Nimrod and Babel.

First I want to quote here the Young's Literal Translation of Genesis 10:8-12.

And Cush hath begotten Nimrod; he hath begun to be a hero in the land; he hath been a hero in hunting before Jehovah; therefore it is said, "As Nimrod the hero in hunting before Jehovah."

And the first part of his kingdom is Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar; from that land he hath gone out to Asshur, and buildeth Nineveh, even the broad places of the city, and Calah, and Resen, between Nineveh and Calah; it is the great city.

The YLT used the same source texts as the KJV, or rather the source texts KJV onlyists keep saying the KJV uses, however these very verses show how the KJV was influenced by the mistakes of the Septuagint/LXX and the Vulgate, like verse 11 where all three of those translations imply Asshur founded Nineveh.  What Asshur founded wouldn't be discussed till we reached Shem's part of the genealogy, this verse is clearly still part of the Nimrod narrative.  The only thing I'd change from the YLT translation is swapping "Asshur" for "Assyria".

There is a claim going around out there that the Book of Jubilees 9:3 supports the LXX version of 10:11, but that is not correct.

"And for Ashur came forth the second Portion, all the land of Ashur and Nineveh and Shinar and to the border of India, and it ascends and skirts the river."

That statement is only saying Nineveh is in the land allotted to Asshur, it doesn't say who founded it.  That sentence can be compatible with either interpretation/translation of Genesis 10:11.  Jubilees doesn't seem that interested in the Nimrod subject, it has no counterpart to these verses but possibly alludes to his daughter marrying Heber/Eder and becoming the mother of Peleg in it's version of the Genesis 11 genealogy.  Josephus isn't quite saying Asshur founded it either, but he is much closer to seeming influenced by the LXX version.

Calah/Kalhu is the city 30 or 40 miles south of Nineveh/Mosul today commonly called Nimrud, but that is a purely modern name for the City, no one in Antiquity called it that, it fits because modern archaeologists recognized it as a city associated with Nimrod.  Resen doesn't seem to have been found.  Maybe the failure to find Resen is because people have been assuming "between Nineveh and Calah" means also on the Tigris, maybe it could be a city between them but also further east or west, and that's why it isn't first listed between them?  Erbil/Arbella was considered part of Assyria in antiquity, and it's one of the oldest cities in the region, I have a hunch that maybe it's Resen.  

Which of the cities talked about is being called the "Great City"?  At first glance it might seem to be Resen, but given the context of Jonah 1:2, 3:2-3 and 4:11 it's possibly more likely to be Nineveh.  Or another candidate for Resen could be Karana/Qattara modern Tell al-Rimah.  Tell-Hassuna and Tell-Taya are some other ancient sites near Nineveh believed to have bene inhabited pre 2400 BC but their ancient names aren't known.

None of the Nimrod cities in Genesis 10 is likely to be the city of Asshur, that city is south of Calah.  So it was probably the city Asshur himself founded, and either he failed to or didn't try to stop Nimrod from encroaching on his territory.  They may have simply came to an agreement, and maybe the people who inhabited these cities were largely Assyrians from the beginning but benefited from living under Nimrod's protection.

In the past I've argued for the Babel of Genesis 10&11 being Eridu and Nimrod being Enmerkar.  I'm still attracted to that theory but have been considering an alternative.  I do absolutely still think the Pre-Flood Eridu is the city of Genesis 4, which again has a translation issue, here is how I'd translate the verses in question.

Genesis 4:16-18

And Cain went out from the presence of Yahuah, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden.  And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and bare Enoch: and he (Enoch) builded a city, and called the name of the city, after the name of his son.

And unto Enoch was born Irad: and Irad begat Mehujael: and Mehujael begat Methusael: and Methusael begat Lamech.

So the City of Irad could be Eridu.  Now the Eridu of Post-Flood Mesopotamia may not actually be the same city or on the same location.  But I'm also growing skeptical of the usual assumption that a Global Flood model means no Pre-Flood cities could have left ruins behind.  Mainstream archaeologists believe Eridu goes back to 5200 BC, so that's pre even the oldest plausible date for The Flood.

It is a misleading translation that makes people think Genesis 11:4 is about height.  It's about them creating their own Heaven at the top of the Tower, an early form of idolatry.  And the Hebrew word Migdol is sometimes used of some structures we today wouldn't exactly define as a tower.

Here is a Wikipedia page listing various known Sumerian Temples.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89_(temple)
 Not all of them have been archaeologically found, some may be different names for the same Temple.  Some are thought to have originally been to different gods then they are usually associated with now, so what the Temple was called is probably more informative to it's origins.  All of them are named "House of ____" in some way.  The Tower of Babel I would expect to be named "House of Heaven" or something like that.  Eridu's is not, it's instead looking in the opposite direction, the Abyss.  More then two fitting examples exist, but other factors make only two viable.

Uruk's Temple to Inanna is one, and a good theory could be made for making that work with Nimrod as Enmerkar, saying Genesis 10 isn't different cities but rather describing the expansion of what he controlled, first the Tower, then the City of Erech/Uruk, then Accad, then all of Shinar.

But I'm instead going to consider another city, and that Nimrod is actually Etana who is the first Post-Flood King to rule all of the countries.  The King's List possibly made up all names before Etana, other sources make him seemingly the first King of Kish and of any place after The Flood.  Etana here would be a special Throne name, like many Kings Nimrod likely had many names.

