The Two Babylons by Alexander Hislop

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The Two Babylons, subtitled The Papal Worship Proved to Be the Worship of Nimrod and His Wife was published in 1853 by Alexander Hislop (1807–65), a Presbyterian Free Church of Scotland theologian.

William Branham believed Hislop's book represented a true and accurate view of history. He admitted to having used it in his research. This is unlike the works of Clarence Larkin, which he admitted to having read but only in passing but whom he plagiarized extensively.

The major themes of The Two Babylons

The book's central theme is its allegation that the Catholic Church is a veiled continuation of the pagan religion of ancient Babylon, the product of a millennia-old secret conspiracy founded by the Biblical king Nimrod and the Assyrian queen Semiramis, whom Hislop claimed was Nimrod's wife. It claims that modern Catholic holidays, including Christmas and Easter are actually pagan festivals established by Semiramis and that the customs associated with them are pagan rituals.

The historical accuracy of The Two Babylons

Modern scholars have unanimously rejected the book's arguments as erroneous and based on a flawed understanding of Babylonian religion.

Hislop uses information based on Panbabylonism, which was common in the 19th century, to argue that Classical and Ancient Near Eastern civilization took its inspiration from Babylon. From this, he derives the argument that the mystery religions of Late Antiquity were actually offshoots of one ancient religion founded at the Tower of Babel. Panbabylonism is now generally considered to be pseudohistory.

The Two Babylons heavily relies on Austen Henry Layard's publications of his excavations at Nineveh, which had only been just discovered in 1851. This gave his work an appearance of being well-researched at the time of its publication. For example, Hislop linked the name of Easter with Astarte, the Phoenician fertility goddess by citing Layard's recent discovery of Astarte's Assyrian name, Ishtar, which Hislop took to be "identical" to Easter.

In the note by the editor of the 7th edition, which was published in 1871, it was claimed, "that no one, so far as we are aware, has ventured to challenge the accuracy of the historical proofs adduced in support of the startling announcement on the title page." Since then however there have been many who have challenged the accuracy of Hislop's claims. For example, Lester L. Grabbe has highlighted the fact that Hislop's entire argument, particularly his association of Ninus with Nimrod, is based on a misunderstanding of historical Babylon and its religion. Grabbe also criticizes Hislop for portraying the mythological queen Semiramis as Nimrod's consort, despite the fact that she is never even mentioned in a single text associated with him, and for portraying her as the "mother of harlots", even though this is not how she is depicted in any of the texts where she is mentioned.

In 2011, a critical edition of "The Two Babylons" was published. Although Hislop's work is extensively footnoted, some commentators (in particular Ralph Woodrow) have stated that the document contains numerous misconceptions, fabrications, logical fallacies, unsubstantiated conspiracy theories, and grave factual errors.

The Jehovah's Witnesses periodical The Watchtower frequently published excerpts from it until the 1980s. The thesis of "The Two Baylons" has also featured prominently in the conspiracy theories of racist groups such as The Covenant, The Sword, and the Arm of the Lord and other fringe groups. Author and conspiracy theorist David Icke incorporates Hislop's claims about Semiramis into his book The Biggest Secret, claiming that Semiramis played a key role in the establishment of a global conspiracy run by Reptilian aliens, whom he asserts is secretly controlling humanity.

As a result, it is not surprising that "The Two Babylons" continues to be widly respected within the message, even though such respect is not deserved.

Quotes by William Branham

And our scene this morning is in Babylon. It’s very good for us that we find out a little about this great city. And I’ve been studying recently on Babylon, out of the—the…geographically where it set. And I was studying it out of Hislop’s Two Babylons, one of the oldest histories of Babylon.

And then Nimrod tried to make an organization. If you’re a historian, and you know the history of Babylon, read Hislop’s Two Babylons, you’ll find a great lot of light. That, Nimrod, this man of sin, took Babylon and all its little sister church, or places around, which was a type of—of this last-day apostasy Christianity, and made one great big place and all the rest of them played…paid tribute to it. And in there he built a tower and tried to organize man together, but it failed. It failed. That failed.

I have just completed a study, the last four or five years, of the early Church. I started off with the Foxe’s book of martyrs, come down through Hislop’s Two Babylons, and so forth, and on down through the Nicaea, and the Post-Nicene and the Nicene Fathers, and Nicaea council, and finding out that after the death of Jesus Christ. Down through Polycarp, and Irenaeus and Martin, and many of those great saints, for hundreds of years after the death of Jesus Christ, contended for that Faith, of the baptism of the Holy Ghost, and speaking with tongues, and raising the dead, and healing the sick. It was in the dark age this Thing was lost.

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