The Babylon Idol

Chapter 26

‘It all begins with the Bible,’ Anna said. ‘I don’t suppose you would be especially familiar with the Bible, Ben?’

He was aware how little she really knew about him, or his past. When they’d first met, he’d been posing as a journalist. She’d soon come to realise he was a little more than that, but he’d never told her many specific details. He smiled. ‘I’ve heard of it, though. Isn’t it that book all about God and Jesus and stuff?’

She reddened. ‘No need for sarcasm. I just meant—’

‘It’s okay. It has been a while since I did any of that kind of reading.’

‘Then let me explain. We’re concerned here with the ancient text that belongs to the Ketuvim, or writings, of the Tanakh, that is to say the Hebrew Bible. In versions of the Christian Old Testament it’s grouped with the Major Prophets and is commonly known as the Book of Daniel. Traditionally it’s attributed to Daniel himself, a noble Jew who was a captive exile in the ancient kingdom of Babylon, though most modern scholars now believe the author to be pseudonymous.’

‘All right,’ Ben said. ‘Go on.’

‘First, let me fill you in on the background. The kingdom of Babylonia, as you may or may not know, was a powerful and enduring historic empire that occupied part of ancient Mesopotamia, in what nowadays covers much of Iraq, Kuwait, Syria, and extends into Iran and Turkey. Babylon’s origins date all the way back to the Bronze Age, and it was ruled over by a long succession of dynasties over the course of many centuries. Perhaps its most famous, or infamous, ruler was Nebuchadnezzar the Second, who took the throne in 605 BC. He was an aggressive and ruthless empire builder who reconstructed the ancient capital and sought to extend his kingdom’s influence far and wide. At the height of Babylon’s glory under his reign, the city was said to have covered an enormous area, bigger than modern-day London. Inside its giant walls, which according to the historian Herodotus were some sixty metres high with huge brass gates and watchtowers all around, were magnificent royal palaces and gardens, even a grand observatory where the Babylonian astrologers made their celestial observations.’

Ben drank more wine.

Anna went on, ‘Nebuchadnezzar’s foreign policy was just as ambitious. He crushed and swallowed up many smaller kingdoms, waged war against the Egyptians, and also attacked Israel where he succeeded in taking Jerusalem, sacked the Temple of Solomon and deported much of the city’s population to Babylon. The Book of Daniel relates the story of three young Hebrew prisoners whom Nebuchadnezzar’s soldiers had captured and brought back as slaves. Their names were Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah.’

‘Better known as Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego,’ Ben said.

Anna looked at him in surprise. ‘Yes, those were the names given to them by their captors, to facilitate their integration into Babylonian culture. But how do you—?’

‘I studied theology, in another life. That’s why I said my Bible knowledge might be a little rusty. Once upon a time, I could have quoted you chapter and verse.’

He might as well have told her he was from the planet Zog. She stared at him in amazement. ‘No.’

‘Told you, I’m full of surprises,’ he said. ‘In fact there was a time when that was going to be my life. The church. Reverend Ben Hope, living in an ivied vicarage with a bored wife, two kids, an estate car and a yellow dog. Can’t you see it?’

‘I had no idea. I would never have taken you for a religious person.’

‘Who said I was?’

‘You don’t believe?’

‘Probably not, any more.’

‘But you did, once. Nobody would seek a career in the church if they didn’t believe in God.’

‘That was a long time ago, Anna.’

‘And yet, you haven’t forgotten the Bible.’

‘Not all of it,’ he said. ‘As I recall, the story from Daniel, Chapters two and three, goes something like this: in the second year of King Neb’s reign, he was said to have dreamed of a massive statue made of precious metals. The dream inspired him to create a huge golden idol, which he had erected in the Plain of Dura, and commanded that everyone should bow down to it. When the three Hebrew captives Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego refused on the grounds that they worshipped only their one true God, in his kindly way the king ordered them to be thrown into a superheated furnace, supposed to have been seven times hotter than normal fire.’

‘Impressive, so far,’ Anna said.

‘But God sent an angel to protect His faithful, and they escaped completely unburned from the flames, which impressed King Neb so greatly that he bestowed all kinds of honours on them and decreed that anyone who spoke out against God in future would be torn limb from limb. Probably the all-time fastest conversion to Christianity recorded in the Bible, though Nebuchadnezzar wasn’t famous for his consistency.’

‘Bravo. You know the story very well.’

‘Let’s call it what it is,’ Ben said. ‘A myth. I’m no archaeologist but even I know that no real-life trace of Nebuchadnezzar’s golden idol has ever been found. Surely you don’t believe any of it is true?’

‘That’s not the attitude I’d have expected from a theologian.’

‘Maybe I’m not famous for my consistency either,’ Ben said.

Anna shrugged. ‘Legend, myth, call it what you want. Of course, these things are subject to all kinds of possible interpretation, and scholars have picked it all apart for so long that nobody knows what to believe any longer. But interpretation aside, what if there were a core of truth to the story?’

‘You mean, what if there really had been a golden idol, just like the golden statue of Zeus that Theo Kambasis spent his life looking for?’

Anna said, ‘Well, yes, why shouldn’t there have been? Is it so improbable? I mean, if it’s possible to accept for a fact that Phidias’ Zeus existed, then how justifiable is it simply to dismiss the Babylon idol as pure fiction? They both date from roughly the same time period, give or take a century or so. The technology of the time may have been crude in many respects, but those ancient cultures were nonetheless capable of incredible feats of artistic and engineering ingenuity. Take another of Phidias’ lost works, for instance, the colossal gold and ivory statue of the goddess Athena that once stood in the Parthenon in Athens. There’s a reproduction of her in Centennial Park, Nashville, Tennessee. At thirteen metres in height, it’s the largest indoor sculpture in the Western world. I went there just to stand next to it and get a sense of the size of the thing. It was mind-blowing. Now imagine the sheer mass of a statue which, if the Biblical account of Nebuchadnezzar’s idol is accurate, measured—’

‘Sixty cubits high by six cubits wide,’ Ben finished for her. ‘Or so the legend tells.’

‘That’s twenty-seven metres in height, more than double the size of Phidias’ colossal Athena, as tall as a nine-storey building.’

‘Hard to hide something that big,’ Ben said. ‘You’d have thought they would have dug it up by now, if it existed at all.’

‘It’s more than just conjecture,’ she said firmly. ‘I take my research very seriously, evaluate the evidence as objectively as a scientist and jump to no conclusions without proof.’

‘You’re telling me you have proof?’

‘I’m working on it. There are a lot of challenges involved in trying to shed light on what was really a very hectic and crazy time in Babylon’s history. When Nebuchadnezzar died and his rule passed to his son Amel-Marduk in 562 BC, the new king reigned only a short time, giving way to a succession of weak rulers who paved the way for Babylon’s fall just twenty-three years later, in 539 BC, to the Persian king Cyrus the Great, leader of the Achaenimid Empire, the biggest empire in the ancient world, which then assimilated Babylon. Somewhere in the middle of all these turbulent changes, the fabled golden idol vanished — as you say, without a trace.’

‘There you have it,’ Ben said. ‘End of story.’

‘Not quite,’ Anna said.