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BABYLONIA

Black marble boundary stone of Merodach-baladan (721-710 b.c.e.) granting land to an official. Above are emblems of four deities who sanction the grant (Staatliche Museen, Berlin)

Geography

The land known to the Greeks as Babylonia is synonymous with the southern portion of present-day Iraq. In Gen. 10:10 it is simply referred to as the “land of Shinar” and was the center of the kingdom of Nimrod. Extending roughly from Baghdad south to the Persian Gulf, it is characterized by rich alluvial soil deposited by the Tigris and Euphrates rivers as they flow south from their sources in the highlands of Asia Minor. Described by the historians of the 2nd century b.c.e. as lower Mesopotamia (“the land between the rivers”), Babylonia is quite dry, receiving less than 10 cm. (4 in.) of annual precipitation. Therefore, civilization as we define it could thrive only when irrigation methods were developed and employed. Essential irrigation could be accomplished because of the annual flood. Beginning in March-April, the waters of the Tigris and Euphrates began to rise, reaching their highest levels in late spring when they overflowed their banks in the lower reaches. Thus planting could be done only in the fall, since the land was inundated when crops are normally grown. The harvest took place in the following spring.

The annual inundation was not always reliable, and a shortfall in the flood waters could easily combine with other factors to transform Babylonia into a land of turbulence. Although the Tigris-Euphrates Valley, without irrigation, was generally inhospitable, no geographical barriers (including the Zagros Mountains and the Syrian Desert) prevented invasion of Babylonia by numerous ethnic groups. Thus, while Egypt was largely isolated from the outside world for many centuries, Mesopotamia as a whole, and Babylonia in particular, witnessed repeated migration, conquest, and reconquest. The resulting turbulence largely prevented the creation of a strong, unified nation. Such conditions inhibited the breakdown of localism and ensured instability from the time of the first appearance of urban centers to the fall of Babylon in 539.

Prehistoric Settlements

Our present archaeological evidence indicates that Babylonia was inhabited at least as early as the 6th millennium. Excavations have yielded the remains of both small and sizeable settlements, indicating a knowledge of irrigation techniques that eventually led to the establishment of major urban centers in historic times. Sites from Tell es-Sawwan to Tell al-Ubaid reveal a sedentary existence and the development of a variety of domestic dwellings, granaries, and religious structures (including the prototype of the standard Babylonian temple). Although there were most assuredly local variations in pottery styles and painted designs, diversity in house plan or general settlement pattern does not preclude the existence of one “culture” with underlying common traits. Nevertheless, the issue of the ethnicity of the inhabitants of Babylonia prior to the appearance of written records probably will not be resolved to everyone’s satisfaction.

Third Millennium; Beginning of History

The closing decades of the 4th millennium witnessed the invention of writing and the appearance of the first historical records. Although the original purpose of cuneiform writing is still a subject for considerable debate, it likely was developed in Babylonia to meet the needs of a bureaucratic state. Its invention can be traced to the Sumerians, who first appeared ca. 3200 and settled in the southern half of Babylonia (called Sumer in Gen. 10). While their origins are still unknown, it is widely held that they were indigenous to Babylonia. They lived in more or less independent city-states that were considered to be individual estates of gods or goddesses cared for and governed by human agents known as en (“lord”) or ensi (“steward”) operating out of temple complexes. According to the Sumerian King List, these theocracies vied with each other for control of not only water rights but (in time) for the whole of Sumer itself. In the Early Dynastic period (2900-2350), cities such as Uruk, Kish, and Ur waged war with one another. At times of common crisis, several of these city-states banded together under a common leader called a lugal (“great man”) until conditions improved enough to allow communities to resume their independent existence. Finally, ca. 2400, the ensi of Umma, Lugal-zagesi, defeated his neighbor, Lagash, and subsequently laid claim to both the city of Uruk and to kingship of all of Sumer.

