A forthcoming research project about the Neo-Babylonian empire involves quite a lot of preparation. Involving valid and credible source materials that together will help piece together the details of the ancient Mesopotamian civilization that carried significant weight throughout Scripture, historical tradition, and important literary records.
Thesis
Judah’s captivity by the Neo-Babylonian empire was their return to slavery. To become again governed by a people who worshiped foreign gods just as Egypt did before Israel’s exile. Yahweh did not return His people to Egypt, as their foreign gods were defeated. He delivered them over to other people who served and worshiped other false gods. As the people of Egypt, Canaan, and now Babylon served other gods, they were given to captivity due to their idolatry and betrayal of Yahweh. This paper attempts to answer what life was like in Babylon during Judah’s captivity.
Abstract
The research paper that I intend to develop and post centers around the Neo-Babylonian empire. The society, culture, geography, literature, and spiritual conditions of ancient Babylon are of high historical interest as they represented the heartbeat and dominance of the Mesopotamian region during Israel’s captivity. I expect to find a primitive and shallow “civilization” given to social disorder, polytheism, and frequent self-interest in contradiction to the covenant obligations given by Yahweh to Israel. Babylon would gather tribute, resources, and slaves to build infrastructures such as its institutions, utilities, residences, temples, plus fortifications from numerous conquests and conflicts imposed upon surrounding vassal nations. The Neo-Babylonian empire is most relevant with this paper as it concerns the time of Judah’s captivity. Characterization of the environment in which Judah was beset was sure to be steeped in various forms of trauma. This paper explores some of the causes of Judah’s hardship as physical and spiritual trauma as an outcome of their covenant abandonment.
Framework
Background
This collapse of Assyria was caused largely by the rise of another power-Babylon. In October 626 the Chaldean prince Nabopolassar had defeated the Assyrian army outside Babylon and claimed the throne in Babylon. The kingdom he founded came to be known as the Neo-Babylonian Empire. He consolidated his empire, and by 616 he was on the march to expand his territory. The combined army of the Babylonians and Medes destroyed Nineveh in 612.
Babylon’s rise and Assyria’s collapse created a realignment of power throughout the area. Judah, under Josiah, threw off the yoke of Assyrian dominion and enjoyed a brief period of national independence. This independence was shattered, however, by events in 609 B.C.1
War
The first phase of Judah’s exile was approximately coincident with the accession of Nebuchadnezzar (605–562) to the throne of Babylon. The young prince, having engaged the Egyptians in battle at Carchemish in 605 and defeated them there, was deflected, by the untimely death of his father, from his further objective of removing them from Palestine.2
Society
They imbibed deeply of the society in which they lived, and yet they retained the cherished faith, life, and traditions of their ancestors.3
Culture
It is no coincidence that the awful judgment by God of His people and their exile from their homeland should have occurred under the Babylonians, the mightiest power on earth. Nor is it surprising that their deliverance and return should have been affected under the comparatively beneficent rule of Persia, Babylonia’s even greater successor. In both instances -captivity and return- human potentates and their gods are seen for what they really are – mere instruments in the hand of the omnipotent One who used them to accomplish His judging and saving work.4
Politics
The citizens of Jerusalem anointed Josiah’s second son Jehoahaz as king, but Neco promptly replaced him with his older brother Eliakim, assigning him a regnal name Jehoiakim (609-598 BC.) Jehoiakim tried his hand at power politics….”5
Literary
Those portions of Daniel’s prophecy which deal generally with Gentile affairs (the four kingdoms of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, the humiliation of that king in the episode of the fiery furnace and by his seven years of insanity, and also the experience of Belshazzar and Darius the Mede) were put into a linguistic medium which al the public could appreciate whether Jew or Gentile.6
Prophecy
While Jeremiah is still under house arrest, Yahweh comes to him again with a message of hope regarding future restoration.7
Timeline
Significant historical events span from 710BC at the time of Hezekiah, to the fall of Babylon to Persia in 539BC. Infrastructure development, military campaigns, and invasions, royal accessions, territorial conflict, etc.8
Religion
A Babylonian Theogony. The gods are paired, male and female, the first two being Hain, an otherwise unknown male deity, and Earth. These two brought into existence the next pair of deities, Amakandu and Sea, as well as the city, Dunnu. In the subsequent lines of the text is found the stereotyped account of how, by means of incest and murder, one divine pair succeeded another. Only the names of one more pair, Lahar99, and River, are completely preserved. The names of the male consorts of Ga’um and Ningeshtinna are missing. The dates upon which each new god took control are given and these were obviously related to important festivals of the city, Dunnu.9
Economy
The Amarna Letters (484). When I went to Hamuniri (70) because of the sons of ‘Abdu-Ashirta when they were powerful against me and there was no breath of the mouth of the king to me, then I said to my lord: “Behold our city Byblos! (City in Lebanon). There is much wealth of the king in it, the property (75) of our forefathers. If the king does not intervene for the city, all the cities of the land of Canaan will (no longer) be his. Let the king not ignore this deed!”10
The Code of Hammurabi (99): If a merchant lent money at interest to a trader for the purpose of trading [and making purchases] and sent him out on the road, the trader shall … on the road [the money which was entrusted] to him.11 Cursory summaries of Hammurabi code inscriptions with respect to trade.
