Revelation 17 and 18 cont’d
Prophecy Roundtable – Mystery Babylon – YouTube
*Again, has it been destroyed like Sodom and Gomorrah? Is it a permanent desolation?
Absolutely not: ‘By 1905, there were several villages in Babylon, one of which was Qwaresh with about 200 households located within the boundaries of the ancient inner city walls. The village grew due to the need for laborers during the German Oriental Society excavations (1899-1917).’(wikipedia)
Genesis 19:23-25, 28-29
23 The sun had risen over the earth when Lot came to Zoar. 24 Then the Lord rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah from the Lord out of heaven, 25 and He overthrew those cities, and all the surrounding area, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground…
28 and (Abraham) looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the surrounding area; and behold, he saw the smoke of the land ascended like the smoke of a furnace.
29 So it came about, when God destroyed the cities of the surrounding area, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the destruction, when He overthrew the cities in which Lot had lived.
*Jeremiah 51:7
7 Babylon has been a golden cup in the hand of the Lord,
Intoxicating all the earth.
The nations have drunk of her wine;
Therefore the nations are going insane.
*Revelation 17:1b-2 (I will read)
…the great prostitute who sits on many waters, 2 with whom the kings of the earth committed acts of sexual immorality, and those who live on the earth became drunk with the wine of her sexual immorality.”
*Jeremiah 51:8-9
8 Suddenly Babylon has fallen and been broken;
Wail over her!
Bring balm for her pain;
Perhaps she may be healed.
9 We applied healing to Babylon, but she was not healed;
Abandon her and let’s each go to his own country,
For her judgment has reached to heaven
And it rises to the clouds.
*Revelation 18:5 (I will read)
5 For her sins are piled as high as heaven,
and God remembers her evil deeds.
*Jeremiah 51:41-43
41 “How Sheshak (Babylon) has been captured,
And the praise of the whole earth has been seized!
How Babylon has become an object of horror among the nations!
42 The sea has come up over Babylon;
She has been engulfed by its roaring waves.
43 Her cities have become an object of horror,
A dry land and a desert,
A land in which no one lives
And through which no one of mankind passes.
Revelation 18:9-11, 15-19 (I will read)
9 “And the kings of the earth, who committed acts of sexual immorality and lived luxuriously with her, will weep and mourn over her when they see the smoke of her burning, 10 standing at a distance (as with Sodom and Gomorrah) because of the fear of her torment, saying, ‘Woe, woe, the great city, Babylon, the strong city! For in one hour your judgment has come.’
11 “And the merchants of the earth weep and mourn over her, because no one buys their cargo any more—
15 The merchants of these things, who became rich from her, will stand at a distance because of the fear of her torment, weeping and mourning, 16 saying, ‘Woe, woe, the great city, she who was clothed in fine linen and purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold, precious stones, and pearls; 17 for in one hour such great wealth has been laid waste!’ And every shipmaster and every passenger and sailor, and all who make their living by the sea, stood at a distance, (again, like Sodom and Gomorrah) 18 and were crying out as they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, ‘What city is like the great city?’ 19 And they threw dust on their heads and were crying out, weeping and mourning, saying, ‘Woe, woe, the great city, in which all who had ships at sea became rich from her prosperity, for in one hour she has been laid waste!’
***Conclusion of this comparison study ***
*Jeremiah 51:48
48 Then heaven and earth and everything that is in them
Will shout for joy over Babylon,
Because the destroyers will come to her from the north,”
Declares the Lord.
*Revelation 19:1-6 (I will read)
After these things I heard something like a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying,
“Hallelujah! Salvation, glory, and power belong to our God, 2 because His judgments are true and righteous; for He has judged the great prostitute who was corrupting the earth with her sexual immorality, and He has avenged the blood of His bond-servants on her.” 3 And a second time they said, “Hallelujah! Her smoke rises forever and ever.” 4 And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who sits on the throne, saying, “Amen. Hallelujah!” 5 And a voice came from the throne, saying,
“Give praise to our God, all you His bond-servants, you who fear Him, the small and the great.” 6 Then I heard something like the voice of a great multitude and like the sound of many waters, and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, saying,
“Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns.
