Did ancient Babylon practice confession?

Question

In a Chick tract, it says that the Roman Catholic practice of confession of sins to a priest derived from confessing ones sins to a Babylonian priest in ancient Babylon. Did ancient Babylon have confessions in confessionals or anything similar?

Answer 1

The ancient Babylonians practiced "confession", but it probably did not look very much like the Catholic version. Babylonian religion place a great deal of importance on ritual purity, meaning physical cleanliness and moral/spiritual accountability. This meant that absolution for one's deeds was necessary, but it is important to recognize that although on the surface this may seem to jibe with the Catholic confessional, the purpose was a little different. Babylonians not only gained purification through a complete accounting of their sins, but though ritual ablution (washing), animal sacrifice and divination. The Babylonians also had an astral theology, meaning that they identified numerous gods in the heavens and assigned constellations to identify these gods with.
Chick tracts, by the way, are notoriously anti-Catholic and should be taken with a grain of salt, as it were. Many religions practice some form of atonement, including confession. This can be related more to a human tendency towards honesty and a need to "make things right", or be accountable rather than a direct linear tradition...