Babylon

Babylon and the Babylonians

William Blake's famous interpretation of the madness of King Nebuchadnezzar II.
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The Madness of King Nebuchadnezzar

In Toronto, at the Royal Ontario Museum (if you haven’t visited you really should) are two square clay building blocks with an inscription stamped upon them reading, “Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, who provides for (the temples) Esagila and Ezida, the eldest son of Nabopolassar, king of Babylon, am I”. Building brick from Babylon with Nebuchadnezzar inscription.King Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon was a prolific builder. According to some sources, Nebuchadnezzar’s workers used over 15,000,000 bricks in his building projects and almost all of them carried the same inscription.

Nebuchadnezzar was keenly aware of Egyptian Pharaoh’s and Mesopotamian monarchs who had been erased from the historical record by envious and resentful successors. The Babylonian king would not allow the same thing to happen to him. No one could ever take credit for his greatest work, the rebuilding of the great capital of Babylon but the man whose name and esteemed royal parentage was pressed into the very walls and foundations of everything he built. Continue reading →

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The Babylonian Invasion in Archeology – Part 3: Exile

“By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat. We wept when we remembered Zion.” (Psalm 37:1)

(This is the third and final part of a three-part series on the Babylonian invasion of Judah in archeology. In part 1 we looked at the archeological memory of the invasion and conquest of Jerusalem. In part 2 we examined the famous “Lachish Letters”. In part 3 we will investigate evidence of the famous captivity of the Judean population in Babylon.)

As recently as last year, I heard an archeologist refer to the “so-called Babylonian exile”. Continue reading →

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The Babylonian Invasion In Archeology – Part 2: The Lachish Letters

(Photo: James Leslie Starkey points to where he found the “Lachish Letters” in 1935.)

In speaking of the destruction of Jerusalem, it’s easy to forget that other cities in the kingdom suffered defeat and exile as well. Such was the case with Lachish, the second most important city in the kingdom of Judah.

On January 29, 1935, British archaeologist James Leslie Starkey made what is widely regarded as one of the most important discoveries in the history of Biblical archeology. Continue reading →

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The Babylonian Invasion In Archeology – Part 1: Jerusalem Falls

The Babylonian invasion of Judah is one of the most momentous events in the history of Israel. It resulted in the destruction of the capital Jerusalem, the exile of the population to a foreign land, the end of independent rule by kings from the house of David and most importantly, the destruction of the glorious temple built by King Solomon. There was a controversy at one time about whether the Bible exaggerated the event. Some today still might still dispute certain details, but the archaeological evidence is clear, there can be no doubt as to whether those events occurred. Continue reading →

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King Jehoiachin in Babylon

 

Ishtar Gate

Top: Rictor Norton (CC BY SA 2.0) Wikimedia Commons. Bottom left: (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) British Museum. Bottom right: Jona Lendering (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) Livius.org

Post 7 – This week in #weeklybiblereadingarcheology, the exile of King Jehoichin (2 Kings 24 :12-17). At the British Museum is an official Babylonian record (Bottom left) which reads in part, “… he (Nebudchadnezzer) conquered the city and took the king (Jehoiachin) prisoner. He Continue reading →