Babylonian Culture

South of Baghdad. So as you keep hearing about Baghdad in the news, it's just a short drive down to Babylon from Baghdad. As a matter of fact, Saddam Hussein used to have some of his cabinet meetings in Babylon, in the old buildings there. It's like he wanted to resurrect it and he paid, of course, money he got from everybody else. to fix the place up and try to get it rebuilt as the old glorious Babylon.

Here, swallow this tablet. Not really, but this is the Nebuchadnezzar tablet. It's Babylonian. It describes the defeat of the Assyrians in 612. And I'll let you take the little alphabet from last week and decipher that, OK? All right. I'll let you do that on your own time.

This is the empire they had, and of course any map like this is sort of static versus the reality, which is more dynamic, but gives you an idea of the area that they had under their empire. You also have this chronology, and basically this is the Babylonian Empire right there in this chronology that you've got in your appendix. And let's see, it also includes Jeremiah and Lamentations, as books that were written during that time, and Ezekiel and Daniel. Those are some key books that crop up during that time. This is another diagram I think you've got there, and it shows Babylon exiling the Jews. We'll get into that more in a bit.

Babylon is the capital of the empire, Babylon for all its history. In other words, unlike Assyria, which shifted capitals a few times, Babylon was indeed the continuing capital. We hear in the news, for example, battles in An-Najaf. You hear about that? This is one of the places where we still have ongoing battles taking place. And it's right across the river, basically, from An-Najaf is the area where Babylon was located. And yeah, right there. Here's the modern side of Babylon, partially reconstructed. By partially, I mean right in the middle, you see some kind of a band of things that have been reconstructed to some degree. You see that OK? Or should we dim the lights a little bit? Yes? No? Dim the lights a tad. I mean, I think it'd be a little better. That better? OK.

Okay, here's an artist rendering of Babylon showing one of its towers. They were as much as 450 feet high. That's like a football field, you know, time and a half. So that's, you know, it's pretty good height. Some of the archaeologists kind of put in parts and pieces together, estimated there were over 200 of these towers spread around the city of Babylon. And you can see it's a pretty well-developed place. I mean, it's a substantial city.

This was an artist's rendering of Babylon's Hanging Gardens. It was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. So here's this phenomenal building which is basically set up for gardens, you know, things to be growing on it and draping off of it and that sort of thing. along with things like, for example, the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, the pyramids in Egypt, those were on the list of the seven wonders of the ancient world. This is another artist's rendering of Babylon.

Take a look, if you will, at this kind of blue gate that you see painted up there. There's some soldiers that are entering the gate in this artist's rendering. This is called the Ishtar Gate. We have a name in our culture that's derived from Ishtar. Esther. It's derived from that name. So it's interesting. Here's this Babylonian name, and we've got a modern name that's derived from that. Here is the Ishtar Gate, and that's not an artist's rendering. There's a U.S. soldier standing in the middle of it. That's the real thing. And it's been reconstructed. What you see are lions, that's the one with the low tail.

And the one with the high tail, that's Marduk. That's the chief Babylonian god, chief of their pantheon. So that's what's painted all over this Ishtar Gate. And Ishtar was another goddess in their pantheon. Saddam Hussein was the one who initiated getting this reconstructed, so you can thank him.

Boy. We oftentimes think of these people must have lived just real ragged and rusty and dusty and shabby. Here's their interior paneling. I mean, it may not be exactly your style and taste, but you've got to say that's pretty up there. It's fancy. And hand-painted interior panels like that. So pretty phenomenal stuff.

Here's another with those lions and this would be another kind of a pattern that they'd have on the wall Lots just rows of lions because they worship the lions Lions were where they figured every line of walking around that's that's a god, okay Okay, like the Assyrians the Babylonians had an intense interest in astrology So even their boundary markers, they would put astrology marks on there The Sun, Moon, and Venus are shown on this one. The Moon is probably most easily identified with the Crescent up there. Interestingly, the Crescent has remained in the Middle East as a major symbol of deity, because what happened is as the culture broke down, the Assyrians and the Babylonians eventually faded from the scene, and the Persians faded from the scene, All the area of Arabia ended up with over 300 deities, 300 gods. So when Muhammad came in, he picked one, the moon god, and that's why you see the moon symbol and the swords and the scimitar shape.

