Mystery Babylon Who Is This Woman of Revelation 17
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Mystery Babylon:
Who Is This Woman
Of Revelation 17
By R.A. Coombes
[Archivist note: This is an old 1999 article. Some of the reference links may no longer be valid]
A Background for Revelation 17 & 18; Isaiah 47
The Babylonian goddess Ishtar – Background Information
There have been many requesting further background information on the nature of the Babylonian mystical religion that is described in Revelation chapters 17 and 18, along with Isaiah 47. I’ll try to provide a fair amount of it in a series of posts here. The subject is so diverse and detailed that I can only provide some of the more significant aspects here, and resource references to do your own follow up.
The woman of the prophecies describes only one of many of the religions of Babylon. Babylon was a polytheistic nation, which worshipped and recognized many religions. The chief and central of these was a mystical religion that centered around one key female goddess. The city/state/nation of Babylon was the oldest of the civilizations. Those who lived there at the time it all started called their empire "shumer". They spoke Shumerian… Today we call the land Sumer or Sumeria. We call the people Sumerians. They spoke a language called Sumerian. Also, as the peoples mingled together, other languages developed a dominance in the area for a time. One of those was a language called Akkadian… for those who came from the city of Accad. Akkadian was considered a Northeast Semitic dialect of Sumerian. Within or under the Akkadian dialect were the following sub-dialects of:
1. Babylonian
2. Assyrian (collectively called Assyro-Babylonian)
Other dialects in the Semitic regions were under the Canaanite dialect of the Northwest Semitic region. There were several sub-dialects evolving from the main Canaanite dialect as follows:
1. Ugaritic (from the city of Ur—Abraham’s hometown)
2. Amorite
3. Eblaite
4. Hebrew (spoken by the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph)
5. Phoenician
There was also another main dialect branch in the Northwest Semitic region known as Aramaic of which Syriac was a sub-dialect.
In the Southwestern Semitic Region (Now the Saudi Arabian Peninsular area) there was and still is the Arabic dialect. Also the Ethiopic dialect as well.
Now, all of this is important because these various areas and regions developed different names for the deities of Babylon…all of whom borrowed the deities and the religions of Babylon. Now with regards to the earliest times of Babylon. Archaeology has uncovered in excavations whole "libraries" of documents from these ancient civilizations, that at one time were thought to be lost forever. The earliest of these were in the form of cuneiform tablets. These documents in some cases go into great depth to describe certain histories especially in relation to their deities.
Today there are only a handful of people capable of reading and translating these most ancient tablets. One of the most prolific is a Jewish scholar named Zecharia Sitchin. His credentials include one of the foremost scholars of the Dead Sea Scrolls as well as other extremely ancient writings…like those found in the most ancient stratums of debris of the earliest Babylonian civilizations. Sitchin’s more recent findings cast extremely serious doubts upon the writings and "theories" of men like Alexander Hislop who wrote a book entitled: "The Two Babylons". Hislop’s work is rather old and relies on discoveries made in the early parts of the century. Hislop also makes some rather bold assumptions from the writings of others dating between 400 A.D. to 500 B.C. Now, to the average person, those would seem ancient enough to be reliable. With Sitchin’s and other more recent finds of the last 30 to 50 years, we have discovered that these most ancient writings do not match up with those of the period of time that Hislop considers.
Among some of the most basic and fundamental errors of Hislop is what the Sumerians called themselves. Hislop says they called themselves sammurs, based on writings of around 500 B.C. by the Greeks and Assyrians. More recent discoveries including updated linguistics tell us that the most ancient residents called their nation Shumer. This information dates to at least 3,000 BC. and maybe 5,000 BC according to some theorists.
Sitchin’s findings indicate that the ancient Sumerians of Babylon did not practice the same doctrines of their mystical religion that Hislop assumes that they did. Therefore all of Hislop’s work is seriously called into question as being erroneous. In fact, Hislop himself admits that he could be wrong and that he has made some assumptions he was not sure of, but proceeds to develop his thesis anyway.
Sitchin on the other hand, as well as others now present material that suggests a very different ancient Babylon. The hard physical evidence suggests that some of these writings may have indeed been written between 3,000 to 5,000 B.C. Sitchin and others make the case that the Creation and the Flood were much earlier than some Biblical chronologists have reasoned, based upon the Biblical geneaologies. As Sitchin and others point out… the problem is that the measurements of years had changed down thru the millenia… and that the Bible itself doesn’t identify when those differentials occurred or by how much. So, the argument rages about when the Tower of Babel first came to be, and when the city was built, as well as what the Tower really was.
