By Chika Abanobi
#IRAN
This is one country that did not retain its Biblical name. Others – Israel, Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Libya, India (Esther 1:1; 8:9), Ethiopia – all did. But, there is no doubting the fact about Iran being the Persia we used to know or read about in the Bible. Or, Persia is the modern Republic of Iran!
All that you need to confirm that fact is the Persian Gulf, sometimes called the Arabian Gulf located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula. The second one is the language: Iran’s major language is Persian, not Arabic.
But what many people don’t know or remember is, at the beginning of Israel as an independent nation in 1948, Iran was the second Islamic nation to recognise it, although observers use the term “ambivalent” to describe the relationship that existed between the two nations, from 1947 to 1952.
Turkey was the first Islamic nation to recognise Israel. Iran and Israel had their most friendly and cordial relationship during the era of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (1953-1979), the former Shah of Iran.
Israel’s friendship with Iran: the golden area
Long before Pahlavi, however, there were, in the Bible days, other friendly potentates. They include Cyrus the Great, Darius, and Artaxerxes. These were Persian or Iranian kings credited with not only releasing the Jews from Babylonian captivity but also allowing them to return and rebuild their Temple in Jerusalem.
Then, there was a well-established and influential Jewish community in the country. Stories of what those Persian kings did as proof of the chummy relationship between them and the Israelites are recorded in some parts of the 2 Chronicles and the books of Esther, Ezra, and Nehemiah.
Factors that caused the soured relationship
So? When and how did the relationship between the two countries begin to nosedive as to make them dagger-drawn enemies today? For instance, in April 2024, for the first time in history, Iran, in a military action it codenamed “Operation True Promise,” launched a massive missile attack on Israel, over its attacks on its consulate in Damascus, Syria.
On October 1, and for the second time, it launched about 200 missiles on Israel, over the death of the heads of some of its allies in Israeli airstrikes.
Even before the Israel-Hamas 2023/24 war, Iran, had, over the years, threatened to wipe out Israel from the Middle East and the world.
How did things get to this sore point? Observers say that their relationship started deteriorating after the 1979 Islamic Revolution initiated by Ayatollah Khomeini. His Islam-based theocratic government not only severed all diplomatic and commercial relationships with Israel, it also stopped recognising its legitimacy as an independent state.
The situation was worsened by the Presidency of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who took to making inflammatory statements, from time to time, threatening the existence of Israel.
Other factors include the development of nuclear technology which Israel strongly believes is meant to wipe it out. It has, therefore, become the target of its attacks, from time to time, and Iran’s alleged involvement in the bombing of its embassy in Buenos Aires. Most importantly, observers say that the enmity is further worsened by Iran’s proxy war against Israel through its funding of Islamist militant groups like Hezbollah, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and Houthis.
#IRAQ
Apart from Iran, this is another country that is not being called or addressed today by its Biblical name: Babylon.
Iraq, bordered by Turkey to the north, Saudi Arabia to the south, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and Kuwait to the southeast, Jordan to the southwest and Syria to the west is, sometimes called the “Cradle of Civilisation.”
This is because it is believed to be where human life started, not only with the creation of man in the Garden of Eden but also with the inventions of a writing system (Cuneiform), mathematics, timekeeping, a calendar, astrology and a law code (Hammurabi).
This is where Rivers Tigris (Hiddekel) and Euphrates are located (Genesis 2:14). Other Biblical places located here include Ur, the birthplace of Abraham (Genesis 11: 27, 28), Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:8,9), Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9) and Nineveh (Jonah 1:1-3; 3:1-3; 4:11).
A Short History of Iraq
The country whose name means, “deeply rooted, well-watered, fertile lowlands” or “marshlands” has one of the largest oil reserves in the world and is among the global centres for the oil and gas industry.
Originally known as Mesopotamia in the successions and assimilation of old kingdoms, “Babylon” used to be its capital.
But somewhere along the line, the country came to be addressed by the name of its capital. It also made natives or citizens to be called “Babylonians” just like we have residents of Lagos being called “Lagosians” today. Its present capital “Baghdad” was founded in 762 AD.
