THE WINE OF BABYLON THE FIRST.
By C. L. Emerson
The Origin of the Religions of the Nations.
“The religion of the Assyrians resembled that of the Chaldeans [Babylonians] so closely as to be almost identical with it in its higher divinities,” we are told in the “Pictorial History of the World,” p. 169. When we remember that Babylonia, or Chaldea, existed prior to Assyria, in fact, that Chaldea “stands forth as the great parent and original inventress of Asiatic civilization” (Id., p. 152), and that in the beginning of the Chaldean Kingdom they became idolaters, it is easy to see that Assyria received its religion from Babylon. Concerning Persia we read: “Among the pure Semites, or Aryans, direct worship of the sun was paid from the beginning and still later. Thus among the Assyrians and afterward among the Persians, whose sun-worship is one and the same.”—Schaff-Herzog Ency. The Persians borrowed their sun-worship of the Assyrians, and the Assyrians borrowed their worship of the Babylonians. Where, then, did Persia’s worship originate? “The religion of the Phœnicians evidently sprang from the source from which those of Chaldea and Assyria were derived.”—Pict. Hist., p. 184. We have already seen that these religions were cradled in the lap of Chaldea. “The Carthaginians were indebted to the Tyrians [Phœnicians], not only for their origin, but their manners, language, customs, religion, and commerce.”—Rollin, vol. 1, book 2, part 1. The Tyrians received their religion from the Babylonians, so that must have been the origin of the Carthaginian religion. The chief god of Phœnicia was Baal—the same as the Babylonian Bel—who was called Baal with some other name to distinguish what attribute of the great god he represented. As a destroyer he was called Baal-Molech; we generally distinguish him by the latter part of his name only. Milcom, the “abomination of the children of Ammon,” was the same as Molech (see 1 Kings 11:5, 7), and so of Babylonian origin. Molech “is essentially identical with the Moabitish Chemosh.”—Smith’s Bible Dict., art. Molech. Thus we see that the heathen worship of Palestine was no more nor less than something which was at the first brought from Babylonia. In “Fathers of the Catholic Church,” p. 305, we find a quotation from Talbot W. Chambers, D.D., in which he says, “The chief object of worship among the Syrians was Baal”—the sun. We have already showed that Baal was the chief object of worship among the Phœnicians, who borrowed their religion from Babylon. Therefore the Syrian religion originally came from Babylon. “The striking resemblance of the Chaldean system to that of classical mythology seems worthy of particular attention. This resemblance is too general, and too close in some respects, to allow of the supposition that mere accident has produced the coincidence. In the pantheons of Greece and Rome, and in that of Chaldea, the same general groupings are recognized; the same genealogical succession is not unfrequently to be traced; and in some cases even the familiar names and titles of classical divinities admit of most curious illustrations and explanations from Chaldean sources. We can scarcely doubt but that, in some way or other, there was a communication of beliefs—a passage in very early times from the shores of the Persian Gulf to the land washed by the Mediterranean—of mythological notions and ideas.”—Pict. Hist., p. 152. The evidence given in the above that the religions of Greece and Rome and those of ancient Babylon were derived from the same source, is beyond dispute. But as Greece and Rome did not exist till after Babylon had for centuries followed this system of worship, it is easy to see where the worship came from. We might go on to show that it is the belief of those who have investigated the subject with care, that the Egyptian religion originated in the same place with all these other religions. But, as it is unnecessary to establish that point, we will not take the time to give the testimony. We see, then, that all the nations of whom we have very authentic historic knowledge, borrowed their religion from Babylon. Therefore, whatever we find as a result of the Babylonian, Assyrian, Persian, Syrian, Phœnician, Carthaginian, Palestinian, Greek, or Roman heathenisms, it is but the direct outgrowth of that first revolt against the Word of God away back in the days immediately following the Deluge. Whatever we find practised in any of these countries, we can point to and name what the Lord named it when it was in embryo,—Babylon, confusion, in contradiction to union, which is given by the Spirit of God.