Why AD 70 Jerusalem Fits Revelation 17–18 Better Than Babylon’s Long Fade
In TwistedTruths: How Deception and Assumptions Mislead Us, I reflected on how easily we hold onto comforting doctrines—often because of bias, authority, and repetition—even when Scripture points elsewhere. One place this shows up clearly is in debates about the end times, especially within dispensational premillennialism.
A key example is the identity of “Babylon the Great” in Revelation 17–18. Many readers assume the passage must describe a future global disaster or a rebuilt, literal Babylon. But Revelation’s language is urgent and explosive: burning, smoke, sudden collapse, and irreversible ruin. That kind of imagery fits Jerusalem’s catastrophic fall in AD 70 far more closely than it fits the gradual decline of the historical city of Babylon.
Looking carefully at the history helps us test our assumptions and return to what the text actually says.
For years I've wrestled with prophetic passages that seem to promise sudden, fiery judgment on "Babylon the Great"—a city drunk with the blood of saints, allied with kings, burned in one hour, mourned by merchants, and left desolate forever (Rev. 17–18). Many assume this points to a future end-times event or a rebuilt literal Babylon. But Scripture and history invite us to look closer.
Let's start with the literal city of Babylon in modern Iraq. Was it ever "completely destroyed" as prophecy might suggest?
1. Did the literal city of Babylon ever fall in a sudden, final blaze?
If Revelation 17–18 is taken as a prophecy of the literal Mesopotamian city (in modern Iraq), a basic question follows: Was Babylon ever destroyed in one sudden, decisive event that left it permanently ruined?
The historical record points in the opposite direction. Babylon experienced major defeats, but its long-term story is mainly one of decline over centuries, not a single “one hour” collapse.
Key historical mileposts (Babylon)
689 BC: Assyrian king Sennacherib sacked Babylon with extreme violence; sources describe devastation so thorough that rubble was dumped into the Arahtu canal. Babylon later revived and was rebuilt under subsequent rulers, so even this was not the city’s final end.
539 BC: Persia (under Cyrus) captured Babylon and absorbed it into the empire. Importantly, Babylon was not razed at this point; it continued as a significant administrative center. Stories about Cyrus diverting the Euphrates appear in later classical accounts (notably Herodotus), and historians debate how literally to take the details, but the broad point stands: Babylon continued to function after 539 BC.
Hellenistic → Parthian eras: Babylon gradually lost prominence as nearby cities (like Seleucia) drew population and resources away. Some scholarly reference works describe a long decline with shifting levels of habitation.
Bottom line: Babylon’s story is best described as a long fade, not a single catastrophic termination. Even modern reference summaries emphasize that it stopped functioning as a major urban center over an extended period rather than being erased “in one day.”
(As an aside, today’s Babylon site is a protected heritage location—inscribed by UNESCO in 2019—and has also faced well-documented modern damage and reconstruction issues. )
2. Jerusalem’s fall in AD 70 looks much more like Revelation 17–18’s tone
Now compare that with Jerusalem in AD 70.
The dramatic fall of "Babylon" in Revelation 17–18 aligns much more closely with the sudden, catastrophic destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 rather than with the slow, gradual decline of the literal ancient city of Babylon.
This view reads “Babylon the Great” as a symbolic covenant name—a prophetic code for apostate Jerusalem in its role as persecutor and covenant-breaker. When understood in this manner:
The harlot imagery in Revelation 17 is referenced in the text as “the harlot” or “whore” in ch. 17 and the doomed commercial/political/religious center in ch. 18. This fits Old Testament prophetic language for covenant unfaithfulness (not just sexual sin, but spiritual betrayal).
The charge that Babylon is “drunk with the blood” of God’s people aligns closely with Jesus’ own indictment of Jerusalem as the city that kills the prophets (Matthew 23; Luke 11).
The “beast” turning on the woman can be read coherently as Rome destroying the city it once politically benefited from. Jerusalem had, in a sense, allied itself with Rome (the “beast” it rides in Rev. 17:3–18) before being judged and overthrown by that same ally (Rev. 17:16–17; cf. Josephus's accounts of Titus's siege and burning of the city/temple).
The Roman siege under Titus was brutal and swift: encirclement in spring, famine and horror inside the walls (Josephus records cannibalism and over a million deaths), the temple set ablaze, the city razed. In mere months, the religious/political heart of old covenant Judaism was gone—temple sacrifices ended forever, population scattered, and the city left desolate. This matches Revelation's urgency: plagues "in one day," burning with fire, smoke rising, and merchants/kings lamenting from afar (Rev. 18:8–19).
A reliability note matters here: Josephus reports horrifying details (including famine and cannibalism) and gives extremely high casualty figures; modern historians widely argue that his numbers are exaggerated, even if they agree the suffering was enormous.
Key matches between Revelation 17–18 and AD 70 (edited for clarity)
A. Sudden collapse (“one day / one hour”)
Revelation 18 repeatedly emphasizes speed: destruction “in one day” and “in one hour” (Rev 18:8, 10, 17, 19). Jerusalem’s siege and fall are remembered as a concentrated crisis ending in violent destruction, including the temple burning and city devastation.
