“NOW it came about in the days of Amraphel king of Shinar.” Here, as Genesis chapter 14 :1 opens, the Bible uses the word “king” for the first time. Whether Amraphel was, as some claim, another name for Babylon’s famous King Hammurabi, we do not know. What we do know is that, whatever his identity, the idea of human kingship did not originate with Amraphel.

True, we have no artifacts referring to King Nimrod or to King Amraphel.