Genesis 11:8-9

YLT ⁸ And Jehovah doth scatter them from thence over the face of all the earth, and they cease to build the city; ⁹ therefore hath one called its name Babel, for there hath Jehovah mingled the pronunciation of all the earth, and from thence hath Jehovah scattered them over the face of all the earth. 

The city is called Babylon because it was the diaspora city. Adam’s great commission was to multiply and spread humanity to the nations (tame the animals: rule over all creation). The Noahic covenant has the same themes as the Adamic covenant, with the appearance of the rainbow after the rain becoming a reminder of God’s new flood insurance. They could and should leave the location of the boat. God would not repeat the flood judgement. Every time the rain stopped they were reassured.

The building project in Babylon was in order to make a name for themselves and possibly to fortify themselves against the next flood. Noah had built a shelter for his family out of obedience to God, but these people were nervously making a new name; not building in God’s name. The nations could see God’s people reaching for the safe haven of heaven in their own name. The builders actually left Yahweh out of the picture. Like Adam and Eve, the workers tried to usurp God’s realm rather than spread out and enlarge in His name. They wanted to rule His creation by disobeying Him rather than by trusting Him.

God already gave His people sure promises in His name. The new name they made for themselves is Babylon. Like Adam and Eve who “became more like God”, the tower builders really did make a name for themselves. It wasn’t how they envisioned it, but the whole world still recognizes the name Babylon. We as Christians (in Jesus’ name) are divided today about which city that disreputable name was finally applied to: Rome or Jerusalem. Who were the final temple builders who were not trusting God’s promises? They wanted to wrongly keep the name of Moses for themselves after someone greater arrived? The first century temple builders were reaching for what they could actually see with their old creation eyes.

Brown-Driver-Briggs’ Hebrew Definitions

בּבל H894
Babel or Babylon = “confusion (by mixing)”  
1. Babel or Babylon, the ancient site and/or capital of Babylonia (modern Hillah) situated on the Euphrates
Origin: from H1101

Brown-Driver-Briggs’ Hebrew Definitions

בּלל H1101 – bālal /baw-lal’/

1. to mix, mingle, confuse, confound  
a. (Qal)  
1. to mingle, confuse  
2. to mix  
3. to give provender, feed (animals)  
b. (Hithpoel) to mix oneself (among others)  
c. (Hiphil) to fade away
Origin: a primitive root
Parts of Speech: Verb

KJV Usage: anoint, confound, X fade, mingle, mix (self), give provender, temper.

1 Peter 1:1

LITV ¹ Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the elect sojourners of the dispersion of Pontus, of Galatia, of Cappadocia, of Asia, and of Bithynia,

1 Peter 1:1

ECB ¹
SALUTATION 
Petros, an apostle of Yah Shua Messiah: To the pilgrim diaspora throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Biyournia,

Dodson: diaspora διασπορά – dispersion lit: scattering abroad of seed by the sower, hence: dispersion, used especially of the Jews who had migrated and were scattered over the ancient world.

Already from the first verse in 1 Peter comes two different opinions about who Peter is addressing and from where? One view is that Peter is addressing God’s chosen people who are mostly in the Assyrian diaspora and Peter is writing from the final ‘Babylon’, which now refers to Jerusalem. The northern kingdom went into the Assyrian diaspora but the southern kingdom went onto a temporary Babylonian diaspora. The tribe of Judah returned to fulfill the old covenant types. After 70 years the tribe of Judah went back into the land for 490 more sabbatical breaking years. Peter wrote when the old covenant world was about to end again. The typical 70 year Babylonian diaspora was made permanent in AD 70.

The other view is that Peter is addressing Gentile Christians who are scattered as pilgrims passing through their short life in this worldly system. The relatively short life (about 70 years) is always about to end for everyone. In this view, Peter is writing from Rome, which is spiritually being called ‘Babylon’.

