kaos

Babylon in the words of the prophet Isaiah
Hi Joel—My conception of Lilith has indeed been tainted by the Zohar. As you saw
from my email, I was pushing deep into Egypt, and Nephthys, this afternoon. And it
being Saturday and all, I naturally ended-up considering her Lord Set as well. It was
very useful, and helped me push past late Jewish characterizations of the Queen of the
Night. I’ll get back on the Maqlû material, as I agree on its importance.
Believe it or not, I had just had the same realization as you not an hour before
reading: “I had assumed Babylonian texts mentioned her but just realize I don’t know.”
Seems this is a pretty hot topic.
“Babylon as Rome”, the interpretation favored by modern scholars, seems valid, and
quite probably reflects the intent of the editors who stitched together what were, in all
likelihood, a collection of disjoint fragments, assembling them into the coherent whole
we now know as The Revelation of St John. Its saving grace is that these fragments
appear to be genuine visions, received by one or more persons, in some branch of the
Semitic mystery tradition. It contains key images easily traced back into the Old
Testament, and beyond.
By the time Revelation was written, probably around 95 ce, Babylon had been
abandoned for nearly 400 years. It seems, therefore, unlikely that the metropolis in
Babylonia itself is meant when the authors used the word “Babylon”.
If we consider Revelation as part of a Jewish tradition, rather than a singular piece of
literature, we see Babylon, the city and the woman, used as a symbol of opulence,
decadence, power and might, in fundamental opposition to Jehovah and his people,
that will be overthrown in the day of the wrath of the Almighty. Consider the images
of Babylon contained in the words of the prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 21:1–10 and Isaiah
47. The King of Babylon was likewise the object of Jehovah’s displeasure and proposed
wrath, as evidenced by the same prophet in Isaiah 14:3–23.
The attentive reader will note the remarkable similarity of several images in these
passages with others found in Revelation. “John” seems without question to be drawing
upon Isaiah for inspiration, mining the symbols used therein and giving them new
meanings in his prophesy of doom and destruction. That “Rome” would now be equated
with “Babylon” is hardly surprising, since the Second Temple of Jerusalem, rebuilt after
the Captivity, had been destroyed not 30 years before by Rome in 70 ce.
The capture of Jerusalem, destruction of the First Temple, and forced relocation of
the Jews to Babylonia by Nebuchadnezzar, in 586 bce, is one of the most important
events of Jewish history. The construction of the Second Temple at the command of
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