What is Meant by “Babylon” in 1 Peter 5:13?

Peter’s closing greetings include a striking phrase: “She who is in Babylon, chosen together with you, sends you her greetings, and so does my son Mark” (1 Peter 5:13). That single word—Babylon—opens a door into the whole Bible’s story. Is Peter writing from the old Mesopotamian city by the Euphrates? Is he using “Babylon” as a wise nickname for Rome during a tense season? Or is he consciously drawing on the Scripture-wide picture of Babylon as the prideful world system that opposes God and will face judgment at the end of the age (Genesis 11:1–9; Revelation 17:1–6; Revelation 18:1–3)? A careful reading shows that the word carries history, symbol, and hope all at once.

This study traces Babylon from the tower of Babel to Nebuchadnezzar’s empire, from Israel’s exile to the early church, and ahead to John’s vision of “Babylon the Great.” Along the way we will keep our footing in the text, read with a grammatical-historical lens, honor the distinction between Israel and the Church, and look forward to the future appearing of Christ. In the end, Peter’s line is not a throwaway detail. It is a pastoral signal to exiles about where they live, Whose they are, and where their story is headed (1 Peter 1:1; 1 Peter 5:10–11).

Words: 2524 / Time to read: 13 minutes

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Historical and Cultural Background

Babylon first steps onto the stage as Babel, the city where people gathered to make a name for themselves and to build a tower toward the heavens, only to be scattered by God who confused their language (Genesis 11:1–9). That episode sets a pattern: Babylon stands for human pride organized into a society that resists God’s rule. Centuries later, Babylon rises as an empire under Nebuchadnezzar, conquers Jerusalem, burns the temple, and carries Judah into exile, fulfilling covenant warnings and the prophets’ hard words (2 Kings 25:1–12; Jeremiah 25:8–12). The exile is not the end of God’s purpose; even in Babylon He tells His people to seek the city’s welfare and to wait for His promised restoration (Jeremiah 29:4–14). The book of Daniel shows faithful Israelites living under Babylon’s pressure without bowing to its idols, trusting that God rules in the kingdoms of men (Daniel 1:1–8; Daniel 4:34–37).

Babylon falls suddenly to the Medes and Persians as Daniel interprets the handwriting on the wall; that night the city is taken, just as Isaiah had foretold a century before (Daniel 5:25–31; Isaiah 13:17–19). Yet Babylon’s name outlives its empire. Prophets use it as a symbol for arrogant powers that exalt themselves against the Lord, while also promising a future day when Israel will be gathered and rejoicing will replace mourning (Isaiah 47:1–11; Jeremiah 50:4–10). By the time of the first century, a large Jewish community still lived in Mesopotamia, and Scripture itself notes Jews from “Mesopotamia” among the worshipers in Jerusalem at Pentecost, showing how wide the dispersion had spread (Acts 2:9–11). At the same time, within the Roman world, Rome held the kind of wealth, influence, and idolatrous pomp that earlier Babylon had displayed, and believers learned to navigate life as resident aliens under Rome’s shadow (1 Peter 2:11–12; Acts 18:2).

That helps us hear 1 Peter 5:13 in context. Peter writes to assemblies scattered across Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, urging them to endure slander, honor authorities, love deeply, and fix their hope on the grace to be revealed when Jesus appears (1 Peter 1:1; 1 Peter 1:13; 1 Peter 2:12–17). When he says, “She who is in Babylon… sends greetings,” he is almost certainly identifying the sending church—the “she,” God’s chosen people in one place—while speaking from a well-known center of imperial life where believers faced acute pressure (1 Peter 5:13). That setting best fits Rome in the decades when confessing Christ placed Christians at odds with the flow of public religion and civic loyalty (Acts 28:16; Philippians 4:22). Even if Peter used “Babylon” as a wise name for Rome, he did so because Scripture had already made Babylon a shorthand for the proud world-city that opposes God, a pattern that Rome embodied in his day (Isaiah 13:11; Revelation 17:5).

