binadub....Actually Alan came out to my house in California twice. First time in 2004 he came with frankiespeakin, and the second time I went out to dinner with him with my boyfriend. Great conversation was had.
Because Mark's history is so tied with Egypt, and he was Peter's companion, along with the significant Jewish population there in the first century, I'm inclined to agree with historians who believe this was the Babylon Peter was likely writing from. Naturally, orthodox historians dispute that in favor of "Babylon" likely referring to Rome. Literal ancient Babylon was too far from Jerusalem imo.
The traditions locating Mark in Egypt place him in Alexandria, not 130 miles to the south at the Babylon Fortress in Old Cairo, nor do they posit Peter as accompanying him in Egypt (and why would they have been at an imperial fort?). They rather claim that Mark went to Alexandria after he parted company with Peter (Epiphanius, Panarion 51.6.10), and the earliest sources claim that he wrote the gospel after Peter's death (Papias, cited in Historia Ecclesiastica 3.39.15; Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses 3.1.2), and that he took the gospel he had just written to Egypt (Jerome, De Viris Illustribus, 8). The NT elsewhere refers to the presence of Mark in Rome on two occasions: (1) he accompanied Paul during his first imprisonment (Philemon 24, Colossians 4:10), and (2) he was summoned to go to Rome during Paul's second imprisonment (2 Timothy 4:11). So outside of 1 Peter we have very early sources that located Mark in Rome, a datum that was reproduced in later traditions as well. Outside of 1 Peter 5:13, the earliest clear reference to Peter's ministry in Rome was in Ignatius, Romans 4:3 (written in the early second century AD), which also hints that he was martyred with Paul as well. 1 Clement 5:3-7, written in Rome in the late first century AD, also mentions the martyrdom of Paul and Peter without being explicit as to the place. The Ascension of Isaiah (early second century AD) gives the earliest testimony of the tradition that Peter perished during the Neronian persecution (4:2-3), a claim later made by Tertullian (end of the second century AD) as well (De Praescriptione 36, Scorpiace 15). I am somewhat unsure of the historicity of the "Peter in Rome" tradition, but the references to "Babylon" and Mark in 1 Peter show that the epistle is an early witness to it (perhaps the earliest, depending on its date).
The usage of "Babylon" as a nickname or symbol for Rome was widely attested at the end of the first century AD and early second century AD, the same period during which 1 Peter was written (Revelation 14:8, 16:19, 17:5, 18:2, 10, 21; 4 Ezra 3:1-5:20, 10:19-48, 11:1-12:51, 15:43-63, 16:1-34; 2 Baruch 11:1, 67:7, 77:12, 17, 19, 79:1, 80:4; Sibylline Oracles 3:63-74, 303-313, 5:137-178). This was largely due to fact that like Babylon, Rome was the power that ruled over Judea and which eventually destroyed the Temple (on the same day of the year, in fact). As for as Revelation is concerned, Babylon "is the great city that is ruling (present tense) over the kings of the earth" (17:18), which could only refer to Rome. It is a city of great wealth and power at the hub of an international trade network (ch. 18), accessible by ship; the goods mentioned include articles of citron-wood that were prized by Rome's arisocracy, grain which Rome had shipped in from Egypt, and slaves shipped to the city like chattal. Again, the reference can only be to Rome. It is symbolized by a woman sitting on seven hills (17:9), and this is precisely how the goddess Dea Roma (the personification of Rome) was depicted on coinage and in statues at the time: as a woman sitting on the Septimontium, or seven hills, of Rome. Dea Roma was also claimed to have had a secret name and she was identified with the lupa "she-wolf" that nursed Remus and Romulus; similarly the harlot of Babylon had a secret name (17:5) and lupa also had the meaning of "prostitute". Babylon was depicted having already martyred many Christians (17:6), which corresponds to the Neronian persecution of AD 64. And Babylon had a series of five fallen kings (17:10) and one of the former kings would return to destroy the city with fire (17:11, 16; cf. 13:3); this corresponds to the Sebastenoi line of Roman emperors and expectations about Nero redivivus in pagan, Jewish, and Christian sources. The fifth book of the Sybilline Oracles (written between AD 70 and 132) also attested a version of the Nero redivivus myth and repeatedly referred to Rome as "Babylon" (lines 137-170, 394-399): "a great king of great Rome, a godlike man from Italy ... who played at theatricals with honey-sweet songs ... who will destroy many men and his wretched mother, he will flee from Babylon", "a great star will come from heaven to the wondrous sea and will burn the deep sea and Babylon itself and the land of Italy", "city of Latin land, as a widow you will sit by the banks and the river Tiber your consort will weep for you" (cf. Isaiah 47:2-9, Revelation 18:7 in reference to Babylon).
Within the context of 1 Peter, the use of "Babylon" to refer to Rome is part of the author's allusion to the situation of the Babylonian exile. The epistle is loosely modelled on Jeremiah's "Letter to the Exiles" (Jeremiah 29), which was also imitated elsewhere (e.g. the "Letter of Jeremiah" in 1 Baruch 6). There Jeremiah advised the exiles to "build houses and settle down", "marry and have sons and daughers", and "seek the peace and prosperty of the city to which I have carried you into exile" (v. 5-7). He tells the exiles that Babylon is accorded a duration of time to hold supremacy over the earth (v. 10), during which God's people should live out their lives and be in submission to the king of Babylon: "B ow your neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon; serve him and his people, and you will live. ...Do not listen to the words of the prophets who say to you, 'You will not serve the king of Babylon,' for they are prophesying lies to you" (27:12-14). Implicit in this advice is the promise that Babylon's supremacy will eventually come to an end at the time of God's choosing, then God promises that " I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you" (29:14). In imitation of this, the author of 1 Peter referred to his readers as " exiles scattered throughout the provinces " in Asia Minor (1:1), and advised them " to live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear " (v. 17). Then in ch. 2 he continued:
1 Peter 2:11-17: " Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us. Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human authority: whether to the emperor, as the supreme authority, or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. ...Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God's slaves . Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, honor the emperor".
The situation of the letter is one of persecution of Christians by authorities (1:6-7, 2:21-24, 3:9-18, 4:1, 12-15), and the author promises that the present state of affairs will soon come to an end (1:5, 2:12, 4:7), with the implication of judgment against those in power who did not fear God (4:17). The reference to Babylon in 5:13 imo forms part of the author's comparison with the situation of the Babylonian exile (involving not just living among pagans in a diaspora but submitting to the authority of the king of Babylon) and thus has reference to the power whose provinces (named in 1:1) the letter's recipients found themselves exiled in, and whose emperor and governors the Christians should submit themselves to, i.e. Rome.
