Revelation 17:1-2; The Judgment of the Great Whore

Revelation 17:1-2 And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters: With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. 

The name Babylon the Great appears in both chapters 17 and 18. With the help of an ancient Roman coin depicting the goddess Roma sitting on seven hills and quotations from Roman historiographers (17:9), scholars interpret Babylon as a reference to Rome. But identifying Babylon with Rome as the great prostitute is by itself restrictive and time-bound.

To illustrate, the woman in chapter 12 is a symbol of the church and in chapter 19 she is the bride of the Lamb. By contrast, the woman in chapter 17 is called Babylon the Great, the mother of prostitutes, and the mother of the earth’s abominations (v. 5). This woman is the great temptress, seducer, and liar in the service of Satan and the beast. She has been in this service not only during the days of John but from the time of the Fall and will be until the consummation. Also, at the same time this woman appears as a great metropolis that in consequence of God’s judgment loses all her commercial and financial riches (18:11–24). This scene, therefore, speaks not merely of the overthrow of the Roman empire but rather of the complete and lasting defeat of the entire anti-Christian world.

In view of Satan’s short time on earth (12:12), I interpret chapter 17 as a picture of the beast’s forces pitted against God but losing the battle in the end. The prostitute rides on this beast that has seven heads and ten horns: “they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is” (v8). In short, the beast has a long history, is present today, and eventually will go to his destruction. This beast transcends the successive empires of the world, including the Roman empire, while all along the prostitute is sitting on his back. “When, in Revelation 18:4, the admonition is given: ‘Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues’ that command was intended not only for people living close to the end of the world’s history, but also for believers in John’s day and age; indeed, for believers in every age.”

John first depicts the great prostitute who with the kings of the earth revels in her adulteries (vv. 1–2). Then he outlines her association with the beast of seven heads and ten horns (vv. 3–8). Third, he presents a time frame during which the kings of the earth war against the Lamb, who will conquer them (vv. 9–14). And last, John gives an explanation of the symbols of the waters on which the woman sits, and of the woman herself as “the great city which has a kingdom over the kings of the earth” (vv. 15–18).

 Kistemaker, S. J., & Hendriksen, W. (1953–2001). Exposition of the Book of Revelation (Vol. 20, pp. 460–461). Grand Rapids: Baker Book House.