‘But Babylon right now isn’t great and can’t possibly be built in time’ – there may be a gap between the rapture and onset of the Tribulation not just of 3 to 3.5 years as I proposed in the notes, (due to Israel burning the weapons for 7 years and the possible symbolism of the Yam’im Nora’im -10 days of awe which might represent a 3 year gap period plus the seven year Tribulation) but maybe much longer. Some writers, as Andy Woods documents, think a 25 or even 50 year gap is possible.
Revelation 18:7
She boasted in her heart,
‘I am queen on my throne.
I am no helpless widow,
and I have no reason to mourn.’
Who would she be mocking here? If the Church is the Bride of Christ, what happened to our husband? He was killed on a cross.
Isaiah 47 is a dual focus prophecy – listen for similarities to Rev. 17 and 18…
Isaiah 47 (I will read)
47 “Come down and sit in the dust,
Virgin daughter of Babylon**;
Sit on the ground without a throne,
Daughter of the Chaldeans!
For you will no longer be called tender and delicate.
2 Take the millstones and grind flour.
Remove your veil, strip off the skirt,
Uncover the leg, cross the rivers.
3 Your nakedness will be uncovered,
Your shame will also be exposed;
I will take vengeance and will not spare anyone.”
4 Our Redeemer, the Lord of armies is His name,
The Holy One of Israel.
5 “Sit silently, and go into darkness,
Daughter of the Chaldeans;
For you will no longer be called
The queen of kingdoms.*
6 I was angry with My people,
I profaned My heritage
And handed them over to you.
You did not show mercy to them,
On the aged you made your yoke very heavy.
7 Yet you said, ‘I will be a queen forever.’*
These things you did not consider
Nor remember the outcome of them.
Isaiah 47:8 “Now, then, hear this, you luxuriant one,
Who lives securely,
Who says in her heart,
‘I am, and there is no one besides me.
I will not sit as a widow,
Nor know the loss of children.’
* Revelation 18:7
‘7 To the extent that she glorified herself and lived luxuriously, to the same extent give her torment and mourning; for she says in her heart, ‘I sit as a queen and I am not a widow, and —will never see mourning.’
——————————————————————————————
Isaiah 47:9 But these two things will come on you suddenly in one day:**
**Revelation 18:9-10
9 “And the kings of the earth, who committed acts of sexual immorality and lived luxuriously with her, will weep and mourn over her when they see the smoke of her burning, 10 standing at a distance because of the fear of her torment, saying, ‘Woe, woe, the great city, Babylon, the strong city! For in one hour your judgment has come.’
Revelation 18:17
17 for in one hour such great wealth has been laid waste!’
——————————————————————————————–
Isaiah 47:9 cont’d
‘…Loss of children and widowhood.
They will come on you in full measure
In spite of your many sorceries,
In spite of the great power of your spells.
10 You felt secure in your wickedness and said,
‘No one sees me,’
Your wisdom and your knowledge, they have led you astray;
For you have said in your heart,
‘I am, and there is no one besides me.’
11 But evil will come on you
Which you will not know how to charm away;
And disaster will fall on you
For which you cannot atone;
And destruction about which you do not know
Will come on you suddenly.
12 “Persist now in your spells
And in your many sorceries
With which you have labored from your youth;
Perhaps you will be able to benefit,
Perhaps you may cause trembling.
13 You are wearied with your many counsels;
Let now the astrologers,
Those who prophesy by the stars,
Those who predict by the new moons,
***Revelation 18:23 (KJV)
23 And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries (witchcraft) were all nations deceived.
——————————————————————————————–
Stand up and save you from what will come upon you.
14 Behold, they have become like stubble,
Fire burns them;
They cannot save themselves from the power of the flame;
There will be no coal to warm by
Nor a fire to sit before!
15 So have those become to you with whom you have labored,
Those who have done business with you from your youth;
Each has wandered in his own way;
There is no one to save you.
