The Two Babylons

by Alexander Hislop

First published in 1853, “The Two Babylons” is a religious work by the Scottish theologian Alexander Hislop, a prominent leader of the Presbyterian Free Church of Scotland. Hislop argues in this influential work that the Catholic Church and the trappings of the papacy have their roots in the religion of ancient Babylon as described in the Bible. Hislop draws many parallels in his comparison of the traditions, holidays, and ceremonies of the Catholic Church throughout history to the practices of the religion founded by the Biblical king Nimrod and his wife Semiramis. Hislop relies on the descriptions of the Babylonian religious traditions in the book of Revelation in the Bible and in the apostle Paul’s writings from the first century. He was also inspired by the findings of English archaeologist Austen Henry Layard and his excavations at Nineveh, which was discovered in 1851. The author found many comparisons between the ancient gods found in the forgotten city and modern Catholic holidays and traditions. “The Two Babylons” was controversial when it was first published for its criticism of the Catholic Church and its theories continue to be debated to this day. This edition is printed on premium acid-free paper.

Genres: History, Christianity, Christian, Nonfiction, Religion, Church History, Theology

356 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1916

About the author

Alexander Hislop (1807 - 13 March 1865) was a Free Church of Scotland minister known for his criticisms of the Roman Catholic Church. He was the son of Stephen Hislop (died 1837), a mason by occupation and an elder of the Relief Church. Alexander's brother was also named Stephen Hislop (lived 1817–1863) and became well known in his time as a missionary to India and a naturalist.

Alexander was born and raised in Duns, Berwickshire. He was for a time parish schoolmaster of Wick, Caithness. In 1831 he married Jane Pearson. He was for a time editor of the Scottish Guardian newspaper. As a probationer he joined the Free Church of Scotland at the Disruption of 1843. He was ordained in 1844 at the East Free Church, Arbroath, where he became senior minister in 1864. He died of a paralytic stroke in Arbroath the next year after being ill for about two years.

He wrote several books, his most famous being The Two Babylons: Papal Worship Proved to be the Worship of Nimrod and His Wife.

Reviews

[Steven Helsel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was written about a hundred years ago. It gives a remarkable expose on the heretical roots of Catholic tradition and Christian holidays. This book often turns out to be a source material in many other works dealing with similar subject matter. It is written in a flawless style with painstakingly arranged footnotes. Read this book carefully, it requires an above average degree of literacy.

[Breakthru International · Rating 5 out of 5]

For anyone that is not satisfied with accepting what we are told is the truth but, likes to see the evidence historically and biblically this is the book for you. However, Alexander Hislop highlights church practices that do not have their root in the bible at all.

Extremely, challenging yet I believe necessary for the seeker of truth.

www.breakthruinternational.co.uk

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

intense book... fascinating collection of information that shows how widespread the knowledge of God was in the ancient world. Hislop presents so much evidence it is overwhelming, but one might draw different conclusions from the data. The primary thing the reader should realize is that the messianic hope is present in all civilizations and that mother-goddess worship is a perversion of God's true intention for man. God promised the solution to the issue of sin in Genesis 3:14 through the promise of the seed of the woman. This was realized through Jesus Christ, but throughout history the promise of the seed through the woman has become diverted, corrupted and polluted with many false religions. Early history in the Sumerians and Babylonians reveal some of the early departures from the true faith, especially involving Nimrod. Events that are recorded in Judges seem to refer back to early events in Egypt and Sumeria, Hislop believes that the cutting up of the concubine and being sent to the 12 tribes as a warning was based on what happened to Nimrod.

