"For he sent this message to us in Babylon: 'It will be a long time; build houses to live in; plant gardens and eat their fruit'" (New American Standard Version, Jeremiah 29:28). 🏡
KEVIN DALY: Those who think they can achieve Jewish salvation by participating in the religious observances of the Talmudic faith simply add credibility to that system, and can never – by the flattery of imitation – provoke anyone to jealousy. Only the new life by the Spirit of God, which manifests itself most profoundly through simple obedience, self-sacrifice, and by its fruits (Gal. 5:22), will produce such a result.
TOM HALE: If we take the Bible's description, we can speculate that the Garden of Eden is located somewhere near Iraq and Iran around the Persian Gulf.
MARVIN OLASKY: We Live in Babylon, Not Israel
Chaim Steinmetz: So how does one prepare for exile? Jacob chooses an unusual method: He blesses his family.
Tova Ganzel: The king of Babylonia used the magical practices of the time to decide whether to advance his army towards Jerusalem or Rabbat Ammon. The "shaking of arrows" consists of "filling a quiver with arrows, with different answers written on them. The diviner would shake the arrows, and the first to fall from the quiver was considered to represent the answer of the gods." In addition, the king "consulted the terafim" – meaning, divining the future using idols (see Bereishit 31:34; Melakhim II 23:24; Zekharia 10:2).
Tzvi Freeman: in the century before the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 CE, the leading sages of Israel established the world's first public school system. They could feel a diaspora coming, and they bunkered down for it by formalizing the process of Jewish education.
KEN SPIRO: Part of the reason for the stability of the Jewish community in Babylon was that the area was held by the Persian Sassanian dynasty from the 3rd century CE on. The Sassanians managed to keep out of their kingdom first the Romans and then the Byzantines. In this way the Jews of Babylon were protected from harm that the Byzantine Christians inflicted elsewhere.
"Digital Babylon is the New Context for Discipleship. We are all Exiles, now."
John Copeland: Babylonians were the first to make New Year's resolutions
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Chris Mullis: If we're honest and historically accurate, ancient Babylon had much in common with modern America. It's a hard truth for some to accept, but America will soon be gone and forgotten.
Andrew J. Bacevich: Twenty years after the Iraq invasion: America's humiliation was China's gain.
JEWISH VIRTUAL LIBRARY: In 1219, the Mongols, led by Genghis Khan, conquered Bukhara, pillaging and burning the city to the ground, destroying the Bukharan Jewish community.
TREVIN WAX: The neo–Religious Right agrees with younger evangelicals that we're in Babylon. The debate is about how the church should respond to this environment. What does faithfulness in Babylon look like?
Wikipedia: The Babylonian Captivity had a number of serious effects on Judaism and Jewish culture. Prior to exile, the people of Israel had been organized according to tribe. Afterwards, they were organized by smaller family groups. Only the tribe of Levi continued in its temple role after the return. [T]he vast majority stayed in Babylon under Persia domination.
