Вавилон

Babylon is the first city founded by the Hamitic tribe, which has different names in wedge-shaped inscriptions. In Semitic form it is called Bab-or “gate of the gods”, and in non-Semitic form it is called Tin-tir “forest of life”. According to biblical production (Gen. 11:9), it means “confusion”, due to the confusion of languages ​​that occurred there. Rationalists and many Assyriologists, like Schrader and others, dispute this production, preferring to it the production of cuneiform, but nothing proves the advantage of the latter, which sufficiently reveals signs of a rather late origin compared to biblical production. Left unfinished after the scattering of the tower builders, V. was completed later. After this first mention, the Bible then remains silent about V. until the destruction of the kingdom of Israel; then she tells that the Assyrian king resettled Babylonian settlers to Samaria, who added the cult of their idols to the cult of the true God (2 Kings 17:24, 30). Later, the Babylonian king Merodach-Baladan tried to conclude an alliance with Hezekiah against the Assyrians and sent to congratulate him on his recovery; then it was the prophet Isaiah who predicted the Babylonian captivity for Hezekiah (2 Kings 20:12–19; Isaiah 39:1–8). In V. Manasseh was imprisoned by the king of Assyria (2 Chronicles 33:11–13). Finally, the destruction of the kingdom of Judah by Nebuchadnezzar brought entire parties of Jewish prisoners to Egypt in several stages, whom Jeremiah consoles and strengthens in faith with his letters (Barucha 6:1–72; Jeremiah 29). Actually, from the time of the Babylonian captivity, this city became famous in sacred history (Jer. 20:4, 12; Matt. 1:11, 17; Acts 7:43). The Prophet Ezekiel lived in V. and Daniel even held a high position at court there; in V. or its environs a statue of Nebuchadnezzar was erected, and the miraculous deliverance of the youths from the fiery furnace took place (Dan.3); this also includes the story of Susanna (Dan.13), the story about the trickery of the priests of Bel and the death of the Dragon (Dan.14), and finally, the double episode about the lion’s den (6; 14:27–42). After taking V. Cyrus, some of the captives returned to Palestine in various parties mentioned in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. But the book of Esther shows that many chose to remain in Egypt under Persian rule. The rule of the Seleucids, then the Parthians, was not at all unfavorable for them; so that later Babylonia becomes for them a refuge and a center of science. The glory of ancient Babylonia was also reflected in the memory of the ancient Russian people, as can be seen from the folk literary work called “The Tale of the Babylonian Kingdom” (XVI-XVII centuries). Old Russian legends about Babylon are divided into three sections: “The Parable of the City of Babylon”, or “The Tale of the City of Babylon”, “The Message from Leo to Babylon” and “On the Marriage of Nebuchadnezzar”. All these stories are completely mixed up in Russian literature and are known only from later copies, which, of course, makes them difficult to study. Babylon in the New Testament. – The capital of the Babylonian monarchy, with its formidable grandeur, the brilliance of its cultural wealth and the depth of its moral decline, made such an indelible impression on the imagination of mankind and especially on the Jews that its name generally became synonymous with any large immoral city. Later writers, namely Christian ones, often use the name Babylon in such a mysterious sense, which is still a subject of dispute for interpreters and researchers. Thus, a lot of reasoning aroused one place in 1 Epistle of St. Peter, where it is said that the apostle “welcomes the chosen church in Babylon” (5, 13). It is extremely difficult to determine what exactly is meant by V. here, and very many, especially Latin writers, claim that under this name the ap. Peter means Rome, on which even the well-known claims of the Roman popes as the successors of the apostle are based. Petra. But a particularly remarkable example of the mysterious use of the name V. is found in the Apocalypse or Revelation of St. John (from the end of chapter 16 to 18). There under the name V. the “great city” is depicted, playing a huge role in the life of peoples. Such an image no longer corresponds at all to Mesopotamian Egypt, which had long ago lost its global significance, and therefore researchers, not without reason, understand by this name the great capital of the Roman Empire - Rome, which occupied the same position in the history of Western peoples as the capital of Nebuchadnezzar occupied earlier in the history of the East. This is the now dominant view in exegesis.