Babylon · The Symbolism of Scripture
Babylon
The world-city organised in pride — and the same sentence in three mouths, from a tower on a plain to a king on a roof to a city that says what only God can say.
What This Page Is
the picture, not the empire
Babylon is two things in Scripture and they need separating. There was a real city, with real kings, real walls and a real archive: and there is a picture the Bible builds out of it. This page carries the picture: what Scripture does with the name, and why it keeps coming back to it. The empire itself — the history, the conquest, the exile, the excavations — is a separate study.
The two allude to each other constantly, and neither is a substitute for the other.
The Same Sentence, Three Times
The builders on the plain of Shinar
“let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth”
Genesis 11:4Nebuchadnezzar, on the roof of his palace
“Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty?”
Daniel 4:30Babylon herself, in Isaiah's oracle
“I am, and none else beside me; I shall not sit as a widow, neither shall I know the loss of children”
Isaiah 47:8
And the answer to the first, one chapter later
“I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great” — Genesis 12:2, said to one man who had just left that country.
So now hear this, O lover of luxury who sits securely, who says to herself, ‘I am, and there is none besides me. I will never be a widow or know the loss of children.’Read the middle clause on its own, and then read Isaiah 45:6.
Language of arrogance in man's mouth; fitting for God alone (Isa 45:6). See Isa 5:8, latter part.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871Scottish, nineteenth century
Isaiah 47:8
That one line is the whole diagnosis. Babylon’s characteristic sin is not cruelty or wealth or even idolatry. It is taking a sentence that belongs to God and putting it in her own mouth. Matthew Henry draws the ordinary version of it and then the extreme one:
It is presumption to say of any creature, "It is, and there is not its like, there is none besides it" (for creatures stand very nearly upon a level with one another); but it is insufferable arrogance for any to say so of themselves, and an evidence of their self-ignorance.
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710Nonconformist
Isaiah 47:8
I am - Independent, and self-sufficient. None - Which is not either subject to me, or far inferior to me in power and glory. Shall not sit - I shall never want either a king or people to defend me.
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament, 1765Methodist
Isaiah 47:8
Procopius of Gaza, in the sixth century, notes where the confidence came from: “Thinking that you would prove to be better than the Persians, you said, "I am and there is no other," and you were encouraged by the oracles of demons and astrologers.”
A Name, and the Name They Got
Genesis 11, and the sentence that answers it
“Come,” they said, “let us build for ourselves a city with a tower that reaches to the heavens, that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of all the earth.”Two motives in one sentence, and the second one explains the first.
That is why it is called Babel, for there the LORD confused the language of the whole world, and from that place the LORD scattered them over the face of all the earth.They get a name and a scattering: both of them, and neither the way they intended.
"No," say they, "we will not, we will live and die together." In order hereunto, they engage themselves and one another in this vast undertaking. That they might unite in one glorious empire, they resolve to build this city and tower, to be the metropolis of their kingdom and the centre of their unity.
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710Nonconformist
Genesis 11:4
a tower whose top may reach unto heaven--a common figurative expression for great height (De 1:28; 9:1-6). lest we be scattered--To build a city and a town was no crime; but to do this to defeat the counsels of heaven by attempting to prevent emigration was foolish, wicked, and justly offensive to God.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871Scottish, nineteenth century
Genesis 11:4
Jamieson, Fausset and Brown put the offence exactly where the text puts it, and it is worth quoting for what it does not condemn: to build a city and a town was no crime. The problem is in the purpose clause: a project undertaken to prevent a scattering God had already commanded.
I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.The next chapter. Somebody does get a great name, and it is given rather than built.
Babel, and what the name meansthe Hebrew wordplay, and an early witness to it
Therefore is the name of it called Babel - בבל babel, from בל bal, to mingle, confound, destroy; hence Babel, from the mingling together and confounding of the projects and language of these descendants of Noah; and this confounding did not so much imply the producing new languages, as giving them a different method of pronouncing the same words, and leading them to affix different ideas to them.
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible, 1832Wesleyan
Genesis 11:9
This city named "Confusion" was none other than Babylon, to whose marvelous construction pagan history brings testimonies. For Babylon means "confusion."
Augustine of Hippo· City of God 16.4, 430Latin, fifth century
Genesis 11:4
'And the place in which they built the tower is now called Babylon, because of the confusion of what at first was clear in their language. For the Hebrews call confusion "Babel." '
Eusebius of Caesarea· Preparation for the Gospel, Book IX, Chapter XIV, 339quoting Josephus
Genesis 11:9
The wordplay is the chapter’s own, and worth stating plainly: Genesis connects the city’s name to the confounding of speech there. Clarke’s observation about what was confounded: not new vocabularies but different ideas attached to the same words : is his reading rather than the text’s claim, and it is a perceptive one.
