Then the angel said to me: “Why are you astonished? I will explain to you the mystery of the woman [who sits on many waters] …. Then the angel said to me, “The waters you saw, where the prostitute sits, are peoples, multitudes, nations and languages … [t]he woman you saw is the great city that rules over the kings of the earth.” (Revelation 17:7, 15, 18, NIV 1984).
My Musings – The symbolism here (“sits on many waters” and “great city that rules over the kings of the earth“) have led many commentators to see this as signifying a literal geographical Babylon. “The Lord will carry out his purpose, his decree against the people of Babylon. You who live by many waters and are rich in treasures, your end has come, the time for you to be cut off.” (Jeremiah 51:12–13, NIV 1984).
But three things were prophesied about ancient Babylon. It would fall. It would be left in ruins, and it would never be inhabited again. See Isaiah 14:1–23; 21:1–10; 46:1–2; 47:1–5 and Jeremiah 50–51).
It Fell – In October 539 BC, the Persian ruler Cyrus entered the city and the Babylonian king Belshazzar was slain (Daniel 5:30). The principal buildings were spared and the temples with their statues were restored by royal decree. It became a subsidiary Persian capital with an Achaemenid palace located there.
It Was Left in Ruins – It became the center of a number of rebellions, which finally led to its destruction in 478 BC by Xerxes, the grandson of Cyrus. Although Alexander the Great planned to restore it, he met his death there before work progressed very far. When Seleucia on the river Tigris became the capital of the Seleucid rulers, the city once again fell into disrepair and ruins. According to cuneiform texts, the temple of Bel continued in existence until at least until AD 75.
It Became Uninhabited – The site was completely deserted by AD 200.
Thus, if the Babylon mentioned here in Revelation 17 is a literal Babylon, it must be rebuilt like many believe that the Temple in Jerusalem will be rebuilt. This time it will fall for good, be left a pile of ruins, and never to be inhabited again (millennium).
For a while it looked like this could happen. In 1983, Saddam Hussein, who imagined himself as the heir to Nebuchadnezzar, ordered the rebuilding of Babylon. Like Nebuchadnezzar, Hussein had his name inscribed on the bricks, which were placed directly on top of its ancient ruins. A sample inscription translates to: ”In the reign of the victorious Saddam Hussein, the president of the Republic, may God keep him, the guardian of the great Iraq and the renovator of its renaissance and the builder of its great civilization, the rebuilding of the great city of Babylon was done in 1987.”
Hussein added huge portraits of himself and Nebuchadnezzar at the entrance of the ruins. At the end of the Persian Gulf War, he commissioned a palace over more Babylonian ruins, in the same pyramid style as a Sumerian ziggurat, calling it Saddam Hill. The massive yet gaudy structure almost completely covered the original ruins, outraging many archaeologists.
Hussein’s plans for a cable line running over the Babylon site were halted with the 2003 invasion. Following the 2003 invasion, the United States military camp Alpha was set up on the ruins. Areas were leveled to create landing pads for helicopters and parking lots for vehicles. Tanks rumbled over the ancient bricks, and Polish troops dug trenches through a temple. Soil holding artifacts and bones was scooped into sandbags. Even this military presence was unable to keep looters from ransacking more than 10,000 of Iraq’s historic sites after the invasion.
With the end of his rule, Hussein’s ego-driven grand plan to reconstruct Babylon came to an end. But there are signs that his dreams did not die with him. Several efforts to restore Babylon have been announced in the past several years, but without much progress. When (if) security in Iraq improves, officials hope to begin work on a project to restore the site, with partial funding by the U.S. State Department. The United Nations is also trying to name the place a World Heritage site, a designation that would provide additional support and protection.
Alternative interpretations to a literal rebuilt Babylon include: a figurative Babylon specific to the 1st Century readers; a figurative Babylon specific to the end times; a revived geographical “Roman” empire; a revived demographic “Roman” empire; and a spiritual Babylon. We’ll investigate these interpretations in subsequent musings.
My Advice – Kingdoms rise and fall. Many to total ruin, others to merely fade from prominence and power. A shell of their past glory. Be very wary of those who would link patriotism and the Gospel, much like some would link grace to works. The Gospel of grace stands alone. There is a legitimate place for patriotism and works. But patriotism for a worldly kingdom should not be put on an equal footing with the Kingdom of God. Just as works has nothing to do with obtaining salvation, and much to do with evidencing genuine salvation.
Sources:
Vincent, M. R. (1887). Word studies in the New Testament (Vol. 2, p. 543). New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons.
Barry, J. D., Heiser, M. S., Custis, M., Mangum, D., & Whitehead, M. M. (2012). Faithlife Study Bible. Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software.
Wiseman, D. J. (1996). In the Old Testament. In D. R. W. Wood, I. H. Marshall, A. R. Millard, & J. I. Packer (Eds.), New Bible dictionary (3rd ed., pp. 110–111). Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
Browning, D. C., Jr. (2003). Babylon. In C. Brand, C. Draper, A. England, S. Bond, E. R. Clendenen, & T. C. Butler (Eds.), Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary (p. 159). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/babylon
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/28/AR2009072802835_2.html.
Barry, J. D., Heiser, M. S., Custis, M., Mangum, D., & Whitehead, M. M. (2012). Faithlife Study Bible. Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software.
The Brew Is A Musing 