Babylon (New Testament)
Encyclopedia
Babylon
Babylon was an Akkadian city-state of ancient Mesopotamia, the remains of which are found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Province, Iraq, about 85 kilometers south of Baghdad...
occurs in the Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
New Testament
New Testament
The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
both with a literal and a figurative meaning. The famous ancient city, located near Baghdad
Baghdad
Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...
, was a complete unpopulated ruin by 275 BC, well before the time of the New Testament
Development of the New Testament canon
The Canon of the New Testament is the set of books Christians regard as divinely inspired and constituting the New Testament of the Christian Bible. For most, it is an agreed-upon list of twenty-seven books that includes the Canonical Gospels, Acts, letters of the Apostles, and Revelation...
. In the Book of Revelation
Book of Revelation
The Book of Revelation is the final book of the New Testament. The title came into usage from the first word of the book in Koine Greek: apokalupsis, meaning "unveiling" or "revelation"...
, the city of Babylon seems to be the symbol of every kind of evil
Evil
Evil is the violation of, or intent to violate, some moral code. Evil is usually seen as the dualistic opposite of good. Definitions of evil vary along with analysis of its root motive causes, however general actions commonly considered evil include: conscious and deliberate wrongdoing,...
.
New Testament era
Babylon was later the nominal seat of Latin archbishop, of an AssyrianAssyrian Church of the East
The Assyrian Church of the East, officially the Holy Apostolic Catholic Assyrian Church of the East ʻIttā Qaddishtā w-Shlikhāitā Qattoliqi d-Madnĕkhā d-Āturāyē), is a Syriac Church historically centered in Mesopotamia. It is one of the churches that claim continuity with the historical...
patriarch and of a Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
n archbishop. But according to the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia: "Babylon" http://www.studylight.org/enc/isb/view.cgi?number=T1074, there was probably no Christian community in the actual city of Babylon during the time when the New Testament books were completed (roughly, the second half of the first century). There are passing references to the historical Babylon of the Jewish past in Matthew
Gospel of Matthew
The Gospel According to Matthew is one of the four canonical gospels, one of the three synoptic gospels, and the first book of the New Testament. It tells of the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth...
1:11,12,17 and in Acts
Acts of the Apostles
The Acts of the Apostles , usually referred to simply as Acts, is the fifth book of the New Testament; Acts outlines the history of the Apostolic Age...
7:43, but these are literary. In 1 Peter 5:13 Babylon is designated as the place from which that Epistle was written, but this has traditionally been interpreted as an example of the figurative sense of "Babylon", as a euphemism for Rome. Peter is believed to have spent the last years of his life in Rome.
Book of Revelation
In the Book of RevelationBook of Revelation
The Book of Revelation is the final book of the New Testament. The title came into usage from the first word of the book in Koine Greek: apokalupsis, meaning "unveiling" or "revelation"...
, the destruction of 'Babylon', a city which seems to be a symbol of every kind of evil, is foretold. The connection with the actual historical city of Babylon is usually held to be metaphorical. Virtually all New Testament scholars believe that "Babylon" is here used as a metaphor, euphemism, or 'code word' for the power of the Roman Empire
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
, which was oppressing the nascent church much as the Babylonia
Babylonia
Babylonia was an ancient cultural region in central-southern Mesopotamia , with Babylon as its capital. Babylonia emerged as a major power when Hammurabi Babylonia was an ancient cultural region in central-southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq), with Babylon as its capital. Babylonia emerged as...
n empire had oppressed the Jewish people in Old Testament times; with the reason given usually being that it was not considered safe or prudent to speak openly against Rome.
Elsewhere in the Book of Revelation, Babylon is the name of a whore who rules over the kings of the earth and rides upon a seven-headed beast. In one of the Bible's most famous cases of numerology
Numerology
Numerology is any study of the purported mystical relationship between a count or measurement and life. It has many systems and traditions and beliefs...
, the beast is assigned the identifying number
Number of the Beast
The Number of the Beast is a term in the Book of Revelation, of the New Testament, that is associated with the first Beast of Revelation chapter 13, the Beast of the sea. In most manuscripts of the New Testament and in English translations of the Bible, the number of the Beast is...
