09-15-2008, 05:27 PM
Shlama Christina,
A few observations:
(a) Shimon Keepa was the Apostle to the "Circumcised", and there was no larger population of "circumcised" outside of the Levant, than in Babylonia~Mesopotamia. The great schools of Talmudic heritage at such sites as Nehardea, Seleucia, etc. were immense
(b) Babylon still existed at the time with a large population of Jewish and Gentile Aramaic-speakers
© The areas in modern-day Turkey that are addressed by Shimon in the beginning of his epistle are right up the river Euphrates from Babylonia
![[Image: royal_road_map2.gif]](http://www.livius.org/a/1/maps/royal_road_map2.gif)
I think all that, in addition to his naming the region explicitly, points to the real Babylon and not Rome.
+Shamasha
PS - ...a nice video from the 2nd Millennium Jubilee Celebration of the Church of the East:
http://peshitta.org/media/kohe-en-cable.ram
The Church of the East regathers in Babylon, at the ancient ruins of the Church of Kohe where the apostle Shimun Keepa wrote his epistle.
A few observations:
(a) Shimon Keepa was the Apostle to the "Circumcised", and there was no larger population of "circumcised" outside of the Levant, than in Babylonia~Mesopotamia. The great schools of Talmudic heritage at such sites as Nehardea, Seleucia, etc. were immense
(b) Babylon still existed at the time with a large population of Jewish and Gentile Aramaic-speakers
© The areas in modern-day Turkey that are addressed by Shimon in the beginning of his epistle are right up the river Euphrates from Babylonia
I think all that, in addition to his naming the region explicitly, points to the real Babylon and not Rome.
+Shamasha
PS - ...a nice video from the 2nd Millennium Jubilee Celebration of the Church of the East:
http://peshitta.org/media/kohe-en-cable.ram
The Church of the East regathers in Babylon, at the ancient ruins of the Church of Kohe where the apostle Shimun Keepa wrote his epistle.