[Anita · Rating 5 out of 5]

Top notch work to expose error in our Christian thinking. I highly recommend this book

[Jay D · Rating 1 out of 5]

Laughable a-historical work. Nonsense

[Vincent Paul · Rating 1 out of 5]

I might no longer be religious, but assertions that present contradicting or unsubstantiated questionable historical facts are a no-no for me. When I started reading The Two Babylons by Alexander Hislop, I was ready to be blown off my mind with an explosive expose of the pagan worship in the Roman Catholic Church, something to justify why I defied their ways and left, never to believe in religion again, but when the author first disclaimed that the book is hard to read, and long before I delved into the text to know how Catholicism evolved from the pagan Babylon worship, I read that Abraham (of the Bible) was born in 1996 BC. Even without reading the Bible or being a religious historian, I know that is questionable. I'm not claiming other sources are correct, but there is no way Abraham could have been born in 1996 BC. This is after studying Egyptian political history/kingdom eras. At the very least, Abraham existed in the early dynastic and early kingdom periods, somewhere between 3000 BCE and 2000 BCE.

So, I DNF this one. There was no way I was going to be fed illogical information.

[Howard George Randolph · Rating 5 out of 5]

From the opening premise through the final chapter, the topical book "The Two Babylons" will take you on a virtual journey through dark and terrifying passages-chilled by the presence of a ancient evil. With each successive chapter the motivations and intricate methods of this evil is exposed to the light until one incontrovertible conclusion is established. The depth of investigation and intricate "knitting" together of the details are the result of Hislop's life's work. This is one of the most difficult books a person will ever read, but it's potential to awaken a person's conscience to a consuming, invisible warfare is unprecedented.

[Carla · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Two Babylons gave additional information to my studies, and was very accurate in providing evidence of pagan rites mixed with Traditional Christianity.

[Edward]

http://cambriawillnotyield.blogspot.c...

"This book made me sick at heart because the author goes places where I do not want to go but where I think I might be required to go. He makes the case that the Roman Catholic Church is the spiritual counterpart of Babylon. I suppose this is an old charge, but Hislop’s case is very convincing because the details he presents of the old Babylonian power structures and ethos so resemble the structures and ethos of the Roman Church that one can’t just dismiss his charges as nonsense."

http://cambriawillnotyield.blogspot.c...

[Jason Johnston · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not the easiest book to read, very dry. But Hislop shows how ancient Babylonian religion crept into Christianity and created the Catholic Church, from nuns and monks to the Pope's crown and even the bogus deification of the Virgin Mary.

[Douglas Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good.

[Fred Kohn · Rating 2 out of 5]

After becoming aware of some very strange anti-Catholic ideas floating around, I finally traced them back to this even stranger book. It's really sad that this virulently anti-Catholic and anti-Negro book still remains so influential. What was clear from the get go was that Hislop has never heard that correlation does not equal causality. This book is a collection of correlations between every conceivable pagan name or practice with the practice of Catholicism. The etymological stretches in some cases are truly amazing; not particularly different than noticing that the English word "gift" is spelled the same as the German word for "poison". Such observations are often followed by a statement such as: "Coincidence? I think not!" As horrible as the book is I actually had a great deal of fun running down all the obscure references to pagan gods or practices I had never heard of. But I'm weird like that. Unless you have a great deal of interest in the history of religion, I don't recommend this book.

[William Dicks · Rating 1 out of 5]

Another book on conspiracies and the like. Although I would like this book to be right about its assertions concerning the Roman Catholic church, it has now been shown that it is extremely inaccurate, and connections between "the two babylons" are actually strained.

[Charles Johnston · Rating 1 out of 5]

Absolute rubbish

[Celz Lin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I learned a lot from this book. There’s so much idolatry in our history. No wonder God is angry. Idolatry came about from people wanting power.

[emma pawz clawz]

There’s no way I could ever finish reading something like this. Getting through 5 pages of the 7th edition takes a full hour. Obviously very interesting work, and something to causally refer back to, but some of the conclusions feel like reaches. At the end of the day, I don’t care 100 hours worth of strained reading time about hypothetical correlations between the worlds’ false religions.