Biblically, Babylon is thrice identified as the location of the diasporas of humanity. Once in Genesis 11:8-9 when the city gets it’s notorious name (confusion) and again in Jeremiah when it’s limited to 70 years and finally in Revelation. After the first scattering of humanity, the hub of the disobedient ones being scattered is named Babylon. There the builders are rebelling against God’s great commission to be a good human influence on the nations. Rather they are focused on a centralized location, in order to make a name for themselves in the world. After God ends their own name’s sake ‘temple’ project, Shem becomes the focus of humanity. From Shem will be born Abraham and the twelve tribes. The northern kingdom of the 12 tribes is scattered by Assyria, leaving only the Jews in the land. Then the Jews are temporarily exiled into the kingdom of Babylon.

The kingdom that ruled during the exile of Judah was the first of the four kingdoms prophesied by the book of Daniel. That kingdom was named after it’s capital: the typical city of Babylon. The kingdom of Babylon was however a temporary detention center for the last tribe removed from the land. After 70 years Judah re-enters the land of God and becomes the final hope of humanity.

The first person to be called a “Jew” in the Bible is Mordecai from the tribe of Benjamin. Jew is short for the tribe of Judah and is applied to the southern kingdom of Judah irrespective of tribal status. Mordecai is actually from the tribe of Benjamin. Jerusalem itself is actually in the land of Benjamin. The term Jew even comes to encompass all 12 tribes by the first century.

Esther 2:5-7: “Now there was in the citadel of Susa a Jew of the tribe of Benjamin, named Mordecai son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, who had been carried into exile from Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon.

God had already scattered the other tribes beyond Babylon into Assyria, due to their disobedience. The three kingdoms that came after Babylon allowed the tribe of Judah to return from their Babylonian exile and to continue to live in the land. The end for the Old Covenant Jews would come 490 years after re-entry, during the time of the kingdom of Rome. The kingdom of Rome was named after the city of Rome.

The final diaspora city was in fulfillment of typical Babylon. It was either the city of Rome or the city of Jerusalem that finally received the promises of the Abrahamic blessings; to the 12 tribes and to the nations. It was spiritually called Babylon because the new covenant became a spiritual covenant: made by the Holy Spirit; and typical humanity in the flesh was scattered for good. The new temple-building project is spiritual and is in God’s name and is international. The Babylon curse of language confusion was reversed in Jerusalem not Rome.

Acts 11:19 – Now those who were scattered after the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, preaching the word to no one but the Jews only.

I take “Jews only” in Acts 11:19 included the 12 tribes through-seeded by God into the nations. It was the Gentiles that the Jews were not preaching the gospel to yet. Even though Israel was to be a light to the nations and Adam was to tame all creation, eternal life in Christ for the Gentiles remained a mystery to the Jews, until Peter’s sheet vision.

The kingdom of Babylon was only a temporary holding place for the covenantally dead Jews. From the beginning of their exile into the kingdom of Babylon, God promised to bring them back into Jerusalem. Even Rome accommodated the Jews in Jerusalem, until the end of the prophesied 490 years. It was the unbelieving Jews themselves who drove the true name of God out of their infamous city. Thus Jerusalem became the diaspora city for the blessed and true humanity that God finally put in the new covenant land. That is why Jerusalem is spiritually called Babylon. The curse of Babel was reversed at Pentecost and the diaspora became a blessing to all nations. To the Jew first.

Pentecost is a spirit realm reversal of the Babylon diaspora for those who received the Holy Spirit. The diaspora languages gathered in one place and heard and understood the gospel in their own language; at the temple complex; at the fulfilling of the types of ‘Babel’. They reformed into one body of humanity regardless of location. The Holy Spirit made a good name for them in spite of their dispersion. In the name of Christ, the new temple was being built in the spirit realm that reached down to them from heaven rather than building a temple up to heaven.