The most recent evidence uncovered certainly seems to indicate that conservative Biblical scholars need to re-examine their theories of the Babylonian histories and what they were trying to tell us today. Sitchin and others now think that the Sumerians were telling us that some of the Angelic species were still hanging around planet earth after the flood. These species of Angelic beings were some of the fallen, rebel angelic forces known as the Beni ha helohim, and their offspring … known as the Nephilim. It’s the contention of Sitchin that these beings were the basis for the stories and the founding of
the ancient Babylonian religions. These beings set themselves up to be worshipped as gods. They apparently had the ability to fly. We have evidence in their pictures and their descriptions indicating that these ‘gods’ had spacecraft and maneuvered at least through-out our Solar system. These Sumerians/Babylonians write extensively about our solar system. Their writings show that they knew of all the planets in our own solar system. We in Western civilization didn't completely discover all the planets until Clyde W. Tombaugh discovered Pluto in 1938. The Sumerians also indicate that there may have been one or two more planets, at least one of which may have been destroyed in a war in the heavens! Today, we have some astrophysicists beginning to theorize that Mars is cratered because of a nearby explosion in the asteroid belt which other theorists think may have been the path of another planet that exploded into fragments. This explosion thus created the Asteroid belt.
Sitchin and others believe and present cases and theories that the Sumerians built a "Spaceport" for these gods to land and launch from. They may have even tried to make their own spacecraft!!! Perhaps with borrowed technology. In my book, America, The Babylon, I spend a whole chapter discussing this aspect of that civilization and look at the ancient Hebrew. I conclude that from the Hebrew, Sitchin may indeed be correct on the theory of the Tower of Babel, for it does seem to indicate a connection to travel in outerspace, including some stunning word and lexical research study on the word "shem"… A word for the righteous son of Noah, and also a word found in the ancient tablets of Babylon along with a drawing showing what a "shem" was… and the picture sure looks like a single-seat aerial craft of some sort… a spacecraft looking like a "fighter spacecraft" ala the movie "Star Wars"!!! In this object, we find that the gods and even a goddess would travel through space… like the chief goddess of Babylon who was considered to have a home-base linked to Venus.
It is this goddess that we want to examine, because she is the chief female deity in the Babylonian pantheon of deities. It is my contention that these beings are the "fallen ones" of the angelic realm … of which some apparently had sexual identities. Note: Jesus indicated that Angels neither marry nor are giving in marriage. I believe He was referring to the Throne Angels, the ones who reside around the throne. Remember there are many, many different classifications of angels found in the Bible. Not all of them may be non-sexual. Some may be sexual when they take a material form. Course its also possible that some of these beings, or maybe all … are not pure angelic beings but hybrids. Part human and part Angelic. While there is some debate on the issue of Genesis 6… the earliest understandings of Genesis 6 in the early church and even before Christ was that, angels who rebelled were the Beni ha helohim, and not simply more evil human men.
So we have a notion that these beings were indeed part of the Satanic forces, and it seems
their mission was to divert worship by man away from God and unto themselves. Two of the chief characters in this deception program were Merodach/Mardok/Marduk who was known to the Hebrews by the name Baal, or Bel. The Greeks and Egyptians later referred to Him as Mars, as did the Romans.
The chief female deity in the earliest of the early founding times of Babylon was known as Ninanna or Inanna… these were the Shumer original names of this goddess. Later, as the Akkadian dialect came into use, the name was ennunciated and written as Ishtar. Now, scholars looking at these cuneiform tablets, have determined that most of these that
Refer to the earliest references of Inanna or Ninanna date to around 4,000 B.C.
Note on the meaning of the name:
Nin = Lady or Queen
Anna = Heaven
Lady of Heaven or Queen of Heaven.
Now, Hislop makes the mistake of confusing this goddess name as being that of a fictional character named Semi ramis… which he claims the Sumerians called sammur-amat = meaning gift of the sea… and he doesn’t like to dwell on it but the legend of Semi ramis is that she was a "mermaid"… half fish and half human. She became the wife of Nimrod, or so Hislop tries to demonstrate throughout much of his book. Unfortunately for Hislop, the ancient and Royal records tell a far different story, one that tends to match
Exactly with the Genesis 6 flood accounts. But lets continue tracking the names.