[Travis · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Scottish Protestant minister, Alexander Hislop compares ancient Babylonian beliefs and customs to practices of the Roman Catholic Church.  It should be noted that Hislop isn't 100% accurate in all of his ideas, particularly with regard to the book of Revelation and his attempt to grant the Catholic Church exclusivity to the identity of Babylon the Great (hereafter, BTG) described in Rev. 17.  

Hislop's parallels between ancient Babylon and Catholicism include:
- Revelation's imagery of BTG as a woman sitting upon "many waters" was adopted as a very symbol of the Church in 1825, when Pope Leo XII had a medal struck, which on one side had his own image, and on the reverse was that of a "woman, holding in her left hand a cross, and in her right a CUP, with the legend around her, 'Sedet super universum'."  This Latin phrase is translated, "the whole world is her seat".
- Celibacy of priests was common practice in ancient Babylonian religions
- As was, the confessional whereby sinners confess exclusively to priests
- The doctrine of the Trinity, whereby the author states, "such a comparison is most degrading to the King Eternal, and is fitted utterly to pervert the minds of those who contemplate it, as if there was or could be any similitude between such a figure and Him who hath said, "To whom will ye liken God, and hat likeness will ye compare unto Him."
- Worship of the Creator is almost extinct, while worship of the Mother and Child prevail
- Christmas, Lady-day, Easter, the Nativity of St. John, and the Feast of the Assumption are all Babylonian in origin.

Admittedly, there were sections of the book I simply skimmed.  I have the truth as found in God's Word, the Bible, and I really don't need to read all of the intricacies of an ancient false religion, so particularly the sections on worship of the Child in ancient Babylon I skimmed over.  If the Babylonish teachings influenced one area of the world, i.e., Egypt, suffice to say it also influenced other areas, i.e., Greece, and I just skimmed through these sections but got the gist that the Babylonian influence was there as well.  

Finally, the section on Christmas was particularly interesting, as the author goes into much detail as to how many of the implements and items associated with the holiday (even the expression "yule" and the "Christmas goose") relate to ancient Babylon.

It should be noted that some of the verses listed (i.e., Jeremiah 1:2) referenced in the book do not match up to the scriptures in the Bible, so not sure if it's a typographical error in the book or what.

[Scot León Pfuntner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Without a doubt, Alexander Hislop has done a tremendous service to us in revealing the ways in which the Babylonian Mystery schools have been firmly established in the Roman Catholic church. All the pagan rituals and pomp serve to assimilate heathen culture and idolatry for public consumption. It confirms everything that I have read about how Catholicism goes out of it's way to accommodate paganism in order to please adherents and appeal to the greatest majority of religious people groups throughout the diverse regions of the world. Mystery Babylon since the Great Flood has permeated all belief systems and provides a superstructure in which to build a one world religion. All religions have elements of this antichrist narrative that satan has used to mimic the biblical promises. This enables Catholicism/Babylon religion to have a ringing of truth that chimes from within.

The promise of Genesis 3:15 and the "seed of the woman" is something we as fallen mankind has longed for since time immemorial, and the devil knows this. He has used the promise to fake his own way of salvation through human efforts at redemption. Only grace through faith in Jesus Christ can provide us sinners with salvation. No sacrifice is greater and more satisfying to God than what He did for us on the cross as the True Seed of the Woman. Counterfeits must be rejected, or you will end up worshiping a demonically empowered crying statue of a modern madonna who is the reincarnation of the Babylonian Queen of Heaven.

The only thing I would have liked to have seen different in this book is how Hislop's etymology for god names would have changed if he had taken Genesis 6 literally as God intended. Hislop buys into the farce that crept into the church called the Sethite theory. That somehow men of renown (not giants) were produced from daughters of Cain and sons of Seth. This weakens his ability to trace out some of the explanations for history behind the gods. For instance, he says that the men who ran with Nimrod were the mighty men of renown, when God clearly tells us they were the deformed and mutant hybrids of fallen angels and women.

