Mesopotamia

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between two rivers
Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary


MESOPOTAMIA = Aram-naharaim (see Aram).
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909

("region between the rivers"); 700 miles long, from 20 to 250 broad; bounded N.E. by the Tigris, S.W. by the Euphrates. Its Hebrew name Aram Naharaim means "Aram between the rivers." The tribe sprung from Aram, Shem's fourth son, first colonized it. Man's first dwelling after the flood. Here was the plain of Shinar (Gen_11:2; Gen_14:1), where the Babel tower and kingdom were. Padan Aram, "plain Syria," was the N. part of the whole; the whole Syrian "highland" was Aram, in contradistinction from Canaan "the lowland." The upper Tigris valley was separated from the Mesopotamian plain by a mountain range (Masius: Strabo, 11:12, section 4).
The vast plain is intersected by the Sinjar running E. and W. Mounds mark city sites on every side. Innumerable lines of embankment indicate a network of ancient canals which diffused by irrigation fertility where now are morasses or barrenness. The N.W. part between the bend of the Euphrates and the upper Tigris is what Scripture names Mesopotamia. The Chaboras or (See HABOR , flowing from the S. side of the Sinjar range, empties itself into the Euphrates. Orfa, Abram's native city, and Haran, his resting place between Chaldaea and Palestine, are in Padan Aram (Gen_25:20; Gen_28:2). Nahor settled in Mesopotamia after quitting Ur (Gen_24:10). Naharina occurs in Egyptian inscriptions of the 18th and 19th dynasties. Bethuel, Rebekah, and Laban lived in Padan Aram. Balaam's abode was Pethor of Mesopotamia among "the mountains of the East" (Num_23:7; Num_22:5).
Chushan Rishathaim of Mesopotamia oppressed Israel in the time of the Judges (Jdg_3:8). (See CHUSHAN RISHATHAIM.) The Mesopotamians aided the Ammonites with chariots against David (1Ch_19:6; 1Ch_19:16). Assyrian inscriptions confirm Scripture in asserting that Mesopotamia was independent of Assyria until after David ("the tribes of the Nairi," stream lands, were under their several independent princes, until in 880 B.C., Jehu's time, Assyria became completely their master); also that Mesopotamians used chariots in battle, and that after David's time Mesopotamia became absorbed in Assyria. Men of Mesopotamia were among those who heard in their own tongue the wonderful works of God (Act_2:9).
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
By Andrew Robert Fausset, co-Author of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's 1888.

Mesopota'mia. (between the rivers). The entire country between the two rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates. This is a tract nearly 700 miles long and from 20 to 250 miles broad, extending in a southeasterly direction from Telek to Kurnah. The Arabian geographers term it "the Island," a name which is almost literally correct, since a few miles only intervene between the source of the Tigris and the Euphrates at Telek. But the region which bears the name of Mesopotamia, par excellence, both in Scripture and in the classical writers, is the northwestern portion of this tract, or the country between the great bend of the Euphrates, latitude, 35 degrees to 37 degrees 30', and the upper Tigris.
We first hear of Mesopotamia, in Scripture, as the country where Nahor and his family settled , after quitting Ur of the Chaldees. Gen_24:10. Here lived Bethuel and Laban, and hither, Abraham sent his servants to fetch Isaac a wife. Gen_24:38. Hither too, a century later, came Jacob on the same errand, and hence, he returned with his two wives, after an absence of twenty-one years.
After this, we have no mention of Mesopotamia till the close of the wanderings in the wilderness. Deu_23:4. About half a century later, we find, for the first and last time, Mesopotamia as the seat of a powerful monarchy. Jdg_3:1.
Finally, the children of Ammon, having provoked a war with David, "sent a thousand talents of silver to hire them chariots and horsemen out of Mesopotamia, and out of Syria-maachah, and out of Zobah." 1Ch_19:6.
According to the Assyrian inscriptions, Mesopotamia was inhabited in the early times of the empire, B.C. 1200-1100, by a vast number of petty tribes, each under its own prince, and all quite independent of one another. The Assyrian monarchs contended with these chiefs at great advantage, and by the time of Jehu, B.C. 880, had fully established their dominion over them.
On the destruction of the Assyrian empire, Mesopotamia seems to have been divided between the Medes and the Babylonians. The conquests of Cyrus brought it wholly under the Persian yoke, and thus, it continued, to the time of Alexander. Since 1516, it has formed a part of the Turkish empire. It is full of ruins and mounds of ancient cities, some of which are now throwing much light on the Scripture.
Smith's Bible Dictionary
By Dr. William Smith.Published in 1863

