The prostitute and the beast
17
📚And one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and talked with me. He said to me, “Come here. I will show you the judgment of the great prostitute 📖 who sits on many waters 📖, 2 📚with whom the kings of the earth have committed adultery. And the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk 📖 with the wine of her adultery 📖”.3 📚So he carried me away in the Spirit into the wilderness 📖, and I saw a woman 📖 sitting on a scarlet beast 📖 that was full of blasphemous names and had seven heads and ten horns. 4 📚And the woman was dressed in purple and scarlet 📖 and adorned with gold, precious stones and pearls 📖, and had a golden cup 📖 in her hand full of abominations 📖 and the filthiness of her adultery. 5 📚And on her forehead 📖 a name was written:
MYSTERY 📖, BABYLON THE GREAT 📖,
THE MOTHER OF PROSTITUTES 📖
AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH 📖.
6 📚And I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints 📖 and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. And when I saw her, I was amazed, greatly amazed.
7 📚And the angel said to me, “Why were you amazed? I will tell you the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carries her, that has the seven heads and ten horns. 8 📚The beast that you saw was, and is not 📖, and will come up out of the Abyss 📖 and go to destruction 📖. And those who live on the earth whose names were not written in the book of life 📖 from the beginning of the world will be amazed 📖 when they see the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.
17:8 One question that has perplexed commentators is this: Does the word “beast” here mean an individual or an empire? The answer seems to be it represents an individual who is the head of the empire (as a king of France once said, “I am the state”).⚜
9 📚“Here a mind that has wisdom is needed. The seven heads are seven hills on which the woman sits 📖.
17:9 Wisdom is required because the seven heads are a double symbol.⚜
10 There are also seven kings: five have fallen, one is 📖, and the other has not yet come 📖; and when he comes, he must remain for a short time 📖.
17:10 This is the other explanation of the seven heads of the beast. Rome and its empire rested solidly upon its first powerful emperors, beginning with Julius Caesar. In John’s day five of them had “fallen”. This may mean death by violence. From Caesar to John’s day (a period of about 140 years, if John wrote about 96 AD) there had been eleven emperors. Eight of them died by murder or suicide but only five of those eight were powerful rulers on whom Rome could be said to sit. Counting Julius Caesar they were Caesar, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius and Nero. The other three (Galba, Otho and Vitellius) were insignificant and between them ruled for only about 2 years.⚜
11 📚And the beast that was, and is not, he is the eighth king, and is one of the seven 📖, and goes to destruction.
17:11 Observe in this literal explanation of the angel the words “the beast...is an eighth king”. He lived before the angel spoke to John but was not living then. He would come to power afterwards.⚜
12 📚“And the ten horns 📖 that you saw are ten kings who have as yet received no kingdom, but will receive authority as kings with the beast for one hour 📖. 13 📚They will have one intention 📖, and will give their power and authority to the beast. 14 📚They will make war against the Lamb 📖, and the Lamb will overcome them 📖, for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings 📖, and those who are with him 📖 are called and chosen and faithful”.
15 📚And he said to me, “The waters 📖 that you saw, where the prostitute sits, are peoples and multitudes and nations and languages. 16 📚And the ten horns that you saw on the beast, these will hate the prostitute 📖 and will make her desolate and naked, eat her flesh 📖, and burn her 📖 with fire. 17 📚For God 📖 has put it into their hearts 📖 to execute his will, to agree together and give their kingdom to the beast until God’s words are fulfilled 📖.
18 📚“And the woman that you saw is that great city which is reigning over the kings of the earth”.
17:7-18 In these verses the angel gives John (and us) a straightforward explanation of the woman and the beast in literal language. We should accept this explanation and not try to explain it away – which we may do if we try to take this literal language and make it symbolic. Yet we need wisdom to understand some of his words (v 9).⚜
17:18 When the angel gave this literal explanation Rome was the city that ruled over the parts of the earth John knew. To him it could mean only that city. See also v 9 and 18:20. We might suppose that he did not then know all that Rome would become as a center of apostate Christianity, etc, but he could know that it was to be the center of important events at the end of this age. The woman, then, is the city of Rome but a city that represents the religious (and other) characteristics of a people.⚜