Babylon was the capital city of Babylonia, an ancient kingdom
located in Mesopotamia, the region between the Tigris and the
Euphrates rivers, an area now in the modern country of Iraq. The city
of Babylon was located on the banks of the Euphrates River, about
fifty-five miles from the modern city of Baghdad. Babylon plays a
major role in the Bible, especially during the time of the OT
prophets. Babylon or the Babylonians are mentioned in the books of
2 Kings, 1–2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther,
Psalms, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Micah, Habakkuk, and
Zechariah. Babylon also appears at the very beginning of the biblical
story (Gen. 10–11) as well as at the very end (Rev. 14; 16–18;
cf. 1 Pet. 5:13).
History
The
Sumerian and Akkadian period.
Around
3000 BC one of the earliest civilizations of the ancient world
developed in the southernmost region of Mesopotamia. The Sumerians
developed several innovations that nurtured and contributed to the
rise of large, complex, urban civilizations. These developments
included irrigation, writing (especially in regard to government
documentation), the city-state, the accumulation of capital, the
wheel, the potter’s wheel, monumental architecture, the number
system based on the number sixty (we still use this for time as well
as for geometry—e.g., sixty minutes in an hour, 360 degrees in
a circle), schools, and the cylinder seal.
The
Akkadian king Sargon conquered most of Mesopotamia around 2350 BC. He
built his capital at Akkad and established Akkadian as the main
language of Mesopotamia, a feature that was to remain characteristic
for many centuries. The city of Babylon first appears in nonbiblical
literary documents during this time, but only as a minor provincial
city.
The
Old Babylonian period.
At
about the same time, a group of people called “Amorites”
(lit., “those from the west”) started migrating in fairly
large numbers eastward into southern Mesopotamia. Embracing much of
the old Sumerian-related culture as well as the Akkadian language,
these Amorites soon became a regional power, and they built the city
of Babylon into one of the most important cities in Mesopotamia. One
of the most famous kings to rise to power during this “Old
Babylonian” era was Hammurabi (c. 1728–1686 BC [many
scholars now refer to him as Hammurapi]). It was his extensive
diplomatic and military skill that enabled Babylon to rise to power
so quickly and in such a spectacular fashion. Hammurabi’s
actual empire lasted only a brief time, but his legacy was
long-lasting, and the entire central-southern region of Mesopotamia
continued to be known as Babylonia for over a thousand years.
After
Hammurabi died, Babylon declined in power. For the next few hundred
years Mesopotamia was characterized by chaos and power struggles.
Then around 800 BC the Assyrians (from the northern end of
Mesopotamia) rose to power and dominated the entire region. The
Assyrians also played a major role in the Bible, appearing frequently
in the books of 2 Kings and Isaiah.
The
Neo-Babylonian Empire.
In the last quarter of the seventh century BC, however, the
Babylonians steadily grew in power. A large migration of Arameans
into Babylonia had taken place, and the people in Babylonia had
replaced Akkadian with Aramaic as their spoken language. The
Chaldeans, a large and powerful group living in the Babylonian
region, intermarried with the descendants of these migrating Arameans
to develop a civilization now known as Neo-Babylonia. Once again the
city of Babylon rose to splendor and prominence. Eventually this new
Babylonia wrested control of much of the ancient Near East from the
Assyrians and their Egyptian allies, decisively defeating them in 612
BC to become the new superpower empire of the ancient Near East. A
powerful dynasty was started by Nabopolassar (626–605 BC) and
continued by Nebuchadnezzar (604–562 BC), the most powerful and
prominent of Babylon’s kings.
Babylon
controlled most of the ancient Near East at a critical time in
biblical history. Nebuchadnezzar, the most famous Babylonian king of
this era, besieged Jerusalem and destroyed it completely in 587/586
BC. Nebuchadnezzar appears in the Bible numerous times, especially in
the books of 2 Kings, Jeremiah, and Daniel. He was the one
responsible for taking the leadership of Judah into exile in
Babylonia after the destruction of Jerusalem.
Surprisingly,
this powerful empire did not last very long. As discussed below,
several of the OT prophets prophesied the end of Babylon, and indeed
Babylon crumbled quickly and eventually disappeared from history. How
did this happen?
Persian
and Greek rule. First
of all, Nabonidus, the last king of Babylon (555–539
BC), tried to revise the religion of the people away from the worship
of their main god, Marduk, but he only alienated himself from the
powerful nobles of Babylon as well as from the general population.
