Βαβυλών

Βαβυλών — Babylṓn

Βαβυλών, Βαβυλῶνος, ἡ (Hebrew בָּבֶל from בָּלַל to confound, according to Gen 11:9; cf. Aeschylus Pers. 52 Βαβυλών δ' ἡ πολύχρυσος παμμικτον ὄχλον πέμπει σύρδην. But more correctly, as it seems, from בַּל בָּאב the gate i. e. the court or city of Belus (Assyr.Bab-Il the Gate of God; (perhaps of Il, the supreme God); cf. Schrader, Keilinschr. u. d. Alt. Test. 2te Aufl., p. 127f; Oppert in the Zeitsch. d. Deutsch. Morg. Gesellschaft, viii., p. 595)), Babylon, formerly a very celebrated and large city, the residence of the Babylonian kings, situated on both banks of the Euphrates. Cyrus had formerly captured it, but Darius Hystaspis threw down its gates and walls, and Xerxes destroyed (?) the temple of Belus. At length the city was reduced almost to a solitude, the population having been drawn off by the neighboring Seleucia, built on the Tigris by Seleucus Nicanor. (Cf. Prof. Rawlinson in B. D. under the word and his Herodotus, vol. i. Essays vi. and viii., vol. ii. Essay iv.) The name is used in the N. T.

1. of the city itself: Act 7:43; 1Pe 5:13 (where some have understood Babylon, a small town in Egypt, to be referred to; but in opposition cf. Mayerhoff, Einl. in die petrin. Schriften, p. 126ff; (cf. 3 at the end below)).

2. of the territory, Babylonia: Matthew 1:11f, 17; (often so in Greek writings).

3. allegorically, of Rome as the most corrupt seat of idolatry and the enemy of Christianity: Rev 14:8 (here Rec.elz Βαβουλων); (in the opinion of some 1Pe 5:13 also; (cf. 1 at the end, above)).