Bab’ylon, (Hebrews and Chald. Babel’, בָּבֶל, Gr. Βαβυλών), the name of more than one city in the Scriptures and other ancient writings. SEE BABEL.
I. Originally the capital of the country called in Genesis Shinar (שַׁנַעָר), and in the later Scriptures Chaldaea, or the land of the Chaldeans (כִּשׂדַּים). See those articles severally.
1. The Name. — The word Babel seems to be connected in its first occurrence with the Hebrew root בָּלִל, balal’, “to confound” (as if by contraction from the reduplicated form בִּלבֶּל, Balbel’), “because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth” (Genesis 11:9); but the native etymology (see the Koran, 2, 66) is Bab-il, “the gate of the god Il,” or perhaps more simply “the gate of God;” and this no doubt was the original intention of the appellation as given by Nimrod, though the other sense came to be attached to it after the confusion of tongues (see Eichhorn, Biblioth. d. bibl. Lit. 3, 1001). Another derivation deduces the word from בִּאב בֵּל, “the court or city of Belus” (see Abulfeda in Rosenmüller, Alterth. 2, 60), or בִּראּבֵּל (=בַּיר), Bel’s Hill (Fürst, Hebrews Handw. s.v.). A still different etymology is proposed by Tuch (Genesis p. 276), from בֵּית בֵּל, “the house of Bel.” Whichever of these etymologies may be regarded as the preferable one, the name was doubtless understood or accommodated by the sacred writer in Genesis so as to be expressive of the disaster that soon befell the founders of the place. In the Bible at a later date the place is appropriately termed “Babylon the Great” (בָּבֶל הָרחָבָה,Jeremiah 51:58; בָּבֶל רִבּשׁתָא, Daniel 4:27), and by Josephus also (Ant. 8, 6, 1, ἡ μεγάλη Βαβυλών). The name Babylon is likewise that by which it is constantly denominated in the Sept. and later versions, as well as by the Apocrypha (1 Maccabees 6:4; Susann. 1:5) and New Test. (Acts 7:43), and finally by the ancient Greek and Roman writers (see Smith, Diet. of Class. Geogr. s.v.). On the outlandish name Shesh ik (שֵׁשִׁך), applied to it in Jeremiah 25:26; 51:41, see the various conjectures in Rosenmüller, Alterth. 1, 2, 50 sq. The Jews believe it is a cabalistic mode of writing by the method known as “Athbash” (q.v.). SEE SHISHAK.
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Author: McClintock and Strong Cyclopedia
Keywords: Babylon
Bible reference(s): 1 Maccabees 6:4, 1 Peter 5:13, 2 Chronicles 32:31, 2 Chronicles 33:11, 2 Samuel 19:8, Acts 7:43, Baruch 6:43, Daniel 4:27, Daniel 5:1, Ezra 5:13, Genesis 10:10, Genesis 11:9, Isaiah 13:19, Isaiah 14:2, Isaiah 45:1, Isaiah 47:1, Jeremiah 25:26, Jeremiah 51:41, Nehemiah 13:6, Revelation 14:8, Revelation 16:19, Revelation 17:5, Revelation 18:2
Source: John McClintock and James Strong, Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature.
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