Leaving his son Belshazzar in charge, Nabonidus moved to Arabia for
ten years. When he finally returned, the Persians were threatening
Babylon, and Nabonidus had little power to stop them. Sealing the
Persian victory was the defection of Ugbaru, one of the most powerful
Babylonian princes. Thus, Cyrus, king of Persia, conquered Babylon
without meeting any substantial resistance from the city (539 BC).
Apparently, the Babylonians greeted Cyrus more as a liberator than as
a conqueror. Babylon thus became a city within the Persian Empire.
About
fifty years later the city of Babylon revolted against the Persians,
and the Persian king Xerxes recaptured it (482 BC), sacked it,
demolished its spectacular fortifications, burned the great temple of
the Babylonian god Marduk, and even carried away the statue of Marduk
as a spoil of war. However, the Greek historian Herodotus, writing
around 450 BC, indicates that Babylon had not been completely
destroyed.
In
the next century Alexander the Great conquered the entire region,
defeating the Persians in 331 BC. Alexander was welcomed warmly by
the remaining citizens of Babylon, and thus he treated the city
favorably at first. However, in 324 BC a close friend of Alexander’s
died, and Alexander tore down part of the city wall east of the royal
palace to build a funeral pyre platform in his friend’s honor,
thus destroying a significant part of the city.
The
fall of Babylon.
After Alexander died, Seleucus, one of his four generals, seized
Babylon (312 BC) and plundered the city and the surrounding area. The
next Seleucid king, Antiochus I (281–261 BC), dealt the
death blow to the city of Babylon. He built a new capital for the
region fifty-five miles to the north and then moved the entire
civilian population of Babylon to the new city. The once great city
of Babylon, now depopulated and seriously damaged physically by the
Seleucid kings, fell into oblivion. Although Antiochus IV (173
BC) tried for a brief period to revive the city, Babylon, for all
practical purposes, had ceased to exist.
The
ruined site is mentioned a few other times in history. The Roman
emperor Trajan spent the winter of AD 116 in Babylon, finding nothing
there except ruins. The spectacular fall of Babylon and the city’s
state of terrible desolation then became proverbial. In the second
century AD Lucian wrote that Nineveh vanished without a trace, and
that soon people will search in vain for Babylon. In fulfillment of
biblical prophecy (e.g., Jer. 50–51), the city of Babylon went
from being the most important and most spectacular city in the world
to being a desolate, insignificant pile of rubble.
The
Splendor of Babylon
During
the time of Nebuchadnezzar the city of Babylon was developed into a
spectacular city, certainly one of the most impressive cities in the
ancient Near East. The city was built on the banks of the Euphrates
River with a large, imposing bridge connecting the two banks. Huge
public buildings, palaces, and temples lined the banks of the river.
The city was enclosed by two walls. The gates of the outer walls have
not yet been located, but archaeologists have identified nine large,
impressive gates of the inner wall. The most famous of these is the
Ishtar Gate, which has been dismantled and reconstructed in the
Pergamon Museum in Berlin. The walls of this gate are lined with
bright blue glazed ceramic tile and decorated with numerous reliefs
of lions and dragons. A major structure in the city was the great
temple of Marduk, the central Babylonian deity, but the city also had
temples dedicated to numerous other gods. Connected to the great
temple was a spectacular processional street running through the
heart of the city. The city also contained large residential homes as
well as three immense royal palaces.
A
fourth-century BC Greek historian mentions that Nebuchadnezzar
built an amazing garden for one of his wives. This garden, commonly
known as the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, was designated by the
ancient Greeks as one of the Seven Wonders of the World.
Archaeologists, however, have been unable to locate such a garden in
the excavations of Babylon, and some scholars doubt its existence.
Babylon
in the Bible
The
terms “Babylon” and “Babylonian,” in addition
to the related terms “Chaldea” and “Chaldean,”
appear over three hundred times in the Bible, indicating the
important role that Babylon plays in Israel’s history.
Old
Testament.
Genesis 10:10 states that Babylon was one of the first centers of the
kingdom of the mighty warrior Nimrod, but the puzzling nature of
Nimrod and the difficulties encountered in interpreting Gen. 10 make
it difficult to state much about this reference with certainty.