For those who did not believe, the confusion and the threat of judgement remained. They blamed the constructive language event on drunkenness. They naturally heard babbling. They were confused. They would no longer be the temple builders. That is why the flesh and blood city of Jerusalem is spiritually called Babylon. The truth is revealed in the spirit realm. After launching an international building project in His name, God stopped their building project in their own name. They were indeed heading for a ‘flood’ judgement that would scatter the remaining humanity from the city, no matter how great their temple and fortified city were constructed.

View one: While in the land, Jesus changed Simon’s name to Petros: the rock, whom Jesus said He would build His church upon? It wasn’t flesh and blood Jews, but the Father in heaven who revealed to Peter that Jesus is the Messiah. Back in Jerusalem for the feast, the scattered 12 tribes gathered for Pentecost. It was 50 days after Jesus breathed on Peter and His disciples and said to them, “receive the Holy Spirit”. Pentecost means 50th day. Jubilee is 50th year. On the day of Pentecost, Peter and the Jews get the Holy Spirit that sealed them for the 50th year Jubilee. With the Holy Spirit enablement, the diaspora Hebrews return as pilgrims to their foreign lands to evangelize the 12 tribes and then the Gentiles, into one coordinated body of humanity. Even Gentiles joined in and helped build the new covenant church that was coming down from heaven.

The elect from the Hebrew diaspora were initially chosen by the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. When the born again diaspora returned to the nations with the gospel, the Holy Spirit continued to add to the church those Jews who were being saved. The Assyrian diaspora was a judgement that exiled the northern tribes from the land, but the diaspora was not typically complete until 70 AD. In the mean time God used their incomplete diaspora to spread the good news from Jerusalem outward. He used the last tribe to bring a good name to their land. In the name of Christ they would become Holy Spirit enabled temple builders. All nations in all languages will know that name. Jerusalem was the point of the final dispersion. The ongoing judgement would culminate in Jerusalem in 70 AD, when even the tribe of Judah is removed from the land to join the already in progress diaspora.

At the same time those who were born again were being saved from being judged by the law. They inherited eternal life in Christ. To the Jew first and also to the Gentile. The final Judgement began with the true family of God; those in the land and in the diaspora. Judgement is either eternal life in Christ or second death with the old covenant. The judgement to second death came upon the unbelievers who persecuted and scattered God’s new humanity.

The finalized diaspora was from the first century hub of humanity, which was Jerusalem. The final scattering of humanity from typical temple building was first by the hand of the unbelieving Jews and then finally back on them by the hand of God in 70 AD. Jesus spoke of the Gehenna fire as God’s final destruction place for the old covenant soul. Gehenna was in Jerusalem not Rome. The unbelievers destroyed Stephen’s body but his new covenant soul went to heaven.

Matthew 10:28

YLT ²⁸ `And be not afraid of those killing the body, and are not able to kill the soul, but fear rather Him who is able both soul and body to destroy in gehenna.

James (Jacob) 1:1-3, 3:6-9: 1. Jacob of God and master Jesus anointed, slave of the 12 tribes; the ones in the diaspora, to be rejoicing. 2. My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; 3. Knowing [this], that the trying of your faith worketh patience.

3:6 And the tongue is a fire; the world of the injustice. So it is the tongue among the members of us that is defiling the whole body and setting aflame the wheel of the lineage. And being set aflame by the Gehenna. 7. for every nature of wild beasts, of birds and reptiles and things of the sea is being tamed and has been tamed to the nature of the human. 8. But the tongue none of the humans is able to tame. It is: unrestrainable, evil, distended of venom, death carrying. 9. In her we are blessing the God and Father and in her we are cursing the humans: the ones in accord with the likeness of God having come to be.

Unbelievers in the land had created a Babylon-beware era during the end of the transition to new covenant humanity. As time went by, the persecuted believers couldn’t safely return to their doomed temple in Jerusalem. The new humanity was already united by the Holy Spirit in their international temple building project as the end of the second 490 approached. The doomed temple became a hornet’s nest for believers and a ‘refuge’ for unbelievers.