After ruling for 25 years, Lugal-zagesi’s forces succumbed to the armies of Sargon, leader of a Semitic people known as Akkadians. The Semites first appear in texts near Nippur in Babylonia and in northern Syria near Ebla (Tell Mardikh) ca. 2600. Quite possibly these Semites arrived even earlier, because the date of the Ebla material is still hotly disputed. Trade between the Sumerians and the Eblaite inhabitants of Syria was apparently already an established fact by the mid-3rd millennium. By contrast, the Akkadians were eastern Semites who originally came from the Arabian desert and established a common capital from which all of southern Mesopotamia was ruled. Sargon I founded the Akkadian kingdom and ruled from Agade, located somewhere in northern Babylonia (called Akkad in Gen. 10). Sargon’s grandson Naram-sin not only conquered Syria and destroyed the city of Ebla, but also claimed to be divine. His Sumerian subjects considered this to be sacrilegious, and when Naram-sin’s kingdom was overrun by the barbaric Guti from the Zagros Mountains, they devised a religious explanation for the conquest that emphasized Naram-sin’s claim to divinity as a reason for his defeat.

The Sumerians witnessed one final period of revival, the so-called Neo-Sumerian period (2100-1925), also commonly called the Ur III period. It began when Utu-hegal of Uruk and Ur-nammu of Ur overthrew the Guti and established Ur as the common capital of a Sumerian kingdom. Under Utu-hegal’s guidance, temples and ziggurats were built in southern Babylonia, weights and measures (as well as the lunar calendar) were standardized, and the first written law code in Western history was promulgated. It was in this period that the Gilgamesh stories were probably written (after being handed down orally from previous generations).

The Ur III period ended due to a combination of factors, First, a prolonged drought forced the last king of the Ur dynasty, Ibbi-sin (1950-1925), to buy grain in northern Mesopotamia at virtually any price. Second, the Elamites from Iran sacked and burned Ur and carried Ibbi-sin into captivity. Finally, another group of Semites, the Amurru (OT Amorites; lit., “people of the West”), invaded Mesopotamia from the Syrian Desert and occupied the territory the Sumerians had developed.

Age of Hammurabi;
Coming of the Indo-europeans

Although unflatteringly labeled by some as nomads who “ate raw meat and lived in tents,” the Amorites were an important Semitic group that preserved the culture and writing system of their predecessors. They were family and tribally oriented, with individual patriarchs, or tribal sheikhs, often leading them against both non-Semitic peoples and other Amorites. By 1800 they were firmly entrenched in Babylonia, and had carved it into a number of geographical areas owing allegiance to a particular tribal leader with headquarters in what amounted to a provincial capital. The city-state continued to exist only in theory, and property became decreasingly associated with temples and increasingly with private citizens.

Amorite civilization is generally divided into two phases. The first, commonly called the Isin-Larsa period (2000-1800), denotes the dominance of two urban centers, Isin and Larsa, whose “kings” vied with each other (and Amorite Assyria) for power. Toward the end of this period, the dynamic Šamši-adad (1813-1784) virtually reduced the cities of Assur, Ekallatum, and Mari to subservience through conquest, and his sons Ishme-dagan and Yasmaḫ-adad succeeded him in control of Assur and Mari, respectively. Their joint control of Assyria, however, was short-lived, as was the independence of the cities of Isin and Larsa in Sumer and Akkad.

The second phase of Amorite domination was the Old Babylonian period (1800-1600) which witnessed the rise of the city of Babylon and its ruler, Hammurabi (Hammurapi, 1792-1750). Over a period of 30 years, Hammurabi very carefully and deliberately played one Amorite kingdom against another, ferreting out weaknesses in his adversaries. With consummate skill he conquered Assur and Mari and by 1763 reduced Isin and Larsa to submission. By 1760 the whole of Mesopotamia was effectively united under the dynamic leadership of one man, and the military, cultural, legal, and administrative achievements associated with his reign amply justify the designation of the last two centuries of Amorite civilization as the “Age of Hammurabi.” Without question, one of the most important events of Hammurabi’s reign was the promulgation of a lengthy written code of laws.

The Old Babylonian period ended when Babylonia was invaded by a group known as Indo-europeans. Coming originally from the steppe north of the Caucasus Mountains, they split into two groups. The first, known simply as western Indo-europeans, migrated into Anatolia (modern Turkey), the Balkan Peninsula, and western Europe. The second group, the Indo-aryans, settled in Mesopotamia, Iran, and the Indus Valley. The earliest of these Indo-europeans, the Hittites, settled in the Halys River basin in Anatolia, conquered the native ³atti folk living there, and established a small kingdom centered around the capital city of ³attuša (modern Boghazköy). In 1595 the Hittite king Mursili I conducted a daring raid into Babylonia, sacking and burning Babylon, destroying Marduk’s temple, and taking the statue of Marduk back to Syria. He thus ended the dynasty of Hammurabi.