The
better-known incident in Genesis regarding Babylon is the story about
the tower of Babel (Gen. 11:1–9). Note that in Gen. 9:1–7
God commands Noah and his family to scatter over the earth and
replenish its population. The builders of the tower of Babel are
doing just the opposite of the divine injunction, trying to stop the
scattering.
Genesis
11:2 locates the tower of Babel on “a plain in Shinar”
(cf. 10:10; 14:1), the broad, alluvial plain of the Tigris and the
Euphrates rivers south of modern Baghdad. Most scholars suspect that
the tower of Babel was a ziggurat, an elevated temple tower. Common
in Mesopotamia, these were worship centers where priests climbed up
extensive stairways to offer their sacrifices to the gods. A temple
shrine usually capped the top of the ziggurat. This elevated shrine
was understood to be the “gateway to the gods,” a place
where human priests and their deities supposedly met. The tower of
Babel story in Genesis, however, introduces a humorous wordplay
regarding this tradition. “Babel” (as well as “Babylon”)
means “gateway to the gods” or “gate of the gods”
in the local Mesopotamian languages. Ironically, however, in Hebrew
the word babel is related to balal, meaning “to confuse.”
Thus, Gen. 11:9 presents a colorful wordplay or parody on the name of
Babel. In a humorous criticism of the future great city, that verse
suggests ironically that the name “Babel” does not really
refer to the “gate of the gods” as the Mesopotamians
intended, but rather to the judgmental confusion that God brought
against them.
Thus,
the city of Babel/Babylon carried negative connotations from the very
beginning of the biblical story. Genesis 11 introduces Babel as a
symbol of human arrogance and rebellion against God. Later in
Israel’s history the city of Babylon will continue to have
negative associations, and once again it becomes a powerful symbol of
human arrogance and rebellion against God.
The
books of 1–2 Kings tell the tragic story of how Israel and
Judah turn away from God to worship idols, ignoring the warnings that
God gives them through the prophets. As foretold, the northern
kingdom, Israel, is thus destroyed by the Assyrians in 722 BC.
However, the southern kingdom, Judah, also fails to take heed and
continues to worship pagan gods in spite of repeated warnings and
calls to repentance from the prophets. Prophets such as Jeremiah
repeatedly proclaim that if Judah and Jerusalem do not repent and
turn from their idolatry and acts of injustice, then God will send
the Babylonians to destroy them (see esp. Jer. 20–39). Jeremiah
refers to the Babylonians 198 times, and the prophet personally
experiences the terrible Babylonian siege and destruction of
Jerusalem. Jeremiah 39 and 52 describe the actual fall of Jerusalem
to Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian army. This same tragic story is
recounted in 2 Kings 24–25. Thus, in 586 BC Nebuchadnezzar
and his army completely destroy Jerusalem, burning the city and the
temple to the ground and carrying off most of the population into
exile in Babylonia.
Babylon
appears in the OT prophetic literature in another context as well.
Because of the apostasy of Israel and Judah, the prophets preach
judgment on them. But the prophets also preach judgment on the
enemies of Israel and Judah for exploiting or attacking and
destroying God’s people. Jeremiah, for example, prophesies
against numerous nations and cities (Jer. 46–49), but he
focuses especially upon Babylon (Jer. 50:1–51:58). Likewise,
judgment on Babylon is a central theme in Isa. 13; 14; 21; 47. In the
OT, no other foe brought such terrible destruction on Jerusalem. In
later literature this particular event thus becomes the prototypical
picture of horrendous death and destruction, and Babylon becomes the
literary symbol epitomizing all of Israel’s enemies.
New
Testament.
Babylon appears again at the end of the biblical story. In Rev. 17–18
John describes the enemy of God’s kingdom as a harlot dressed
in scarlet and riding on a beast. One of the titles written on her
head is “Babylon the Great” (17:5). Some commentators
believe that John is describing a literal resurrected city of
Babylon. That is, they propose that Babylon will be rebuilt on its
original site and become the center of government for the antichrist.
Many other scholars, however, maintain that the harlot of Rev. 17–18
symbolizes ancient Rome, not a modern rebuilt Babylon. They argue
that the term “Babylon” is used symbolically in
Revelation. Supporting this view is the apostle Peter’s
apparent use of the term “Babylon” to refer to Rome in
1 Pet. 5:13 (“she who is in Babylon . . . sends
you her greetings”). Most NT scholars conclude that in this
verse “she” is a reference to the church and that
“Babylon” is a coded or symbolic reference to Rome.
