This is from a recent post of mine on soc.history.ancient and sci.archaeology both of which are presently suffering from the annual migration of believers. The present group is going the intelligent design route -- they rigorous defend the bible, particularly the Old Testament but believe if they avoid expressing explicit belief in it then they are free to defend it. In doing this they avoid ever saying exactly what they are talking about or actually defending.

For some six weeks they were arguing that the Ur of Abraham, whom they would generously admit was probably mythical, was in fact a reference to the original Ur of some 2500BC. I let them dig themselves a big hole and then pointed out the bible says Ur of the Chaldees which was from about the 10th to 5th c. BC. I also started mixing the archaic Chaldees with a more contemporary Chaldeans. From that I started getting all kinds of crap such as the Chaldean Ur was agricultural and mystical and the Chaldees meant mystics and Chaldeans meant those pastoral mystics.

Letting that run its course for a couple weeks I prepared the following. Showing they were still blowing smoke. I doubt it will get through to them as like good little ID/Creationists cannot admit "that book they are not defending" can be in material error.

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   This is all the OT has to say about Ur. They are from Genesis. These are also from the King James Version using the English construction and spellings of centuries ago. Note while Chaldees and Chaldeans are both used no distinction is made between them. Obviously no archaeological information was known in those days.

Genesis

11:28 And Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his nativity, in Ur of the Chaldees.

11:29 And Abram and Nahor took them wives: the name of Abram's wife was Sarai; and the name of Nahor's wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah, and the father of Iscah.

11:30 But Sarai was barren; she had no child.

11:31 And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son's son, and Sarai his daughter in law, his son Abram's wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan; and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there.

11:32 And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years: and Terah died in Haran.


15:6 And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.

15:7 And he said unto him, I am the LORD that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it.

15:8 And he said, LORD God, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it?

15:9 And he said unto him, Take me an heifer of three years old, and a she goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon.

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    From these mentions there is nothing special about Ur of the Chaldees. There is also ZERO information about either the city or the people.

    But some nerfbrains are declaring the Chaldees were mystics. To examine that assertion we look at IKings. We discover they attacked and invaded bibleland.

I Kings

24:2 And the LORD sent against him bands of the Chaldees, and bands of the Syrians, and bands of the Moabites, and bands of the children of Ammon, and sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to the word of the LORD, which he spake by his servants the prophets.

25:4 And the city was broken up, and all the men of war fled by night by the way of the gate between two walls, which is by the king's garden: (now the Chaldees were against the city round about and the king went the way toward the plain.

25:5 And the army of the Chaldees pursued after the king, and overtook him in the plains of Jericho: and all his army were scattered from him.

25:6 So they took the king, and brought him up to the king of Babylon to Riblah; and they gave judgment upon him.

25:7 And they slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and put out the eyes of Zedekiah, and bound him with fetters of brass, and carried him to Babylon.

25:8 And in the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month, which is the nineteenth year of king Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, came
Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, a servant of the king of Babylon, unto Jerusalem: 25:9 And he burnt the house of the LORD, and the king's house, and all the houses of Jerusalem, and every great man's house burnt he with fire.

25:10 And all the army of the Chaldees, that were with the captain of the guard, brake down the walls of Jerusalem round about.

    Warrior mystics anyone? Mystic warriors is already used by some video game.

    But there is no way anyone would have heard about the Chaldeans? Yet their own magic book (stupidly) claims the following.

Ezra

5:12 But after that our fathers had provoked the God of heaven unto wrath, he gave them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, the Chaldean, who destroyed this house, and carried the people away into Babylon.

    There they are, right? So where does this mystic nonsense come from?

Daniel

2:2 Then the king commanded to call the magicians, and the
astrologers, and the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans, for to shew the
king his dreams. So they came and stood before the king.

2:3 And the king said unto them, I have dreamed a dream, and my spirit was troubled to know the dream.

2:4 Then spake the Chaldeans to the king in Syriack, O king, live for ever: tell thy servants the dream, and we will shew the
interpretation.

2:5 The king answered and said to the Chaldeans, The thing is gone
from me: if ye will not make known unto me the dream, with the
interpretation thereof, ye shall be cut in pieces, and your houses
shall be made a dunghill.

5:29 Then commanded Belshazzar, and they clothed Daniel with scarlet, and put a chain of gold about his neck, and made a proclamation concerning him, that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom.

5:30 In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain.

    So we have Nebuchadnezzar king and Chaldean who order Chaldeans to explain a dream and they have, rather had, their own king. Again the mystic king is taken so we have to go with King of the Mystics.
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