an extensive province of Asia, the Greek name of which denotes “between the rivers,” and on this account Strabo says, οτι κειται μεταξυ του Ευφρατου και του Τιγρος, that “it was situated between the Euphrates and the Tigris.” In Scripture this country is called Aram, and Aramea. But as Aram also signifies Syria, it is denominated Aram Naharaim, or the Syria of the rivers. This province, which inclines from the southeast to the north-west, commenced at 33 20' N. lat., and terminated near 37 30' N. lat. Toward the south it extended as far as the bend formed by the Jordan at Cunaxa, and to the wall of Semiramis which separated it from Messene. Toward the north, it comprehended part of Taurus and the Mesius, which lay between the Euphrates and the Tigris. The modern name, given by the Arabs to this part, is of the same import with the ancient appellation; they call it “isle,” or, in their language, Al- Dgezera. In this northern part is found Osrhoene, which seems to have been the same place with Anthemusir. The northern part of Mesopotamia is occupied by chains of mountains passing from north-west to south-east, in the situation of the rivers. The central parts of these mountains were called Singarae Montes. The principal rivers were Chaboras, (Al Kabour,) which commenced at Charrae, (Harran,) east of the mountains, and discharged itself into the Euphrates at Circesium (Kirkisieh;) the Mygdonius, (Hanali,) the source of which was near Nisibis, and its termination in the Chaboras. The principal towns in the eastern part along the Tigris and near it, are Nisibis, (Nisibin,) Bezabde, (Zabda,) Singora, (Sindja,) Labbana on the Tigris, (Mosul,) Hatru, (Harder,) and Apamea-Mesenes. At some distance to the south, upon the Tigris and on the borders of Mesopotamia, was the town of Antiochia, near which commenced the wall that passed from the Tigris to the Euphrates, under the name of Murus Mediae, or Semiramidis. In the western part were Edessa, called also Callin-Rhae, (Orfa,) Charrae, (Harran,) Nicephorium, (Racca,) Circesium at the mouth of the Chaboras, Anatho, (Anah,) Neharda, (Hadith Unnour,) upon the right of the Euphrates. There are several other towns of less importance. According to Strabo, this country was fertile in vines, and afforded abundance of good wine. According to Ptolemy, Mesopotamia had on the north a part of Armenia, on the west the Euphrates on the side of Syria, on the east the Tigris on the borders of Assyria, and on the south the Euphrates which joined the Tigris. Mesopotamia was a satrapy under the kings of Syria.
In the earliest accounts we have of this country, subsequent to the time of Abraham, it was subject to a king, called Cushan-Rishathaim, then perhaps the most powerful potentate of the east, and the first by whom the Israelites were made captive, which happened soon after the death of Joshua, and about B.C. 1400, Jdg_3:8. The name of this king bespeaks him a descendant of Nimrod; and it was probably of the Lower Mesopotamia only, or Babylonia, of which he was sovereign; the northern parts being in the possession of the Arameans. This is implied in the history of Abraham; who, when ordered to depart from his country, namely, Chaldea, in the southern part of Mesopotamia, removed to Charran, still in Mesopotamia, but beyond the boundary of the Chaldees, and in the territory of Aram. About four hundred years after Cushan-Rishathaim, we find the northern parts of Mesopotamia in the hands of the Syrians of Zobah; as we are told, in 2 Samuel x, that Hadarezer, king of Zobah, after his defeat by Joab, “sent and brought out the Syrians that were beyond the river” Euphrates. The whole country was afterward seized by the Assyrians; to whom it pertained till the dissolution of their empire, when it was divided between the Medes and the Babylonians. It subsequently formed a part of the Medo-Persian, second Syrian or Macedonian, and Parthian empires, as it does at the present day of the modern Persians. The southern part of Mesopotamia answers nearly to the country anciently called the land of Shinar; to which the Prophet Dan_1:2, refers, and Zec_5:11.
“On the fifth or sixth day after leaving Aleppo,” says Campbell in his Overland Journey to India, “we arrived at the city of Diarbeker, the capital of the province of that name; having passed over an extent of country of between three and four hundred miles, most of it blessed with the greatest fertility, and abounding with as rich pastures as I ever beheld, covered with numerous herds and flocks. The air was charmingly temperate in the day time, but, to my feeling, extremely cold at night. Yet notwithstanding the extreme fertility of this country, the bad administration of government, conspiring with the indolence of the inhabitants, leaves it unpeopled and uncultivated. Diarbeker Proper, called also Mesopotamia from its lying between two famous rivers, and by Moses called PADANARAM, that is, ‘the fruitful Syria,' abounds with corn, wine, oil, fruits, and all the necessaries of life. It is supposed to have been the seat of the earthly paradise; and all geographers agree that here the descendants of Noah settled immediately after the flood. To be treading that ground which Abraham trod, where Nahor the father of Rebecca lived, where holy Job breathed the pure air of piety and simplicity, and where Laban the father-in-law of Jacob resided, was to me a circumstance productive of delightful sensations. As I rode along, I have often mused upon the contemptible stratagems to which I
was reduced, in order to get through this country, for no other reason than because I was a Christian; and I could not avoid reflecting with sorrow on the melancholy effects of superstition, and regretting that this fine tract of country, which ought to be considered above all others as the universal inheritance of mankind, should now be cut off from all except a horde of senseless bigots, barbarous fanatics, and inflexible tyrants.”
Biblical and Theological Dictionary by Richard Watson
PRINTER 1849.