Revelation 18:11-17
11 “And the merchants of the earth weep and mourn over her, because no one buys their cargo any more— 12 cargo of gold, silver, precious stones, and pearls; fine linen, purple, silk, and scarlet; every kind of citron wood, every article of ivory, and every article made from very valuable wood, bronze, iron, and marble; 13 cinnamon, spice, incense, perfume, frankincense, wine, olive oil, fine flour, wheat, cattle, sheep, and cargo of horses, carriages, slaves, and human lives. 14 The fruit you long for has left you, and all things that were luxurious and splendid have passed away from you and people will no longer find them. 15 The merchants of these things, who became rich from her, will stand at a distance because of the fear of her torment, weeping and mourning, 16 saying, ‘Woe, woe, the great city, she who was clothed in fine linen and purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold, precious stones, and pearls; 17 for in one hour such great wealth has been laid waste!’ And every shipmaster and every passenger and sailor, and all who make their living by the sea, stood at a distance,
My point that I’m trying to make to you and that I tried to make to Amir, Jan, Mike, and Barry is that MANY of the OT references about Babylon have not yet been fulfilled, therefore, we must take all the clues offered by these passages, as well as the clues in Revelation 17 and 18, when we try to decipher the puzzle.
The end of my email to them…
‘Like all of you, I feel the harpazo is very close. The fact that there isn’t currently a city in Mesopotamia that fits the description of a major world economic and religious center likely has convinced you that there’s no way the prophecies could be talking about a literal city (as it doesn’t currently exist), and as most of you feel that the seven-year Tribulation will occur very soon after the harpazo, then it is tempting to allegorize ‘Babylon’.
I have long thought that there will be at least a 3-year gap between the rapture and the start of the Tribulation, not only because of Ezekiel 38 and 39 (Israel will burn weapons for seven years) but the Yam’im Nora’im in which the Ten Days of Awe could represent the gap period as well as the seven- year Tribulation, but what if it is much longer? There may be more than a few years between the harpazo and the start of the Tribulation, plenty of time to build a major city.
**I strongly encourage all four of you to view the videos by Dr. Andy Woods at slbc.org/media/sermon-archives and scroll down to ‘Revelation’ and watch videos 52 through 59 to give you another perspective on these chapters. **’
Are there clues that the destruction of Babylon might be nuclear? (from Revelation ch 18)
9 “And the kings of the earth…10 standing at a distance because of the fear of her torment, saying, ‘Woe, woe, the great city, Babylon, the strong city! For in one hour your judgment has come.’
; 17 for in one hour such great wealth has been laid waste!’ And every shipmaster and every passenger and sailor, and all who make their living by the sea, stood at a distance,
19 And they threw dust on their heads and were crying out, weeping and mourning, saying, ‘Woe, woe, the great city, in which all who had ships at sea became rich from her prosperity, for in one hour she has been laid waste!’
How about from the OT?
Isaiah 13:19 And Babylon, the beauty of kingdoms, the glory of the Chaldeans’ pride,
Will be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.
Isaiah 47:9 But these two things will come on you suddenly in one day:**
Isaiah 47:14 Behold, they have become like stubble,
Fire burns them;
They cannot save themselves from the power of the flame;
Isaiah 47:11 And disaster will fall on you
For which you cannot atone;
And destruction about which you do not know
Will come on you suddenly.
Jeremiah 50:39-40
39 “Therefore the desert creatures will live there with the jackals;
The ostriches also will live in it.
It will never again be inhabited
Nor lived in from generation to generation.
40 As when God overthrew Sodom
And Gomorrah with its neighbors,” declares the Lord,
Clues to Babylon’s identity: (Rome/Vatican? US? Mecca? Symbolic?)
From chapter 17:
1…the great prostitute who sits on many waters,
15 And he *said to me, “The waters which you saw where the prostitute sits are peoples and multitudes, and nations and languages.
4 The woman was clothed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold, precious stones, and pearls, holding in her hand a gold cup full of abominations and of the unclean things of her sexual immorality,
From chapter 18:
For all the nations have fallen because of the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed acts of sexual immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich from the excessive wealth of her luxury.”
