link opens new window Tower of Babel M. Escher 22x26 Fine ... Reconstruction of the Tower of Babel 24x18 Giclee Print The Tower of Babel, c.1563 Pieter Bruegel the Elder 32x24 Giclee Print The Building of the Tower of Babel Hendrick Van Cleve 40x30 Giclee Print The Tower of Babel, 1594 Lucas Valckenborch 24x18 Giclee Print The Construction of the Tower of Babe... 24x18 Giclee Print

Ba'bel. (confusion). Bab'ylon, (Greek form of Babel), is properly the capital city of the country, which is called in Genesis, Shinar, and in the later books, Chaldea, or the land of the Chaldeans. The first rise of the Chaldean power was in the region close upon the Persian Gulf; thence, the nation spread northward up the course of the rivers, and the seat of government moved in the same direction, being finally fixed at Babylon, perhaps not earlier than B.C, 1700. Ba'bel, The Tower of. The "tower of Babel" is only mentioned once in Scripture, Gen_11:4-And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. Gen 11:5 And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men built. Gen 11:6 And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Gen 11:7 Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. Gen 11:8 So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. Gen 11:9 Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth. , and then as incomplete. It was built of bricks, and the "slime" used for mortar was probably bitumen. Such authorities as we possess, represent the building as destroyed soon after its erection. When the Jews, however, were carried captive into Babylonia, they thought they recognized it in the famous temple of Beaus, the modern Birs Nimrod. But the Birs-Nimrrud, though it cannot be the tower of Babel itself; may well be taken to show the probable shape and character of the edifice. This building appears to have been a sort of oblique pyramid built in seven receding stages, each successive one being nearer to the southwestern end which constituted the back of the building. The first, second and third stories were each 26 feet high the remaining four being 15 feet high. On the seventh stage, there was probably placed the Ark or Tabernacle, which seems to have been again 15 feet high, and must have nearly, if not entirely, covered the top of the seventh story. The entire original height, allowing three feet for the platform, would thus have been 156 feet, or, without the platform, 163 feet. I. Topography of Babylon. -- Ancient description of the city. -- All the ancient writers appear to agree in the fact of a district of vast size, more or less inhabited, having been enclosed within lofty walls and included under the name of Babylon. With respect to the exact extent of the circuit, they differ. The estimate of Herodotus and of Pliny is 480 stades, (60 Roman miles, 53 of our miles), of Strabo, 385 stades, of Q. Curtius, 368 stades, of Clitarchus, 365 stades and of Ctesias, 360 stades (40 miles). (George Smith, in his "Assyrian Discoveries," differs entirely from all these estimates, making the circuit of the city, but eight miles). Perhaps Herodotus spoke of the outer wall, which could be traced in his time. Taking the lowest estimate of the extent of the circuit, we shall have for the space within the rampart an area of above 100 square miles -- nearly five times the size of London! It is evident that this vast space cannot have been entirely covered with houses. The city was situated on both sides of the river Euphrates, and the two parts were connected together by a stone bridge, five stades (above 1000 yards) long and 30 feet broad. At either extremity of the bridge was a royal palace, that in the eastern city, being the more magnificent of the two. The two palaces were joined, not only by the bridge, but by a tunnel under the river. The houses, which were frequently three or four stories high, were laid out in straight streets crossing each other at right angles. II. Present state of the ruins. -- A portion of the ruins is occupied by the modern town of Hillah. About five miles above Hillah, on the opposite or left bank of the Euphrates, occurs a series of artificial mounds of enormous size. They consist chiefly of three great masses of building, -- the high pile of unbaked brickwork which is known to the Arabs as Babel, 600 feet square and 140 feet high; the building denominated the Kasr or palace, nearly 2000 feet square and 70 feet high, and a lofty mound upon which stands the modern tomb of Amram-ibn-'Alb. Scattered over the country, on both sides of the Euphrates, are a number of remarkable mounds, usually standing single, which are plainly of the same date with the great mass of ruins upon the river bank. Of these, by far the most striking, is the vast ruin called the Birs-Nimrud, which many regard as the tower of Babel, situated about six miles to the southwest of Hillah. III. Identification of sites. -- The great mound of Babel is probably the ancient temple of Beaus. The mound of the Kasr marks the site of the great palace of Nebuchadnezzar. The mound of Amram is thought to represent the "hanging gardens" of Nebuchadnezzar; but most probably, it represents the ancient palace, coeval with Babylon itself, of which Nebuchadnezzar speaks in his inscriptions as adjoining his own more magnificent residence. IV. History of Babylon. -- Scripture represents the "beginning of the kingdom" as belonging to the time of Nimrod. Gen_10:6-10. The early annals of Babylon are filled by Berosus, the native historian, with three dynasties: one of 49 Chaldean kings, who reigned 458 years; another of 9 Arab kings, who reigned 245 years; and a third of 49 Assyrian monarchs, who held dominion for 526 years. The line of Babylonian kings becomes exactly known to us from B.C. 747. The "Canon of Ptolemy," gives us the succession of Babylonian monarchs from B.C. 747 to B.C. 331, when the last Persian king was dethroned by Alexander. On the fall of Nineveh, B.C. 625, Babylon became not only an independent kingdom, but an empire. The city was taken by surprise B.C. 539, as Jeremiah had prophesied, Jer_51:31, by Cyrus, under Darius, Daniel 5, as intimated 170 years earlier by Isaiah, Isa_21:1-9, and, as Jeremiah had also foreshown, Jer_51:39, during a festival. With the conquest of Cyrus, commenced the decay of Babylon, which has since been a quarry from which all the tribes in the vicinity have derived the bricks with which they have built their cities. The "great city" has thus emphatically "become heaps." Jer_51:37. Bab'ylon. Babylon, in the Apocalypse, is the symbolical name by which Rome is denoted. Rev_14:8; Rev_17:18. The power of Rome was regarded by the later Jews as was that of Babylon by their forefathers. Compare Jer_51:7 with Rev_14:8. The occurrence of this name in 1Pe_5:13 has given rise to a variety of conjectures, many giving it the same meaning as in the Apocalypse; others refer it to Babylon in Asia, and others still to Babylon in Egypt. The most natural supposition of all is that by Babylon is intended the old Babylon of Assyria, which was largely inhabited by Jews at the time in question. Babylo'nians. The inhabitants of Babylon, a race of Shemitic origin, who were among the colonists planted in the cities of Samaria by the conquering Assyrian. Ezr_4:9Then wrote Rehum the chancellor, and Shimshai the scribe, and the rest of their companions; the Dinaites, the Apharsathchites, the Tarpelites, the Apharsites, the Archevites, the Babylonians, the Susanchites, the Dehavites, and the Elamites, Ezr 4:10 And the rest of the nations whom the great and noble Asnappar brought over, and set in the cities of Samaria, and the rest that are on this side the river, and at such a time.