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The Origin of Babylon

Genesis 10:10

Babylon is mentioned more than 250 times in the Bible, the vast majority of those referencing her as the oppressor and captor of the southern kingdom of Israel in the sixth century B.C. She surfaces again in Revelation as the emblem of a world system that rises in opposition to the will of God.

Babylon was both a Mesopotamian nation and capital city, the city situated some 50 miles south of modern Baghdad. Babylon was mythic in beauty and size—it is no surprise she was used by the apostle John to symbolize the power of the world commercial system in the end times.

Babylon as the literal and symbolic opponent of God has its origin in the earliest days of human expansion following the Flood of Noah. In what is known as the Table of Nations (Genesis 10) the descendants of Noah's three sons—Shem, Ham, Japheth—are listed. One of Ham's sons was Cush and one of Cush's sons was Nimrod (Genesis 10:6, 8). Nimrod "began to be a mighty one on the earth" and built the cities of "Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar [southern Mesopotamia]", and later other cities in what became Assyria (northern Mesopotamia).

The ark of Noah came to rest, after the Flood, in what is modern Turkey. As Noah's descendants multiplied they journeyed eastward and settled in "the land of Shinar" (Genesis 11:1-2). It was there, in Nimrod's city of Babel, that the signature event happened that identified Babylon as God's antagonist: the building of the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9). The people built a massive tower as a symbol of human unity and pride, an effort God resisted by confusing their language and scattering the people.

Babylon eventually dominated Mesopotamia until conquered by the Persians in 539 B.C. as foretold by Daniel the prophet (Daniel 5).

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