Woe, woe, the great city, Babylon, the strong city!
cargo of gold, silver, precious stones, and pearls; fine linen, purple, silk, and scarlet; every kind of citron wood, every article of ivory, and every article made from very valuable wood, bronze, iron, and marble; 13 cinnamon, spice, incense, perfume, frankincense, wine, olive oil, fine flour, wheat, cattle, sheep, and cargo of horses, carriages, slaves, and human lives.
22 And the sound of harpists, musicians, flute players, and trumpeters will never be heard in you again; and no craftsman of any craft will ever be found in you again; and the sound of a mill will never be heard in you again;
Now what or who do YOU think Babylon is here? Literal? Figurative? A combination?
Application:
18:4
4 I heard another voice from heaven, saying, “Come out of her, my people, so that you will not participate in her sins and receive any of her plagues;
*What do you need to drop right now in your life that associates you with the wickedness of this world?
Email sent to Amir, Jan, Mike, and Barry after watching their roundtable on Revelation 17 and 18….
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To |
jan@olivetreeviews.org jan@olivetreeviews.org, info@beholdisrael.org info@beholdisrael.org, reception@cctustin.org reception@cctustin.org |
Hello everyone,
Thank you for your recent roundtable on Revelation 17 and 18 attended by Jan Markell, Amir Tsarfati, Barry Stagner, and Mike Golay. I have supported Jan’s and Amir’s ministries financially and hope you will briefly give me an audience for a slight disagreement with the panel’s assumption that all the Old Testament (Tanakh) prophecies concerning the destruction of Babylon have already been fulfilled, as well as some other points.
I have been teaching the eschatology class at my church (Village Church of Blythewood, SC) since 2019 and I do not believe it was an accident that we had just covered Revelation 17 and 18 these past few Sundays.
I will keep my feedback as succinct as possible considering the subject matter.
First, the name of the harlot is not ‘Mystery Babylon’. I know that the KJV and NIV include ‘mystery’ in her name, but other translations do a better job of making the important distinction that her name ‘is a mystery’, to wit, the relationship between the Harlot and the Beast she rides upon is a mystery.
5 and on her forehead a name was written, a mystery: “BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF PROSTITUTES AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.” (NASB)
To include “Mystery’ in her name allows one to assign a ‘mystical’ nature to her and makes possible very subjective interpretations regarding her. I agree that Babylon comes from Babel and is the source of every false religion throughout time. But Babylon in Revelation 17 and 18 should not be regarded purely as figurative.
I and others (such as Dr. Andy Woods of Sugarland Bible Church, Sugarland TX) do not believe the ‘case is closed’ that the Babylon referred to in Revelation 17 and 18 is an allegory. It is very possible that the OT prophecies concerning Babylon were NOT fulfilled in 539 B.C. when Cyrus dammed the Euphrates and snuck his troops under the gate to conquer Babylon while Belshazzar partied with the Temple implements (Daniel 5).
Most of Isaiah 21 describes Babylon’s first fall under Cyrus. But many of the OT prophecies in Isaiah 13 and Jeremiah 50 and 51 use eschatological language. Babylon was never destroyed like Sodom and Gomorrah. These refer to future events that have not yet taken place.
Here are a few examples taken from my teaching notes:
Isaiah 13:6-9 (speaking of Babylon)
Judgment on the Day of the Lord
6 Wail, for the day of the Lord is near!
It will come as destruction from the Almighty.
7 Therefore all hands will fall limp,
And every human heart will melt.
8 They will be terrified,
Pains and anguish will take hold of them;
They will writhe like a woman in labor,
They will look at one another in astonishment,
Their faces aflame.
9 Behold, the day of the Lord is coming,
Cruel, with fury and burning anger,
To make the land a desolation;
And He will exterminate its sinners from it.’
