Ashur

Who is Ashur?

Ashur, was the second son of Shem, the son of Noah. Ashur's brothers were Elam, Arphaxad, Lud, and Aram.

The Hebrew text of Genesis 10:11 is somewhat ambiguous as to whether it was Asshur himself, or Nimrod who, according to Biblical tradition, built the Assyrian cities of Nineveh, Resen, Rehoboth-Ir and Calah, since the name Asshur can refer to both the person and the country. Sir Walter Raleigh devoted several pages in his History of the World to reciting past scholarship regarding the question of whether it had been Nimrod or Ashur who built the cities in Assyria.

The 1st century Judaeo-Roman historian Flavius Josephus further gives the following statement: "Ashur lived at the city of Nineveh; and named his subjects Assyrians, who became the most fortunate nation, beyond others”.

Ashur the son of Shem is sometimes compared with the figure of the deity Ashur, for whom a temple was dedicated in the early capital city of Aššur — traditionally by an early Assyrian king named Ushpia in ca. the 21st century BC. It is highly likely that the city and indeed the Assyrian nation and people, were named in honour of this deity.