Babylon was an ancient city built on the Euphrates river in what is now southern Iraq. It once was the capital of a great empire which at one point conquered the land of Judah as mentioned in the second book of Kings and in Daniel. But the river changed its course and the city was abandoned long ago. Both the historic city in Mesopotamia and the parable city with its tower, mentioned in Genesis, represent the same thing, a worship that appears holy in externals, while the internals are profane. This representation expands to mean a church whose leaders use this kind of worship to gain dominion over others for their own gain and for the gain and power of the church. The city itself is the doctrinal structure that supports this kind of worship and dominion.

(References: Apocalypse Explained 1029; Arcana Coelestia 1283, 1302, 1304, 1310, 1311)

1283. THE INTERNAL SENSE

The subject now is the Ancient Church in general and the fact that its internal worship in process of time was falsified and adulterated; and so as a consequence was its external worship, for the character of external worship depends on that of internal. The falsification and adulteration of internal worship is meant here by Babel. The fact that the historical events mentioned up to now, apart from those concerning Eber, are not true but made-up may also be seen from the details given in this chapter concerning the tower of Babel - men set out to build a tower whose head was in heaven; their lips were confused so that no one could hear another; it was Jehovah who confused them in this way. This fact may also be seen from the assertion that this was the origin of Babel and yet verse 10 of the previous chapter says that Babel was built by Nimrod. From this it is also clear that Babel does not mean a city, but some real thing, and that here it means worship whose interior features are not holy though its external appear so.