A city in the story of God
Babylon
Babylon was the great empire that destroyed Jerusalem and carried Judah into exile, a city of splendor, pride, and idolatry. In the last book of the Bible its name becomes the symbol of the whole world set against God.
“And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.”Revelation 18:2
The city in Scripture
The city in Scripture. Babylon lay on the Euphrates in the plain of Shinar, the same region where men once built a city and a tower, saying, let us make us a name (Gen 11:4), and where the Lord confounded their language, so the place was called Babel. Centuries later Babylon rose to imperial power under Nebuchadnezzar, who conquered Judah, destroyed Jerusalem and the temple in about 586 BC, and carried the people into exile (2 Kings 24-25). By the rivers of Babylon the exiles wept when they remembered Zion (Ps 137:1). In Babylon Daniel and his friends served faithfully amid a proud pagan court, refusing the idol and the furnace (Dan 1-6), and Daniel interpreted the writing on the wall that announced the city's fall to the Medes and Persians (Dan 5). The prophets had foretold Babylon's judgment (Isa 13; Jer 50-51). In the New Testament Babylon becomes a symbol. Peter may use the name for Rome (1 Pet 5:13), and Revelation portrays Babylon the Great as the city drunk with the blood of the saints, whose fall the whole earth mourns (Rev 17-18).
What it came to mean
What it came to mean. Babylon came to mean human pride and the world system organized against God. From the tower of Babel onward it stands for the impulse to make a name apart from God, to build a kingdom of self-glory. As the empire that razed Jerusalem, it means exile, the season of loss and longing when God's people live as strangers in a hostile culture, called to seek the peace of the city where they dwell yet to keep their hearts toward home (Jer 29:4-7). Babylon also means idolatry and luxury, the seduction of wealth and power that draws hearts away from the living God. In Revelation, Babylon the Great is the counterfeit city, the anti-Jerusalem, glittering and cruel, and the call goes out, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins (Rev 18:4). Babylon teaches that the world's grandeur is passing, its pride will fall, and God's people are ever pilgrims who must not be at home in it.
How it points to Christ
How it points to Christ. Babylon points to Christ chiefly by contrast, for the whole story sets Babylon against the city of God. Babylon is the city built to make a name for man; Christ is the One to whom God gave a name which is above every name (Phil 2:9). Babylon falls in a single hour amid mourning (Rev 18), while the city of God endures forever. Where Babylon carried God's people into exile, Christ leads His people out of bondage into the freedom of the Jerusalem which is above (Gal 4:26). Revelation places the two cities side by side, the great harlot Babylon and the bride, the new Jerusalem, and only one remains (Rev 17-18; 21). The exile that began in Babylon finds its true homecoming in Christ, for we look not for an earthly empire but for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God (Heb 11:10). Babylon's ruin and the New Jerusalem's glory show that Christ, not the world's power, is the King who abides.
Questions people ask
What did Babylon do to Judah?
Under Nebuchadnezzar, Babylon conquered Judah, destroyed Jerusalem and the temple in about 586 BC, and carried the people into exile (2 Kings 24-25), a captivity that lasted about seventy years.
Why does Revelation call a city Babylon?
Revelation uses Babylon the Great as a symbol of the world system set against God, proud, idolatrous, and cruel to the saints (Rev 17-18). Many understand it to point especially to Rome and to worldly power in every age.
Is Babylon connected to the tower of Babel?
The tower of Babel (Gen 11) was built in Shinar, the same region, and Scripture links pride and the making of a name to that place. Babylon later became the great empire, carrying forward the theme of human self-exaltation.