The city of Rome was never the hub of a centralized humanity too focused on a typical temple building project. Most of humanity was already dispersed into the nations and busy teaching Moses from their synagogues, in every city. So when Stephen told the Jews that God would also exile them beyond Babylon, the Jews removed Stephen from their city. The last tribe would ‘never’ join the Assyrian diaspora. As they were murdering Stephen he saw heaven opened for the new and true humanity. Heaven was coming down.

In the fourth century, Constantine superficially used the name of Christ to build a name for himself in order to centralize his political power, but surely that is not the fulfillment ‘Babylon’ of the first century generation. The capital city of Constantine’s Rome was not the city of Rome in Italy. He moved the capital 850 miles east and called it “New Rome”, before being renamed Constantinople in his name. That highly fortified walled city was taken by the Turks and renamed Istanbul. But Jesus said He would destroy the temple of humanity in the highly fortified walled city of Jerusalem, not the city of Rome or Constantinople. Jesus said His body would be the resurrected temple that they tried to destroy. The body of Christ is the decentralized humanity that makes a name in the image of Yahweh by building in a spiritual city that has reached down to us from heaven. We are the true temple builders. We call it church building. The body of Christ is the temple where the image of God lives. The image of God was never supposed to be typical. That was called idolatry or idol worship.

1 Peter 4:17

LITV ¹⁷ Because the time has come to begin the judgment from the house of God; and if firstly from us, what will be the end of the ones disobeying the gospel of God?

Peter like James (Jacob) told the born again ones to rejoice and to count all their diaspora suffering as a form of discipline. The ones who rejected the gospel were about to be judged outside the new Jerusalem; by the old covenant law they professed to keep. Only one Jew could keep the law and rescue them from destruction. The last tribe would experience the end of their old covenant world from the inside out; for the second time. After their second death they were not promised to return to inherit salvation from their messiah after 70 years.

View two: Peter addresses the Gentile Christians as the born again ones in the diaspora. They are called the chosen of the diaspora because that is the language and imagery Peter as a Jew knew from the Torah, so he uses that language to address Gentile Christians scattered throughout Rome who are all about to die after a short life, thus the Gentiles are the pilgrims in a foreign land that the diaspora judgement began with. In this view the city of Rome is being called Babylon by the believers. The unbelieving Jews obviously scattered true humanity from Jerusalem, but then it was Rome who finally sent all nations to destroy the typical temple project and disperse the last tribe of false humanity builders beyond Babylon into the kingdom of Rome. Hence Rome is being called Babylon.

Their is no re-covenanted line of humanity still to come from the survivors of the old covenant hold-outs who were dispersed after AD 70. The new covenant is the re-covenant that came from the tribe of Judah. The messiah came from the descendents of Shem who saw the original Babel diaspora and from the descendents of Judah who saw the reversal of that curse of Babel. The confusion/un-confusion of languages was fulfilled in Jerusalem not in Rome. Those who stayed cursed remained confused.

The fulfilling of the diaspora is when Judah (still cursed in the flesh) permanently joined the Assyrian diaspora: beyond Babylon. Pentecost is more reminiscent of the original curse of the confusion of languages at Babel than the 70 year Babylonian diaspora. The believers in that Holy Spirit reunion were blessed in their scattering and equipped to build in God’s name. The unbelievers stayed with the temple until the curse of diaspora was finalized.

AD 70 is then more reminiscent of the Kingdom of Babylon’s removal from the city and the destruction of the first temple, but without the 70 year promise to return to the land. Is the city being called Babylon referring to those who remained in the land in confusion after Pentecost? Or is Babylon referring to the kingdom of Rome who finally removed the last tribe “beyond Babylon”. They killed Stephen after he told the tribe of Judah in the land that they too would be removed beyond Babylon; making the Roman destruction of the temple the fulfillment of the Assyrian diaspora Stephen spoke of, rather than the 70 year Babylon diaspora Jeremiah spoke of. Rome acts like Assyria who already sent the northern kingdom beyond return.

