WATCH TOWER BIBLE & TRACT SOCIETY OF PENNSYLVANIA
First Edition
2,500,000 COPIES
THE fall of Babylon the Great means that God's kingdom is ruling. With such shocking suddenness will Babylon's fall come that the vast majority of mankind will be surprised and caught in the worldwide consequences of it. For many centuries, however, some righteous men and women have looked forward eagerly, and with prayer, to this event, for it will mean liberation from an oppression that has lasted so long. They have been able to look forward to this great event with unwavering faith because of a Book. From beginning to end this ancient Book of prophecy has interwoven the theme of Babylon into its story. In not very many pages from its opening words this Book tells of the beginning of an ancient Babylon. In still less pages from its closing words it gives a vivid description of the fall and everlasting destruction of Babylon the Great. That Book is the sacred Bible, containing the Holy Scriptures. It alone tells of the triumph of God's kingdom over Babylon the Great of today.
In the year 539 B.C. ancient Babylon had a history-making fall. Today the location where that wonder city once dominated the world reveals some impressive ruins that have been uncovered since the year 1899 by a German Oriental Society. What, then, is the other Babylon that survives till now and that must yet fall with a world-shocking crash? Even the sacred Bible says that its name is a mystery, and over the centuries
8
many men have tried to solve the mystery by identifying this greater Babylon.
Interesting have been the interpretations of the symbol of Babylon. One of the most recent is that which identifies the Babylon that appears in the last book of the Bible, "not as a conquering military power as in the earlier [Bible] prophets, but as the embodiment of material civilization and luxury, the great harlot, whose charms bewitch all the nations of the earth; the world market whose trade enriches the merchants and the shipowners."*
The last book of the Bible gives us many clues to help us in identifying this international "harlot," but those clues are prophetic. So we have to turn to the pages of history and match Bible prophecy with recorded history to identify the foretold Babylon accurately. In that way we can be sure that we are getting God's interpretation of the Babylonian mystery that he put into his Bible.
Our getting at the solution of the mystery is important for us. Why so? Because through the pages of the Bible we hear the rousing command for those who desire to be God's people to get out of Babylon, to flee out of her for the sake of their lives, losing no time. Along with that stern command God mercifully warns us of what it will mean to his people to remain in this Babylon of mystery, in this day of his judgment of her.
How, though, can anyone flee out of the midst of Babylon if he does not identify it? How can he break loose from it, now while there is yet time, if he does not know what Babylon stands for? What relationships with Babylon must he break in order to be free from it and no longer share in any of its responsibility before God? Even if the hour of God's judgment of Babylon were not near, our concern for our personal welfare
* See page 254 of The Dynamics of World History, by Christopher Dawson, edited by John J. Mulloy; published by Sheed and Ward, New York city.
9
and our desire to be God's people and no longer Babylon's bewitched slaves would dictate our getting out of it. Why? Because it is a doomed organization. If our day proves to be God's fixed time for judging Babylon and if its fall is to come by surprise, as in a narrow time limit like an "hour," then there is all the more urgency for us to heed the divine warning and get out with no delay.
It is plain that there is need for us to know with an accuracy that leaves no doubts in our mind. We need to know what the Babylon is from which we must flee with benefit to ourselves. Babylon must be exposed to us, and we must face the exposure honestly and courageously. Only with the accurate knowledge about Babylon can we know what action to take toward her intelligently and deliberately.
Very evidently a choice is facing us. The choice is between Babylon the Great and God's kingdom. We will either stay in Babylon to share in the disaster of her fall or get out of her and put ourselves under the rule of God's kingdom. To encourage us in this latter course, we not only need to get an insight into what Babylon is but also need to understand what God's kingdom is. How desirable will it be to live forever under its wonderful rule?
With the sacred Bible at hand, we do not have to leave ourselves in an ignorance that finally spells our destruction. We can enjoy very easily an interesting, exciting search through the pages of that infallible Book, coming down to its final prophecies as given in its last book, in the seventeenth chapter of which, in its fifth verse, we read: "And upon her forehead was written a name, a mystery: 'Babylon the Great, the mother of the harlots and of the disgusting things of the earth.' " (Revelation 17:5. New World Translation) Our investigation will uncover to us how, for the benefit of all lovers of what is right, she will be destroyed.
10
after which we shall have described to us the glories of the long-awaited, much-prayed-for kingdom of God.