Biblical Narrative

Within 1 Peter, the greeting from Babylon closes a letter that has called believers to live as exiles with hope, holiness, and humble courage. Peter has addressed elders who must shepherd willingly, saints who must clothe themselves with humility, anxious hearts that must cast their cares on the God who cares, and all who must resist the prowling enemy while trusting the God of all grace (1 Peter 5:1–9). Then he says, “She who is in Babylon, chosen together with you, sends you her greetings, and so does my son Mark,” and adds, “Stand fast in this true grace of God” (1 Peter 5:12–14). The line works like a signature and a signal. It roots the letter in the fellowship of a real congregation and reminds every reader that their city, whatever its name, has the spiritual weather of Babylon until the Chief Shepherd appears (1 Peter 5:4).

Scripture’s wider story helps us weigh options for Peter’s Babylon. One option is that Peter wrote from the region of the old Babylon, where Jewish communities persisted after the exile. That cannot be ruled out in absolute terms, since Scripture notes diaspora life in the East (Acts 2:9–11). Another option is that he uses “Babylon” as a wise name for Rome, as later Christian writers sometimes did and as Revelation appears to do with its portrait of a great city seated on seven hills and ruling over the kings of the earth (Revelation 17:9; Revelation 17:18). A third layer is the theological use of Babylon as the world system organized in pride against God, a reality the prophets named and John the apostle saw in a final form as “Babylon the Great” (Isaiah 47:8–11; Revelation 17:5). These are not mutually exclusive. The second and third options fit Peter’s pastoral purpose best: he writes from the empire’s heart to comfort exiles scattered at its margins, and he reaches for a name the Bible uses when it wants to teach the church how to live in the shadow of proud powers (1 Peter 1:1; 1 Peter 2:13–17).

John’s visions in Revelation fill in the end-times horizon that Peter’s “Babylon” evokes. John sees a woman called “Babylon the Great, the mother of prostitutes and of the abominations of the earth,” seated on many waters, drunk with the blood of the saints, and closely tied to kings and merchants who grow rich from her luxuries (Revelation 17:1–6; Revelation 18:3). He also sees her sudden downfall and hears a heavenly call, “Come out of her, my people,” so that God’s people will not share in her sins or plagues (Revelation 18:4–8). The “great city” sits on seven mountains and reigns over the kings of the earth, an image that in John’s day would immediately bring Rome to mind, even as the name Babylon reaches beyond one city to the long pattern of human culture set against God (Revelation 17:9; Revelation 17:18). Peter’s greeting nods to that pattern and reminds exiles that they belong to a different city whose builder and maker is God (Hebrews 11:10; 1 Peter 2:11–12).

Theological Significance

A grammatical-historical reading lets Scripture’s own usage guide us. When Peter says “Babylon,” he is drawing on a thick biblical word that has been literal, symbolic, and prophetic. Historically, Babylon was the empire that humbled Judah and sent the people into exile, only to be judged by God in His time (2 Kings 25:1–12; Daniel 5:30–31). Symbolically, Babylon became a name for any great power that strutted against heaven, the kind of city Isaiah mocked for saying, “I am, and there is none besides me,” words only the Lord should say (Isaiah 47:8–10; Isaiah 45:5–6). Prophetically, Babylon crests in John’s vision as a final, global system that blends religious seduction, political dominance, and economic excess, a system that will fall under God’s wrath before the Kingdom of Christ fills the earth in glory (Revelation 17:1–6; Revelation 18:9–19; Revelation 19:1–2). Through all three lenses, Peter’s word fits: he writes to exiles living under a vast empire that resembles Babylon in its pride and power, and he reminds them that they belong to a holy people waiting for the appearing of Christ (1 Peter 1:13; 1 Peter 2:9–10; 1 Peter 5:4).

From a dispensational perspective, this matters because it keeps our categories clear. Israel and the Church are distinct in God’s plan; Israel’s covenants and promises await full realization in the future, while the Church, formed of Jew and Gentile in one body, lives as a pilgrim people during the present age (Jeremiah 31:31–37; Romans 11:25–29; Ephesians 2:14–16). Babylon’s past dealings with Israel are part of Israel’s story; Babylon’s future in Revelation intersects the Church’s witness now and the judgments that precede Christ’s reign to come (Daniel 9:24–27; Revelation 17:1–6; Revelation 20:1–6). Some readers expect a literal, revived city to play a part at the end; others see Revelation’s Babylon as the concentrated form of a worldwide religious and economic system centered in a great city that mirrors Rome’s role in John’s day (Revelation 17:9; Revelation 18:11–13). In either case, the point remains: God will judge the prideful world order, deliver His people, and keep His promises to Israel while gathering a multitude from the nations to worship the Lamb (Revelation 7:9–10; Zechariah 14:9).