666
666 (number)
666 is the natural number following 665 and preceding 667.- In mathematics :666 is the sum of the first 36 natural numbers 666 (six hundred and sixty-six) is the natural number following 665 and preceding 667.- In mathematics :666 is the sum of the first 36 natural numbers 666 (six hundred and...
(believed by a few scholars to be Nero
Nero
Nero , was Roman Emperor from 54 to 68, and the last in the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Nero was adopted by his great-uncle Claudius to become his heir and successor, and succeeded to the throne in 54 following Claudius' death....
).
Whom or what Babylon refers to in the Book of Revelation has been the subject of much speculation over the centuries:
- As noted above, the standard scholarly interpretation is that Babylon symbolises RomeRomeRome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
and the "Whore of Babylon" therefore either refers to the Roman emperorEmperorAn emperor is a monarch, usually the sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife or a woman who rules in her own right...
, or personified the power of the Roman Empire under whom many early Christians and JewsJewsThe Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
were persecutedPersecutionPersecution is the systematic mistreatment of an individual or group by another group. The most common forms are religious persecution, ethnic persecution, and political persecution, though there is naturally some overlap between these terms. The inflicting of suffering, harassment, isolation,...
, tortureTortureTorture is the act of inflicting severe pain as a means of punishment, revenge, forcing information or a confession, or simply as an act of cruelty. Throughout history, torture has often been used as a method of political re-education, interrogation, punishment, and coercion...
d, and martyred for their beliefs because they would not submit to the Roman Emperor as a god. Many scholars believe that the early Christians used "Babylon" as a euphemismEuphemismA euphemism is the substitution of a mild, inoffensive, relatively uncontroversial phrase for another more frank expression that might offend or otherwise suggest something unpleasant to the audience...
for pagan Rome, so that their small community wouldn't be found out and persecuted even more. - Some FundamentalistFundamentalist ChristianityChristian fundamentalism, also known as Fundamentalist Christianity, or Fundamentalism, arose out of British and American Protestantism in the late 19th century and early 20th century among evangelical Christians...
ProtestantProtestantismProtestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...
commentaries on the Book of RevelationBook of RevelationThe Book of Revelation is the final book of the New Testament. The title came into usage from the first word of the book in Koine Greek: apokalupsis, meaning "unveiling" or "revelation"...
treat the references to the city Babylon in Revelation as both the City of Rome and the Roman Catholic ChurchRoman Catholic ChurchThe Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
personified in the institution of the papacyPopeThe Pope is the Bishop of Rome, a position that makes him the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church . In the Catholic Church, the Pope is regarded as the successor of Saint Peter, the Apostle...
. Some Protestant denominations today do not give credence to such arguments however. - Jehovah's WitnessesJehovah's WitnessesJehovah's Witnesses is a millenarian restorationist Christian denomination with nontrinitarian beliefs distinct from mainstream Christianity. The religion reports worldwide membership of over 7 million adherents involved in evangelism, convention attendance of over 12 million, and annual...
believe that Babylon represents all false religion (i.e.: that thought to be disapproved of or condemned by God). - A modern interpretation is that the Whore of Babylon refers to the institution of multinational corporations. (whore - one whose loyalty can be bought; rules over the kings of the earth - is more powerful than any individual secular government.)
- In the Rastafari movementRastafari movementThe Rastafari movement or Rasta is a new religious movement that arose in the 1930s in Jamaica, which at the time was a country with a predominantly Christian culture where 98% of the people were the black descendants of slaves. Its adherents worship Haile Selassie I, Emperor of Ethiopia , as God...
, Babylon is a key theological concept referring to any oppressive power structure that adherents believe has been responsible for stealing and oppressing them for generations and still today. However it also refers to the literal Tower of BabelTower of BabelThe Tower of Babel , according to the Book of Genesis, was an enormous tower built in the plain of Shinar .According to the biblical account, a united humanity of the generations following the Great Flood, speaking a single language and migrating from the east, came to the land of Shinar, where...
