114 HORMUZD RASSAM, ESQ., 
In writing on the antiquity of the Jews, Josephus mentions, 
on the authority of Nicholas of Damascus, that Abraham 
came from the land of the Chaldeans above Babylon,* but in 
the Talmud we are told that he and his family “ went forth 
from Ur Chaldee, from the city of Babel.” 
There is another remarkable proof that Abraham and his 
kindred were in nationality Arameans, for not only Bethuel 
and Laban were called Arameans,f but even Jacob was so 
styled by Moses, on the occasion of his command to the 
Israelites when they were to offer “the first of all the fruit” 
of the earth to the Lord. His instructions were thus: “and 
thou shalt speak and say before the Lord thy God, an Y38 
Aramee ready to perish was my father, and he went down 
into Egypt, and sojourned there with a few, and became 
there a nation, great, mighty, and populous.”$ 
There is no doubt that the Chaldeans and Arameans at 
one time or another belonged to the same race, but through 
their dispersion and amalgamation with other nations, they 
inherited other tribal distinctions. I take the Arameans to 
have been like the Anglo-Saxon race of the present day, 
who are spread all over the world, and go by the name of 
Americans, Canadians, Australians, &c., and if we take into 
consideration the disadvantages the primitive nations laboured 
under when they were devoid of the art of printing and general 
culture of our day, it is most astonishing that those ancient 
people have handed down to us, even in a limited degree, 
a part of their history, and not an inconsiderable portion of 
their literature and language. It is worthy of note that the 
present Chaldeans of the rural districts still retain the primitive 
Aramean language, akin to the Chaldee of Ezra and part of 
Daniel, though from long association with the Medes, Persians, 
and Arabs, their language has been in some measure cor- 
rupted, as is the case with other languages. 
With reference to the tradition that the Ur of the Chaldees 
was at Orfa (the ancient Edessa) there are many arguments 
in its favour, the greatest of which is the position it holds in 
the country (known in former days as Padan-Aram), and it 
is well worthy to be the capital of that grain-growing 
district. ; 
* Josephus, Antiquity of the Jews, L., 7. 
+ Gen. xxv., 20; xxviii., 5; and xxxi, 20 and 24. 
+ Deut. xxvi., 5. The dubious rendering of Aram into Syria and Aramaic 
into Syriac by the Greeks, now adopted into the European languages, has 
created the confusion existing as to the meaning of this strange appellation. 
