The First World Emperor Nimrod

By James Donahue

Much has been written about Nimrod although what we know is mostly drawn from few verses in the ancient and mythical Book of Genesis.

A great grandson of Noah, Nimrod was the son of Cush, who in turn was the firstborn son of Ham.

From Genesis 10:8-11: "And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lord. And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. Out of that land went forth Ashur, and builded Nineveh, and the city Rehoboth, and Calah: the same is a great city."

If the story has credibility, Nimrod is credited with founding the kingdom of Babel, and undoubtedly founding the great Cities of Babel and possibly Nineveh.

Historian Dudley F. Cates in his book The Rise and Fall of Nimrod, suggests that the first recorded king of Mesopotamia, Etana of Kish, may have been the one referred to as the Biblical Nimrod.

Cates writes that after the Great Flood, various city-states rose in Mesopotamia until about 2800 BC, when they were united under the rule of Etana. Of course they were united by force, or conquered, thus allowing Etana to establish the world's first post-deluge empire.

"After founding a southern (Sumerian) empire in Babel, Erech, Akkad and Calneh, he invaded Assyria and built Nineveh, Rehoboth-Ir, Calah and Resen. He then unified the people in numerous construction projects, the most prominent of which was the construction of the Tower of Babel," Cates wrote.

Looking back to the Genesis story we again notice in Verse 11: "Out of that land went forth Ashur, and builded Nineveh, and the city Rehovoth, and Calah. . . "

The verse reads as if Ashur was a person. My first thought was that Ashur was a son or brother of Nimrod. But there is no record of such a person existing in this family. Ashur is the name of the first great city in ancient Assyria, now Iraq. Located on the busy Tigris River Ashur served as the capital of the Assyrian Empire, and a center for religious worship. The name of the Assyrian God was Ashur.

Thus the statement that Ashur went forth and built Nineveh, Rehoboth and Calah was probably a reference to a growing empire centered by the capital City of Ashur.

There is a sense that in the beginning, King Etana was the ruler of all of this area now referred to by historians as the Golden Crescent of Civilization. The Biblical statement that Nimrod was a great hunter seems to be a description of his aggressive nature, a leader of a mighty army that overpowered small states and turned them into an empire under his rule.

Cates refers to yet another ancient book that may also speak of Nimrod by yet a third name; Ninus. History records the full name of this emperor; Tukulti-Ninurta I.

Drawing from rom Justin's Histori Romani Scriptorium Cates finds: "Ninus strengthened the greatness of his acquired dominion by continued possession. Having subdued, therefore, his neighbors, when, by an accession of forces, being still further strengthened, he went forth against other tribes, and every new victory paved the way for another, he subdued all the peoples of the east."

Cates concludes that if the Bible verse is correct, and Nimrod was the builder of Nineveh, then Ninus and Nimrod are the same person. He notes that the word Nineveh means "the habitation of Ninus."

There is much more to tell about this story. Nimrod was married to Queen Semiramis. She played an important role in the establishment of the existing false religious systems because she was worshipped as the mother of the gods. After the death of Nimrod she bore a son, Tammuz, whom she claimed was supernaturally conceived. She declared the boy to be Nimrod reborn and that he was back as "a savior" to the world.

In effect, Semiramis appears to have created the religious myth of “immaculate conception” by declaring herself the mother of a risen savior. In reality she was covering up the fact that she was the mother of a bastard child. It was such a wonderful story that it has survived via Christianity to this very day.