Which leads me first to how Genesis 10:8-12 seems like a short narrative inserted into the Genealogy.  In which context I wonder if Nimrod simply is the same person as a Son of Cush from verse 7?  One of them being the name given at birth and the other a name he became known by later?  The theory that Ninurta is a later deification of Nimrod is going to be relevant to my theories here quite a bit.  Zababa is a deity who is mentioned rarely and was possibly just another form of Ninurta, one reason being that they had the same wife, Bau.  Zababa could easily be a Sumerian form of one of the names mentioned in Genesis 10:7, Seba, Sebta or Sebtcha.

Alternatively you could argue that Nimrod might not be the immediate son of Cush but a later descendant of his. That is pretty much required for identifying him with anyone later then Enmerkar on the Kings List.  And the fact that Uruk's isn't quite the first Post-Flood dynasty means it might be necessary even for the Enmerkar theory.  Depends on when you date the Flood really, if you're using a Septuagint or Samaritan version of Genesis 11 to support a pre 3000 BC date for the Flood then Enmerkar is not likely to be an immediate son of Cush.

Now the Sumerian Temple I feel most likely to be The Tower of Babel is the E-me-ur-ana (House which gathers the divine powers of heaven) at Nippur.  It seems either archaeologists haven't found this Temple or it's another name for the E-Kur. (Or the Temple some maps identify as a Temple of Inanna since she was or became the deity of Uruk's "House of Heaven").  The Ekur was also known as the "mooring-rope" of heaven and earth. The statement in some sources that Enmebaragesi was the first to build a Temple to Enlil at Nippur may just mean he was the first to make it a Temple to the Sumerian Enlil, as Babel in Genesis 11 was not originally about a specific deity.

Nippur was the religious capital of Sumer, it was never the political capital but control of it was required to claim to be King of all of Sumer and Akkad.

Nippur is a flawed modern transliteration, the ancient name of the city was Nibru or Nibbur.  The Septuagint, Josephus and possibly Jubilees all render Nimrod's name as Nebrod.  This isn't the only place related to Sumerian/Semitic etymology where the letter B and M seem oddly interchangeable, the above mentioned Zababa is also spelled Zamma, and in 1st Century Aramaic "bar" is the word for Son but many Assyrian Inscriptions are transliterated as saying "mar" instead.  Micah refers to a "Land of Nimrod" according to Genesis 10 Shinar was the land of Nimrod starting at Babel and eventually extending to include Assyria.  Nippur was one of the cult centers of Ninurta, but another was near by Marad (which is another purposed origin for the name Nimrod via Ni-Marad "Lord of Marad"), the main Temple at Marad had Kalama in the name, a possible origin for Calneh.

Erech is Uruk, that's the one name from Genesis 8:10 that has no mystery to it, except for people who want to remove Shinar from Mesopotamia altogether.

Accad is Akkad, a city known to have existed but archaeologists haven't quite found.  But it's also used as the name of a region (Mesopotamia north of Sumer proper but south of Assyria) and of a language.

Before he was a King Sargon was associated with Kish.  That list of Sumerian Temples has only 3 in Akkad and only one in Kish, awfully small for cites that had both been capitals.  Maybe Akkad and Kish were the same city?

The Babylon of Hammurabi and Nebuchadnezzar is described in some texts as being founded by Sargon of Akkad, (which fits other sources dating it's founding to that time period).  Saying he built it "before Akkad" and possibly that it was a re founding of an older city.  That geographical relationship to Akkad makes it look to me like Akkad is either Borsippa or Kish.

If the younger Babylon was a city founded to be a new Babel, it's interesting that it's Nippur who proceeded Babylon as the chief cult enter of Enlil(later replaced by Marduk) the Mesopotamian Zeus analogue.

The name of Kish likely derives from Cush.  The Temple listed as a Temple at Kish is the one for Zababa, and Zababa's only Temple appears to have been the one at Kish.

The theory that "Calneh" is really a phrase meaning "all they of" I consider possible.  I also, as said above, think it could be related to Kalama, a Sumerian word that seems to mean "land" or "world" and is in the name of a few Temples including the ones at Marad and Bad-Tibira.

Ninurta was also worshiped by the Assyrians, one of his major Temples was at Kalhu/Calah, where the name Nisroch might come from an Assyrian name for Ninurta.

Nimrod being the founder of Niniveh is the basis for why Christians in various eras have identified him with the Greek Historiographical figure of Ninus.  Ninus appears to be a composite figure, I definitely do think he's partly a Greek memory of Nimrod, but some ancient statements about when and for how long he reigned (Castor of Rhodes apud Syncellus p. 167) make him seem more like Sargon of Akkad or his grandson Naram-Sin, which given what I talked about above could also fit associating his wife with the founding of the Babylon of Nebuchadnezzar.

However the name of Ninus's supposed wife comes from an Assyrian Queen who lived around 800 BC, and that's also about when Herodotus originally placed Semiramis.

But in the context of Ninus as Nimrod, I think Belus is really his grandfather Ham rather then his father Cush.  Usually the Greek mythical Belus of Egypt is assumed to be separate from the Belus of Assyria, but both have good reasons to argue they could be Ham.  Aegeyptus son of Belus would be Mizraim and Danaus would be Phut (Diodorus Siculus gives us reasons to suspect the Amazons descended from Phut, and some names of Amazons were also names of Daughters of Danaus).  Agenor is most popularly identified as a brother of Belus but Nonnus and Tzetzes make him a son of Belus, Agenor was the first ruler of Phonecea in Greek mythology so he could be Canaan.  Cepheus could be Cush as the first King of Aethiopia, but perhaps also the Philistines or more Canaanites based on his association with Joppa.