Dominating the alluvial plain between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, Babylon was the most magnificent metropolis of antiquityβwith its Hanging Gardens, the Ishtar Gate, and the ziggurat of Esagil, identified with the Tower of Babel. Its capture of Jerusalem in 586 BCE and the deportation of the people marked the central trauma in the history of Israel. It was in exile in Babylon that the prophets Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Deutero-Isaiah forged the theology of messianic hope. Jeremiah wrote to the exiles: Β«Build houses, plant gardens, seek peace in the cityΒ» (Jeremiah 29:7). In the Book of Revelation, Babylon became the symbolic name for imperial Romeβand for any empire oppressing the Church (Revelation 17β18). The ruins of Al-Hillah in Iraq have been open to visitors for a few years now, after decades of difficult access.
She has fallen, the great Babylon! She has become the dwelling place of demons.
Babylon is the great symbol of human pride and divine judgment in the Old Testament. The Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9) is its mythical origin. Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem and deported Judah in 586 BC (2 Kings 25; Jeremiah 39). The Babylonian exile was the crucible of the Jewish faith: the writing of the Pentateuch, the Psalms of the Exile (Psalm 137), and the visions of Ezekiel (Ezekiel 1; 37). Isaiah foretold liberation by Cyrus (Isaiah 45:1). Daniel lived at the Babylonian court (Daniel 1-6).
In the New Testament, Babylon is the symbolic name for imperial Rome in 1 Peter 5:13 and the Book of Revelation (Revelation 14:8; 16:19; 17-18). Revelation develops a lengthy lament over the fall of Babylon-Rome (Revelation 18), fulfilling the prophecies of Isaiah (Isaiah 13-14) and Jeremiah (Jeremiah 50-51). Matthew 1:11-12 mentions the Babylonian exile in the genealogy of Christ, making the exile a stage in salvation history. Paul implicitly refers to the Babylonian liberation in his theology of redemption.
He interprets Babylon as the earthly city marked by pride, confusion, and exile from God. In contrast to Jerusalem, it represents for him the disordered world to which the believer should not become attached.
Babylon is the biblical symbol of all human power rising up against God: the Tower of Babel, exile, the Great Prostitute of the Apocalypse. It invites us to discern, in every era, the contemporary forms of the idolatry of power and wealth.
36 characters linked to Babylon
Azarias (Abed-Nego)
Balthazar
Cyrus II of Persia
Darius I
Darius the Mede
Hananiah
The Whore of Babylon
MisaΓ«l (Meshak)
Robert Koldewey (1899-1917, Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft): Ishtar Gate, processional route, palace of Nebuchadnezzar.
ruins that can be visited
Ruins partially rebuilt under Saddam Hussein; mosque near the site.