Originally the name ‘Mesopotamia’ was given to the fertile land around the upper reaches of the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers (Gen_24:10; Deu_23:4; Jdg_3:8-10; 1Ch_19:6). By New Testament times it applied to the whole of the Euphrates-Tigris valley, so that even the city of Ur, which was near the mouth of the Euphrates, was considered to be in Mesopotamia (Act_2:9; Act_7:2). (For details see ARAM; ASSYRIA; BABYLON; EUPHRATES; SYRIA; TIGRIS.)
Bridgeway Bible Dictionary by Don Fleming
PRINTER 1990.

mes-ṓ-pṓ-tā?mi-a. See SYRIA.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PRINTER 1915.

Mesopota?mia [ARAM]




The Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
by John Kitto.

Mesopotamia
(Μεσοποταμία, Act_2:9; Act_7:2; so called as lying between the rivers; see Tzchucke, Mela, 3:335 sq.; the ARAM, אֲרִם, of the Hebrews, usually rendered “ Aram,” or “Syria,” in the Auth. Vers.), the Greek and Roman name for the entire region lying between the rivers Euphrates and Tigris, and bounded on the north by Matthew Taurus, and by Matthew Masius on the north-east (Ptol. v. 18; Pliny, v. 13; 6:9; Philostr. Apol. 1:20). It never formed a distinct state, and the Greek name, which does not appear to extend back beyond the time of Alexander (comp. Arrian, Alex. 7:7; Tacit. Annal. 6:37), applies rather to its natural than political geography, but was generally employed by the Romans, who (under the emperors) joined it with Syria (Mela, 1:11, 1; Pliny, 6:13); and hence it appears in Act_2:9. In the Old-Test. geography it is designated as a part of Aramaea, under the names PADANARAM (פִּדִּן אֲרִם, the plain of Aram, Gen_25:20; Gen_21:18; Gen_33:18; comp. the field of Aram, שְׂדֵּה אֲרִם),Z Hos_12:12; and so campi Mesopotamice, Curt. 3:2, 3; 4:9, 6) and ARAM-NAHARAIM (אֲרִם נִהֲרִיַם, Aram of the two rivers, Gen_24:10; Deu_23:5), for which the Sept. has Mesopotamia, or Mesopotamia of Syria; the Syriac renders house of the rivers (Peshito at Act_2:9; Act_7:2; see Assemani, Biblioth. Orient. 1:462), and the Arabs call it the island (i.e. peninsula; see Abulfedas Tab. Mesopot. ed. Paulus; and Tuch, Abulfed. descriptionis Mesopot. spec. [Hal. 1830]). In this early-inhabited land, the northern portion of which was an uncommonly fertile plateau, rich in fat cattle (Strabo, 16:747), and not destitute of forests (Dio Cass. lxviii. 26; lxxv. 9), dwelt the nomade ancestors of the Hebrews (Genesis 11; comp. Act_7:2).
From hence Isaac obtained his wife Rebecca (Gen_24:10; Gen_24:19; Gen_25:20); here Jacob served as a herdsman for Rachel (Genesis 28 sq.), and here most of his sons were born (Gen_35:26; Gen_46:15). The principal cities, situated not only on the two main rivers, but also along their tributaries, the Chaboras (Habor) and Mygdonius, were Nisibis, Edessa, Canse (Haran), and Circesium (Carchemesh); in the interior were only villages (Philostr. Apoll. 1:20). The inhabitants were of Syrian origin (Strabo, xvi. 737), and spoke a dialect of the Arammean (Strabo, 2:84; comp. Gen_31:47). Southern Mesopotamia, on the contrary, is a flat, uncultivated, and poorly-irrigated steppe, a resort of lions (Ammin. Marc. 18:7), ostriches, and (formerly) wild asses, and roamed over by predatory hordes of Arabs (see Strabo, 16:747, 748; comp. Xenoph. Anab. 1:5, 1). Only on the banks of the two principal rivers is it susceptible of much tillage. Yet through this barren tract from the earliest ages passed the great caravan route for commerce from the shore of the Euphrates to Seleucia and Babylon (Strabo,xvi. 748), as it still does to Bagdad. See generally Cellar. Notit. 2:602 sq.; Olivier, Voyage, iv, ch. xiv, p. 372 sq.; Ainsworth, Researches;. Heeren, Ideen, I, 1:183 sq.; Ritter, Erdk. xi, pl. 36 [1844] ; Forbiger, Handb. 2:625 sq.; Southgate's Tour; Buckingham's Travels; Layard's Nineveh and Bab. ch. xi-xv.
