Thursday, October 8, 2020

Erbil as the original Babel

I'm perhaps the first person to propose this theory, but I think it's interesting.

Archeologists have considered Erbil to be a candidate for the title of oldest continually inhabited city on Earth.  Biblically that City should be Babel.

The name of that city today is commonly given as Erbil or Irbil and was in Greco-Roman times known as Arbella.  It's been known by forms of that name since before 2000 BC when the Sumerians called it Urbilum, Urbelum, Urbillum or Arbilum.  The Hebrew word for City used in Genesis 11 is Ir and the Hebrew word for Confusion used is Balal.  So could this name come from "City of Confusion" in a Semitic language?

Specifically this results in my theorizing that the Citadel of Erbil could be the site of the Abandoned base of The Tower.

I don't know fully how to reconcile this with Genesis 10.  Maybe that Babel is still Nippur as I argued for last year, I certainly still favor the YLT translations of the Nimrod verses.  However there are a number of ancient inhabited archeological sites near Erbil who's ancient names we don't know because some were abandoned before 2000 BC it seems, like Tell Shemshara, Tepe Gawra, Tell Arpachiyah, Telul Eth-Thalathat, and maybe Arrapha.  Could a lot of the names we usually associate with southern Mesopotamia really be re-foundings of settlements that were originally further north?

This theory could be compatible with a number of different theories of Bible Prophecy.

For example in the first century it was the capital of Adiabene who's rulers had converted to Judaism and King Monobaz II brought an army from beyond the Euphrates to support the rebels during the 66-73 Ad revolt.  So maybe 70 AD Preterists should rethink their assumption that they have to remove Babylon from Mesopotamia?

But for Protestant Historicists and Futurists still obsessed with wanting Mystery Babylon to be the Catholic Church, Erbil is currently the seat of one of the Eastern Rite Catholic Churches, the Chaldean Catholic Church, they have a huge Church in the city called the Cathedral of Saint Joseph that was built in an ancient Mesopotamian Style, it basically looks like a Ziggurat with a Cross on top.  Zechariah 5 seems to describe Mystery Babylon dwelling somewhere else for awhile but returning to her home in Shinar before the end.  So maybe the seed is already in place for the Papacy to move there for some reason?

And the Patriarch of this branch of the Catholic Church is officially titled the Patriarch of Babylon.  Speaking of which maybe this city which had a major Jewish population in the first century is the city Peter was dwelling in and calling Babylon when he wrote his first Epistle?

Erbil is also the current Headquarters of the Assyrian Church of The East, one of the Churches often misleadingly called "Nestorian".  Isaiah 14 seems to call the End Times King of Babylon "The Assyrian" and Micah 5 also uses that title when referring to the "Land of Nimrod".  Of course most followers of the Chaldean Church also consider themselves ethnically Assyrian.

Erbil is also the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan.  Now in Prophecies like Jeremiah 50-51 and Isaiah 13 it's currently popular to see the Kurds as the Medes.  But maybe the Medes of Jeremiah 51:28 are in fact modern Iran, while the prior verse is pretty arguably referring to locations in modern Turkey (Ashkenaz could be Lake Ascanius near Istanbul).  Those are the two major nations most threatened by and opposed to Kurdish sovereignty.  Youtuber Nelson Waters is building a view of Bible Prophecy that involves an alliance between Turkey and Iran, that involves a lot of things I don't currently agree with but it's interesting.

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