Revelation 17

In Revelation 16 the seven bowl judgments come to an end, and "great Babylon" comes in remembrance before God. Chapter 17, together with chapter 18 that follows, presents the judgment of that Babylon in detail.

Outline

• Verses 1–6 One of the angels who had the seven bowls carries John away into the wilderness. John sees a woman sitting on a scarlet beast. The beast has seven heads and ten horns. The woman holds a golden cup, and on her forehead is written the name "Babylon the Great." She is drunk with the blood of the saints.
• Verses 7–14 The angel explains the mystery of the beast. The seven heads are seven mountains and also seven kings, and the ten horns are ten kings. These kings give their power to the beast and make war with the Lamb, but the Lamb overcomes them.
• Verses 15–18 The waters on which the whore sits represent peoples and nations. The ten horns and the beast hate the whore and bring her to ruin. The woman is the great city that reigns over the kings of the earth.

Key Verses

• Revelation 17:14 "The Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings." This is the chapter's conclusion, and the same titles appear again in Revelation 19:16.
• Revelation 17:5 "BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH." Interpretive debate over the identity of the whore begins with this verse.
• Revelation 17:8 The beast "was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit." This verse is central to the discussion of the beast's identity.

Characters and Places

• John: the "I" who sees and records the vision.
• The angel with the seven bowls: one of the angels who poured out the bowl judgments in chapters 15–16.
• The great whore: a woman who sits upon many waters and has committed fornication with the kings of the earth. In verse 18 she is identified as "that great city."
• The beast: scarlet in color and full of names of blasphemy. It ascends out of the bottomless pit, the abyss, and goes into perdition.
• The Lamb: Christ, who makes war with the ten kings and overcomes them.
• Babylon: the empire that destroyed Jerusalem in the Old Testament. Here it serves as the woman's symbolic name.

Points to Consider

• Interpretive traditions differ on how to identify the whore and the beast.
• Preterism: identifies them with the first-century Roman Empire, reading the seven mountains as the seven hills of Rome.
• Historicism: some Protestants of the Reformation era linked the whore with the Roman papacy; the Catholic Church rejects this interpretation.
• Futurism: Dispensationalism and similar approaches see them as an apostate religion or world system that will appear at the end of the age.
• Symbolic (idealist) interpretation: reads them as symbols of the powers and cultures that oppose God in every age.
• There are various ways of matching the seven kings to particular Roman emperors, and no consensus exists.
• Some scholars read verses 8 and 11 against the background of the rumor, widespread at the time, that Nero would return.
• The depiction of the beast connects with the beast visions of Revelation 13:1–10 and Daniel 7:1–8.
• The "many waters" and the "golden cup" overlap with the description of Babylon in Jeremiah 51.
• The statement that those whose names are not written in the book of life follow the beast connects with the theme of the book of life.