Jesus reversed both the original city of Babylon diaspora and the Kingdom of Babylon 70 year diaspora by sending the Holy Spirit and marking His people prior to 70 AD destruction. He also fulfilled the curse of the Assyrian diaspora. After 70 years from the birth of Jesus the believing Jews were eternally blessed outside the typical land. The disobedient Jews in the land joined those in the Assyrian diaspora (beyond Babylon) and all the nations were claimed by the Holy Spirit builders in the name of God.

There are only 8 post-resurrection (transitional) occurrences of the term Babylon: Acts 7:43, 1 Peter 5:13, Revelation 14:8, 16:19, 17:5, 18:2, 18:10 & 18:21. The term Babylon is uses 233 times before Malachi. It is definitely a loaded word in it’s rare post-cross utilization.

1 – Acts 7:43

ECB ⁴³ Yes, you took the tabernacle of Molech and the star of Kiyun, your el; – types you made to worship: and I exiled you beyond Babel. (The tense here is wrong. It is supposed to be translated future active: I shall be exiling you beyond Babylon. You will join the northern kingdom.)

Stephen is speaking to the Jewish crowds in Jerusalem. Unless it is a holiday, the crowds in Jerusalem are probably composed of the southern kingdom diaspora who have returned to live in the land, though generically everyone claims to be a Jew by this time, from the tribe of Judah, because they were the ones who were still to have some kind of life in the land after 70 years of exile. Stephen is in Jerusalem and full of the Holy Spirit, so the synagogue rulers are unable to refute him. Without any hope of winning a debate with the Holy Spirit, the leaders stir up a Jewish mob to take Stephen by flesh and blood force. Stephen defeated them spiritually.

Acts 7:43 King James Version

⁴³ Yea, ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god Remphan, figures which ye made to worship them: and I will carry you away beyond Babylon.

They stand Stephen in front of the old covenant high priest to be questioned. This verse is part of the history lesson Stephen presents to the Jewish mob. He reminds them why the northern kingdom (as the majority) is presently in a dispersion beyond Babylon and that they will (future tense) be joining them for the same reason, says Yahweh. The 12 tribes can’t all be from the tribe of Judah. They were not all put on hold in the kingdom of Babylon with a promise from Yahweh to return them to the land after 70 years. But the ones that returned were no better. They were actually worse. They were returned for their salvation. Salvation is of the Jews.

The original tower of Babel was also a diaspora event caused by worshipping the types. They wanted to stay right there in one place. They were building a tower they could see with their eyes, toward the heaven that they could see with their eyes.

2 – 1 Peter 5:13

LITV ¹³ The fellow-elected in Babylon greet you; also Mark my son.

Here is one of the questions: Is Peter along with Mark writing to the diaspora from the church in Rome or from the origin church in Jerusalem? Jacob (James) the half brother of the Lord is traditionally the pastor of the church in Jerusalem. He wrote to the same people about similar topics. James (Jacob the half brother of the Lord) specifically addresses the whole body of the 12 tribes as the diaspora. Maybe because the temple and the city of Jerusalem would be destroyed in that generation and Judah would soon be joining their diaspora beyond Babylon. Stephen was murdered after he told that to the Jews still in the land. Beyond Babylon was the typical point of no return. The only salvation for the Jews was in their new covenant. The last tribe left in the old covenant joined the northern kingdom beyond the Babylonian diaspora: which is the Assyrian diaspora. This is the point of no return.

James 1:1-3

LITV ¹ James, a slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes in the Dispersion, greeting: ² My brothers count it all joy when you fall into various trials, ³ knowing that the proving of your faith works patience.

