Chaldaea, Chaldaeans
Chaldaea, Chaldaeans
CHALDA, CHALDANS.The Heb. Kasdim is generaliy rendered Chaldees (Gen 11:28), and in Jer 50:10; Jer 51:24; Jer 24:5; Jer 25:12, and often, is used for Babylonian. The word is derived from the Bab. [Note: Babylonian.] name Kald 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 Aramans, independent and aggressive. In the time of Babylonian weakness they pushed into the country, and Merodach-baladan was a Chaldan usurper. Nabopolassar was also a Chaldan, and, from his time, Chalda meant Babylonia. The Chaldans 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 Chaldan (Dan 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.