Babylonian Captivity
Article
Babylonian Captivity is a recurring concept in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 2 times across 2 issues between November 17, 2023 and October 22, 2025. The archive places it in contexts such as “experience than usual with being a persecuted minority (eg during the Babylonian Captivity)”; “Daniel was writing during the Babylonian Captivity”. It most often appears alongside Barack Obama, Israel, Jesus.
Metadata
- Category: Concepts
- Mention count: 2
- Issue count: 2
- First seen: November 17, 2023
- Last seen: October 22, 2025
Appears In
Related Pages
-
- Barack Obama (2 shared issues)
-
- Israel (2 shared issues)
-
- Jesus (2 shared issues)
-
- Satan (2 shared issues)
-
- 10th century (1 shared issues)
-
- 19th Century (1 shared issues)
-
- A16Z (1 shared issues)
-
- Abel (1 shared issues)
-
- Acts 4:4 (1 shared issues)
-
- Adam and Eve (1 shared issues)
-
- AI race (1 shared issues)
-
- America (1 shared issues)
External Links
Source Context
Recovered passages from the original issue text. When the raw archive preserved outbound links inside the source passage, they are listed directly under the quote.
I just don’t feel like mobs murdering people was that fundamental to civilization. Sometimes mobs did murder people, and this was an important component of myth. I do think Jewish myths have the mobs in the wrong more often, probably because even when they were writing the Bible, Jews had more experience than usual with being a persecuted minority (eg during the Babylonian Captivity). But this doesn’t seem like enough material for a theory-of-everything that solves anthropology, mythography, and the Judeo-Christian religion.
Winged Lion = OpenAI, founded by Sam Altman (Jewish). The winged lion would have been recognizable to Daniel’s audience as a symbol of the Babylonian Empire; Daniel was writing during the Babylonian Captivity, when there was no independent Israeli state and all Jews lived in Babylon.