Babylonism

Noun

Babylonism (countable and uncountable, plural Babylonisms)

1. The belief that the Semitic faith and culture of the ancient Israelites was an outgrowth of Babylonian faith and culture.
   • Prof. Schrader, now of Berlin, and one of the first living Orientalists, follows with a contribution to the discussion concerning the origin of Hebraism, entitled “ Semitism and Babylonism , ” in which , from the treasures which Assyrian discoveries have opened to us , he shows , in his own words...1875 October, “Review of Current Literature”, in The Unitarian Review, volume 4, number 4, page 431
   • I agree with him cordially in his view that Babylonism, as he calls it, differs radically from a pure and original Semitism as represented by the Arabs; further, that the influence of the most ancient Babylonish civilization which held sway over the Semitic tribes of the north, was the result of...1877, François Lenormant, Chaldean Magic: Its Origin and Development, page 376
2. A borrowing or influence from the Babylonian language (a form the Akkadian language) or culture.
   • If somebody, with the view of remedying this Babylonism, were to write Chichero, Chelt, the Englishman would again make out of it Tshitshero (unknowingly that he italianizes) ; a Spaniard would do the same (thus concurring here with the Englishman);1854, Charles V. Kraitsir, Glossology, Being a Treatise on the Nature of Language and on the Language of Nature, page 79
   • If one were inclined to find in this partial synonymy of ילר and וליר a 'Babylonism,' the assumption would be favoured by the circumstance that the ancient Hebrew, the Canaanite (Phoenician), the Zinjirli, and the Assyro-Babylonian have all anokhi-anakhuy, and that this agreement tallies with the...1898, Ed. König., The Expository Times, page 288
3. (derogatory) Roman Catholicism; popery.
   • Mere Babylonism and sin in constitution; yea, the same that makes us no church For, what separation can there be in such admittance?1863, Joseph Hall, The Works of the Joseph Hall, page 103
   • Babylon is now destroyed, but its principles are not dead, and its spirit still lingers in our Reformed Churches, in so far as they have not thoroughly purged themsolves from the dangerous laven. The essence of Babylonism is a great hatred of Jerusalem, a supplanting of the nation, which is God's...1870 April, A.J.S., “The Man with the Measuring Line”, in The Scattered Nation and Jewish Christian Magazine, volume 5, page 98