According to Bible prophecy, many will mourn over the fall of Babylon. But why should we ourselves stay among those who are certain to mourn, even to death? We shall gain everlasting happiness if we line up now with those who will rejoice and give glory to God because he has judged the "harlot" and she has fallen, never to rise again. So in the following pages we shall consider together what God has to say in his written Word concerning Babylon the Great and her enemy, God's kingdom.
To the end that we may gain a more satisfying understanding, we shall consider first the world-dominating Babylon of ancient history and the ancient pictorial model of God's kingdom. To do this, we must turn to the sacred Scriptures that were "written aforetime," that is, before our Common Era, the so-called Christian Era. We are certain to draw enlightenment and profit from this, because, as the letter to the Romans, chapter fifteen, verse four, tells us: "All the things that were written aforetime were written for our instruction, that through our endurance and through the comfort from the Scriptures we might have hope." — Romans 15:4. NW.
"AND the beginning of his kingdom came to be Babel." Here, in the tenth chapter, tenth verse, of the first book of the Bible, is the very first mention of Babylon, yes, also, the first mention in the Bible of a kingdom. (Genesis 10:10. NW) Babylon is the same as Babel, for when certain Greek-speaking Jews of Alexandria, Egypt, made the first written translation of their sacred Hebrew Scriptures into a foreign language (Greek) more than two thousand years ago, they translated the Hebrew name Babel as Babylon (BABYΛΩN). The translator who produced the Latin Vulgate version also used the word Babylon. "His empire began with Babylon," is how the modern English translation by the Roman Catholic Monsignor Ronald A. Knox reads. "His empire at first was Babylon," is how the Bible translation by the Protestant Dr. James Moffatt reads. Thus Babylon takes its place as the seat of the first kingdom on earth after the Flood, the capital city of the first empire by man. Was this in the interest of all mankind or not? Mankind's great Creator gives answer in his Book the Bible.
Whose kingdom, though, was it that had its seat of government in Babel or Babylon? Who founded this city? How or why was it founded, and how did it get its name? To these questions no ancient book of human history gives us the true answers but the Bible. This Book both introduces the city to us and then foretells its certain fall as a world influence. The king who first
12
reigned in the original Babylon was a great-grandson of Noah, the builder of the great ark in which he and seven other human souls survived the flood that swept the whole earth four thousand three hundred years ago. The name of this great-grandson of Noah was Nimrod.
Concerning this famous man of ancient days the American Standard Version Bible presents the record in these words: "Now these are the generations of the sons of Noah, namely, of Shem, Ham, and Japheth: and unto them were sons born after the flood. The sons of ... Ham: Cush, and Mizraim, and Put, and Canaan. . . . And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth. He was a mighty hunter before Jehovah: wherefore it is said, Like Nimrod a mighty hunter before Jehovah. And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. Out of that land he went forth into Assyria, and builded Nineveh, and Rehoboth-Ir, and Calah, and Resen between Nineveh and Calah (the same is the great city)." — Genesis 10:1-12. AS.
Even to this day hunters of note are nicknamed Nimrod by persons familiar with Bible history. There has been some discussion of the inward meaning of the saying: "Like Nimrod a mighty hunter before Jehovah." In what sense was Nimrod a hunter, and was this with Jehovah's recognition and approval or in defiance of Jehovah? What is the significance of the words "before Jehovah"?
The Roman Catholic Monsignor Ronald A. Knox gives it a favorable meaning in his translation of The Old Testament, which reads: "Chus was also the father of Nemrod, who was the first great warrior; bold, too, by God's grace,* at the hunt, whence the proverb arose, By God's grace, a huntsman bold as Nemrod. His empire began with Babylon," etc.
* In a footnote on this, Mgr. Knox says: " 'By God's grace'; literally 'in the presence of God', a phrase whose exact meaning is doubtful."
13
In speaking of this difference of understanding, The Encyclopaedia Britannica, Volume 19 (eleventh edition), page 703, says under Nimrod: "The 'mighty hunter before Yahweh' has been variously explained as 'a divinely great hunter' (Spurrell); 'a hunter in defiance of Yahweh' (Holzinger); 'a hunter with the help of Yahweh' or 'of some deity whose name has been replaced by Yahweh' (Gunkel, Genesis, page 82)." The name Yahweh is just another way to pronounce the letters in the name of the One whom the American Standard Version Bible calls Jehovah.