A group known as the Kassites came to the fore after Babylon’s destruction. Evidence presently available suggests the Kassites were Indo-aryans who worshipped such gods as Shuriya, Buriya, and Marut, all found in the Hindu Rig Veda. The Kassites rebuilt Babylon and flourished in southern Mesopotamia from 1600 to 1200. They avoided prolonged war with their northern and western neighbors, flourishing into the 12th century, when they were conquered by the Elamites.

First Millennium

Although the history of Babylonia in the early 1st millennium is still largely shrouded in mystery, the Elamites, Assyrians, Arameans, and Chaldeans played prominent roles in the period. Like their contemporaries, the Phoenicians, the Arameans were western Semites who worshipped a pantheon of gods and used a writing system that was originally derived from Egyptian hieroglyphics. However, the similarities end there. Many scholars still view the Arameans as semi-nomads who were forced to migrate as a result of the turbulence caused by the movement of the Sea Peoples in the eastern Mediterranean in the 13th century. By the 12th century they began to make their unsettling presence felt in Babylonia. The Assyrian kings Tiglath-pileser I and Assur-bel-kala had to conduct many campaigns against them, and written sources indicate that by the end of the 10th century they were firmly entrenched in the area surrounding Damascus and in Mesopotamia as well. By this time they were certainly urbanized, and traded (by donkey and camel caravan) with both the Hebrews and Assyria. Genesis (25:20; 29:1-8), 1 Samuel (14:47), 2 Samuel (8:3), and 1 Kings (10:29; 11:23-25; 15:16-21) are replete with accounts of both peaceful and hostile encounters with the Arameans during the early years of the Hebrew monarchy. Ezek. 23:23; Jer. 50:21 indicate that they were initially disruptive in Babylonia in general and in Babylon in particular. Although they do not appear to have had long-term political influence, the fact that the Arameans could never really unify under one ruler meant that they were a constant source of trouble.

The Chaldeans (Kaldu) appear in southern Babylonia as early as the beginning of the 9th century. Their place of origin and ethnicity present problems. The Greeks used the term “Chaldean” to denote particular tribes of Kaldu who eventually overthrew the powerful Assyrian Empire and established their capital at Babylon. While some persist in identifying the Chaldeans as Arameans, there is no direct evidence in the cuneiform sources to support this. What little evidence does survive suggests that they were an ethnic group separate and distinct from the Arameans, and that they were grouped into as few as five tribes. In any event, the Kaldu tribes already possessed the extreme southern part of Babylonia by the second half of the 9th century and (like the Kassites earlier) had adopted the worship of the supreme god Marduk. Northward expansion put them in direct conflict with Aramean tribes collectively called Aramu. Their supreme god was Sin, a god whose worship was centered at Ur in the south and Harran in the north. In 729 Tiglath-pileser III, the Assyrian king who conquered Israel, ended Babylon’s independence. He received tribute from the elusive Marduk-apla-iddina (Merodach-baladan in 2 Kgs. 20:12; Isa. 39:1), who was sheikh of the important Chaldean tribe of Bit-yakin and a contemporary of King Hezekiah. It was he who brought Chaldean and Aramean tribes together in opposition to Assyrian expansion in southern Babylonia. The Assyrian kings Sargon II (722-705) and Sennacherib (705-681) were unable to capture him, and under his leadership both Chaldean and Aramean tribes constituted a formidable threat to the stability of the Assyrian Empire, not only in Babylonia, but in Elam, Arabia, and Judah as well. Sennacherib eventually destroyed Babylon (694), which lay in ruins until his son and successor Esarhaddon (681-669) ordered it rebuilt. The next two monarchs, Assurbanipal and his brother Šamaš-šum-ukin, partitioned the whole of Mesopotamia into two kingdoms, north and south, owing their allegiance to different sovereigns. But after a revolt in 652, Babylonia once again became a part of the Assyrian Empire, and remained so for the next 25 years.