*What is meant by ‘the Day of the Lord’ in vv 6 and 9? Always refers to the events surrounding His second coming. His ‘Day’ (season) of Wrath which is the Tribulation
**How many of your Bibles have a footnote that says ‘My consecrated ones – these are the Medo-Persians whom God ordained to overthrow Babylon in 539 B.C.’ but then the footnote for verse 6 says ‘the day of the Lord. A time of judgement…during the coming days of the Great Tribulation. Well which is it? I and others maintain that those particular footnotes are erroneous.
*Isaiah 13:10
10 For the stars of heaven and their constellations
Will not flash their light;
The sun will be dark when it rises
And the moon will not shed its light.
*this is eschatological language concerning Babylon! (as outlined below…)
*Joel 2:30-31
30 I will display wonders in the sky and on the earth,
Blood, fire, and columns of smoke.
31 The sun will be turned into darkness,
And the moon into blood,
Before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes.
*Joel 3:14-15
14 Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision!
For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision.
15 The sun and moon have become dark,
And the stars have lost their brightness.
*Matthew 24:29
29 “But immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.
As for relating these verses to the timing – when does Babylon get destroyed? At the very end of the Tribulation period, with the seventh bowl (Revelation 16:17-21)
*Isaiah 13:12
12 I will make mortal man scarcer than pure gold
And mankind than the gold of Ophir.
*Matthew 24:22
22 And if those days had not been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short.
*Isaiah 13:19-20
19 And Babylon, the beauty of kingdoms, the glory of the Chaldeans’ pride,
Will be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.
20 It will never be inhabited or lived in from generation to generation;
Nor will the Arab pitch his tent there,
Nor will shepherds allow their flocks to lie down there.
**(was the overthrow by Cyrus like when Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed?) No, he snuck in quietly and it was days before most of Babylon’s inhabitants even knew there had been an invasion!
*Jeremiah 50:39-40
39 “Therefore the desert creatures will live there with the jackals;
The ostriches also will live in it.
It will never again be inhabited
Nor lived in from generation to generation.
40 As when God overthrew Sodom
And Gomorrah with its neighbors,” declares the Lord,
“No one will live there,
Nor will anyone of mankind reside in it.
*Jeremiah 51:61-62
61 Then Jeremiah said to Seraiah, “As soon as you come to Babylon, see that you read all these words aloud, 62 and say, ‘You, Lord, have promised concerning this place to cut it off, so that there will be nothing living in it, whether man or animal; but it will be a permanent desolation.’
*Again, has it been destroyed like Sodom and Gomorrah? Is it a permanent desolation? No.
Genesis 19:23-25, 28-29
23 The sun had risen over the earth when Lot came to Zoar. 24 Then the Lord rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah from the Lord out of heaven, 25 and He overthrew those cities, and all the surrounding area, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground…
28 and (Abraham) looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the surrounding area; and behold, he saw the smoke of the land ascended like the smoke of a furnace.
29 So it came about, when God destroyed the cities of the surrounding area, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the destruction, when He overthrew the cities in which Lot had lived.
None of these descriptions can apply to Babylon’s fall in the past.
Lastly, there are many errors in the book Amir cited, Dave Hunt’s ‘A Woman Rides the Beast’. There are likewise many errors in Alexander Hislop’s work ‘The Two Babylons’. These have been dismantled effectively by Joel Richardson in his book ‘Mystery Babylon’. If anything, the Roman Catholic Church would be a daughter of the harlot, not the mother of harlots. I disagree though with Joel’s ultimate conclusion that Babylon is Mecca. Again, he uses ‘Mystery’ as part of Babylon’s name, which is incorrect.
Like all of you, I feel the harpazo is very close. The fact that there isn’t currently a city in Mesopotamia that fits the description of a major world economic and religious center likely has convinced you that there’s no way the prophecies could be talking about a literal city (as it doesn’t currently exist), and as most of you feel that the seven-year Tribulation will occur very soon after the harpazo, then it is tempting to allegorize ‘Babylon’.
