What is the difference between Babylon and Babel?
Asked by
tups (
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July 9th, 2013
I can’t seem to find a final answer anywhere. Somewhere it says that Babylon is the historical name for the biblical city of Babel, but elsewhere it says otherwise.
Does anyone here know?
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7 Answers
Babylon and Babel are the same thing, just two different names. Babylon is the English name, while Babel is the anglicized Hebrew name.
@PhiNotPi Thank you for your answer. Are you absolutely certain about this?
The Hebrew pronunciation of Babel would be BUH-vel. The Hebrew “v” sound becomes a “b” in English.
Babylon is the English name.
Babel is a code name for a planetoid in neutral space, used by the United Federation of Planets as a venue for conferences.
Babylon is a song sung about by the band Rainbow in the 1970s. (Well, the Gates of Babylon)
I like @Rarebear‘s answer. I think we hung out at the Shaboo Inn in the 1960’s and 1970’s.
Babylon is what it is in historical research. A city most likely founded _c_2300 BC on the banks of the Euphrates. The name refers to “The Gate of the god, [Marduk.]” Babel is a place informed by the subsequent genealogies in Genesis of the Bible: a jumping off place for the spread of the various peoples know to the ancient Hebrews by their various languages and places of occupation. This was due to the “confusion” (<Hebrew, or modern babel) of the People’s language into many peoples’ languages. An entirely different etiological account than the historical one. The story of Babel ends with the great project abandoned, left to the king and the few who still speak an “unBabeled” language. Babylon = Babel in an alliterative sense only. Superimposition is a matter of taste.
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