𝐂𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐳𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐖𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐍𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐝

 

𝐂𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐳𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐖𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐍𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐝

𝟏. 𝐌𝐞𝐬𝐨𝐩𝐨𝐭𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐚 𝐭𝐨 𝐈𝐫𝐚𝐪

Historical Background: Mesopotamia, often referred to as the "Cradle of Civilization," is located between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, in what is now modern-day Iraq. It was home to some of the earliest human civilizations, including the Sumerians, Akkadians, Babylonians, and Assyrians. The region was known for the development of writing, urbanization, and complex societies. Over time, the land became part of various empires, such as the Persian Empire and later the Islamic Caliphates. The name "Iraq" began to be used in the 6th century during the Sassanid Empire, and it became the official name of the modern state after the fall of the Ottoman Empire in the early 20th century.

• Genesis 35:9
  Then God appeared to Jacob again, when he came from Padan Aram, and blessed him.
   
• Genesis 24:10
  Then the servant took ten of his master’s camels and departed, for all his master’s goods were in his hand. And he arose and went to Mesopotamia, to the city of Nahor.
   
• Genesis 25:20
  Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah as wife, the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Padan Aram, the sister of Laban the Syrian.
   
• Genesis 28:2
  Arise, go to Padan Aram, to the house of Bethuel your mother's father; and take yourself a wife from there of the daughters of Laban your mother's brother.
   
• Genesis 28:5-7
  So Isaac sent Jacob away, and he went to Padan Aram, to Laban the son of Bethuel the Syrian, the brother of Rebekah, the mother of Jacob and Esau. Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Padan Aram to take himself a wife from there, and that as he blessed him he gave him a charge, saying, 'You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan,' and that Jacob had obeyed his father and his mother and had gone to Padan Aram.
   
• Genesis 31:17
  Then Jacob rose and set his sons and his wives on camels.
   
• Genesis 33:18
  Then Jacob came safely to the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, when he came from Padan Aram; and he pitched his tent before the city.
   
• Genesis 35:26
  and the sons of Zilpah, Leah’s maidservant, were Gad and Asher. These were the sons of Jacob who were born to him in Padan Aram.
   
• Genesis 46:15
  These were the sons of Leah, whom she bore to Jacob in Padan Aram, with his daughter Dinah. All the persons, his sons and his daughters, were thirty-three.
   
• Genesis 48:7
  But as for me, when I came from Padan, Rachel died beside me in the land of Canaan on the way, when there was but a little distance to go to Ephrath; and I buried her there on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem).”
   
• Deuteronomy 23:4
  because they did not meet you with bread and water on the road when you came out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you.
   
• Joshua 24:14-15
  “Now therefore, fear the LORD, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River and in Egypt. Serve the LORD! And if it seems evil to you to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”
   
• Judges 3:8
  Therefore the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel, and He sold them into the hand of Cushan-Rishathaim king of Mesopotamia; and the children of Israel served Cushan-Rishathaim eight years.
   
• Judges 3:10
  The Spirit of the LORD came upon him, and he judged Israel. He went out to war, and the LORD delivered Cushan-Rishathaim king of Mesopotamia into his hand; and his hand prevailed over Cushan-Rishathaim.
   
• 2 Kings 19:12
  Have the gods of the nations delivered those whom my fathers have destroyed, Gozan and Haran and Rezeph, and the people of Eden who were in Telassar?
   
• 1 Chronicles 19:6
  When the people of Ammon saw that they had made themselves repulsive to David, Hanun and the people of Ammon sent a thousand talents of silver to hire for themselves chariots and horsemen from Mesopotamia, from Syrian Maacah, and from Zobah.
   
• Psalm 60:1
  To the Chief Musician. Set to “Lily of the Testimony.” A Michtam of David. For teaching. When he fought against Mesopotamia and Syria of Zobah, and Joab returned and killed twelve thousand Edomites in the Valley of Salt. O God, You have cast us off;
  You have broken us down;
  You have been displeased;
  Oh, restore us again!
  
   
• Isaiah 37:12
  Have the gods of the nations delivered those whom my fathers have destroyed, Gozan and Haran and Rezeph, and the people of Eden who were in Telassar?
   
• Ezekiel 27:16
  Syria was your merchant because of the abundance of goods you made. They gave you for your wares emeralds, purple, embroidery, fine linen, corals, and rubies.
   
• Ezekiel 27:23
  Haran, Canneh, Eden, the merchants of Sheba, Assyria, and Chilmad were your merchants.
   