Of course Paul famously addressed both Jews and Gentiles in his letter to the church in Rome. Paul was about to go to Jerusalem when he wrote the letter to the Romans and Paul desired to go to Rome also. Today a city-state called the Vatican City is surrounded by the City of Rome that they claim independence from (Disney World had similar status until 2022). Surely you don’t think that is where God will scatter humanity from in the future order to bless the nations in the spirit realm with the name of Christ and then end the old covenant of types again. The Roman Catholic Church does build beautiful temples all over the world with great skill, especially in the City of Rome. But Rome didn’t politically claim to be the headquarters of true Christianity until the fourth century. Paul included the new Christians in Rome in the first century, into the already existing body of Christ that started from Jerusalem. He didn’t say anything about the church in Rome being the original or authoritative church. He called them “also, called-out ones”. In other words the house-churches in Rome were not the first churches. The first assembly of Christians was in Jerusalem and it formed somewhere in the temple complex itself.

Romans 1:6-7

 ⁶ among whom are you also, called-out ones of Jesus Christ; ⁷ to all those who are in Rome, beloved of God, called-out saints, Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 

3 – Revelation 14:8

YLT ⁸ And another messenger did follow, saying, `Fall, fall, did Babylon, the great city, because of the wine of the wrath of her whoredom she hath given to all nations to drink.’

Acts 7:43 is the first of these eight verses and it definitely ties the coming judgement into exile beyond Babel to the whoredom of the tribes, not the whoredom of the city of Rome. It was the Jews who were ‘now’ acting even worse than the northern tribes. The last tribe was about to be joining the judgement already on the northern tribes and for the same reason.

Just as the Bible calls Nebuchadnezzar God’s servant during the kingdom of Babylonia, the present kingdom authority was given to the fourth kingdom: Rome. The kingdom was initially taken from the Jews and given to Babylon due to spiritual adultery, which is idolatry, which is the worshipping of the types. The fifth and never ending kingdom was about to arrive during the Roman era. The kingdom of God authority would return to the believing Jews first and also to the believing Gentiles. The four kingdoms were all ordained by God to lead the Jews to their salvation. Salvation is never ending life in the kingdom of God.

Romans 13:1-2

YLT ¹ Let every soul to the higher authorities be subject, for there is no authority except from God, and the authorities existing are appointed by God, ² so that he who is setting himself against the authority, against God’s ordinance hath resisted; and those resisting, to themselves shall receive judgment. (People in Jerusalem rebelled against Rome and were destroyed by God’s ordinance)

4 – Revelation 16:19

LITV ¹⁹ And the great city came to be into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. And Babylon the great was remembered before God, to give to her the cup of the wine of the anger of His wrath.

Babylon would receive God’s judgment in His wrath for rejecting His name and scattering His people, in order to keep a name for themselves. Yeshua walked in the name of Yahweh.

Revelation 11:8

CLV ⁸ And their corpses will be at the square of the great city which, spiritually, is being called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord, also, was crucified.”

If Jerusalem was spiritually being called Sodom and Egypt then why not Babylon?

5 – Revelation 17:5

CLV ⁵ And on her forehead is written a name: Secret Babylon the Great the mother of the prostitutes and the abominations of the earth.

The kingdom was taken from Israel and given to the nations as a judgement on God’s people for prostituting themselves to the god’s of the nations. They mothered the false gods of the nations rather than introduce the nations to the one true God. The judgements being fulfilled from the book of Daniel didn’t firstly come upon Gentile nations who already had false gods. The false god’s of the nations were taken in and nurtured by Israel, who was married to the one true God. Jerusalem became the abomination in the land of God when they tried to desecrate His new covenant temple, which was spiritually the truly human body of Christ. Nothing better or worse can ever happen than what happened in Jerusalem in the first century. Blessing and cursing was about to be; to the Jew first and also to the Gentile. The Jews are not waiting to be blessed. They were first.

6 -Revelation 18:2

CLV ² And he cries with a strong voice, saying, “It falls! It falls! Babylon the great! And it became the dwelling place of demons and the jail of every unclean spirit and the cage of every unclean and hateful bird,

The unclean spirits were notably hanging around the city of Jerusalem not the city of Rome.

Revelation 18:10

CLV ¹⁰ standing afar off because of the fear of her torment, saying, ‘Woe! Woe! that great city! Babylon, the strong city! for in one hour your judging came.'”