I have long thought that there will be at least a 3-year gap between the rapture and the start of the Tribulation, not only because of Ezekiel 38 and 39 (Israel will burn weapons for seven years) but the Yam’im Nora’im in which the Ten Days of Awe could represent the gap period as well as the seven- year Tribulation, but what if it is much longer? There may be more than a few years between the harpazo and the start of the Tribulation, plenty of time to build a major city.
**I strongly encourage all four of you to view the videos by Dr. Andy Woods at slbc.org/media/sermon-archives and scroll down to ‘Revelation’ and watch videos 52 through 59 to give you another perspective on these chapters. **
I ask that you at least do not say any longer that all the OT prophecies concerning Babylon have been fulfilled. Clearly they have not, as I illustrated above.
Don’t get me wrong, I think all of your ministries are fantastic. It is just on this point (and some other minor ones) that we differ, and I hope you will take my feedback in the loving spirit in which it was given.
I rejoice that these are not salvific issues. We will find out soon all the answers to our questions. 1 Corinthians 13:12 ‘For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully, just as I also have been fully known.’
Thank you for your ministries!
Respectfully,
John C. Hardin, DVM and current student at Southern Evangelical Seminary (SES)
Commentary on ancient Babylon being a ‘virgin’…
77O virgin daughter of Babylon – It is common in the Scriptures to speak of cities under the image of a virgin, a daughter, or a beautiful woman (see the notes at Isaiah 1:8; Isaiah 37:22; compare Lamentations 1:15; Jeremiah 31:21; Jeremiah 46:11).
…but the main purpose is doubtless to refer to Babylon as a beautiful and splendid city, and as being distinguished for delicacy, and the prevalence of what was regarded as ornamental.
… namely, that the application of the word “virgin” to any nation means that such a nation had never suffered defeat; but the rule is absolutely worthless. The prophet Jeremiah in the very discussion of the terrible defeat of Israel, and in fact after the loss of all the ten northern tribes wrote this: “Let mine eyes run down with tears night and day, and let them not cease, for the virgin daughter of my people is broken with a great breach” (Jeremiah 14:17). He also, a moment later, referred to “the virgin of Israel” (Isaiah 18:13). It is too bad that critics like Wardle are simply ignorant of the Biblical usage of certain terminology.
Babylon indeed had frequently been defeated in her past history; it will be remembered that Sennacherib defeated Babylon and placed his son on the throne. Nothing however depreciates the appropriate beauty of this passage’s reference to the nation as “Virgin daughter of Babylon.” That, of course, was not God’s estimate of her character, but her position in the world at that time, not only as she considered it, but as all the world also recognized it.
“Modern” history of Babylon after its fall to Cyrus…
Under Cyrus and the subsequent Persian king Darius I, Babylon became the capital city of the 9th Satrapy (Babylonia in the south and Athura in the north), as well as a center of learning and scientific advancement. In Achaemenid Persia, the ancient Babylonian arts of astronomy and mathematics were revitalized, and Babylonian scholars completed maps of constellations. The city became the administrative capital of the Persian Empire and remained prominent for over two centuries. Many important archaeological discoveries have been made that can provide a better understanding of that era.[53][54]
The early Persian kings had attempted to maintain the religious ceremonies of Marduk, who was the most important god, but by the reign of Darius III, over-taxation and the strain of numerous wars led to a deterioration of Babylon’s main shrines and canals, and the destabilization of the surrounding region. There were numerous attempts at rebellion and in 522 BC (Nebuchadnezzar III), 521 BC (Nebuchadnezzar IV) and 482 BC (Bel-shimani and Shamash-eriba) native Babylonian kings briefly regained independence. However, these revolts were quickly repressed and Babylon remained under Persian rule for two centuries, until Alexander the Great‘s entry in 331 BC.
Hellenistic period[edit]
In October of 331 BC, Darius III, the last Achaemenid king of the Persian Empire, was defeated by the forces of the Ancient Macedonian ruler Alexander at the Battle of Gaugamela.
