Who were the Chaldeans?

Shlama Kulkhon Akhay,

From the Encyclopedia Brittanica:

Aramaean

one of a confederacy of tribes that spoke a North Semitic language (Aramaic) and, between the 11th and 8th century BC, occupied Aram, a large region in northern Syria. In the same period some of these tribes seized large tracts of Mesopotamia.

In the Old Testament the Aramaeans are represented as being closely akin to the Hebrews and living in northern Syria around Harran from about the 16th century BC. The Aramaeans are also mentioned often in Assyrian records as freebooters. The first mention of the Aramaeans occurs in inscriptions of the Assyrian king Tiglath-pileser I (1115-1077). By the end of the 11th century BC, the Aramaeans had formed the state of Bit-Adini on both sides of the Euphrates River below Carchemish and held areas in Anatolia and northern Syria and in the Anti-Lebanon area, including Damascus. About 1030 BC a coalition of the southern Aramaeans, led by Hadadezer, king of Zobah, in league with the Ammonites, Edomites, and the Aramaeans of Mesopotamia, attacked Israel but was defeated by King David.

To the east, however, the Aramaean tribes spread into Babylonia, where an Aramaean usurper was crowned king of Babylon under the name of Adad-apal-iddin. By the 9th century the whole area from Babylon to the Mediterranean coast was in the hands of the Aramaean tribes known collectively as Kaldu (or Kashdu)--the biblical Chaldeans.

Abraham was a "Chaldean" (Gen. 11:28, 11:31, 15:7, Ne. 9:7)

The Chaldeans were an Aramean tribe who spoke Aramaic, and settled around Ur, Lachish and other areas of Beth Nahrin, and who took eventually took over Babylon under Nebuchadnezzar.

How else can one read Deut. 26:5 and Acts 7:2-4?

Fk^rwbw 0ml4

In reply to message #0
 

Aren't they Roman Catholic Assyrians?

In reply to message #1
 
Shlama Akhi Yaqub,

Yes, unfortunately today's modern "Chaldeans" have taken that name on as a result of their Church being called that name by Pope Julius when they converted to Roman Catholicism.

Some choose to call themselves "Catholic Assyrians", but the majority have chosen to elevate the Church name to an ethnic designation to separate themselves from the "Assyrian Nestorians."

Fk^rwbw 0ml4

In reply to message #3
 
From the Catholic Encyclopedia at https://www.newadvent.org:

Chaldean Christians

The name of former Nestorians now reunited with the Roman Church. Ethnologically they are divided into two groups (Turco-Persian and Indian), which must be treated apart, since in their vicissitudes one group differs considerably from the other. The first group is usually known as Chaldeans, the second as Christians of St. Thomas (also called the Syro-Malabar Church).

I. NAME AND TERRITORY OF CHALDEANS

Strictly, the name of Chaldeans is no longer correct; in Chaldea proper, apart from Baghdad, there are now very few adherents of this rite, most of the Chaldean population being found in the cities of Kerkuk, Arbil, and Mosul, in the heart of the Tigris valley, in the valley of the Zab, in the mountains of Kurdistan. It is in the former ecclesiastical province of Ator (Assyria) that are now found the most flourishing of the Catholic Chaldean communities.

Fk^rwbw 0ml4

In reply to message #0
 

Whether or not he was a "Chaldean" certainly he
left NUHRA of the Chaldees... or was that UR of the Chaldees...

Something like that.

Trimm