'The church that is at Babylon, elected together with you, saluteth
you ...'--1 Peter v. 13.
We have drawn lessons in previous addresses from the former parts of the
closing salutations of this letter. And now I turn to this one to see
what it may yield us. The Revised Version omits 'the church,' and
substitutes 'she'; explaining in a marginal note that there is a
difference of opinion as to whether the sender of the letter is a
community or an individual. All the old MSS., with one weighty
exception, follow the reading 'she that is in Babylon.' But it seems so
extremely unlikely that a single individual, with no special function,
should be bracketed along with the communities to whom the letter was
addressed, as 'elected together with' them, that the conclusion that the
sender of the letter is a church, symbolically designated as a 'lady,'
seems the natural one.
Then there is another question--where was Babylon? An equal diversity
of opinion has arisen about that. I do not venture to trouble you with
the arguments _pro_ and _con_, but only express my own opinion that
'Babylon' means Rome.
We have here the same symbolical name as in the Book of Revelation,
where, whatever further meanings are attached to the designation, it is
intended primarily as an appellation for the imperial city, which has
taken the place filled in the Old Testament by Babylon, as the
concentration of antagonism to the Kingdom of God.
If these views of the significance of the expression are adopted we have
here the Church in Rome, the proud stronghold of worldly power and
hostility, sending its greetings to the scattered Christian communities
in the provinces of what is now called Asia Minor. The fact of such
cordial communications between communities separated by so many
contrarieties as well as by race and distance, familiar though it is,
may suggest several profitable considerations, to which I ask your
attention.