Laws
ANE Legal Texts. The tablet originally contained some sixteen paragraphs, of which only nine are well preserved. Peiser suggests a date in the time of Ashurbanipal, but what he regards as the remnants of a date is unquestionably a part of the legislation in §1. However, the script, orthography, and wording, all clearly indicate a date in the Neo-Babylonian Period.12
𒄩𒄠𒈬𒊏𒁉
Citations
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1. Charles H. Dyer, “Jeremiah,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, ed. J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, vol. 1 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 1125.
2. Eugene H. Merrill, Kingdom of Priests: A History of Old Testament Israel, Second Edition. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2008), 482.
3. Eugene H. Merrill, Kingdom of Priests: A History of Old Testament Israel, Second Edition. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2008), 484.
4. Eugene Merrill, Mark F. Rooker, Michael A Grisanti. The World and the Word: An Introduction to the Old Testament. (Nashville: B&H Academic, 2011), 412.
5. Tremper Longman III, Raymond B. Dillard. An Introduction to the Old Testament. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2006), 324.
6. Gleason L. Archer, A Survey of Old Testament Introduction. (Chicago: Moody, 2007), 371.
7. Daniel J. Hays, Tremper Longman III. The Message of the Prophets. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2010), 181.
8. John D. Barry et al. Faithlife Study Bible. Neo-Babylonian Empire Timeline Infographic. (Bellingham: Lexham Press, 2012)
9. James Bennett Pritchard, ed., The Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament, 3rd ed. with Supplement. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1969), 517.
10. Ibid. Pritchard, 484.
11. Ibid. Pritchard, 170.
12. Ibid. Pritchard, 197.
Bibliography
Coxon, Peter. “Nebuchadnezzar’s Hermeneutical Dilemma.” Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, 1995: 87-97.
Delorme, Jean-Philippe. “Ezekiel: Identity Construction and the Exilic Period.” Journal of Biblical Literature, 2019: 121-141.
Eugene Merrill, Mark F. Rooker, Michael A Grisanti. The World and the Word: An Introduction to the Old Testament. Nashville: B&H Academic, 2011.
Hays, J. Daniel, and Tremper Longman III. The Message of the Prophets. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2010.
Lundbom, Jack R. “Builders of Ancient Babylon: Nabopolassar and Nebuchadnezzar II.” A Journal of the BIble and Theology, 2017: 154-166.
Merrill, Eugene H. Kingdom of Priests: A History of Old Testament Israel. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2008.
Tremper Longman III, Raymond B. Dillard. An Introduction to the Old Testament. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2006.
Archer, Gleason L. A Survey of Old Testament Introduction. Chicago: Moody, 2007.
Coxon, Peter. “Nebuchadnezzar’s Hermeneutical Dilemma.” Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, 1995: 87-97.
Delorme, Jean-Philippe. “Ezekiel: Identity Construction and the Exilic Period.” Journal of Biblical Literature, 2019: 121-141.
James Bennett Pritchard, ed. The Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament, 3rd ed. with Supplement. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1969.
John D. Barry et al. Faithlife Study Bible. Bellingham: Lexham Press, 2012.
John F. Walvoord, Roy B. Zuck. The Bible Knowledge Commentary. Wheaton: Victor Books, 1985.
Lundbom, Jack R. “Builders of Ancient Babylon: Nabopolassar and Nebuchadnezzar II.” A Journal of Bible and Theology, 2017: 154-166.
Tremper Longman III, Raymond B. Dillard. An Introduction to the Old Testament. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2006.