It is well known (or should be) that Jerusalem was the highly fortified city that fell to God’s wrath in 70 AD.

Revelation 18:21

CLV ²¹ And one strong messenger lifts a stone, as large as a millstone, and casts it into the sea, saying that “Thus Babylon, the great city, will be hurled down, and nevermore be found in it.”

The modern city of Babylon exists today as well as a modern city named Jerusalem. What doesn’t exist is typical old covenant humanity. New covenant Humanity is spiritually called the body of Christ. We don’t actually live in His flesh and blood body. He had no flesh and blood descendents that created a flesh and blood family line. The body of Christ is a body created and united by the Holy Spirit. It is a spiritual body in a spirit realm. Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to give His people a born again by the Spirit body. What is born of flesh is flesh. The church body is the new creation body. What went away if not the old covenant body of flesh?

Jesus stood and shouted to the last tribe in the land.

“Jesus stood and shouted to the crowds, ‘Anyone who is thirsty may come to me! Anyone who believes in me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare, “Rivers of living water will flow from his heart.”’ (When he said ‘living water,’ he was speaking of the Spirit, who would be given to everyone believing in him.)” John 7:37-39 NLT.

Romans 8:9 CSB “You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him”.

Corinthians 12:13b … whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and we were all given one Spirit to drink”

The nations are biblically represented as the ‘sea’. The millstone cast into the sea alludes to the offenders of the children of God who would die fulfilling the Assyrian diaspora beyond ‘Babylon’. The neck the millstone was tied to was the flesh and blood soul of the old covenant unbelievers. The Hebrew word for soul means neck and the Greek word for soul means wind or breath. By trying to keep their typical flesh and blood soul they lost it. Pentecost brought the new covenant breath from Jesus to the chosen ones in Jerusalem. Jesus’ symbolic breath that depended on a flesh and blood neck to exit His body and enter the disciples was fulfilled by the Holy Spirit He sent.

The biggest temptation for the believing Hebrews in transition to their new covenant was to return to their old covenant. The biggest cause of that sea-grave-sin was the unbelieving Judaizers. The Roman army (sea of nations) came in to Jerusalem/Babylon like a flood. The remnant of the final tribe in the land was swept out to sea: the 10 tribe Assyrian diaspora was made complete by adding the final 2 tribes.

The tribe of Judah was on hold in Babylonia for 70 years before re-entering the old covenant land of God. Most of the 12 tribes were already exiled by Assyria and were beyond Babylon: not on hold for 70 years. After the final 70 years ended in 70 AD, the remnant who remained in the land joined the northern kingdom tribes beyond Babylon. They were removed from their last 70 year holding pattern when, ‘Babylon the great harlot’ was herself destroyed.

The exiler of true humanity was in the end exiled beyond ‘Babylon’. Though Jesus put the old humanity to death on the cross (so the bride was free to remarry) the unbelievers who remained in the land claimed Jerusalem was not a widow. God had already divorced the northern tribes because they whored with the nations. In the final days, the remnant of unbelieving Judah rejected their salvation and actually made a covenant with Rome, in order to stay married to the land they loved. Not worse than that, they tried to kill God’s new covenant bride, by either tempting the church members to return to the old marriage covenant and face the second death with them or by outright murdering them.

Matthew 18:6

CLV ⁶ Yet whoever should be snaring one of these little ones who is believing in Me, it is expedient for him that a millstone requiring an ass to turn it may be hanged about his neck, and he should be sunk in the open ocean.”

Revelation 18:7-8 – The City of Babylon’s Fate

CLV ⁷ As much as she glorifies herself and indulges, so much torment and mourning be giving her, for she is saying in her heart, ‘I am sitting a queen, and am no widow, and mourning I may by no means see.'” ⁸ Therefore in one day shall her calamities be arriving; death and mourning and famine. And she shall be burned up with fire, for strong is the Lord God Who judges her.”