History shows that Iraq, then Babylon, was defeated by a Persian king called Cyrus the Great. He followed his conquest by annexing the country and declaring himself “King of Babylon.”
One of the famous kings of ancient Babylon is Nebuchadnezzar who ruled the country for over 40 years, from 605 BC to 562 BC. In the Bible, his story is told in the Book of Daniel.
From Nebuchadnezzar to Kata’ib Hezbollah
“Who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands?”(Daniel 3:15, KJV). Commentators say that it seems that, that question, first asked by Nebuchadnezzar to Shedrack, Meshach, and Abednego, when they refused to bow to his golden image is now being asked by Iraq-based Kata’ib Hezbollah (KH), with rockets and explosives drones as the Israel-Hamas war rages.
The militant group, with a name that means “Battalions of the Party of God,” is part of the “Axis of Resistance” receiving extensive training, funding, logistic support, weapons, and intelligence from the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) overseas military intelligence service, Quds Force.
Following the explosions of Hezbollah’s pagers and walkie-talkies in mid-September, 2024, KH launched a series of cruise missile attacks against Israel, all the way from Iraq.
#SYRIA
The surname of Nigeria’s A-list film star, “Stella Damasus” is often confused with the name of Syria’s capital, “Damascus.” But a careful check will show that they are not the same, both in spelling and sound.
There is a “C” missing in the surname of Stella. That should be what makes her surname “Damasus” sound different from “Damascus.” But many people who don’t know this little difference have often mistaken and continued to mispronounce her surname as “Damascus.” She has asked God to help them!
Yet, before “Damasus”, there was “Damascus” and the name has never changed ever since. That was where Paul the Apostle who was converted on his way to the city (Acts 9:1-9) was saved from irate orthodox religious Jews. The religious zealots who were angry with his conversion from Judaism to Christianity felt that he was better dead than alive. To save his life, the disciples in Damascus lowered him down behind the fence of the city, in a basket, in the middle of the night. And, that was how he escaped (Acts 9:10-25).
The lords of Syria
But before this incident, Syria had been in existence as a nation. For instance, in 2 Samuel 8:5-6, we read of David killing 22,000 Syrians and making them a vassal state. He also stationed a garrison or military base there.
Naaman, the Army General, who was cured of his leprosy by dipping his body seven times in River Jordan, according to the instruction of Elisha, is from Syria (2 Kings 5:1-14).
“There is no art to find the mind’s construction in the face”, said William Shakespeare in Macbeth. Those lines, spoken by King Duncan, refer to the duplicity of the former Thane of Cawdor, who had just been executed for treason.
If it is a human psychology theory, Elisha, the prophet of God, disproved that when he spoke to Hazael, personal assistant to Benhadad, king of Syria. This is because he saw right through his ambition: what he will be and what he will do to the children of Israel (2 Kings 8:7-13).
The ‘Elisha’ in Mossad
The Igbo say that a bush or forest that houses bees and wasps does not fear “stinging things.” If Elisha has been alive till today, observers say that he would have foreseen what the seven members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), including two of their generals who lead the elite Quds Force in Syria and Lebanon, were planning to do inside the Iranian consulate in Syria before they were killed in an Israeli airstrike in April 2024.
Days before the attack, the Israeli military had launched massive strikes on Syria’s northern province of Aleppo, killing at least 40 people, most of them soldiers said to be planning with Hezbollah unit in Damascus, and their Iranian allies to launch devastating attacks on Israel. But what Elisha would have foreseen, Mossad, the Israeli intelligence did.
This is the concluding part of the article.
- Abanobi, pioneer staff, Weekend Concord, former Associate Editor, The Sun newspaper, Lagos, and winner of Governor Olusegun Mimiko Prize for Foreign News Reporter of the Year: 2018 Nigeria Media Merit Award (NMMA) is member, Journalists for Christ International Fellowship. All rights reserved. No part of this write-up should be republished without the author’s permission.
