The use of codenames by ancient prophets who predict end-time events occurs throughout the scriptures. In the Book of Revelation, John uses the name Babylon to depict a materialistic socio-economic system that drives a world ripening in wickedness (Revelation 17–18). And yet, in John’s day the empire that once was Babylon no longer exists. Daniel predicts a great world conflict involving the kingdoms of Persia, Greece, and other nations of his day. However, the angel who shows him these things tells him to shut up the words and seal them in a book because they aren’t about Daniel’s day but about the “time of the end” of the world (Daniel 11:1–12:4).
Anciently, the Babylonian empire epitomized an idolatrous, materialistic world civilization. Isaiah combines this model with others to create a composite entity, a kind of “Greater Babylon.” The third part of Isaiah’s Seven-Part Structure (Isaiah 13–23, 47) pulls an entire series of foreign nations and entities that once came under Babylon’s influence into this “Babylon” conglomerate. Forming a part of this arch entity is Tyre’s ancient worldwide shipping empire (Isaiah 23). It is Isaiah’s model that John draws on in projecting his end-time “Babylon the Great.” Of course, Isaiah’s use of codenames extends beyond the name Babylon to all others in his book.
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