Ishtar as she later became known by… was popular with all cultures that succeeded after the original ancient Babylon diminished. Later empires adopted her theologies, like Egypt, Assyria, Phoenicia, Canaan, the Greeks, the Persians, the Romans, the Indians, and even the Chinese. Oh, we shouldn’t forget also, the Jews, but not until after the demise of Solomon… when his wicked offspring learned to like the foreign heresies.
Ishtar’s ideals were adopted by all other nations…but they each changed some details, dropping some and embellishing others to fit their own desires. Ishtar’s name was known in other nations as :
Assyria = Ashtor
Hebrew = Ashtoreth
Egypt = Isis
Greece = Astarte and also as Aphrodite
Rome = in the earliest times as Libertas (Liberty) and later known
As Venus.
She was known as the goddess of "love" and also known as a warrior-goddess… especially in the stars.
She was portrayed in the earliest times until perhaps 500- 800 B.C. as being naked and alluring. She was associate with ‘beauty’. She was also portrayed as being robed. In all cases, especially in drawings she was depicted as having astral rays of the sun emminating from her back or her crown, which consisted of 7 spikes flattened like a crown, very much like the Statue of Liberty. She also was portrayed most often holding a bundle of reeds in one hand, and or a golden cup of a magical potient in the other.
Contrary to Hislop’s theory of Ishtar being a "mother goddess"… Ishtar was never associated with being a mother … at least not until 500 to 800 B.C. as near as can be determined. Certainly not in the first 2,000 years of her popularity. She was known however for providing fertility to all creation. She was also associated with a fiancee lover known as Dumuzi. (Hislop also mispells and mislabels this character also). Dumuzi dies before they can marry, and this sets off the first of the "mysteries" of Ishtar who also dies so she can rescue her lover from death. In the end they both die for a season. She dies and resides in Hell for the winter months while he is free, and then he returns so she can bring the spring and summer fertility to earth. Hislop however asserts that Dumuzi was her son, and also had an incestuous marriage. This is not true in the records for at least the first 2,000 to 4,000 years. She is also not considered a virgin goddess. Far from it… she is the goddess who promotes the notion of personal freedom and liberty to pursue a wild hedonistic sexual lifestyle of immense promiscuity. This is a far cry from the idea of a pure and chaste virginal mother. Also, as stated earlier she is a goddess of war, who leads men into war on earth and in the heavens.
Her religion involved the idea of sexual wantonness and behavior as part of the religious doctrines. Human men and women were commanded to engage in religious prostitution. All women were required to give perform as temple prostitutes on their wedding night and travelling businessmen were told it was their religious duty to engage in this prostitution as well. She also promoted the idea of all kinds of sexual abandonment including a special promotion of homosexuality for men and women. Thus, the religion was steeped in perverse sexual behavior, all in the name of being righteous. Such doctrines made it a very popular religion among the nations. This is where the symbolism of Revelation 17 comes into the equation. Revelation 17:1b… where the angel says to John:
"Come here and I will show you’re the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters" (verse 2 continues)… " with whom the kings of the earth committed acts of immorality, and those who dwell upon the earth were made drunk with the wine of her immorality… then verse 4 describes the woman further and concludes with the revealing statement in verse 5… "and upon her forehead a name was written, a mystery, ‘BABYLON THE MEGALA, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS, AND THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
Verse 16 also again refers to her as a harlot… and then… in verse 18…this harlot woman
Is identified…as:
V. 18: "And the woman whom you saw IS the MEGA CITY, which reigns over the kings of the earth." (NASB).
Revelation 19: 2 again refers to her as the MEGA HARLOT.
Nowhere in the prophecies do you see any reference to a MOTHER-CHILD concept. You only see a reference to her as the foundress of Religious Prostitution. An interesting
Side note: The 2nd most important Temple in Babylonia/Sumer was known as "THE WHITE HOUSE"!!! YES, a temple was called "the White House".
For more proof of this click to this research website of a Sumerologist John Heise and read his research notes from the cuneiform tablets relating to the List of Temples from the Royal Library records of Babylonia/Sumer.
And now click here for further information on the White House Temple concept:
Also while you're reading there… check out the Ishtar section:
Read the Temples List section. In fact the entire website is crammed with page after page after page of extremely scholarly research
Into Sumerian/Babylonian archaeology research finds.
[ hmmm, shades of Bill and Hillary?? Involved in Ishtarism?? See next section below.]
