Our Chaldean History

The Chaldeans are the descendants of the ancient inhabitants of Mesopotamia - today's Iraq - mainly the Babylonians and the Assyrians. Their mother tongue is Chaldean - also called Syriac, the most widely used dialect of the Aramaic language today. The history of the Chaldeans is the same as that of their motherland, Mesopotamia. The "Land between Two Rivers" is universally acknowledged as the "Cradle of Civilization", where Sumerians, Akkadians, Babylonians, Chaldeans and Assyrians pioneered the concept of civilization and established the basis for many major discoveries and inventions in the fields of agriculture, irrigation, mathematics, astronomy and architecture. They also excelled in literature, music, painting and sculpture. The Towers of Babylon, the Hanging Gardens (one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World), the Code of Hammurabi and the Gilgamesh Epic are all eloquent examples of a splendid civilization. The impact of Mesopotamia and its culture on the biblical heritage is also very remarkable. Scripture clearly states that Abraham, the father of all believers, was called by God from "Ur of Chaldeans" to initiate the greatest course of religious history. The most brilliant period of Mesopotamia's history is the Chaldean Period, also called Neo-Babylonian (627-539 B.C.), occurring mainly during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar. At this time the Chaldean Empire included Mesopotamia, Persia, Syria, Palestine and even Egypt. The Chaldeans were an Aramean tribe. At that time their language spread throughout the whole Middle East and became the international language of that period until the Arab Conquest. The Bible (Old Testament) was translated from Hebrew to Chaldean and, preserved to this date in the Babylonian Targumin. Gradually Aramaic became the popular language in Palestine, too. There is no doubt that Jesus Christ and his disciples spoke in a dialect of this very same language. Such was the splendor of Babylon at the time of Nebuchadnezzar that the Scripture states: "Babylon has been a golden cup in the Lord's hand that made all the earth drunken. The nations have drunken of her wine, therefore the nations are mad" (Jeremiah 51:7). In the year 539 B.C. Babylon fell to Cyrus the Persian. Since then, Mesopotamia became the target of many conquerors: Persians, Greeks (Alexander the Great), Romans, Parthians and Sasanids (Persians), Arabs, Mongolians and Ottoman Turks, until the formation of the State of Iraq in 1921.