Babylonism

English

Etymology

From Babylon +‎ -ism.

Noun

Babylonism (countable and uncountable, plural Babylonisms)

1. The belief that the Semitic faith and culture of the ancient Israelites was an outgrowth of Babylonian faith and culture.
   • 1875 October, “Review of Current Literature”, in The Unitarian Review, volume 4, number 4, page 431:

     Prof. Schrader, now of Berlin, and one of the first living Orientalists, follows with a contribution to the discussion concerning the origin of Hebraism, entitled “ Semitism and Babylonism , ” in which , from the treasures which Assyrian discoveries have opened to us , he shows , in his own words, how "the vessel was prepared at Babylon, ino which later the contents of divine truth were to be poured."

   • 1877, François Lenormant, Chaldean Magic: Its Origin and Development, page 376:

     I agree with him cordially in his view that Babylonism, as he calls it, differs radically from a pure and original Semitism as represented by the Arabs; further, that the influence of the most ancient Babylonish civilization which held sway over the Semitic tribes of the north, was the result of constant communication before the establishment of their nations in their definite regions, and which introduced among them all the ideas, institutions, religious, social and scientific traditions foreign to Arabia, which they had in common with Babylon.

   • 1906, Current Opinion - Volume 40, page 646:

     The emphasis upon “Babylonism” in the radical religious thought of the day, and the many efforts of German theologians to show that the religious ideas of the Babylonians are repeated in the teachings of the Scriptures, have been hitherto confined, in the main, to the Old Testament.

   • 1914, Paul Carus, The Monist - Volume 24, page 456:

     What originally Babylonian ideas have finally found a place in Christianity are much more insignificant than is assumed by the noted advocates of Babylonism with Jensen at their head.

   • 2007, Albert T. Clay, The Origin of Biblical Traditions, page xxiii:

     Since, however, there are now more than sufficient data available to show the complete baselessness of the contentions of Babylonism, and also because some scholars do not seem to be able to distinguish between efforts made to reconstruct the civilization and history of a lost empire and the riding of a hobby horse, it has seemed advisable to present at this time the material that has been assembled.

2. A borrowing or influence from the Babylonian language (a form the Akkadian language) or culture.
   • 1854, Charles V. Kraitsir, Glossology, Being a Treatise on the Nature of Language and on the Language of Nature, page 79:

     If somebody, with the view of remedying this Babylonism, were to write Chichero, Chelt, the Englishman would again make out of it Tshitshero (unknowingly that he italianizes) ; a Spaniard would do the same (thus concurring here with the Englishman);

   • 1898, Ed. König., The Expository Times, page 288:

     If one were inclined to find in this partial synonymy of ילר and וליר a 'Babylonism,' the assumption would be favoured by the circumstance that the ancient Hebrew, the Canaanite (Phoenician), the Zinjirli, and the Assyro-Babylonian have all anokhi-anakhuy, and that this agreement tallies with the Babylonian origin of Abram.

   • 1948, Louis-Claude Fillion, The Life of Christ, page 547:

     It goes without saying that the critics are often in total disagreement on these different points. What one derives from Mithraism, another traces to Greek mythology or Babylonism; others simply say its origin is not Jewish.

   • 1961, James Hastings, John Alexander Selbie, Louis Herbert Gray, Encyclopaedia of religion and ethics - Volume 5, page 112:

     How far Babylonism affected Jewish belief before the Exile is difficult to decide.

3. (derogatory) Roman Catholicism; popery.
   • 1863, Joseph Hall, The Works of the Joseph Hall, page 103:

     Mere Babylonism and sin in constitution; yea, the same that makes us no church For, what separation can there be in such admittance?

   • 1870 April, A.J.S., “The Man with the Measuring Line”, in The Scattered Nation and Jewish Christian Magazine, volume 5, page 98:

     Babylon is now destroyed, but its principles are not dead, and its spirit still lingers in our Reformed Churches, in so far as they have not thoroughly purged themsolves from the dangerous laven. The essence of Babylonism is a great hatred of Jerusalem, a supplanting of the nation, which is God's nation, by robbing it of its God-given Scriptures, the gentilising, that is corrupting and mutilating of the Jewish Bible, and a putting up of the Church in opposition to the kingdom, which it attacks without ceasing.

   • 1984, Bob Fraley, The Last Days in America, page 246:

     Babylonism is a satanic willfulness which seeks to solve its own problems and to build its own arrangement of things.