Where God Was Born by Bruce Feiler

Author:Bruce Feiler
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9780061756023
Publisher: HarperCollins

We entered Nebuchadnezzar II’s palace. Reconstructed walls of caramel-colored bricks climbed forty feet high, topped with hundreds of small pyramidal merlons. The walls were interrupted with elongated arches, more than two stories tall, that allowed vistas from room to room in the multichambered complex. The concrete floor was empty in each room, and there was no roof. Altogether the feeling was like standing in a half-completed mock-up of Buckingham Palace—only there was no grandeur, just quiet strength.

But this palace was no longer alone. Standing at the entrance to Nebuchadnezzar II’s headquarters, one looks over a lawn of ruins, stumps of foundations and hints of walls that have not been reconstructed. Above this yard, on the highest hill in Babylon, is a totally new palace, two stories tall, built of red and white marble in receding tiers in a direct echo of a ziggurat. This palace had belonged to Saddam Hussein.

Saddam’s interest in Babylon had largely to do with bolstering Iraqi pride during the country’s decade-long quagmire with Iran, and burnishing his claim to be leader of a pan-Arab resurgence. He touted Nebuchadnezzar II’s destruction of Jerusalem as a herald of the Arabs’ impending defeat of Israel. “Nebuchadnezzar was the one who brought the bound Jewish slaves from Palestine,” he said. “That is why, whenever I remember Nebuchadnezzar, I like to remind the Arabs—Iraqis in particular—of their historical responsibilities. It is a burden that should not stop them from action but rather spur them into action because of their history.”

Saddam’s efforts had curious effects. On the one hand, by turning the ruins into his backyard, he guaranteed that Babylon was one of Iraq’s few ancient sites to receive money for preservation and was not open to widespread looting during his tenure. On the other hand, his lording over the complex sent a number of apocalyptic Christians into a frenzy of doomsday prognostication.

Some Christians believe the reconstruction of Babylon is a crucial step that will precede the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. This idea is hinted at in Revelation, the sometimes cryptic final book of the New Testament, which forecasts the end of time. In Revelation, Babylon is described as the “mother of whores and of earth’s abominations,” the Antichrist, whom God will soon destroy.

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