Of the history of this whole country we have but little information till the time of the Persian rule. “According to the Assyrian inscriptions, Mesopotamia was inhabited in the early times of the empire (BC. 1200- 1100) by a vast number of petty tribes, each under its own prince, and all quite independent of one another. The Assyrian monarchs contended with these chiefs at great advantage. and by the time of Jehu (BC. 880) had fully established their dominion over them. The tribes were all called ‘tribes of the Nai'ri, a term which some compare with the Naharaim of the Jews, and translate ‘tribes of the stream lands.' ‘But this identification is very uncertain. It appears, however, in close accordance with Scripture, first, that Mesopotamia was independent of Assyria till after the time of David; secondly, that the Mesopotamians were warlike, and used chariots in battle; and; thirdly, that not long after the time of David they lost their independence, their country being absorbed by Assyria, of which it was thenceforth commonly reckoned a part.” The Mesopotamian king Chushan Rishathaim, who for eight years (BC. 1575-1567) held the (trans-Jordanic) tribes of Israel in subjection (Jdg_3:8; Jdg_3:10), was probably only the petty chieftain of one of the principalities nearest the Euphrates. In the time of David (BC. 1040) the kings of Syria-Zoba appear to have had dominion over the Mesopotamiain clans (2Sa_10:16). SEE ZOBAH.
In the beginning of the 8th century BC., Shalmaneser of Assyria had brought the different states of Mesopotamia under his sway (2Ki_19:13); and in after-times the Mesopotamians shared the conquest of the other Asiatic nations under the successive empires of the Babylonians, Persians, and Macedonians. After Alexander's death, this country fell under the Syrian rule of the Seleucidm (comp. Josephus, Ant. 12:3, 4); and after the fall of this dynasty it became the arena for the Parthian, Armenian, and finally the Roman arms. In New-Test. times many Jews had settled in Mesopotamia (Josephus, Ant. 12:3,'4; comp. Act_2:9). The Romans under Lucullus and Pompey began to disturb Mesopotamia; and, somewhat later, Crassus was there defeated and slain. Trajan wrested the whole province, with several adjacent territories, from the Parthians; and although Hadrian had to relinquish these con. quests, Lucius Verus and Severus again subdued Mesopotamia, and it remained a Roman province until the end of the 4th century. On the death of Julian, Jovian found himself obliged to abandon the greater part of the country to the Persians, the Romans only retaining so much of Western Mesopotamia as was enclosed by the Chaboras and Euphrates, and on the north by the Mons Masius (see Smith's Dict. of Class. Geog. s.v.). When the Sassanian dynasty in Persia was overthrown by the Arabs, towards the middle of the 7th century, Mesopotamia came under the dominion of the caliphs. Since the year 1516 it has formed an integral part of the Ottoman empire. SEE SYRIA.

CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.

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