Finally, however, the immense size and internal weakness of Assyria took their toll. In 626 the Kaldu sheikh Nabopolassar led an uprising and declared himself “king of Babylon.” Both Nabopolassar and the Assyrian king Assur-etil-ilani (likely the predecessor of the Sin-šarra-iškun known to the Babylonians) claimed authority over Babylonia. Nabopolassar allied himself with the powerful Medes of northern Iran and their king Uvakshatra, known to the Greek writers as Cyaxeres. The two monarchs united forces and prepared to engage the Assyrians and their Egyptian allies. Pockets of resistance to the Chaldeans now developed in Babylonia (in Uruk and Nippur), but Nabopolassar was able to overcome them, and by 612 Nineveh itself was taken. Cyaxeres retreated to his homeland, and Nabopolassar’s forces defeated the Assyrians in a last stand at Carchemish in 605. With the defeat of Assyrian king Assur-uballit II, the Assyrian Empire passed into history.

Nabopolassar died in his hour of triumph, and his throne passed to his son, Nabû-kudurri-usur (OT Nebuchadnezzar). With the independent Chaldean dynasty now firmly in control, Nebuchadnezzar made Babylon the headquarters of an imperial administrative bureaucracy. During his 43-year reign (605-562), he surrounded the capital city with no less than five fortification walls of baked and glazed brick along with several palaces which served as his royal residences. Under his guidance Marduk of Babylon was again supreme. His temple, the Esagila, and the ziggurat Etemenanki (the infamous Tower of Babel) were restored, and Babylon became the showplace of the Western world.

Nebuchadnezzar campaigned in Syria and Palestine and in 597 laid siege to Jerusalem. Judah was reduced to the status of tributary and, according to Jeremiah, 2 Kings, and 2 Chronicles, was reduced to rubble in 586, when the Babylonian monarch destroyed the temple of Solomon and deported the Hebrews into captivity. Jehoiachin of Judah was imprisoned in Babylonia until Nebuchadnezzar’s son and successor, Amel-marduk (Evil-merodach in 2 Kgs. 25:27; Jer. 52:31) set him free. The Hebrews remained in captivity for the duration of the Chaldean dynasty.

Nebuchadnezzar is very prominent in the book of Daniel, which records stories of the king’s madness. These accounts no doubt reflect an attempt by the Hebrew writer to associate Nebuchadnezzar with the deeds of the last king of the Chaldean dynasty, Nabonidus (555-539). Probably of Syrian origin, Nabonidus not only introduced the worship of Sin of Harran to the capital city, but he also was absent from Babylon for several years while undertaking a campaign to the oasis of Tema in Arabia. It was during his absence that his son Bel-šarra-usur (Belshazzar in Dan. 5) ruled as coregent. Shortly after his return to Babylonia, Nabonidus had to deal with the Persians, an Indo-aryan people originally associated with the province of Parsa in southwest Iran. Under the leadership of their king Cyrus II (549-529), they took Babylon in 539, probably through a combination of force and the betrayal of the governor of Babylon, Gubarru (Gobryas in classical sources). Nabonidus was sent into exile, and the Hebrews were allowed to return to Palestine (Ezra 6). The Persians continued to rule Babylonia as a part of their empire until 331, when they were conquered by Alexander the Great.

The history of Babylonia is one of numerous and diverse cultures. Nevertheless, from the time of the emergence of Hammurabi to the fall of Babylon itself, there is evidence of continued respect for the achievements of previous centuries. Sumerian polytheism persisted, even though Marduk was worshipped as “king of the gods” in Babylon during Amorite, Kassite, and Chaldean times. Sumerian literature was translated into Akkadian, and as a result of the efforts of scribes in Amorite and Kassite times, the exploits of such heroes as Gilgamesh were preserved for posterity. Great respect was shown for the cult centers of city-state deities, and monarchs such as Nabonidus prided themselves on their restoration of “ancient” sanctuaries. The achievements of the civilizations of Babylonia (including writing, mathematics, and astrology) were largely preserved by the Greeks, through whom they became a part of the legacy of antiquity.

Bibliography. A. K. Grayson, Assyrian and Babylonian Chronicles (Locust Valley, 1975); J. Oates, Babylon (London, 1979); A. L. Oppenheim, Ancient Mesopotamia, 2nd ed. (Chicago, 1977); G. Roux, Ancient Iraq, 3rd ed. (Baltimore, 1992); H. W. F. Saggs, The Greatness That Was Babylon, rev. ed. (London, 1988); D. J. Wiseman, Nebuchadrezzar and Babylon (Oxford, 1985).

Ronald H. Sack

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

BABYLONIA

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)