And so the Lord scattered them from that place over all the earth, and they ceased to build the city; and therefore it was called Babel, because there the language of the whole earth was confused.
Bede the Venerable· Commentary on Genesis, 735Anglo-Saxon, eighth century
Genesis 11:9
There are many people even today who in imitation of them want to be remembered for such achievements, by building splendid homes, baths, porches and avenues. I mean, if you were to ask each of them why they toil and labor and lay out such great expense to no good purpose, you would hear nothing but these very words. They would be seeking to ensure that their memory survives in perpetuity and to have it said that "this is the house belonging to so-and-so," "this is the property of so-and-so."
John Chrysostom· Homilies on Genesis 30.7, 407Greek, fourth century
Genesis 11:9
Chrysostom is preaching to a congregation in a wealthy city and hears the sentence from Genesis 11 coming out of their own building projects: this is the house belonging to so-and-so. Which is the reason the symbol is in the Bible at all: it is not about Mesopotamia.
Jerome adds the observation that keeps the chapter from being only a judgment: “Indeed, when the tower was being built up against God, those who were building it were disbanded for their own welfare. The conspiracy was evil. The dispersion was of true benefit even to those who were dispersed.”
The Shortest Sentence in the Symbol
Daniel 4, and the interruption
the king exclaimed, “Is this not Babylon the Great, which I myself have built by the might of my power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty?”Three first-person claims in one breath, about a city.
While the words were still in the king’s mouth, a voice came from heaven: “It is decreed to you, King Nebuchadnezzar, that the kingdom has departed from you.And the clause that dates the answer: while the word was in the king's mouth.
The "I" is emphatic, by which he puts himself in the place of God; so the "my . . . my." He impiously opposes his might to God's, as though God's threat, uttered a year before, could never come to pass.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871Scottish, nineteenth century
Daniel 4:30
Is not this great Babylon - Here his heart was inflated with pride; he attributed every thing to himself, and acknowledged God in nothing. The walls, hanging gardens, temple of Bel, and the royal palace, all built by Nebuchadnezzar, made it the greatest city in the world.
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible, 1832Wesleyan
Daniel 4:30
Jamieson, Fausset and Brown say the same thing about Daniel 4 that they said about Isaiah 47: the pronoun is the offence. He puts himself in the place of God. And Hippolytus, in the third century, sets the boast beside its own outcome without adding a word of comment:
For if the glory of those who lie in prominence is like dry leaves, which blossom for a little while but immediately waste away, how does it aid Nebuchadnezzar the king when he says this immoderate statement, "Is this Babylon not great, which I myself built as a house for my kingdom, for the rule of my strength, for the honor of my glory?" [Daniel 4:30] When after he was banished, he ate vegetation with the beasts in the mountains?
Hippolytus of Rome· Commentary on Daniel 3.7, 235Rome, third century
Daniel 4:30
Where It Points
a quotation, and an instruction
And Babylon, the jewel of the kingdoms, the glory of the pride of the Chaldeans, will be overthrown by God like Sodom and Gomorrah.Said while she was the glory of kingdoms: and the comparison chosen for her end is a town nobody could find.
And he cried out in a mighty voice: “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a lair for demons and a haunt for every unclean spirit, every unclean bird, and every detestable beast.John is not inventing a phrase. He is repeating Isaiah 21:9, and the doubling is in the original too.
The first and most ancient kingdom, Gen 10:10 and now, at the time of its fall, the largest and most extensive; wherefore of the image Nebuchadnezzar saw in his dream, which was a representation of several kingdoms, this was the head, the head of gold, Dan 2:31 so Babylon is called the "lady of kingdoms", Isa 47:5
John Gill· Exposition of the Old Testament, 1763Particular Baptist
Isaiah 13:19
That is, the capital or chief ornament of many nations. Appellations of this kind, applied to Babylon, abound in the Scriptures. In Dan 4:30, it is called great Babylon; in Isa 14:4, it is called the golden city; in Isa 47:5, the lady of kingdoms; in Jer 51:13, it is, spoken of as abundant in treasures; and, in Jer 51:41, as the praise of the whole earth. All these expressions are designed to indicate its immense wealth and magnificence.
Albert Barnes· Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments, 1851Presbyterian
Isaiah 13:19
But this is also borrowed from Isa. xxi. 9 , and seems to describe not so much her sin of entertaining idols (which are truly called devils ) as her punishment, it being a common notion that unclean spirits, as well as ominous and hateful birds, used to haunt a city or house that lay in its ruins.
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710Nonconformist
Revelation 18:2
Something similar to this was foretold in Isaiah about the Chaldean capital city of Babylon when it was captured by Cyrus and the Persians, namely, that it would be filled with beasts and impure spirits on account of its utter desolation.