The Jewish Encyclopedia, Volume 9, edition of 1909, page 309, says that Nimrod, in the writings of the Jewish rabbis, "is the prototype of a rebellious people, his name being interpreted as 'he who made all the people rebellious against God.' "
In his work entitled "The Book of Beginnings," the author, Alexander Marlowe, renders Genesis 10:8-10 as follows: "And Cush begot Nimrod; he began to be a mighty tyrant in the land. He was a terrible subjugator, defiant before the face of Jehovah: wherefore it is said, even as Nimrod, the giant hunter, presumptuous in the place of Jehovah. And the original seats of his empire were Babylon, and Erec, and Acad and Kalneh in the land of Shinar."*
In the expression "before Jehovah" the word before Is the translation of the Hebrew preposition liphnei' (). Regarding this important preposition the religious Cyclopedia by M'Clintock and Strong, Volume 7, edition of 1894, page 109, says:
The preposition has often, as [Lexicographer] Gesenius admits, a hostile sense — in front of, for the purpose of opposing (Numbers 16:2: 1 Chronicles 14:8: 2 Chronicles 14:10); and the Septuagint gives it such a sense in the verse under consideration — εναντιον Κυριου "against the Lord." The [Jewish] Targums and [historian] Josephus give the preposition this hostile mean-
* Quoted from the 1938 edition, by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, Michigan. U.S.A.
14
ing. The context also inclines us to it. That the mighty hunting was not confined to the chase is apparent from its close connection with the building of eight cities. . . . What Nimrod did in the chase as a hunter was the earlier token of what he achieved as a conqueror. For hunting and heroism were of old specially and naturally associated, . . . The Assyrian monuments also picture many feats in hunting, and the word is often employed to denote campaigning. . . . The meaning then will be, that Nimrod was the first after the flood to found a kingdom, to unite the fragments of scattered patriarchal rule, and consolidate them under himself as sole head and master; and all this in defiance of Jehovah, for it was the violent intrusion of Hamitic power into a Shemitic territory.
Nimrod descended from Ham, not from Shem. — Genesis 10:6-8.
In harmony with this discernment of matters the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures, edition of 1961, translates Genesis 10:8-10 as follows: "And Cush became father to Nimrod. He made the start in becoming a mighty one in the earth. He displayed himself a mighty hunter in opposition to Jehovah. That is why there is a saying: 'Just like Nimrod a mighty hunter in opposition to Jehovah.' And the beginning of his kingdom came to be Babel and Erech and Accad and Calneh, in the land of Shinar."
It is important that now, at the beginning, we spend some time in finding out what kind of man this first king of Babylon (Babel) was. Then we can prove to ourselves on what foundation Babylon the Great of today rests. What is it that leads us to conclude from the Holy Bible that Nimrod was "in opposition to Jehovah" in becoming a "mighty one in the earth" and in displaying himself a "mighty hunter" whose name would become part of a proverb?
The Bible does not condemn hunting of wild animals and birds when the hunting is done for the sake of
15
food and clothing or for protection. But when the hunting is engaged in for the sake of sport and in the love of mere killing wantonly, then the Bible condemns such hunting. Why? Because the life with which the Creator endowed creatures is tied up with the matter. It was first after the great Flood that the Creator made it lawful for us to eat the flesh of animals, birds and fish. That, of course, meant taking the life of these creatures. But in order that we might not be held responsible for their lives, the Creator and Life-giver made a certain restriction at the same time that he made it lawful for us to eat flesh of animals. He did so immediately after Noah and his three sons and the four wives had come out of the flood-proof ark and had engaged in a sacrifice of clean animals to Jehovah. As calculated today, this was in the year 2369 B.C.E. In Genesis 9:1-6 we read of it in these words:
"And God went on to bless Noah and his sons and to say to them: 'Be fruitful and become many and fill the earth. And a fear of you and a terror of you will continue upon every living creature of the earth and upon every flying creature of the heavens, upon everything that goes moving on the ground, and upon all the fishes of the sea. Into your hand they are now given. Every moving animal that is alive may serve as food for you. As in the case of green vegetation, I do give it all to you. Only flesh with its soul — its blood — you must not eat And, besides that, your blood of your souls shall I ask back. From the hand of every living creature shall I ask it back; and from the hand of man, from the hand of each one who is his brother, shall I ask back the soul of man. Anyone shedding man's blood, by man will his own blood be shed, for in God's image he made man.'" — New World Translation.
In those words God the Creator stated that the blood is necessary to the creature's life, so much so that the
...
WTLibrary