In the Old Testament Bible (Is. 13:12): “I will make men so small in number, that a man will be harder to get than gold, even the best gold of Ophir.” What’s the relationship between this old Babylon and Babylon in New Testament? Are they the same thing country or place? Does Babylon still exist now?
Answer:
The place Ophir has not been identified with Babylon, but with a number of different locations, one of the most common suggestions being the Arabian Peninsula (other suggestions are a part of Ethiopia (Abarbanel), India, and others).
Where Babylon is mentioned in the Bible, it refers to the area known today as Iraq, which was a great cultural centre in antiquity, and to which much of the nation of Israel was exiled after the destruction of the Temple. I am not familiar with usage in the NT.
