Joel’s Commentary on Revelation–Revelation 17: The Whore of Babylon

Chapters 17-19:10 form somewhat of a parenthesis to the basic action of Revelation. Now that Babylon has been split apart in chapter 16, John takes a timeout to tell just exactly who this Babylon the Great really is: who is the great prostitute? Before we get into the details of chapter 17, we will present the answers up front.

If the sea beast is the Roman Emperor Domitian, seen as sort of a resurrected Nero, and the land beast is the Imperial cult that impelled people to worship the emperor as a god, then Babylon the Great is the city of Rome itself—to John and the early Christians, Rome was the great city of the world; it symbolized everything that was opposed to Christ.  It must be pointed out, though, that for Christians throughout the centuries, “Babylon the Great” has taken on different incarnations: for Christians in WWII Germany, it was Berlin; for blacks in South Africa during Apartheid, it was Johannesburg, where the racist government was; for Christians today in America, what can we say? Las Vegas? Hollywood? New York? Washington D.C.?

In any case, “Babylon the Great” can be any empire, any city,  that oppresses God’s people and promotes spiritual adultery. For Christians in 95 AD though, it was pretty clear: “Babylon” was code for Rome (I Peter 5:13).

Specifics of Revelation 17
The first thing to point out regarding Revelation 17 is that John is told that Babylon, the “great prostitute,” sits on many waters. This relates to two things. First, as alluded to in Jeremiah 50:38; 51:13, the actual Old Testament city of Babylon stood on the banks of the Euphrates River—it was known as the city that sat on many waters. Second, one must also see the reference to “many waters” as having echoes of the waters of chaos from which the dragon called the sea beast.

Secondly, when John is taken to the wilderness to see the woman who had fled, we must ask, “Why a wilderness?” Possibly because the waters of the Euphrates were dried up with the sixth bowl of wrath? An allusion to the wilderness wandering during the Exodus? It’s ironic that just as the woman clothed with the sun fled to the wilderness to escape the dragon—and that woman represents God’s people Israel—that John goes out to the wilderness to see this woman—the great prostitute Babylon.

In any case, what John sees in astonishing: the woman is dressed in purple and scarlet, glittering with gold, precious stones, and pearls. She holds a golden cup filled with the filth of her adulteries, and she is drunk on the blood of the saints. She definitely looks like a gaudy prostitute, doesn’t she? The way she is dressed is contrasted with how the bride of the Lamb, the New Jerusalem, is dressed in Revelation 21. One is pure and undefiled, and the other is filthy and corrupt.

Thirdly, the woman is not alone. She is sitting on a scarlet beast that is covered with blasphemous names. So who is the beast? Need we ask? The way he is described (i.e. 7 heads/10 horns) makes it obvious: it is the beast that the dragon had called up from the sea; the Roman Emperor…Domitian, the “resurrected Nero” of sorts. Now, there is a lot of complex stuff going on in 17:8-12, so we will only briefly address a few things.

• The beast “once was, now is not, and yet will come”—this is a parody of the divine name YHWH, which means “who was, who is, and is to come (Rev. 1:4, 8; 4:8) The beast is a parody and mockery of God—he is the antichrist.
• The beast comes up out of the Abyss and goes to his destruction—this spells out his Satanic origins (i.e. the one who kills the two witnesses in Revelation 11/the one who received power from the dragon in Revelation 13) and his ultimate end.
• The seven hills on which the woman sits—wait, wasn’t she sitting on many waters? Isn’t she sitting on the beast? Yes…but in apocalyptic literature, the symbolism can be rather free. Here, the seven hills represents the city of Rome, for it was built on seven hills.

One final thing to point out in Revelation 17 deals with 17:15-18. We are told that the beast will hate the prostitute, bring her to ruin, and leave her naked. This, John says, is according to God’s purpose. This picture is strikingly similar to Ezekiel 23:25-25, where Ezekiel prophesies that because of Jerusalem’s unfaithfulness to God, that God would allow Jerusalem to be destroyed at the hands of Babylon:

^“I will direct my indignation against you, in order that they may deal with you in fury. They shall cut off your nose and your ears, and your survivors shall fall by the sword. They shall seize your sons and your daughters, and your survivors shall be devoured by fire.They shall also strip you of your clothes and take away your fine jewels.So I will put an end to your lewdness and your whoring brought from the land of Egypt.”  (Eze 23:25-27)

[They will] “leave you naked and bare, and the nakedness of your whorings shall be exposed. Your lewdness and your whorings have brought this upon you, because you played the whore with the nations, and polluted yourself with their idols.You have gone the way of your sister; therefore I will give her cup into your hand.” (Eze 23:29-31)

This is how God dealt with unfaithful Jerusalem in the Old Testament, and this is how He will deal with the great whore of Babylon, clearly identified with Rome.

One Final Comment
We must remember that John was a prophet, inspired by the Holy Spirit to get his readers (the seven churches who were undergoing persecution under Domitian) to look at their historical situation in light of the assured promises of God that were proven to be trustworthy through the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ. Simply put, what John is saying throughout Revelation is this:

Rome isn’t going to last; her persecution of you is only for a time. Don’t give in to her temptations; don’t be seduced by her idols and immorality, no matter how attractive it may look. Stay faithful to Christ, because when all is said and done, Rome won’t last. Your home is the New Jerusalem and the New creation, not the earthly city of Rome, or Jerusalem, or any other city—so stay faithful. Even if Domitian is a resurrected Nero, even if he destroys you, he’s not going to last. Christ is the Alpha and the Omega—not Rome, not Domitian, not even Satan. Their kingdom is only for a short time, but the Kingdom of God is forever, and it is being established even now. So stay faithful and remain true to Jesus Christ, your Lord and Savior—not Rome, not Domitian, not Satan.

John was not into far-off future predictions or fortune-telling, no matter what Hal Lindsey or Tim LaHaye, or John Hagee might claim. He was trying to get his readers to see the bigger picture of God’s plan. That is what we need to do also.