CHALDEA. — Heb.: כַּשְׂדִּים, *’eres Kaśdîm*; LXX: Χαλδαῖοι, *Chaldaîoi*; Vulg.: *Chaldei* and *terra Chaldaeorum*; in cuneiform texts: *Kasdu* and later *Koldu*.
Geographically, Chaldea denotes that part of Mesopotamia (cf. V. MESOPOTAMIA) lying between Babylonia (cf. V. BABILONIA) to the north and the Persian Gulf to the south; inscriptions often restrict this area, since the shores of the Persian Gulf were known by the special name *Bit-Jakin*. Later, c. the twelfth century B.C., the name “Chaldea” embraced the whole Babylonian region.
The Bible likewise shows uncertainty about its precise boundaries. Genesis 11:28, 31 seems to use the term in the narrower sense, for several petty states with non-Semitic populations still existed. The other biblical books generally equate “Chaldea” with “Babylonia.”
Greek writers commonly confuse the names Chaldea, Babylonia, and even Assyria. The political and religious history and the “Chaldean” references in Scripture are those of Babylonia and Assyria (cf. V. ASSIRI). It should be noted that Ur of the Chaldees is the ancestral home of Abraham (cf. V. ABRAMO).
The ethnic term “Chaldeans” designates:
1. A Semitic-Aramaean stock that entered southern Babylonia c. 2000 B.C. and advanced northward, coming into contact—peaceful and warlike—with the Assyrian people, whom, aided by the Medes (cf. V. MEDI), it overthrew in 612 B.C.
2. In the Book of Daniel (2:2; 4:10; 3:8, 48; 4:4; 5–7) the word takes on a special sense: “scientists, astronomers, and astrologers.” The same usage appears in Greek and Roman authors. In Daniel, however, the term still refers to the Aramaean race (cf. 1:4; 5:30; 9:1).
3. The same word is used to denote the Chaldean Christians (cf. V. CALDEI).
The “Chaldean cycle” is the eighteen-year period of lunar eclipses discovered by Babylonian-Chaldean astronomers. “Chaldean language” was, until the last half-century, the name given to Aramaic (cf. V. ARAMAICO). The designation arose from Daniel 2:4, where the Chaldeans’ discourse is rendered in Aramaic. For another sense cf. V. URARTU.