For 1 Peter 5:13 itself, the likely identification of “Babylon” as Rome serves a pastoral purpose. It shows that Peter stands inside the empire’s pressure-cooker and yet speaks peace to scattered saints, binding them to the wider church with greetings and urging them to stand fast in the true grace of God (1 Peter 5:12–14). It also anchors the letter’s themes: live as exiles with good conduct among the nations; honor rulers without making them lords; endure fiery trials without surprise; and expect that suffering will be followed by glory when Christ is revealed (1 Peter 2:11–17; 1 Peter 4:12–13; 1 Peter 5:10). Reading “Babylon” in this way does not drain it of prophetic weight. Rather, it lets Peter’s word pull the whole Bible’s line about Babylon into the heart, so that believers learn to live faithfully in any city that roars like a lion and shines like a counterfeit light (1 Peter 5:8; Isaiah 60:1–2).

Spiritual Lessons and Application

Peter’s Babylon teaches us how to live where we are. Many believers dwell in cities and systems that prize power, image, and pleasure and that often treat holiness as strange or dangerous. Peter’s line reminds us that such places feel like Babylon because this age is not yet bowed to Christ’s open rule, even though He is Lord (1 Peter 3:15; Revelation 11:15). The answer is not withdrawal into fear or surrender to the crowd; it is the steady path Peter lays out: do good in public, honor authorities for the Lord’s sake, bless when insulted, keep a clean conscience, and be ready to explain your hope with gentleness and respect (1 Peter 2:12–17; 1 Peter 3:9–16). In practical terms, that means letting your speech be truthful when others spin, refusing the small corruptions that buy advancement, and keeping your worship unshared with idols of money and status (1 Peter 1:14–16; Matthew 6:24).

Revelation’s Babylon adds a second lesson: do not be charmed by the world’s shine. John hears the call, “Come out of her, my people,” a summons that does not pull Christians out of neighborhoods but does pull desires away from the loves that power Babylon—pride, luxury without mercy, sensuality without covenant, profit without justice (Revelation 18:4–8; 1 John 2:15–17). For modern readers, coming out looks like contentment that resists envy, generosity that loosens the grip of wealth, purity that refuses to click what degrades, and worship that keeps Sundays from becoming shopping days for the soul (Hebrews 13:5; 1 Thessalonians 4:3–7). It also looks like courage to endure losses that come from telling the truth or keeping faith, because we know the God of all grace will restore and steady us after we have suffered a little while (1 Peter 5:10–11).

Finally, Peter’s Babylon urges us to love the church beyond our street. “She who is in Babylon… sends you greetings,” he writes, and adds greetings from Mark, drawing lines of fellowship across regions and generations (1 Peter 5:13). In our day that means praying for brothers and sisters under governments harsher than ours, giving to gospel work where the cost is high, and receiving encouragement from saints who suffer well. It means greeting one another with warm affection and standing fast together in the true grace of God rather than looking for novelty that promises crowns without crosses (1 Peter 5:12–14; 1 Peter 4:12–13). When your city feels heavy, remember that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kinds of trials and that the Chief Shepherd will appear with a crown that does not fade (1 Peter 5:4; 1 Peter 5:9).

Conclusion

“Babylon” in 1 Peter 5:13 is a small word with a long shadow. It remembers a city that humbled Jerusalem and was humbled in turn; it names the pride that still organizes itself into cultures that push God to the margins; and it signals a final system that will rise and fall before the Lamb reigns openly. Most likely, Peter used the name as a wise way to speak of Rome, that great city of his day, and in doing so he taught exiles how to think about every city until Christ appears—live as chosen strangers, do visible good, carry a quiet courage, and stand fast in the true grace of God (1 Peter 1:1; 1 Peter 2:12; 1 Peter 5:12). For modern readers, the applications are clear. Do not be surprised when your home has Babylon’s feel. Do not be seduced by Babylon’s shine. Do not be alone in Babylon’s streets. Instead, cast your cares on the God who cares, resist the lion with a clear head, and wait for the God of all grace to restore and steady you. The proud world will pass; the city of God will not (1 Peter 5:7–11; Revelation 21:1–3).

“And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen.” (1 Peter 5:10–11)