Editing Calneh

{{short description|City founded by Nimrod}}
{{main article|Nimrod#Biblical account}}
'''Calneh''' ({{lang|he|כַלְנֵה}}) was a city founded by [[Nimrod (king)|Nimrod]], mentioned  three times in the [[Hebrew Bible]] ({{bibleverse||Genesis|10:10}}), ({{bibleverse||Isaiah|10:9}}), & ({{bibleverse||Amos|6:2}}).<ref name=jenc>[http://jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=62&letter=C ''Jewish Encyclopedia'', ''s.v.'' "Calneh"]; A. S. Yahuda, "Calneh in Shinar" ''Journal of Biblical Literature'' '''65'''.3 (September 1946:325-327).</ref> 
The verse in Genesis reads:
:{{lang|he|וַתְּהִי רֵאשִׁית מַמְלַכְתֹּו בָּבֶל וְאֶרֶךְ וְאַכַּד וְכַלְנֵה בְּאֶרֶץ שִׁנְעָֽר׃}}
:"And the beginning of his kingdom was [[Babylon|Babel]], and [[Erech]], and [[Akkad (city)|Accad]], and Calneh, in the land of [[Shinar]]"  ([[KJV]])

Historical scholarship proposed candidate locations for the city of "Calneh", but it is now considered most likely, in a suggestion going back to 
[[William F. Albright|W.F. Albright]] (1944), that the word did not in origin refer to a city but has been corrupted from an expression meaning "all of them".<ref>Albright, "The End of 'Calneh in Shinar'", ''Journal of Near Eastern Studies'' '''3''' (1944:254f, note 17; Yahuda 1946 registered objections to Albright's amended reading of the [[Masoretic text]].
{{cite book|last=Palacios|first=Isaac Asimov ; maps by Rafael|title=Asimov's guide to the Bible : the Old and New Testaments|year=1981|publisher=Wings Books|location=New York|isbn=978-0517345825|page=[https://archive.org/details/asimovsguidetobi00asim/page/49 49]|edition=Reprint [der Ausg.] in 2 vol. 1968 - 1969.|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/asimovsguidetobi00asim/page/49}}</ref> In the [[Revised Standard Version]], the English translation of the verse reads:
:''The beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, and Accad, all of them in the land of Shinar.''

Calneh ("''Chalanne''") was identified with [[Ctesiphon]] in [[Jerome]]'s ''Hebrew questions on Genesis'' (written ca. 390), following [[Eusebius of Caesarea]].<ref name=jenc/>
[[Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary]] silently follows [[Sir Henry Rawlinson, 1st Baronet|Sir Henry Rawlinson]] in interpreting the [[Talmud]]ic passage Joma 10a<ref>Rawlinson is credited in the ''Jewish Encyclopedia''; A "guess", according to E.G. Kraeling and J.A. Montgomery "Brief Communications: Calneh Gen. 10:10", ''Journal of Biblical Literature'' 1935:233.</ref> identifying Calneh with the modern [[Nippur]], a lofty mound of earth and rubbish situated in the marshes on the east bank of the [[Euphrates]], but 30 miles distant from its present course, and about 60 miles south-south-east from [[Babylon]].

A second Calneh is mentioned in the [[Book of Amos]], and some have also associated this place with ''Calno'' which is mentioned in similar terms in the [[Book of Isaiah]]. ({{bibleverse||Amos|6:2}}, {{bibleverse||Isaiah|10:9}}) This is identified by some archaeological scholars as Kulnia, Kullani or Kullanhu, modern ''Kullan-Köy'', between [[Carchemish]] on the Euphrates River and [[Arpad (Syria)|Arpad]] near [[Aleppo]] in Northern Syria, about ten kilometers southeast from Arpad.<ref>Albright 1944:255; Yahuda 1946:327.</ref>  
''Canneh'', mentioned in the [[Book of Ezekiel]] 27:23 as one of the towns with which [[Tyre (Lebanon)|Tyre]] carried on trade was associated with Calneh by A.T. Olmstead, ''History of Assyria''. [[Xenophon]] mentioned a ''Kainai'' on the west bank of the [[Tigris]] below the Upper Zab.<ref>Xenophon, ''[[Anabasis (Xenophon)|Anabasis]]'' ii.4, noted in this connection by I J. Gelb, "Calneh" ''The American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures'' '''51'''.3 (April 1935:189-191) p. 189 note 2.</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

[[Category:Torah cities]]
[[Category:Nimrod]]