Under Alexander, Babylon again flourished as a center of learning and commerce. However, following Alexander’s death in 323 BC in the palace of Nebuchadnezzar, his empire was divided amongst his generals, the Diadochi, and decades of fighting soon began. The constant turmoil virtually emptied the city of Babylon. A tablet dated 275 BC states that the inhabitants of Babylon were transported to Seleucia, where a palace and a temple (Esagila) were built. With this deportation, Babylon became insignificant as a city, although more than a century later, sacrifices were still performed in its old sanctuary.[55]
Renewed Persian rule[edit]
Main article: Babylonia § Persian Babylonia
Under the Parthian and Sassanid Empires, Babylon (like Assyria) became a province of these Persian Empires for nine centuries, until after AD 650.[citation needed] Although it was captured briefly by Trajan in AD 116 to be part of the newly conquered province of Mesopotamia, his successor Hadrian relinquished his conquests east of the Euphrates river, which became again the Roman Empire’s eastern boundary.[56][57]
However, Babylon maintained its own culture and people, who spoke varieties of Aramaic, and who continued to refer to their homeland as Babylon. Examples of their culture are found in the Babylonian Talmud, the Gnostic Mandaean religion, Eastern Rite Christianity and the religion of the philosopher Mani. Christianity was introduced to Mesopotamia in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD, and Babylon was the seat of a Bishop of the Church of the East until well after the Arab/Islamic conquest. Coins from the Parthian, Sasanian and Arabic periods excavated in Babylon demonstrate the continuity of settlement there.[58]
Muslim conquest[edit]
Main article: Muslim conquest of Persia
In the mid-7th century, Mesopotamia was invaded and settled by the expanding Muslim Empire, and a period of Islamization followed. Babylon was dissolved as a province and Aramaic and Church of the East Christianity eventually became marginalized. Ibn Hawqal (10th century) and the Arab scholar, al-Qazwini (13th century), describe Babylon (Babil) as a small village.[59] The latter described a well referred to as the ‘Dungeon of Daniel’ that was visited by Christians and Jews during holidays. The grave-shrine of Amran ibn Ali was visited by Muslims.
Babylon is mentioned in medieval Arabic writings as a source of bricks,[28] said to have been used in cities from Baghdad to Basra.[60]
European travelers, in many cases, could not discover the city’s location, or mistook Fallujah for it. Benjamin of Tudela, a 12th-century traveler, mentions Babylon, but it is not clear if he went there. Others referred to Baghdad as Babylon or New Babylon and described various structures encountered in the region as the Tower of Babel.[61] Pietro della Valle travelled to the village of Babil in Babylon in the 17th century and noted the existence of both baked and dried mudbricks cemented with bitumen.[60][62]
Modern era[edit]
Plan of ruins in 1905 with locations and names of villages
From the accounts of modern travelers, I had expected to have found on the site of Babylon more, and less, than I actually did. Less, because I could have formed no conception of the prodigious extent of the whole ruins, or of the size, solidity, and perfect state, of some of the parts of them; and more, because I thought that I should have distinguished some traces, however imperfect, of many of the principal structures of Babylon. I imagined, I should have said: “Here were the walls, and such must have been the extent of the area. There stood the palace, and this most assuredly was the tower of Belus.” – I was completely deceived: instead of a few insulated mounds, I found the whole face of the country covered with vestiges of building, in some places consisting of brick walls surprisingly fresh, in others merely of a vast succession of mounds of rubbish of such indeterminate figures, variety and extent, as to involve the person who should have formed any theory in inextricable confusion.
Claudius J. Rich, Memoir on the Ruins of Babylon (1815), pp. 1–2.[63]
The eighteenth century saw an increasing flow of travelers to Babylon, including Carsten Niebuhr and Pierre-Joseph de Beauchamp, as well as measurements of its latitude. Beauchamp’s memoir, published in English translation in 1792, provoked the British East India Company to direct its agents in Baghdad and Basra to acquire Mesopotamian relics for shipment to London.[64]
By 1905, there were several villages in Babylon, one of which was Qwaresh with about 200 households located within the boundaries of the ancient inner city walls. The village grew due to the need for laborers during the German Oriental Society excavations (1899-1917).