• Hosea 12:12
  Jacob fled to the country of Syria;
  Israel served for a spouse,
  And for a wife he tended sheep.
  
   
• Acts 2:9
  Parthians and Medes and Elamites, those dwelling in Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia,
   
• Acts 7:2
  And he said, "Brethren and fathers, listen: The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran,

𝟐. 𝐈𝐧𝐝𝐮𝐬 𝐕𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐲 𝐭𝐨 𝐏𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧

Historical Background: The Indus Valley Civilization was one of the world's earliest urban cultures, flourishing around 2600-1900 BCE in what is today Pakistan and northwest India. Known for its advanced cities like Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa, the civilization developed early forms of writing, architecture, and social organization. After the decline of the Indus Valley Civilization, the region saw a series of empires and invasions, including the Maurya and Gupta Empires, and later the Islamic Caliphates. In 1947, following the end of British rule in India, the region became the independent state of Pakistan, a name that reflects the Islamic identity of the new nation.

According to Genesis 10, Nimrod was a Nilote (son of Kush) who built his kingdom in Mesopotamia. He is one of "the mighty men of old" described in Genesis 6. These earliest kingdom builders constructed cities, temples, and fortified high places. They controlled commerce on the major water systems of the ancient world. They migrated out of the Upper Nile Valley in different directions, and they were served by a prestigious caste of priests who later became known as Hebrew.

Akkad was one of the principal cities of Nimrod's kingdom. The language of his territory was Akkadian, the oldest known Semitic language. The Indian scholar, Malati J. Shendge, concluded that the language of the Harappans of the Indus Valley was Akkadian.

Ajay Pratap Singh has written, "Comparisons of Akkadian and Sanskrit words yielded at least 400 words in both languages with comparable phonetic and semantic similarities. Thus Sanskrit has, in fact, descended from Akkadian."

The Hebrew yasuah and the Sanskrit words asvah, asuah or yasuah, refer to salvation.

The Semitic words svam or samyim and the Sanskrit svah refer to the sky or heavens and resemble the Proto-Dravidian word van, meaning heaven.

The Semitic word wadi and the Sanskrit nadi mean river.

The Hebrew root thr means to be pure. It probably corresponds to the Tamil word tiru, meaning holy, and to the proto-Dravidian tor, meaning blood.

The Hebrew word for mother is iya and corresponds to the Dravidian ka ayi, meaning mother.

There also is a correspondence between the names Ram/Rama, Kush/Kusha, Karnak/Karnataka, and Hari/Hori which are found in Vedic and Hebrew texts. Other places names include Orisha in Nigeria and Orissa in India.

In the Omotic languages of Ethiopia the word ganga is related to words meaning river. This likely is the source of the name of the Ganges River. Other words like sanga (“having limbs”) suggest the meaning of the intervocalic "ng" which in Sanskrit appears in words associated with tributaries, extensions, off-shoots, or limbs. 

The word "Har-appa" is comprised of two words. One is Nilotic and the other is Dravidian. HR refers to the Most High God, symbolized by the Sun. "Appa" means father in Dravidian. Harappa means the Most High God is Father. Evidently, the Horite Hebrew priests spread their religion from ancient Kush to Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley. 

Harappan artifacts are similar to those of the ancient Nile. The Indian archaeologist, B. B. Lal contends that the Dravidian artifacts reflect the pottery and structures of the Upper Nile Valley. Lal writes: "At Timos the Indian team dug up several megalithic sites of ancient Nubians which bear an uncanny resemblance to the cemeteries of early Dravidians which are found all over Western India from Kathiawar to Cape Comorin. The intriguing similarity extends from the subterranean structure found near them. Even the earthenware ring-stands used by the Dravidians and Nubians to hold pots were identical." 

Various sciences confirm an early Nile-Indus connection: DNA studies, linguistics, archaeology, and anthropology. Michael Petraglia (University of Cambridge) and his team found stone tools at Jwalapuram in Andhra Pradesh in southern India. These were above and below a thick layer of ash from the Toba super eruption (74,000 years ago). Petraglia noted that the tools found in southern India are like those from the African Middle Stone Age about 100,000 years ago. He states, “Whoever was living in India was doing things identical to modern humans living in Africa.”

DNA research has shown that there have been two major migrations into India in the last 10,000 years. One originated from the Zagros region in south-western Iran between 7,000 and 3,000 B.C. The Zagrosian herders mixed with the earlier inhabitants of the subcontinent, descendants of the Out of Africa migrants who had reached India around 65,000 years ago. Together, they went on to create the Harappan civilization.