Andreas of Caesarea· Commentary on the Apocalypse 18:2-3, 614Cappadocian, seventh century
Revelation 18:2
Both notice the same thing: Revelation is speaking in Isaiah’s words about a city Isaiah had already buried. The symbol closes by quoting its own opening prophet.
Then I heard another voice from heaven say: “Come out of her, My people, so that you will not share in her sins or contract any of her plagues.And the instruction that has followed this symbol from the beginning, with the reason attached.
Come out of her, my people, etc. Likewise Isaiah: Depart from the midst of them, and touch no unclean thing. Be clean, you who bear the vessels of the Lord (Isa. 52).
Bede the Venerable· Commentary on Revelation, 735Anglo-Saxon, eighth century
Revelation 18:4
From so much as a dwelling in that Babylon of John's Revelation we are called away; much more then from its pomp.
Tertullian· De Corona, 220Latin, third century
Revelation 18:4
Bede answers the question the verse raises — who is being addressed — by pointing at Isaiah 52:11, where the same call goes to the people carrying the vessels of the LORD. The instruction assumes God’s people are inside, and does not explain how they got there. It is the same word given to Lot, and the same word given to Abram before any of this began — the man who walked out of that country and was given the name the tower was built for.
What Scripture says outright
- Genesis 11:4
The builders state their own motive: a name, and no scattering. The narrator does not have to characterise them.
- Daniel 4:30-31
The boast and its answer are printed in consecutive verses, with the timing given: while the word was still in his mouth.
- Isaiah 47:8
Babylon is quoted saying “I am, and none else beside me”: the wording God uses of Himself two chapters earlier.
- Revelation 18:4
The command and its two reasons are given together: come out, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.
What readers have heard in it
Readings and identifications, named as such.
- Revelation 18:2
Every identification of Revelation’s Babylon with a named city, church or institution. They begin in the patristic period and have been reassigned in nearly every century since. MannaFest does not adjudicate the question.
- Genesis 11:9
That the confusion was the creation of entirely new languages. Adam Clarke argues it was the same words with different meanings attached: a reading, and not what the verse says.
- Genesis 11:4
That Nimrod organised the project. Matthew Henry thinks it probable; Genesis 11 does not name him, and the connection comes from the previous chapter’s geography.
Its Presentation Through Scripture
the picture, from the plain to the last chapters
“Come,” they said, “let us build for ourselves a city with a tower that reaches to the heavens, that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of all the earth.”
The first sentence of the symbol, and it contains both halves: a name to be made, and a scattering to be prevented.
That is why it is called Babel, for there the LORD confused the language of the whole world, and from that place the LORD scattered them over the face of all the earth.
The name is given: and it is not the name they were building for. Both things they feared happen anyway.
I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.
One chapter later, the thing they were building for is given away: to a man who left.
And Babylon, the jewel of the kingdoms, the glory of the pride of the Chaldeans, will be overthrown by God like Sodom and Gomorrah.
At the height of her reputation, the comparison chosen for her end is Sodom.
So now hear this, O lover of luxury who sits securely, who says to herself, ‘I am, and there is none besides me. I will never be a widow or know the loss of children.’
And the sentence that gives the symbol its shape: a claim that belongs in one mouth only.
the king exclaimed, “Is this not Babylon the Great, which I myself have built by the might of my power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty?”
Count the first-person pronouns. I have built, my power, my majesty.
While the words were still in the king’s mouth, a voice came from heaven: “It is decreed to you, King Nebuchadnezzar, that the kingdom has departed from you.
And how long the sentence lasted: the word was still in his mouth.
And he cried out in a mighty voice: “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a lair for demons and a haunt for every unclean spirit, every unclean bird, and every detestable beast.
The last chapter of the symbol quotes the first prophet who announced it: Isaiah 21:9, word for word.
Then I heard another voice from heaven say: “Come out of her, My people, so that you will not share in her sins or contract any of her plagues.
And the standing instruction, which is the same one given to Lot and to Abram: come out.
The Voices
with the work named
Jamieson, Fausset and Brown give this page its diagnosis twice over : once on Isaiah 47 (language fitting for God alone) and once on Daniel 4 (the emphatic I, putting himself in God’s place): and they are careful enough at Genesis 11 to say that building a city was no crime. Adam Clarke supplies the Hebrew behind the name and a shrewd note on what was actually confounded.
John Chrysostom hears Genesis 11 in the building projects of his own congregation, which is the reason the symbol survives its city. Hippolytus sets Nebuchadnezzar’s boast beside the field he ended up in. Jerome finds the mercy inside the scattering. And Bede, reading Revelation 18:4, sends the reader back to Isaiah 52 to find out who is being called out.
Where to Go Next
Where the story is told
The picture beside it
Nearby in the index
Its neighbours in the index
The Symbolism of Scripture gathers every picture the Bible thinks in. This one sits with: