrew Shene neharot ("two rivers"), Hebrew Shene arim ("two cities").
Sayce (1895) identified Shinar as cognate with the following names: Sangara/Sangar mentioned in the context of the Asiatic conquests of Thutmose III (15th century BCE); Sanhar/Sankhar of the Amarna letters (14th century BCE); the Greeks' Singara; and modern Sinjar, in Upper Mesopotamia, near the Khabur River. Accordingly, he proposed that Shinar was in Upper Mesopotamia, but acknowledged that the Bible gives important evidence that it was in the south. Albright (1924) suggested identification with the Kingdom of Khana.
Hebrew Bible
The name Shinar occurs eight times in the Hebrew Bible, in which it refers to Babylonia. This location of Shinar is evident from its description as encompassing both Babel/Babylon (in northern Babylonia), Akkad/Agade and Erech/Uruk (in southern Babylonia). In the Book of Genesis 10:10, the beginning of Nimrod's Hamitic kingdom is said to have been "Babel , and Erech , and Akkad , all of them, in the land of Shinar." Verse 11:2 states that Shinar enclosed the plain that became the site of the Tower of Babel after the Great Flood. After the Flood, the sons of Shem, Ham, and Japheth stayed first in the highlands of Armenia and then migrated to Shinar.
In Genesis 14:1,9, King Amraphel rules Shinar. Shinar is further mentioned in Joshua 7:21; Isaiah 11:11; Daniel 1:2; and Zechariah 5:11, as a general synonym for Babylonia.
Jubilees
Jubilees 9:3 allots Shinar (or, in the Ethiopic text, Sadna Sena`or) to Ashur, son of Shem. Jubilees 10:20 states that the Tower of Babel was built with bitumen from the sea of Shinar. David Rohl theorized that the Tower was actually located in Eridu, which was once located on the Persian Gulf, where there are ruins of a massive, ancient ziggurat worked from bitumen.
References
- LDS.org: "Book of Mormon Pronunciation Guide" (retrieved 2012-02-25), IPA-ified from «shī´när»
- The New York Review, St Joseph's Seminary, 1907, p. 205.
- ^ "SHINAR - JewishEncyclopedia.com". www.jewishencyclopedia.com.
- Sayce, Archibald Henry (1895). Patriarchal Palestine, pp. 67-68.
- W. F. Albright, Shinar-Šanḡar and Its Monarch Amraphel. American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures 40/2, 1924, 125-133.
- Vuibert, Ancient History, 25.
- Rohl, David, Legends: The Genesis of Civilization (1998) and The Lost Testament (2002)