The German archaeologists Friedrichs and Muller identified some of the skulls of Mohenjo-Daro as "Hamitic." The term "Nilotic" would be more accurate.

Paleontologists B.K. Chatterjee and G.D. Kumer reported in "Comparative Study and Racial Analysis of the Skeletal Remains of the Indus Valley Civilization" that the 18 Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa skulls that they examined are "similar to skulls from Nubia during the third to second Millennium B.C." (See Wayne Chandler: "The Jewel in the Lotus: The Ethiopian Presence in the Indus Valley Civilization" in African Presence in Early Asia, Ivan Van Sertima et. a1. eds., 1985 p. 87)

Some old Hindu fire altars were constructed in the shape of a falcon. The falcon was the totem of Horus (HR), the son of the High God. This explains why the Shulba Sutras state that "he who desires heaven is to construct a fire-altar in the form of a falcon."

B. B. Lal noted that originally there were seven fire altars at Kalibangan. The number seven represented fullness and heavenly blessing among the Harappans as it did for the biblical Hebrew. In Jewish weddings the Sheva Brachot (seven marriage blessings) are recited under the huppah and the wedding feast lasts 7 days. Among the Agharias of Orissa, India, the wedding begins with the bride’s father delivering a bracelet and seven small earthen bowls to the bride. The bride is seated in the open, and seven women hold the bowls over her head one above the other. Water is poured from one bowl into the other, each being filled in turn and the whole finally falling over the bride's head. The bowls of water represent the blessings from above by which the High God overcame the demonic forces that inhibited life on earth by withholding water. The bride is then bathed and carried in a basket seven times round the marriage-post, after which she is seated in a chair and seven women place their heads together round her while a male relative winds a thread seven times round the heads of the women.

It appears that the early Hebrew ruler-priests spread the Proto-Gospel concerning God Father and God Son. In the Axial Age, their faith degraded into polytheism and the proliferation of numerous world religions, including Hinduism and Judaism.

Although we can’t read the writing that’s been found in the ruins in the Indus Valley, we can read other ancient writings. Hindu writings from India describe the Indus Valley cities being conquered in 1500 BC. We don’t know that that’s true. We do believe that the Indus Valley civilization was a peaceful one and didn’t have an army.

That’s before the time of Moses, between Genesis and Exodus in the Bible. The Indus Valley cities were at their height around the time of Abraham, around 2000 BC.

It’s also possible that natural disasters hurt the area through flooding, earthquakes, or droughts. There could have been a plague of a disease. That could have weakened them and opened them up to conquerors. Could they have suffered from the same famine as in the story of Joseph? Maybe, we don’t know.

Whatever happened, from the ruins, archaeologists can see that houses crumbled and drains were blocked up. The Great Bath was rebuilt over crumbled ruins, but in other places just piles of bricks remain, as if people had taken many of the bricks with them when they left.

All together the civilization lasted more than one thousand years. It’s evidence is still seen in India with links to Hinduism, the main religion of India, and in the jewelry still worn in India. Farmers still lay their crops in the same way as it is believed they did in the ancient Indus Valley with slopes of crops.

Their system of governing must have worked, as their cities were very successful for over 500 years. Without an army, they had learned to live in peace with each other instead of in competition with each other.

One more legacy of the ancient Indus Valley is the swastika. Now a symbol of hate, it’s origins seem to be in the Indus Valley as a sign of rebirth, a kind of “good luck charm.”

3. 𝐏𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐢𝐚 𝐭𝐨 𝐈𝐫𝐚𝐧

Historical Background: Persia, known for its rich history of empires such as the Achaemenid, Parthian, and Sassanid, was one of the most significant ancient civilizations, contributing greatly to art, science, and governance. The name "Persia" was used by Westerners for centuries, derived from "Pars," a region of the empire. However, the local name for the country has always been "Iran," meaning "Land of the Aryans." In 1935, Reza Shah requested that the international community refer to the country as Iran, aligning the name with what its inhabitants had called it for millennia.

𝟑. 𝐑𝐨𝐦a𝐧 𝐄𝐦𝐩𝐢𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐈𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐲

Historical Background: The Roman Empire, which at its height in 117 AD encompassed much of Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East, was one of the most powerful empires in history. The city of Rome was the heart of this empire, which left a lasting legacy on law, government, architecture, and language. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 AD, the region fragmented into various kingdoms and states. The modern nation-state of Italy was unified in the 19th century, but the Roman legacy continues to be a significant part of its cultural heritage.