Ritual tablets describe the Babylonian process of “making” a god from wood and introducing him into his temple (compare Isa 44:9-20).

Enuma Elish, the Atrahasis Epic, and the Epic of Gilgamesh offer parallels to the creation accounts and flood stories in Gen 1-11. Thousands of cuneiform tablets from Babylonia (and Assyria, its northeastern neighbor) preserve ancient texts that illuminate the biblical world. Its ruins presently lie about 60 miles southwest of modern Baghdad. The city lost its luster under Alexander’s successors, the Seleucids, and fell to the Parthians in 141 B.C.E. When the Greek king Alexander took Babylon from the Persians in 331 B.C.E., he planned to make it his Asian capital only his untimely death prevented this. Within decades, Babylon fell to the Persians under Cyrus (in 539 B.C.E.), but the city continued to flourish. Its name became synonymous with the southern region of Mesopotamia ( Babylonia).Īlthough important earlier, it was not until the late seventh century B.C.E., under Nebuchadnezzar II (604–562 B.C.E.), that Babylon became the capital of a vast empire stretching the length of the Fertile Crescent.

Although Babylon’s political fortunes varied over the centuries, the city remained an important religious center and icon of Mesopotamian culture throughout its long history. Situated on the Euphrates River, Babylon rose to prominence under King Hammurabi in the eighteenth century B.C.E. To understand this prominence, you need to know something about Babylonian history and culture.

The Hebrew Bible mentions Babylon more than 280 times.

Babylon dictionary law