So, interesting. The roots of the Islamic battle that we're fighting have connections even to Babylon. Okay. Here are some comparisons Babylon and Persia, and I think you have a hint. Do you have a handout like this? I think yeah, okay Babylon and Persia it had some Contrasts here, and I'd like us to take a look at them one is you see Babylon worship the lions you notice the focus on lions and some other Architecture, okay Persia worships fire so interesting you notice when you get to Daniel chapter 3, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refused to bow down to the golden image and they were thrown into the fire.

Why would they throw them into the fire? Babylonians didn't give a hoot about fire, right? Because they worshiped lions. So they'll throw you in the fire because, you know, there's nothing that's particularly deity or religious about the fire. So they'll use the fire to punish people.

Persians, on the other hand, punished with lions that the Babylonians worshipped. It's because the Persians worshipped the fire, and therefore they didn't give a hoot about lions, and so they throw the bad guys to the lions. See? Interesting thing how the culture ends up impacting the stories that you read, and how from the change of one empire to the other, what they were thrown to as punishment fits the culture.

So you would not have found the Babylonians throwing their enemies or criminals to the lions. You wouldn't have found the Persians throwing anybody to the fire. So what you find in the Bible accounts exactly fits the culture. A reversal of those would show that the Bible would be an error, right? But what you find is it fits the culture.

Here's something else. In Babylon, the ruler could change decisions. Put them into the fire. Okay, take them out. That was legal according to Babylonian law from what we know outside of the Bible. But when you get into Persia, Daniel chapter 6, the ruler regretted that Daniel was going to be thrown to the lions, but he could not change the law. different culture. So it's real interesting, in both those aspects, the Bible reflects exactly what the culture represents from other written records that we have. And in each case, the reversal fits exactly. The Greek is leaking. What do I mean by that?

Alexander the Great wasn't going to come through the area of Babylon for over a couple of centuries. It'd be over 200 years later before he'd come through. But Greek words were coming through because there was trade between Greece and Babylon. Was Greece a part of the Babylonian Empire? No. So Greece was free to trade with Babylon as a free nation. What we find is that one of the things the Babylonians didn't have that the Greeks did was musical instruments. So the Babylonians would buy them. And so what we find is that there are some Greek borrow words in Daniel. And Daniel chapter three again pops up. And what they were told is here is this big golden image.

Okay, you guys, we've got the signal for you when you hear our orchestra playing, okay, basically, and they give the list of the instruments. When you hear an orchestra play, you bow down so you don't get thrown into the fiery furnace. That was their kind of starting notice. When you hear the orchestra play, then you bow down.

So it lists the instruments, and what we find is three of those instruments are Greek words, or three of the words that show up there are Greek words. So when you hear the sound of the horn, flute, lyre, that's a catharsis, a trigon, psaltery, bagpipe, and all kinds of music, Symphonia, okay When you hear those then you're to fall down and worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king is set up And so here's a replica of this catharsis and you'll find that mentioned also in first Corinthians 14 7 revelation and three different places there so here's this this Greek instrument and so the So even though it's Babylon, you find the Greek is already starting to come through, which shows up even by the time of the New Testament. The words are still there, or at least one of them shows up. Okay.

Now, this is a chart we haven't seen before, but I'm going to step backwards here because I think it's neat to compare this. Here is different ways that each of the empires handled conquered peoples. And they each handled it a little differently. The Egyptians would capture as needed for slaves and defense. That was their main thing.

You've got to have defense because we don't want these other people bothering us. And we've got to have slaves because we've got big things to build so we can have a great afterlife. That was their idea, right? So their idea is mostly you get somebody, capture them, bring them in, make them work. Especially we want a really good afterlife for the Pharaoh. That was their philosophy. Now, switch to the Assyrians. And here's the Assyrians. Relocate portions of the captured people randomly.

So they would take various people, especially those they felt were troublesome, take a part of the population and put them somewhere else, and take somebody from somewhere else and put them in the middle of the other population. So that's why you end up with the Samaritans, who were half-Jews, half-somebody else, and it's the somebody else that they were mixed with that the Jews didn't like. So then even into New Testament times, centuries later, you got a consequence. But you can't stand the Samaritans, right? We don't like what they eat. We don't like how they dress. We don't like where they worship. We don't like what they worship. They don't do it right, okay? So we hate the Samaritans.

