Seder Olam: C03- First cities
- Albert Benhamou
- Mar 3
- 3 min read
Updated: Mar 20
BIBLICAL CHRONOLOGY
Generation 03: Hebrew years 240 to 360 (3520-3400 BCE)
Introduction
The population issued from Cain continues to expand in the Fertile Crescent and lived alongside the first humans of Genesis 1 whom they dominated, as more intelligent than these earlier species. And their first dominion was Sumer.
Eridu
Enosh probably did not settle near his direct parents, Adam and Seth, who feared the real God, but was rather attracted by a more debauched life near his uncle Cain and his descendance, busy building cities with scores of early humans they could rule upon. In fact, Enosh honored his uncle in Hebrew year 325 by naming his new-born son, Kenan (קינן), after his uncle Cain (קין).
On Cain’s side, Enoch’s successor was Irad (עירד), a name derived from the Hebrew root "Ir" (עיר) which means city. The Biblical text states that the descendants of Cain were cities builders and named these cities after their sons (Genesis 4:17). So, we can assume that it was Irad who gave his name to the ancient city of Eridu, in southern Mesopotamia. Some of the sons of Enosh probably returned to the other side of the Fertile Crescent, in the land of their origin, and established their own city in the Negev region, south of Israel. The city was named Arad (ערד), probably to honor their mentor Irad (עירד). In the ancient Land of Israel, Arad was the first city having been planned according to an urban design, so-called the Aradian House: all the houses were similar in shape and arranged in a way to create streets converging to a single place where rain waters were collected in a deep reservoir, made of the two types of rocks found in this region: chalky limestone and flint.
The rulers of the city states of Sumer had to create myths around fear to dominate their people, and they forbade to mention the name of the real and unique God. For this goal, they assumed the role of god-rulers and new pantheons were invented. Idolatry started to spread in the times of Enosh and Enoch, as mentioned in the Biblical text. A parallel exists with the historical list of god-rulers kings of Sumer:
When kingship from heaven was lowered, the kingship was in Eridu.
In Eridug, Alulim became king; he ruled for 28800 years. (Sumerian king list)
We can notice from this historical document that the name Alulim is very close to the biblical name Elohim, used to name God during the Creation. This perfectly illustrated the Biblical narrative that says that, in the time of Enosh, men began to call upon the name of the Lord (Genesis 4:26). These men wanted to be seen as gods, emulating the real only God. They usurped the name of God for their own designs to rule over large number of people. According to the Sumerian narrative, this Alulim is assumed to have founded Eridu/Eridug and to have reigned around 3500-3000 BCE. This is very similar to the timeline of the Bible in the times of Irad, Cain’s grandson.
Invention of Writing
Archaeology shows that writing was invented in Sumer, about 3500 BCE (Biblical Year 260). The reason is that the Sumerian kings list is the oldest written document, and it marks the start of History meaning that mankind started to record people and deeds. It is likely that the reason to start writing records was to help these god-rulers better control over their people, because it provided them a divine legitimacy. Without the invention of writing, their enterprise would have been more limited.
At the time, the first writing was based on pictograms, until it evolved into cuneiform writing which had been used for over 3000 years. Cuneiform was later replaced by alphabets (as a combination of letters to form words and not symbols to represent concepts) as close as we know them today.
To return to the list of chronological generations from Seder Olam Revisited, click here.
Albert Benhamou
Private Tour Guide in Israel
Adar 5785 - March 2025