, which Haile Selassie sometimes referred to in his speeches, seen as an act of human rebellion against JAHJahJah is the shortened form of the divine name YHWH , an anglicized version of the Tetragrammaton . The name is most commonly associated with the Rastafari movement or within the word hallelujah, although Christian groups may use the name to varying degrees. For example, Jehovah's Witnesses use a...
.
The considered opinions as to the identity of Babylon in the New Testament need also factor in biblical references to a geographical feature that is close-by to the historical site of Babylon; that is the "great river Euphrates", as mentioned specifically in Revelation 9:14 and Revelation 16:12.
Babylon in Popular Culture
- Fritz LangFritz LangFriedrich Christian Anton "Fritz" Lang was an Austrian-American filmmaker, screenwriter, and occasional film producer and actor. One of the best known émigrés from Germany's school of Expressionism, he was dubbed the "Master of Darkness" by the British Film Institute...
's film Metropolis interpreted Revelation's "Whore of Babylon" as the android Maria. - In William ShakespeareWilliam ShakespeareWilliam Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
's play Henry VHenry V (play)Henry V is a history play by William Shakespeare, believed to be written in approximately 1599. Its full titles are The Cronicle History of Henry the Fifth and The Life of Henry the Fifth...
, FalstaffFalstaffSir John Falstaff is a fictional character who appears in three plays by William Shakespeare. In the two Henry IV plays, he is a companion to Prince Hal, the future King Henry V. A fat, vain, boastful, and cowardly knight, Falstaff leads the apparently wayward Prince Hal into trouble, and is...
's dying words refer to the Whore of Babylon. This is probably a final touch of comic relief in Falstaff's career, since he intends a spiritual or Biblical meaning, while Mistress QuicklyMistress QuicklyMistress Quickly is an inn-keeper who appears in four plays by William Shakespeare:*Henry IV, Part 1*Henry IV, Part 2*Henry V*The Merry Wives of Windsor...
takes it to mean a literal prostitute, one he knew and she had not. - The Avenged SevenfoldAvenged SevenfoldAvenged Sevenfold is an American heavy metal band from Huntington Beach, California. Formed in 1999, the group consists of vocalist M. Shadows, lead guitarist Synyster Gates, rhythm guitarist Zacky Vengeance, bassist Johnny Christ....
song "Beast and the HarlotBeast and the Harlot"Beast and the Harlot" is a song by American heavy metal band Avenged Sevenfold, the song was released as a single taken from their third album City of Evil. The song peaked at #19 on the U.S...
" is based on the Whore of Babylon. - In the CLAMPCLAMP, is an all-female Japanese manga artist group that formed in the mid 1980s. Many of the group's manga series are often adapted into anime after release. It consists of their leader , who provides much of the storyline and screenplay for all their works and adaptations of those works respectively ,...
work X/1999, an apocalyptic-genre manga, Tokyo is based on Babylon in that it is the center of all the world's evil. - Babylon is an important Rastafari term that is used at Rainbow GatheringRainbow GatheringRainbow Gatherings are temporary intentional communities, typically held in outdoor settings, and espousing and practicing ideals of peace, love, harmony, freedom and community, as a consciously expressed alternative to mainstream popular culture, consumerism, capitalism and mass media.Rainbow...
s, the term refers to human governments and institutions, that are seen as in rebellion against the rule of God, or in a more general sense, to any system that oppresses or discriminates against any race. It is a commonly used term in reggaeReggaeReggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...
music. - The HeptonesThe HeptonesThe Heptones are a Jamaican rocksteady and reggae vocal trio most active in the 1960s and early 1970s. They were one of the more significant trios of that era, and played a major role in the gradual transition between ska and rocksteady with their three-part harmonies.-History:Leroy Sibbles, Earl...
song, "Mystery Babylon" was produced by Lee "Scratch" Perry in 1976 - Mystery Babylon is the title of a film produced by film company ACT 2 CAMACT 2 CAMACT 2 CAM is a production company and acting school based in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.The company is notable for producing independent films with cast and crew of young people from 8 to 18 years old...
in 2011
The considered opinions as to the identity of Babylon in the New Testament need also factor in biblical references to a close-by geographical fetaure; the "great river Euphrates", see Revelation 9:14 and Revelation 16:12 for the specific references.