Page 15 - Bible Geography and Near East Studies - Textbook w videos short

Study Section 3: Babylon

3.1 Connect.

Do you like studying HISTORY? When I was in school, I did not like studying history. It was
probably because the teachers always made it so dry. It just was not interesting and I saw no
need in studying all those dates and names of people I don’t know and who are dead and gone.
Can you relate? However, I have learned a lot about history since those days. What happened
back then is our roots. And what they did influences us today. God has been totally involved in
the history of mankind. History is really HIS STORY. It has a beginning and it will have a
conclusion. So we had better find out what God has been doing throughout the ages, so we can better
understand His plans for us today. Today, we are going to study the first recorded (written) history of
man.

3.2 Objectives:

1. The student should be able to describe the rise of the Babylonian civilization, learning the
important people and events that made this empire so influential.

2. The student should be able to explain how from the life and death of Sennacherib, that God is
a God who cannot be challenged or demeaned.

3. The student should be able to describe the call of Abraham in the land of Babylon to move to a
special land, and his response.

1.3 The Land of Babylon

Much of the ruins of ancient Babylon are buried underneath the Euphrates River in modern-
day Iraq, but archaeologists have uncovered some of the more recent ruins, dating to the
time of the kings of Judah and Israel. Their findings tell us much about the 4,000-year history
of this storied city that passed through many hands and empires during its long existence.

From what historians can piece together, Babylon began as a small,
administrative center during the reign of Sargon the Great. Babylon’s history
truly begins with Hammurabi, an Amorite prince, who began his reign over
the city in 1792 B.C. Through war and diplomacy, Hammurabi subdued all of
Mesopotamia under Babylonian rule by 1755 B.C. His empire stretched from
Syria to the Persian Gulf. Hammurabi called his empire Babylonia.

The capital of Babylonia was Babylon. It has been estimated that Babylon
was the largest city in the world from around 1770 BC to 1670 BC; and then
again between 612 BC and 320 BC. It was perhaps the first city to reach a
population above 200,000.

The Babylonian civilization achieved much during the time of its supremacy.

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