Enciclopedia Cattolica Vol. XI, 1953 Sacred Scripture Biblical geography

Sennaar

SENNAAR

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Also known as: Shin'ar, Shinar; Italian: Senaar

SENNAAR (Heb. Šin'ār). - A geographical term that in certain biblical passages means the land of Babylonia, e.g., Gen. 10:10 ff. (even in opposition to Assyria); ibid. 11:1-9 (Tower of Babel [v.]); Dan. 1:2; Zech. 5:11. In others, however, it would seem to indicate Mesopotamia in a more general sense, as in Josh. 7:21, while in Gen. 14:1, 9 and Isa. 11:11 it could also indicate another Šin'ār north of Syria.

The precise meaning of the word is highly disputed and will remain so until all the texts of Mari (v.) have been published. The word would correspond to the Akkadian Šanhar, which occurs in three Assyrian texts (letters of el-'Amārnah) and three Hittite texts from Boğazköj, found thus far, as well as to the Egyptian Šugr (Sangar), in thirteen places (Gardiner). In Egyptian the word indicates a very important country. Moreover, an Egyptian term for Babylonia is lacking. Therefore Gardiner, in the most exhaustive study of the subject, thinks that it means, as preferentially in the Bible, the land of Babylonia. Albright, however, 24 years earlier located it in the country of Pana, in the Middle Euphrates, around Terqa. Gelb thinks that it is around Kilis, near Aleppo. Fr. R. de Vaux recently revives the opinion that originally it means the region around Mount Šinğar, west of Mosul (Greek Singara). The identification with "Sumer" is abandoned.

Bibliography4 works

BIBL.: IV. F. Albright, Shine'ar-Šanhar, in Am. journ. of sem. lang., 40 (1923 ff.), pp. 125-33; I. J. Gelb, Shanhar, ibid., 53 (1936 ff.), p. 253 ff.; A. H. Gardiner, Ancient Egypt, onomastica, I, Oxford 1947, pp. 209-12 (the best treatment of the subject, with the preceding bibliography); R. de Vaux, in Rev. bibl., 55 (1948), p. 339 ff.

Pietro Neiber

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By Pietro Nober

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Translated from the Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. XI (1953), coll. 311–312.

More by Pietro Nober: Sennacherib · Sellin, Ernst · Serarius, Nicolaus · Sefarad · Schürer, Emil Johann

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Chicago

Nober, Pietro. “Sennaar (Ebr. ŠIn'ĀR).” In Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. XI, coll. 311–312. Città del Vaticano: Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1953. https://azioneromana.com/article/sennaar-ebr-sin-ar.

MLA

Nober, Pietro. “Sennaar (Ebr. ŠIn'ĀR).” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. XI, Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1953, coll. 311–312. Azione Romana, https://azioneromana.com/article/sennaar-ebr-sin-ar.

BibTeX

@incollection{ec11_sennaar_ebr_sin_ar,
  author    = {Nober, Pietro},
  title     = {Sennaar (Ebr. ŠIn'ĀR)},
  booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica},
  volume    = {XI},
  pages     = {311--312},
  note      = {Cited by column},
  publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico},
  address   = {Città del Vaticano},
  year      = {1953},
  url       = {https://azioneromana.com/article/sennaar-ebr-sin-ar}
}

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