The Babylonian talmud (which still wasn't written in the ruins of Babylon) was written beginning about 300 years after 1 Peter. A lot of things can change in 300 years. 300 years ago the place where I'm sitting right now was inhabited by Indians, although on rare occasions a French or Spanish fur trapper or explorer might happen by.
I still don't know how the Jewish population in Iraq (in any era) is relevant to questions about whether the city of Babylon was inhabited in the 1st Century, where 1 Peter was written, or whether Peter was martyred in Rome. Do you?
Thanks for looking through Josephus! I thought it was in there somewhere.
We keep posting evidence that there were few if any Jews for Peter to minister to in Mesopotamia. All the evidence points toward what was always believed -- Rome. It's strange how anti-Catholic prejudice blurs the sight of some people isn't it?
Well, we do know one thing that didn't change. The Jews 800 years after the fall of the Babylonian Empire still called the area of Mesopotamia "Babylonia" after which they named their Babylonian Talmud. And there was a village caravan stop there at the time of Peter's writing called "Babylon".
300 years ago the place where I'm sitting right now was inhabited by Indians, although on rare occasions a French or Spanish fur trapper or explorer might happen by.
And how do you know that there were Indians there? Did they leave a written record like the Jews and Peter did? Any postcards mailed from there like Peter's epistle mailed from Babylon? or are you relying on simple hearsay, aka tradition?
I still don't know how the Jewish population in Iraq (in any era) is relevant to questions about whether the city of Babylon was inhabited in the 1st Century, where 1 Peter was written, or whether Peter was martyred in Rome. Do you?
Wasn't it you who told us that the city of Babylon was inhabited, that it was a caravan stop? The encyclopedia records that Babylon was a "village" at that time just north of present day Hilla in Iraq, and continued to be the capital of the district even after Baghdad was built.
Let us review what we know:
1]There was a huge Jewish population in Babylonia per Jewish, Muslim, and historic tradition backed up by credible written documentation.
2]Peter was called and dedicated to taking the Gospel to the Jewish people per tradition and scripture. He had to be dragged by God to even enter the house of Cornelius a Gentile and compelled by the Spirit to even preach the Gospel to the Gentile Cornelius, because his mission and his heart was to the Jews not to the Gentiles.
3] The Jews had been kicked out of Rome in 49 AD and thus he being a Jew and those Jews to whom he was called to take his Gospel were "personnas non grata" in Rome, especially those, like Peter, who were not Roman citizens. We know this by tradition and the written records.
4]Peter went where the Jews were, and there were "immense numbers" [per Josephus] in Babylonia, which incidentally was outside of the reach of the Roman Emperor Caligula or any other since it was part of the Parthian Empire.
5]While in Babylon, that village caravan stop with a Jewish church therein, Peter mailed a letter to the community of Jews in Asia Minor which was along the caravan trade routes. That church is now gone because that village is now gone, but the written record of Peter's visit remains in Bibles across the world.
That's not too hard to understand, is it?