Babylon (New Testament)

The Fall of Babylon, in a medieval tapestry

Babylon occurs in the Christian New Testament both with a literal and a figurative meaning. Babylon was a City-state of ancient Mesopotamia, the remains of which can be found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Province, Iraq A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, a monotheistic Religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth In the time of the New Testament, there was probably no Christian community in the actual city of Babylon. In the Book of Revelation, the city of Babylon seems to be the symbol of every kind of evil.

New Testament era

Babylon was later the nominal seat of a Latin archbishop, of a Chaldean patriarch and of a Syrian archbishop. Syria ( سوريّة or) officially the Syrian Arab Republic (Arabic ar الجمهورية العربية السورية But according to the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia: "Babylon" [1], 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 1:11,12,17 and in Acts 7:43, but these are literary. The Gospel of Matthew (Gk Κατά Ματθαίον Ευαγγέλιον is one of the four Canonical gospels in the New Testament and is a Synoptic gospel The Acts of the Apostles is a book of the Bible, which now stands fifth in the New Testament. 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. The First Epistle of Peter is a book of the New Testament. It has traditionally been held to have been written by Saint Peter the apostle during his time as Bishop

Belief of many Baptists; Peter never uses symbolic langauge and does not here according to many Bible Fundamentalists. According to this belief, Babylon did exist and according to the Jewish Historian Josepheas there was about 860,000 Jewish inhabitants in his time residing in Babylon, and Josepheas lived during the same time as Peter. This view is in direct conflict with Catholic doctrine placing Peter in Babylon when he should have been in Rome overseeing his duties as bishop. This argument holds a lot of weight considering the fact that Peter was not much for writing non literal text, not to mention that the context of this particular letter was of complete literal substance only. This belief held by many, points out that in Revelation 17 for example, "Babylon" is seen as symbolic because the context of the chapter is evidently figurative. However, 1 Peter chapter five can only be seen as literal when the chapter, or even the epistle is read in it's entire form. The Salutation; At the end of this 1 Peter 5:17 a salutation is made in conclusion. Salutations were never made in the New Testament from a symbolic city unless the city was not symbolic at all, and was an actual place.

Book of Revelation

See also: Whore of Babylon

In the Book of Revelation, the destruction of 'Babylon', a city which seems to be a symbol of every kind of evil, is foretold. The Whore of Babylon is one of several Christian allegorical figures of supreme Evil mentioned in the Book of Revelation in the Bible The Book of Revelation, also called Revelation to John, Apocalypse of John ( pronounced, from the Ἀποκάλυψις Ἰωάννου 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, which was oppressing the nascent church much as the Babylonian 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. The Roman Empire was the post-Republican phase of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial Babylonia was an Amorite state in lower Mesopotamia (modern southern Iraq) with Babylon as its capital

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. Prostitution is the act of performing Sexual activity in exchange for Money. In one of the Bible's most famous cases of numerology, the beast is assigned the identifying number 666 (believed by a few scholars to be Nero). Numerology is any of many Systems Traditions or Beliefs in a mystical or Esoteric relationship between Numbers and physical The Number of the Beast is a concept from the Book of Revelation of the New Testament of the Christian Bible. In mathematics 666 is the natural number following 665 and preceding 667 Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus ( December 15, 37 – June 9, 68) born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, also called

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 Rome and the "Whore of Babylon" therefore either refers to the Roman emperor, or personified the power of the Roman Empire under whom many early Christians and Jews were persecuted, tortured, and marytred for their beliefs because they would not submit to the Roman Emperor as a god. Rome ( Roma ˈroma Roma is the capital city of Italy and Lazio, and is Italy's largest and most populous city with more than 2 An emperor (from the Latin " Imperator " is a (male Monarch, usually the sovereign ruler of an Empire or another type of A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, a monotheistic Religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth PLEASE TAKE NOTE************ Persecution is the systematic mistreatment of an individual/group by another group Torture, according to the United Nations Convention Against Torture, is "any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental is intentionally The term martyr ( Greek μάρτυς martys "witness" is most commonly used today to describe an individual who sacrifices their life (or personal freedom Many scholars believe that the early Christians used "Babylon" as a euphemism for pagan Rome, so that their small community wouldn't be found out and persecuted even more. A euphemism is a substitution of an agreeable or less offensive expression in place of one that may offend or suggest something unpleasant to the listener or in the case of doublespeak
Some Fundamentalist Protestant commentaries on the Book of Revelation treat the references to the city Babylon in Revelation as both the City of Rome and the Roman Catholic Church personified in the institution of the papacy. Fundamentalist Christianity, also known as Christian Fundamentalism or Fundamentalist Evangelicalism, is a movement that arose mainly within British and Protestantism refers to the forms of Christian faith and practice that originated in the 16th century Protestant Reformation. The Book of Revelation, also called Revelation to John, Apocalypse of John ( pronounced, from the Ἀποκάλυψις Ἰωάννου History See also History of the Papacy Catholics recognize the Pope as a successor to Saint Peter, who Jesus named as the "shepherd" and Some Protestant denominations today do not give credence to such arguments however.
Some groups, including the Jehovah's Witnesses and some Mormons, believe as a variation of the above, that Babylon represents all false religion (ie: that thought to be disapproved of or condemned by God). Jehovah's Witnesses is a restorationist, millenialist Christian denomination Mormonism is a term used to describe the religious, ideological and cultural elements of certain branches of the Latter Day Saint movement
San Francisco is sometimes called (in varying degrees of seriousness) as "Babylon by the Bay". The City and County of San Francisco is the fourth most populous city Others have referred to the United States as Babylon, and New York as its Whore. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the New York ( is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous
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. ) While this might be acceptable as an oratorical figure of speech, serious Biblical scholars would regard it as an abuse of an ancient text to suppose that this was the intended meaning of the phrase. A figure of speech, sometimes
Fritz Lang's film Metropolis interpreted Revelation's "Whore of Babylon" as the android Maria. Friedrich Christian Anton "Fritz" Lang ( December 5, 1890 &ndash August 2, 1976) was an Austrian German - American Metropolis is a silent Science fiction film directed by Fritz Lang and written by Lang and Thea von Harbou. An android is a Robot designed to resemble a human usually both in appearance and behavior
In William Shakespeare's play Henry V, Falstaff's dying words refer to the Whore of Babylon. William Shakespeare ( baptised Sir John Falstaff is a Fictional character who appears in three plays by William Shakespeare as a companion to Prince Hal the future King Henry V. This is probably a final touch of comic relief in Falstaff's career, since he intends a spiritual or Biblical meaning, while Mistress Quickly takes it to mean a literal prostitute, one he knew and she had not.

In the Rastafari movement, Babylon is a key theological concept referring to any oppressive power structure that adherents believe has been responsible for keeping their people poor and oppressed for generations. The Rastafari movement (also known as Rastafari, Rastafarianism or simply Rasta) is a monotheistic, Abrahamic, New Testament However it also refers to the literal Tower of Babel, which Haile Selassie sometimes referred to in his speeches, seen as an act of human rebellion against JAH. The Tower of Babel (מגדל בבל Migdal Bavel برج بابل Burj Babil) is a structure featured in chapter 11 of the Book of Genesis, an enormous Haile Selassie I ( Ge'ez: am ኃይለ፡ ሥላሴ "Power of the Trinity " 23 July 1892 &ndash 27 August 1975 born Tafari Makonnen, was Jah (ˈdʒɑː is the shortened name for God YHWH, most commonly used in the Rastafari movement.