So that happened because of the Syrians. So here's the Jews. They got 430 years of slavery under the Egyptians, right? You shift to the next empire. Now they got the Samaritans in the mix. Now, Babylon relocates the leaders and then the whole nations to Babylon.

What they do is they'd say, if we think you're likely to be a problem, we're going to take you and relocate you to Babylon. We're going to keep an eye on you. And we're going to make you Babylonian in your head. We're going to give you a Babylonian name. We're going to teach you Babylonian culture. We're going to teach you Babylonian learning and science and math and religion.

And you're going to be Babylonian through and through. We're going to brainwash you. That was their idea. And so they did that. Judah was carried to Babylon. Initially, of course, we should point at Daniels. They took off the royalty and first made them go through the brainwashing. And then all of Judah was carried off to Babylon. The place where they were was largely vacant. Largely vacant. Didn't matter a whole lot because everything had just been destroyed anyway. Just ruined. So that's the third empire that you see there, and that's Babylon's pattern. And what we see as we go through there, each empire had a different way of handling the captured people.

And each time it had an impact on the Jews. every time. And we see a continuing influence on the Jews for centuries to come, even to today. Look at that first one. Here's Egypt. And they were slaves. And so what do the Jews do now, even today, centuries later, Passover is because of the end of that slavery. So even now it's impacting them. All right. Now, so the first exile, the Jews came in 605. That's where they took off the royalty. and Daniel and his three friends were part of that group of royalty. They were placed in a three-year intensive acculturation program. Ever visit another culture and find yourself just almost disoriented? I don't know if you've ever been through that experience.

I know recently it was just driving on the wrong side of the streets enough to get you confused. But if you ever step into a different culture and just, boy, have a real hard time at times figuring out What they do and don't do and why do they do it? It's especially difficult because one definition of culture, I think it works well, is culture is what we do without thinking. And so we do things without thinking and they do things without thinking and they're in a clash. They can be in conflict.

So here's Daniel and his friends and they're brought over into this new culture and not only are they just in the culture, they're told, you are going to be Babylonian. You're going to learn what we learn, you're going to think what we think, you're going to take on Babylonian names, forget the one that you got. Alright, same song, second verse. This one, Nebuchadnezzar goes in, he completely destroys Jerusalem and hauls everybody over to Babylon.

Okay. Now, here are the Jews, they're living in this foreign land, and what's their response? How are they responding to this? Yeah, it wasn't like they said, hey, let's move to Babylon, you know? Wouldn't that be great? No, you have these people with, you know, spears poking you in the back saying you're moving. And, you know, I don't have time to gather together the stuff that matters to you? Too bad.

So then, it's interesting, here's a record in Psalm 137 of the Jews' response. It says, By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion. Upon the willows in the midst of it we hung our harps, for there our captors demanded of us songs, and our tormentors murmured, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. Sing a song that to you is joyous and happy and something that's near and dear to your heart to people who don't care about it in a place you don't care about, in a land that's foreign to you, under force.

It just doesn't work, does it? We have, in our movies, you'll notice that the music will shift, conveying the tone, depending on what's going on. And it'll be excited or sad or tense or whatever the mood is. Here, they're being told to be happy at a time when there's absolutely nothing to be happy about. And what you see right at the end of this is the problem is the place.

For the Jews, their heart's home is there. And so they say in the last verse there in verse 5, if I forget you, Oh Jerusalem, may my right hand forget her skill. May I be absolutely useless. That Jerusalem was their hearts home. We have a sense of, okay, this is home.

But this is a place like none other. to the Jew. This is their heart's home with no equal. There isn't any, well, I'll situate somewhere else. No, it'll never be like this. This is the place that God promised them. This is the place where the temple sacrifices take place, and this is where we gather seven times a year for all the festivals. Okay. So now, And you got this chart here real interesting in Deuteronomy.

This is before the Jews entered Israel Moses laid out for them. What was going to happen to them in their future all the way into times that haven't happened yet You see that this Israel taken captive and the enemies of Israel possessing their land underneath her is Something that was predicted 3,400 years ago. And so they're being carried off to something they were told was going to happen. Almost eight centuries or something like that before it took place.