[Bruce · Rating 4 out of 5]

A passionate and well-researched book with quite fascinating arguments linking ancient Babylon through Egyptian, Grecian and Roman mythologies into the Roman Catholic Church. The style is likely to be challenging for some readers used to contemporary writing styles as it was published circa 1850, but anyone comfortable reading Shakespeare won't find it a problem.
The book begins building its arguments slowly but speeds up towards the end, so it does get better.
Some of the lines of argument range quite broadly, are apparently contradictory or suffer from tenuous reasoning. A great deal of reliance is made of names and root words to connect people and places across time, which I find interesting, but may bore some.
All in all, it was a good, solid book full of facts and root words and connections between history and mythology. I recommend for anyone interested in the topic, you are sure to gain a great deal from it. It is not really a casual read, though - but I liked it.
Four stars only because I think it will appeal to a limited audience, but those who are fascinated by ancient history and the connection to mythology and possible links into the Roman Catholic Church will love it - not everyone will agree with the conclusions, but a fascinating book nonetheless.

[Cyrus Nelsen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book presenting the Pagan system adopted by the Catholic church. Would highly recommend if doing research on Mystery Babylon.

[Timothy Coplin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hislop has thoroughly researched his topic. Tough as it is, it is many times more fascinating. Backing his conclusions with both sacred and historical sources, Hislop makes a compelling argument for the identity of as described in the sacred text of Revelation. It's a source that this reader will have to reread time and again to completely follow. But, for the time being, I'm compelled to accept his conclusions based on his expertise.

An in-depth understanding of the world's religions and mythos will be a tremendous help in following and understanding Hislop and his conclusions.

[Matt Carpenter · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are some good elements to this book but overall it is not to be commended. The history of Babylonian worship is good, but the way he ties it to Roman Catholic worship (every jot and tittle) is poor logic. Using his logic, almost any practice, religious or non-religious can be shown to have pagan origins and therefore should be discouraged. Some of his points (particularly on Mary worship) make sense, but generally he is too over-the-top.

[Dolly Kelley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book in the late 60's. Excellent reference material proving how pagan the so-called Christian churches are since the 4th century with the apostasy. Constantine, the pagan Roman emperor, started the teaching of the Trinity as a Christian teaching then and with it came many other false teachings like the immortality of the soul taught by the Greeks, like Plato, also the Hell Fire doctrine. These pagan concepts date back to Egypt.

[Christopher Colegrove · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent expose of the connections between mother-goddess worship with child in various cultures and it's connection to the elevation and "devotion" to Mary as "queen of heaven" in modern times. Not completely factual, but mostly factual account. Main love of this book is the history going back to Nimrod (c. 2200 BC).

[Daniel2 · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fantastic read. Many indisputable elements, though erroneous at times: Some of the research is bad, but still the assertions must be assessed through reason, not on the character of the author or any other citation.

A little conspiratorial, but many of the dots shall connect if any reasonable man finds himself questioning the traditional dictates of Christianity as a whole.

[Carita Gensale · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book for anyone who wants to know where some beliefs come from since they are not found in the Bible. Up to the reader to decide if the connection made is something to think about when a member of many of today's Christian denominations. Certainly the Catholic Church is under fire more than any other group.

[Glen Seimetz]

Mandatory reading to discover the real meaning of words, holidays and secrets kept by the chosen few through the ages. You will see Christmas and Easter as they came from the time of Nimrod. This book is chock full of facts that spring from early civilization before Christ (BC). Great read for those interested in history.

[Northern K Sunderland · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really amazing book. Follows the line of Catholocism's descent into the worship of ancient pagan gods, which in themselves were based on Nimrod.
It reads like a radio manual, and there are some misguided theories, but all in all a very interesting history lesson.

[Patrick Sullivan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Easy reading and very informative.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent!!! book. Such valuable insight and knowledge. I was definitely convinced.