Discovering Babylon

This volume presents Babylon as it has been passed down through Western culture: through the Bible, classical texts, in Medieval travel accounts, and through depictions of the Tower motif in art. It then details the discovery of the material culture remains of Babylon from the middle of the 19th century and through the great excavation of 1899-1917, and focuses on the encounter between the Babylon of tradition and the Babylon unearthed by the archaeologists. This book is unique in its multi-disciplinary approach, combining expertise in biblical studies and Assyriology with perspectives on history, art history, intellectual history, reception studies and contemporary issues.

Much of our perception of Babylon in the West is filtered through the poignant echoes of loss and longing that resonate in the Hebrew Bible. The lamenting exiles of Judah craved a return to their lost homeland after the sack of Jerusalem in 587 BC and their forcible removal by Nebuchadnezzar to the alien floodlands of the Euphrates. But to see Babylon only as an adjunct to Old Testament history is misleading. A Short History of Babylon explores the ever-changing city that shaped world history for two millennia.

Accessible and authoritative account of Babylon the city at the heart of one of the world's great civilisations.

Ever since the archaeological rediscovery of the Ancient Near East, generations of scholars have attempted to reconstruct the "real Babylon,” known to us before from the evocative biblical account of the Tower of Babel. After two centuries of excavations and scholarship, Mario Liverani provides an insightful overview of modern, Western approaches, theories, and accounts of the ancient Near Eastern city.

"And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON the great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth" (Rev. 17:5). From Genesis to Revelation, the name of Babylon seems to come up, again and again, throughout the Holy Scriptures. In these volumes, we'll begin to discover just what Mystery Babylon was, how it survived, and into what various thought-forms it had morphed, throughout the centuries. Beyond mere survival, these ancient Babylonian systems were able to flourish over the ages... manipulating a lot of what we see and hear, even today. The theme of "The Rise of Mystery Babylon" series is two-fold. The author spent years researching a vast amount of complementary literary texts, ancient to modern, which allow us a better way to look at this all, and understand what we really may have been missing. These volumes also provide enough information to allow for the reinterpretation of early stories in Genesis, in ways not usually thought of anymore, or in ways that were even suppressed. Why? Because the movement of Mystery Babylon thrives through a continued misinterpretation of these early Genesis accounts. Understanding the reinterpretations contained herein provides a way to expose what Mystery Babylon is really all about, and where it may have really originated. This is not your typical book of biblical prophecy, with attempts to interpret human future via the Book of Revelation. True, there is some, but there is so much more needed to understand it all. The typical interpretations of early Genesis, today, ask the reader to swallow a number of seemingly-questionable story elements, such as: was the Serpent merely a talking snake? Were Adam and Eve truly alone in the Garden of Eden? Did Noah's Flood spread across the entire earth? Were there truly fallen angels mating with mortal women, producing giant, malevolent offspring, or were these merely different groups of people, coming together in unsavory ways? Beyond providing answers to the typical "where did Cain get his wife" question, the book examines much of the above, also delving into the biblical origins of a majority of the mythological gods of old, the modern-day ramifications of the Fall, the reasons Cain was such an influential character in the ancient world, the untold reason for the antediluvian flood, and so much more. All of this continues to help expose the darkened underbelly of Mystery Babylon, and helps us discover how it, once again, is trying to bring back the same depravities into the world it once had. There really may be a huge "parallel of existences," here: the times of Noah's Flood compared to the times of today. Jesus, after all, was the one who said: "as the days of Noe (Noah) were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be" (Mat. 24:37). Could one side of this parallel be the times we see now, in the present? These volumes offer their ideas in simple language, with an easy-to-follow format. This second volume - The Tower of Babel (Part 1) - provides us an even greater look into the background of early characters in Genesis: Adam, Eve, Cain, even Noah, and why their stories were so fundamental in helping us understand how life was lived, all the way up to today. We also delve into the deep, dark history of those responsible for building the infamous Tower of Babel, and discover how their tower helped launch Babylon into the major influencing force of our ancient world... and beyond.