They were told this is what's going to happen. Look at what's going to happen in the last couple of lines there. Israel gathered and brought back to the land, and Israel will repent in the tribulation period. That's what it says. That hasn't happened yet, has it? Except that, the gathering. This part here, you've got that in your handout.

Look at the massive increase in the number of Jews gathering to Jerusalem. So that second to the last item is being fulfilled even in our lifetime. So that is just a phenomenal growth. They are indeed being gathered back to the land of Lord Cain. Okay.

Now here's Daniel 3.29. It says, Therefore I make a decree that any people, nation, or tongue that speaks anything offensive against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall be torn limb from limb and their houses reduced to rubbish heap. That's perfect evangelism, right?

That's what you'd wish that we had. Everybody, if you don't agree with what we say, they just rip them to shreds and tear their house down to the ground. My reason for bringing this up is what we find is that as we look at the records of the time, that's the punishment that they would hand out to people in terms of really wiping them out. They would tear them to shreds and not just go and cause some damage to their house, but just level it. That would be like the ultimate punishment.

And so here's Nebuchadnezzar, his way of responding to seeing that Shadrach and Meshach and Abednego are saved from the fire, recognizing that only God can save them like this. His response is a typical Babylonian ruler's response. Anybody who doesn't like these guys, they'll be ripped up and their house will be reduced to a rubbish heap.

And Daniel 2.5 also has a similar thing. Oh, by the way, that's also what Nebuchadnezzar did to Jerusalem, right? He just went and just leveled the place, took the temple, just knocked it down flat. Not one stone left. Okay.

Remember when we were looking at Assyria, there was this Nebi Yunus, and it said that was a tomb of Jonah. If you go through, oh, by the way, the Koran, talks about Jonah. And the Arabic is Yunus. So that's the connection there. So interesting. And that is known as the tomb of Jonah. So we looked at that when we looked at Assyria. It's interesting. Here's in Assyria, in the capital, this tomb of Jonah. Now, along the Euphrates, down closer to Babylon, Curiously, Daniel's tomb is now a major tourist attraction.

I have a friend who is over in Carson City who is working along with a fellow who lived over in Iraq and was working in the United States. My friend brought up Daniel and his eyes got big and he had this kind of amazed look. He says, Oh, Daniel. He just has this awe. for Daniel. It's sort of surprising. You'd think, boy, you know, why would these guys revere Daniel?

But it's even to the point where it's a place to go and they've got, you know, hotels that you stay at and you go and visit Daniel's tomb. And it's a big thing to do, like, when you're on vacation, go see Daniel's tomb. And that's supposedly it. Again, like the tomb of Jonah, because it's a holy site, you can't go dig it up to verify if that's even really right. But it's just curious that both Assyria and Nineveh in their capitals or nearby have something like this that they consider to be a holy place that you come to. Okay, the last point here is blame it on the Babylonians.

You go through this in geometry. For a while I was doing surveying and of course dealing a lot with degrees and minutes and seconds and doing a lot of precise measurement. That all came from the Babylonians. It's something else that we got from the Babylonian culture that's come down to us, dividing up. Because otherwise, why 90 degrees, you know? And the whole system of measuring things by degrees is the Babylonians' invention.

Okay. So that's it. Next time it's Persian culture. Come on, we got through really quick here. All right. Questions? Comments? Yes? No? Anybody ready to be Babylonian? How are we doing, Katie? Good? All right. What amazes me is as we look at these various cultures, the culture comes and goes. And we see some impacts, like we've got protractors, and yet the Jews are still around, and the impact on them continues. And to me that's just phenomenal. It's also phenomenal evidence of Here's a God who's going to keep his promise to these people. You saw how Babylon, you know, Saddam Hussein had to work real hard to turn it into something other than just an ancient ruin. And the Old Testament prophets said that Babylon is going to end up being just a wilderness place. And they said that in the middle of the time when Babylon was all built up. So, amazing. God's sovereignty and his foreknowledge of what is going to happen is something we can count on. Really neat. Okay? Well, we're done early, so feel free to get up and get some coffee or whatever. Make sure we don't disturb other folks.