By contrast, Babylon’s famous “fall” in 539 BC did not end the city’s life; it continued under new rulers for centuries.
B. Bloodguilt for prophets and saints
Revelation 17:6 and 18:24 accuse Babylon of bloodguilt tied to God’s messengers. Jesus explicitly places that kind of guilt on Jerusalem (Matt 23:34–37; Luke 11:50–51). That thematic overlap is one of the clearest textual bridges.
C. Harlotry / alliance with rulers (“fornication with kings”)
Revelation describes Babylon in partnership with “kings of the earth.”
Rev. 17:2; 18:3, 9 portrays the harlot seducing “kings of the earth.” In a covenant reading, this matches prophetic patterns where covenant communities are condemned for seeking security through political alliances rather than faithful obedience. As such, this represents Jerusalem's unfaithfulness to God (old covenant imagery from Ezek. 23; Hos. 2) by allying with Rome (e.g., chief priests declaring “We have no king but Caesar” in John 19:15).
D. Burned with fire; judged by the power she rode
Revelation 17:16–17 depicts the beast turning on the woman and burning her. Jerusalem’s destruction by Roman forces (including the temple fire) provides a historically concrete parallel in tone and outcome.
E. “Never found again” as covenant-function language
Revelation 18:21–23 stacks images of finality (“no more music… no more craftsmen… no more light”). If this is apocalyptic judgment poetry, it need not mean no human ever stands on that ground again. It can mean the city’s identity as a covenant center is finished—especially if tied to the end of the temple order.
F. Merchants of the “earth” (Greek: gē)
The Greek phrase in Revelation 18:11 is: καὶ οἱ ἔμποροι τῆς γῆς (“and the merchants of the earth/land”).
gē can mean “earth,” “land,” or “ground,” and context determines whether it’s global or regional.
So it’s fair to say: the English word “earth” doesn’t automatically prove a global scope. This word choice made in translation into English from the Greek could just as easily have been rendered as, “And the merchants of the land or region will weep and mourn....”
Also: Jerusalem wasn’t a major seaport, so the merchant-lament section is best handled by emphasizing apocalyptic stylization and temple-economy imagery rather than trying to force a modern “global shipping” literalism.
Why this matters:
If Revelation 17–18 is primarily about covenant judgment culminating in the first-century crisis, then:
It challenges interpretive habits that automatically push these chapters into a future “tribulation framework.”
It reinforces the idea that the New Testament presents one people of God in Christ, not two parallel covenant destinies.
It reorients Christian hope away from fear-driven speculation and toward gratitude for Christ’s reign now, while still affirming a future final consummation.
Of course, not everyone agrees. Futurists see "Babylon" as Rome (seven hills, Rev. 17:9) or a future global system; some partial preterists apply ch. 17–18 more to Rome than Jerusalem. Dating Revelation (pre- or post-70?) affects this too. But the imagery—violent, immediate, total—fits AD 70's horror far better than Babylon's gradual fade.
One more question is worth pressing—especially toward interpreters who claim they read prophecy “literally”:
If Revelation 17–18 describes sudden, fiery judgment and we have a historically documented first-century catastrophe that fits the tone and covenant themes so well, why insist the text must be fulfilled in a second, future event?
That question exposes how often our conclusions come from systems we import into the text, rather than from the text’s own covenant and prophetic logic.
So the real issue remains: What assumptions are we bringing into Revelation 17–18? And, after removing them, what does Scripture actually say?
If AD 70 was covenant judgment on the harlot city, then it frees the church to live now as citizens of the New Jerusalem—united in Christ, not divided by old shadows.
I’d love to hear your thoughts: Does this reading clarify Revelation, or challenge something you’ve long assumed? If you see AD 70 differently, what drives your conclusion?
Endnotes (for the historical claims above)
- On Sennacherib’s destruction of Babylon (689 BC) and reports of rubble dumped into the Arahtu canal: https://library.fes.de/libalt/journals/swetsfulltext/19073244.pdf?utm_source=chatgpt.com
- On Babylon’s conquest under Cyrus (539 BC) and its continuation afterward; and on later accounts (Herodotus) describing river diversion: https://www.livius.org/sources/content/herodotus/cyrus-takes-babylon/?utm_source=chatgpt.com ; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyrus_Cylinder?utm_source=chatgpt.com
- On Babylon’s gradual decline and the complexity of “when it ended” as a living urban center (summaries differ by source): https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/babylonia-index/babylonia-i/?utm_source=chatgpt.com
- On Jerusalem’s siege and Josephus’s casualty figure (and modern scholarly skepticism about its size): https://penelope.uchicago.edu/josephus/war-6.html
- On Revelation 18:11 Greek text and the flexibility of gē (“earth/land”): https://biblehub.com/text/revelation/18-11.htm?utm_source=chatgpt.com
- On Babylon as a UNESCO World Heritage Site (inscribed 2019): https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2019/7/5/iraqs-babylon-listed-as-world-heritage-site-by-unesco?utm_source=chatgpt.com
- On modern damage/reconstruction issues at Babylon and reporting related to military occupation impacts: https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark%3A/48223/pf0000183134
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