Perhaps the most revealing aspect of Ishtar’s religion was that of "The Sacred Marriage" where every year, the "Queen would spend one night engaged in a sexual liason as the culmination of a 6 day festival. During this time the king of the land would undergo severe initiations to prepare him for the one culminating nite with the goddess. He would drink her magical wine potion from the golden cup… to remove his inhibitions so that she would not be disappointed. Disappointment with the king’s actions would lead to his death. This Rite of the Sacred Marriage…may indeed be what John is referring to in Revelation 17: 4 – the golden cup in her hand full of abominations and of the unclean things of her sexual immorality. Verse 5 again refers to her sexual behavior Rev. 18:3 refers again to her making the nations drunk, and the Kings have committed (the Sacred Rite of Marriage doctrine with her)… Verse 9 again … the kings of the earth have committed acts of sexual immorality with her. These passages in Revelation, are clearly indicating a reference to the earliest of the ISHTAR doctrines… not to a chaste virgin mother/son combination. It is the earliest of Ishtar doctrines that composes the elements of the Mystery Babylon of Revelation chapters 17 & 18.
Also too, keep in mind, that this goddess is an Extra-Terrestrial type who makes periodic visits to earth by way of a spacecraft, along with others of her kind… i.e. the ‘gods’ of the planet Nibiru… the "12th orbital body" in our solar system. 1 is the moon, the other is a planet thought to have exploded that existed between Mars and
Jupiter…as a result of an interplanetary war.
Conclusion: Revelation 17 & 18 is not describing what Hislop calls the Mother-Child concept… for there is no mention of a child in Revelation 17/18. There is reference to the fact that she is the Mother of "harlots" or the Prostitutes in her Temple. So that Revelaiton 17 is referring to the pure and original doctrines of this goddess known as Ishtar, "Mother of Temple Prostitutes." With all of the inaccuracies Hislop’s book it is astonishing that he was unable to realize what we’ve uncovered. We should not forget that he did not have available to him the latest discoveries of archaeology regarding Ishtar from the very beginnings of her religion.
How does this all connect to the theory of identifying Mystery Babylon as America?
In my book: "America, The Babylon: America’s Destiny Foretold in Biblical Prophecy" I present a clear cut connection between the Statue of Liberty, and the Statue of Freedom which stands atop the US Capitol building dome in Washington D.C. with the Babylonian goddess Ishtar. In fact, the book has 2 appendixes that link the various Masonic symbols and symbolism present today across the US culture and government that are in fact the elements of Ishtarism, the mystical religion of Babylon.
We show that the Statue of Liberty, and the Statue of Freedom were designed to be images (in the minds of the sculptors who were both Masons, by the way)… of the Roman goddess Libertas. Libertas was an early Roman inception of Ishtar, in which the Romans focused upon the "liberating" aspects of Ishtar. The personal freedom she espoused allowed for sexual wantonness and perverse sexual behaviors. Thus until recently, women with ‘loose’ sexual morals were referred to as "libertines". This name fell out of favor about the time of the completion of the Statue of Liberty! The Romans in later generations dropped the name Libertas and the singular notions of personal freedom and liberty. The exchanged their earlier narrow definitions of liberty for the more expanded view which included the concept of sexual freedom. Thus, they embraced the broader doctrines of Ishtarism. In doing so they began to refer to her as the goddess Venus, and her "goddess of love" concept and identified her with the planet Venus.
Ishtar as Liberty/Libertas
As the Roman goddess of freedom. Originally as goddess of personal freedom, she later became the goddess of the Roman commonwealth. She had temples on the Aventine Hill and the Forum. Libertas was depicted on many Roman coins as a female figure with a pileus (a felt cap, worn by slaves when they were set free), a wreath of laurels and a spear.
For More Information check out these references below:
For those who would like to know more about how this fits into determining the identity
of the nation called "mystery Babylon" you should read my new book entitled:
"America, The Babylon: America’s Destiny Foretold in Biblical Prophecy"
To order a copy of the book… click here.
Here is a picture of a statue/idol image from one of the earliest eras of her religious beginnings.
Here is a master list of Pagan deities which provides short explanations of who they were. This site has in its list the Roman and Greek Gods only. Here you will find listed the Roman goddess Libertas (an early Roman version of Ishtar)
http://www.pantheon.org/mythica/areas/roman/
For more research information see the related articles at the Alpha-Omega Report Website. A fuller compendium of research material on America as Mystery Babylon is available in the book:
"America, The Babylon: America's Destiny Foretold In Biblical Prophecy"
By R. A. Coombes
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