Chaldea (kasdim) occupied the land bounded by the Persian Gulf in the south, the mountains of Elam in the east, Armenia in the north and the Syrian Deserts to the west, though the exact boundaries were, in ancient times, in perpetual flux, as per the relative political strengths of their neighbouring peoples, such as the Assyrians, Medes and Elamites. They came to prominence when their leader Nabopolassar defeated the Assyrians at Babylon in 626 BC and established the neo-Babylonian empire, the sole superpower in the ancient Near East for a century afterwards.
Though the Chaldeans first appear in written history only in the 9th Cent BC, scholars believe that their history stretches back several millennia. The prophet Jeremiah certainly knew them to be so, speaking of them as "an ancient and enduring nation" (Jer 5:15). They were the ones who—known to us as the Babylonians—eventually descended on Judah and wrought upon her the most disastrous events of her history: the destruction of Jerusalem and her temple and the exile of the cream of her people.
Chaldea features most famously in the Bible as a modifier for the city from which God called Abraham, "Ur of the Chaldeans." This used once to be siezed upon by liberal scholars who argue from this fact that Genesis must, therefore, have been a late work but projected back into antiquity. Sensibilities, however, prevailed and it is now recognized that the city is so called as a devise to update the fact about the city so as to cause no confusion. Anyone visiting the region of Haran in Turkey today, e.g., often gets pointed out to them that Abraham's hometown is just nearby, that is, in the city that goes by the (near enough) name of Urfa. The expression "Ur of the Chaldeans" prevents this kind of confusion getting out of hand.
Resources:
William D. Barrick, "'Ur of the Chaldeans' (Gen 11:28-31): A Model for Dealing with Difficult Texts," The Master's Seminary Journal 20/1 (2009):7-18.
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