Chalcedony (Hastings' Dictionary)

See Stones, Peectous. CHALDaiA, CHALDaiANS.— D^S;'; (or d>^s?3 n!<) is the usual OT designation of Chaldsa (Jer 50'» 51" 24' 25") ; the same word is seen in anifs iin (Gn 1 1^) ' Ur of the Chaldees.' The Sept. reads XaXda'iot, substituting a liquid (1) for a sibilant (i?) before a dental (d). The corresponding form in the Assyr. inscnp. ia mdt Kaldil, ' laud of Chald.-eans.' i. 'Tee Land. — The land of the Chaldaeans, in OT, usually covers what is included in the term Babylonia, not inclusive of Mesopotamia in its larger sense, but of the lower or between-rivers Babylonia. Delitzsch {Parndies, p. 128 f. ) main- tains that the Bab. name KaSdti, then Kaisil, is but the earlier designation of the ' territory of the Ktti' {da, meaning 'territory'), a people vciw held sway over middle Babylonia for some time before the 13th cent. B.C. (cf. also Del. Sprache dcr Kossder). The land of the Kaldii, for some cen- turies after B.C. 1000, was located S.E. of Babylon, reaching to Bit-Yakin and the head of the Pers. Gulf, and pos.sibly swinging round W. to the edge of the Arabian desert. In the inscr. of Ramnian- nirari in. (Kawlinson, WAI i. 35, No. 1, line 22) Kaldi covers all Babylonia in the expression Sarrdni ia mdt Kaldi, 'kings of the land of C Sargon always speaks of the rebel Merodach-baladan at Babylon as iar m/tt Kaldi, ' king of the land of Kalrlu,' or hir nuit Bit-Yakin, 'king of the land of Bit-Yakin.' So the Per.sian Gulf is mentioned IS tAmtum ia BitYnkin, interchangeably with t&mtum ia mAt Kaldi, indicating that the Pers. Gulf was the sea of the Chaldiea of that day. Sennacherib (Kawlinson, WAI i. 37, line 37) draws a line between the Arabians and Arama?a.ns on the one hand, and the amrlu Kaldii, ' the people of the Chaldaeans,' on the other. In the time of the de- ilme of Assyria and the rise of New Babylonia the term Kaldii included N. and S. Babylonia and the territory occupied by certain foreira tribes and jieoides adjacent to them, who were later included in the name as used by the prophet-priest Ezekiel (23^). The later Chalda?a was about 400 miles long N.E. and S. W. by an average of 100 miles in width. The derivation of the word is somewhat doubtful, though it may be related to the name of a nephew of Abraham, Chesed (is':), of which it is a plural, in Gn 22, . It is also the same in root-form as the Assyr. kasadii, 'to conquer.' ii. The People.— The origia of the Chaldieana is enveloped in the mists of antiquity. Whence and when they migrated into lower Babylonia is also an unsolved riddle. Winckler {Gesch. Bab. und Assyr. p. 99 f.) finds the first hint of such a people in the ' dynasty of the coast-land ' Imeer- landes], in the person of Ea-mukSn-Sumi, king of KarduniaS, where the latter's territory is distin- guished from the ' coast-land,' at about the middle of the 10th cent. B.C. It is also thought that the names of the kings of this dynasty are Kassite, thus sustaining a conjecture (ci. Del. as above) that the Kossaians, the KasdU, were the pioneers of the ChaldEeans in Babylonia. If these conjectures are true, then we find already in this period a mixed population in the lowlands, reaching as far as the Pers. Gulf. But the character of the Chald£eans, as we know them afterwards, is strongly Semitic. They pushed north from the Pers. Gulf against Babylon, and for centuries contended with Assyria for its possession. They were in early times nomads and agriculturists, despising city life. But their contact with the more advanced civilisa- tion of lower Babylonia led them to respect and to foster centres for self-protection. Soon this industrious, thrifty people built and fortified cities, and extended their boundaries to the north against the older and more cultured capitals. In the second half of the 8th cent. B.C. we find north of Babylon the ' kingdom ' of Bit-Dakkuri ; and Sargon, as well as his successors on the throne of Assyria, had their hands full in holding at bay this vigorous people. The Chaldiean kings who forced their way to the throne of Babylon were probably heads of difl'erent cities, states, or tribes of that people. Merodach-baladan, son of Baladaa, was king of Bit-Yakin, Ukln-zir of Bit-Amukkani, and Suzub, a Chaldaean, from some other place or tribe. iii. The Language. — The language of the Chal- d;eans was the Bab. cuneiform, almost identical grammatically and lexically with the Assyrian. The term ' Chaldee' as applied to certain chapters of Dn and Ezr is incorrect, and should not be so employed. The correct term is Aramaic. iv. The Wise Men.— In Dn (1* and often) the term ' Ch-.tldjeans' is generally used in the sense of astrologers, astronomers. The same sense is seen in classaicl wTiters (as Strabo, Diodorus). Schrader (CUT ii. 125) says, 'The signification "wise men," that we meet with in the Bk of Dn, is foreign U Assyrio-Bab. usage, and did not arise till after the fall of the Bab. empire.' Delitzsch (Calwer Bibel- lexicon, p. 127') regards this usage as built upon the fact that Bab.-Chalda-a had been the home and the chief seat of astrological and astronomical knowledge from early ages. The attempted identi- fication of the peoples m the region of the Black Sea (mentioned by Xenophon as Chaldaans) with those in lower Mesopotamia has proved a failure. See Bahvlonia. LiTKKATURB.— Delattre. Let Chald. jutqud la /and. de ermp, dt A'el/uch. I8S9 ; Winckler, Unlersuch. i. altonent. Get. 1889, 47 ff. ; — Get. Bab. und At. 1892, 111 fl. ; Tiele, Bai.-At. Oet. 1S88, 85, 207, 211, 28611., 422; on Chald»an leaming:, Meyer, E., (Jet. det AUerthumt, 1884, vol. i. p. 186 f. ; Honimel, (ift. Bab. und At. 1886. pp. 386 ff., 404 (!. Jra M. PRICK. CHALDEE VERSIONS.- See Taroums CHALK-STONES CHAMPAIGN 369