Revelation 17:9; The Seven Heads Are Seven Mountains

Revelation 17:9  And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth. 

The angel’s statement here is the mind which has wisdom invites John and his readers to pay close attention to what follows. This unusual expression introduces a difficult and complex aspect of this vision. It will take much wisdom and spiritual insight to understand it, and perhaps only those alive at the time will fully comprehend it.

The first aspect of the vision that needs to be understood is that the seven heads of the beast (v. 3) are seven mountains or hills on which the woman sits. Some commentators associate the seven mountains with Rome, famous for being built on seven hills, and identify the woman as the Roman Catholic Church.

But such an interpretation is too narrow; something more than just Rome must be in view, because Antichrist’s empire is worldwide. Nor can the woman be the Roman Catholic Church, since, as noted above, verse 18 identifies her as the city of Babylon. Also “when the woman sits on the ‘many waters’ (v1) this must be taken as metaphorical since it is interpreted in v. 15; when the woman sits upon ‘a scarlet coloured beast’ this again is symbolic; thus when she sits upon the ‘seven mountains’ this too must be figurative” (James Allen, What the Bible Teaches: Revelation [Kilmarnock, Scotland: John Ritchie Ltd., 1997], 424). Finally, the angel’s call for spiritual discernment would have been pointless if the seven mountains were an obvious geographical reference to Rome.

All such speculation is unnecessary, because the text plainly identifies the mountains as seven kings. Mountains are sometimes used metaphorically in the Old Testament to represent rule, or power (e.g., Psalm 30:7; Isaiah 2:2; Jeremiah 51:25; Daniel 2:35).

Psalm 30:7  LORD, by thy favour thou hast made my mountain to stand strong: thou didst hide thy face, and I was troubled. 

Isaiah 2:2  And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD’S house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. 

Jeremiah 51:25  Behold, I am against thee, O destroying mountain, saith the LORD, which destroyest all the earth: and I will stretch out mine hand upon thee, and roll thee down from the rocks, and will make thee a burnt mountain. 

Daniel 2:35  Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth. 

Here they represent seven world empires embodied in their rulers. The angel tells John that five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come. The five Gentile world empires that had fallen by the time of John’s vision are Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, and Greece. The one that existed at that time was obviously Rome. The other one that has not yet come is Antichrist’s final world empire. Commenting on the significance of the first six empires, Henry Morris writes,

Though none of these empires ever actually ruled the whole world, each was the greatest kingdom of its own time, particularly in reference to the land and people of Israel and these kingdoms’ opposition to the proclamation of God’s Word and the accomplishment of His purposes in the world.…

These, of course, have not been the only kingdoms that have been at enmity with God and His purposes. In this category could also be placed such kingdoms as Syria, Edom, Moab, Midian, and many others, but none of these were empires of great size and influence. On the other hand, there were other great and powerful empires in the ancient world—China, India, and the Incas, for example—but these had only peripheral contact with the Word of God and the chosen people. There were only six kingdoms that met both criteria up to the time of Christ and the apostles. Furthermore, all six of these were not only legitimate heirs of political Babel but also of religious Babel as well. Babylonia, Egypt, Assyria, Persia, Greece, and Rome were all strongholds of the world religion of evolutionary pantheism and idolatrous polytheism. Thus, they appropriately are represented as six heads on the great beast that supports the harlot. (Morris, Revelation Record, 337. Italics in the original.)

 MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (2000). Revelation 12–22 (pp. 169–170). Chicago: Moody Press.