A6 • HISTORY
THE BATTLEFIELD CHRONICLES • FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013
POWER STRUGGLE
Nimrod: good or evil?
The mighty man who built large cities and a grand tower lacked one thing
STAFF REPORTER
JERUSALEM, ISRAEL
Nimrod was a very significant man in ancient times,
the grandson of Ham and great-grandson of Noah, who
survived the great flood. There is no doubt, Nimrod was a
born builder, having built the first city after the flood. Then
he went on to build Nineveh. Nimrod was also known as a
mighty hunter.
Thus Nimrod the hunter became a tyrant, a powerful
hunter of men, so that
hunting was intimate“The expression ‘a
ly connected with the
mighty hunter’ does
estab lishing of his
kingdom, Babylon. It
not necessarily relate
was King Nimrod who
primarily to hunting
first persuaded people
to rebel against God,
in the literal sense,
more a ‘hunter of men’ convincing them that
it was their own cour(a trapper of men by
age which procured
happiness. He also
strategem and force)
gradually changed the
government into tyranny, seeing no other way of turning men from the fear of
God, but by bringing them into a constant dependence upon
his (Nimrod’s) own power.
Nimrod was responsible for constructing the famous
Tower Of Babel. Well, as we all know, things didn’t go as well
as planned while the tower was being built because rumor
has it that his God came down from the heavens personally and confused the common language in Babylon, thus
scattering the people all over the world. And there has been
much conjecture about why the tower was constructed in
the first place.
Was it, as some say, a statement on Nimrod’s part to defy
God? Being a direct descendant of Ham, (whose son Canaan
was the recipient of Noah’s curse,) Nimrod vowed he would
avenge himself against God by building a tower too high for
the waters to be able to reach, should God ever again try to
wipe out the human race. Thus he would avenge himself
against God for destroying his forefathers.
Or was the temple actually a place of worship? Nimrod
himself was apparently later deified as the chief god (Merodach or Marduk) of the Babylon society. We believe he may
have been the one that first sent out the decree to:
“Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that
reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”
Genesis 11:4
It seems they wanted to build a tower that should “reach”
to the heavens, but it is hard to think that even these people could have been foolish enough to suppose that they
could do this literally. Or even if they did, it is hard to think
of them as being foolish enough to build their tower on the
plain of Shinar, that is, almost at sea level, when they could
equally well have built it on the top of a nearby mountain
and thus have begun with a few thousand feet head start. It
is even reported that the proposed top would be dedicated to
the heavens as a place of worship. The question is, worship
of what?
NIMROD: He built the first city after the worldwide flood. He went on to construct the Tower of Babel.
TOWER OF BABEL: They wanted to build a tower that should “reach” to the heavens
TRIVIA
Did you know?
Historical trivia tidbits for you to enjoy
STAFF REPORTER
JERUSALEM, ISRAEL
• The Bible was the first book printed on a printing press. It was
printed on the Gutenberg press in the 1450s.
• When Queen Elizabeth the first died in 1603, the crown was
passed on to James the first, who had been king of Scotland for
37 years as James VI. The King began the pursuit of a new Bible
translation. It was completed in 1611 and is now know as the King
James Version.
ORDER NOW
AVAILABLE AT TOBIASCOM.COM
• The first Bible printed in America was not an English Bible, nor
was it a scholarly Greek, Hebrew, or Latin Bible. It is this 1661/63
Bible in Natick (also known as Wampanoag), the language of Algonquian people of the present-day state of Massachusetts. It is
also the first Bible printed anywhere in the Western Hemisphere.
About 1000 copies of “Eliot’s Bible” were printed, but only forty-two copies still exist today.
BAT T L E F I E L D C H RON IC L E S .C OM
GUTENBURG PRESS