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Chaldaea, Chaldaeans

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible

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CHALDÆA, CHALDÆANS . The Heb. Kasdim is generaliy rendered ‘Chaldees’ ( Genesis 11:28 ), and in Jeremiah 50:10; Jeremiah 51:24; Jeremiah 24:5; Jeremiah 25:12 , and often, is used for ‘Babylonian.’ The word is derived from the Bab. [Note: Babylonian.] name Kaldû for the district S.E. of Babylonia proper, on the sea-coast as it then was. From b.c. 1000 onwards its capital was Bit Yakin. The people were Aramæans, independent and aggressive. In the time of Babylonian weakness they pushed into the country, and Merodach-baladan was a Chaldæan usurper. Nabopolassar was also a Chaldæan, and, from his time, Chaldæa meant Babylonia. The Chaldæans were Semites and not the same as the Kashdu, Kashshu, or Kassites, who conquered Babylonia, and ruled it from the 13th cent. b.c. onwards, but they came through, and probably had absorbed a part of, the country to which the Kassites had already assured the name Kashda .

The name as applied since Jerome to the Aramaic portions of Daniel and Ezra is incorrect. The use of the term ‘Chaldæan’ (Daniel 1:4 and often) to denote a class of astrologers is not found in native sources, but arose from a transfer of a national name to the Babylonians in general, and occurs in Strabo, Diodorus, etc. It can hardly be older than Persian times.

C. H. W. Johns.