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What is the History of Babylon?
        HIST'ORY OF BAB'Y'LON
        Bernsus gives a list of ten mythical kings, including Xisithrus, who ruled Babylonia before the Flood; while the inscriptions so far discovered on the tablets and monuments give three mythical kings before the Flood, and four after it. From the inscriptions, long lists of kings during the historical period have also been deciphered. The earliest list of twelve kings in this period begins with Izdubar, who is identified with Nimrod by George Smith. To this list he adds from the inscriptions the names of six viceroys, six kings of Ur, five kings of Karrak, six of Erech and Larsa, five of Akkad, and four Elamite kings; and among the latter is Chedorlaomer of Gen 14:1-17. Five native kings were contemporary with these Elamite kings, and twenty other kings ruled successively until the accession of an Assyrian dynasty in b.c. 1271. The last list given by George Smith from the inscriptions covers the period from b.c. 1150 to 539, and includes Sargon, b.c. 710, Merodach-baladan III., restored b.c. 705, Esarhaddon, who rebuilt Babylon, b.c. 681, Assurbanipal, b.c. 648, Nebuchadnezzar III., the Nebuchadnezzar of Scripture, b.c. 605, Amil-maruduk, the Evil-merodach of the Bible, b.c. 562, and Bel-sar-uzar, the Belshazzar of the book of Daniel, and who reigned with his father until the fall of the Babylonian empire, b.c. 538. It is not certain how far back the records of Babylonia reach, but George Smith regards it as certain that they reach to the twenty fourth century before Christ, and some scholars would stretch them nearly two thousand years beyond that early period. The civilization, literature, and government found in Babylonia two thousand years before the Christian era could not have sprung up in a day, but further explorations only can determine its age. Among the biblical cities named in the earliest inscriptions -- those of Izdubar -- are Babylon, Cuthah, and Erech, thus adding new light to the truth of Scripture history. See George Smith's Assyrian Discoveries, 1875, chap. 23.


Bibliography Information
Schaff, Philip, Dr. "Biblical Definition for 'history of babylon' in Schaffs Bible Dictionary".
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