The Origin of Freemasonry and Knights Templar ... - Lodge Prudentia

SUPPLEMENTAL ENCYCLOPAEDIAChaldeaA country in Asia, the capital of which, in itswidest extent, was Babylon. It was originally of smallextent, but the empire being afterwards very much enlarged,the name is generallytaken in a more extensivesense, and includes Babylonia. The Chaldeans were originallya warlike people, who at first inhabited the KoordishMountains north of Assyria and Mesopotamia. As theAssyrian monarchs extended their conquests toward thenorth and west, the Chaldeans also came under their dominion;and this rough and energetic people appear tohave assumed, under the sway of their conquerors, a newcharacter, and to have been transformed from a rude hordeinto a civilized people. A very vivid and graphic descriptionof the Chaldean warriors isgiven by the prophet Habakkuk,who probably lived about that time when they firstmade incursions into Palestine or the adjacent regions(Hab. i. 6-1 1 ). Of the date of their location in Babylonianothingis now known. The Babylonian Empire was foundedby Nimrod 2,000 years before Christ, and then embracedthe cities of Babel, Erech, Accad and Calneh. The mostancient name of the country is Shinar; afterwards Babel,Babylon and Babylonia became its common appellation,with which, at a later period, Chaldea, or the land of theChaldeans, was used as synonymous,after this peoplehadgot the whole into their possession. In the reign of KingHezekiah, 713 B. C., a king of Babylon is mentioned, thefirst of whom we read after Nimrod and Amraphel.Aboutone hundred years later we find the Chaldeans in possessionof the kingdom of Babylon. The first sovereign in thenew line appearing in history was Nabopolassar. His sonNebuchadnezzar invaded Palestine and he was succeeded byhis son Evil-Merodach. After him came, in quick succession,Neriglissar, Laborosoarchod, and Nabonadius or Belshazzar,under whom this empire was absorbed in the Medo-Persian. The Babylonians were the descendants of Shem.173