Identity of the Woman
Revelation
17 draws us more clearly into God’s perspective on the world and its
judgment. Here we get a glimpse of the woman
on the beast who sits upon the waters. When
we consider the woman to be Babylon, this image makes quite a bit of sense. Babylon was build upon the river Euphrates,
and it is common in the Old Testament to refer to Babylon as “you who dwell by
many waters.” {See Jeremiah 51:13 as an example.}
John is no doubt referring to this Old Testament tradition as he writes
the followers in Asia Minor.
However,
when we consider this woman to be Rome this image seems to make significantly
much less sense. Rome sits among
mountains and great hills, not waterways.
However, in verse 15 we understand that the water is symbolic for many
people, tribes, and nations. In this
context, it makes sense to see the woman as Rome since Rome had conquered many
lands and cultures. While not literally,
spiritually this woman can be seen as Rome and her ways. Here the Holy Spirit is using John to reinterpret
Scripture and bring it into a new meaning.
Sins of the Woman
The
woman is said to have committed fornication with the kings of the earth. Speaking in terms of prostitution/fornication
was a common analogy in the ancient religious belief systems – and I think it
is an analogy that we have unfortunately lost in our modern culture. God is often portrayed as a spiritual
“lover.” In the Bible we often speak of
God as the bridegroom of Israel and/or the church. Thus, physical sexual sin becomes an analogy
for all spiritual sin. In fact, we can often say that turning against God (i.e.
sinning) is akin to turning our love and affection elsewhere. I think it is good for us to occasionally
remember that we are spiritually adulterous when we allow our hearts to go into
sin and lust after things that are not God.
We’ll
get to the beast a bit later, but for now it is enough to say that the woman’s
place upon the beast identifies the beast with the Roman Empire. She is also dressed in purple, the color of
royalty, and crimson, the color of blood and sacrifice. Her gemstones are a representation of
wealth. Putting all of this together we
have a woman dressed in such a way as to demonstrate her power, authority, and
seductiveness. Humanity is seduced by
her offerings of power, wealth, and control – seduced away from God.
In
fact, the woman is said to have a golden cup in her hand, filled with
abominations of all kinds. This is an
image from Jeremiah 51:7. John is
transforming the image originally given as Babylon into an image about Rome in
order to say that Rome is seducing people away from God and that they will go
mad with power, authority, etc.
The Woman’s Name
Here
is perhaps the most interesting point of this whole chapter. When we get to the name upon her forehead,
the original Greek tells us that the name was “having been written.” If you notice the tense of the verb you’ll
notice it is a perfect passive word – implying that God is the author of the
inscription. God cannot be fooled by the
woman, He has seen her for what she is and she has identified her for those who
also wish to see her as He sees her.
The
woman is said to be drunk with the blood of God’s favored people. This is a pretty clear reference to the
persecutions happening to the followers of Jesus at the hands of the Emperor
cult. However, this does more than paint
Rome as a persecutor. The woman is said
to be getting drunk. This shows
intoxication with the act. It is not
merely an act, but an act that is enjoyed and an act which implies a gradual
loss of control over the act. Rome is
portrayed as an entity that is enjoying the persecution of Jesus’ followers. I think that this is true of all things that
pull us away from God even today. The
things – or worse, people – that pull us away from God derive satisfaction from
becoming the center of our life.
The Woman’s Destruction
The
last thing to be said about the prostitute is that she will be destroyed by the
ten kings. Note that these kings come
out of the Beast. This is to say that
Rome will be destroyed from the inside. It
can be taken as a greater condemnation that sin corrupts and destroys
itself. In other words, things built
upon sinful thoughts and behaviors cannot stand. Those who turn away from God and pursue their
own desires will eventually be destroyed by those very same desires. Pursuits away from God are self-destructive.
The Beast
Now
let’s turn to this beast. The meaning of
the Beast is difficult to pin down as it seems to shift from position to
position. The beast is said to be full
of blasphemous names. These names could
be a symbol of the many gods found within the Roman Empire – or at the very
least the many pursuits within the empire that lead away from God!
The
beast has seven heads and ten horns, which is a symbol already explained in the
blog on Revelation 13. The seven heads
is said to be a reference to the fact that Rome was built on seven hills. However, in the riddle of v. 9-11 we receive
an indication of a deeper second meaning of the seven heads. The five who are dead are likely the five emperors
who have been in charge of Rome. They
are: Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero. The one who followed the five is Vespatian,
who reigned for a long time and brought stability to Rome. The seventh one is described as having not
yet come but persisting for only a short time when he comes. This would match up with Titus, who reigned
for only 3 years after Vespatian. The
beast is said to be an eighth king, but we have elsewhere in Revelation
identified the beast with being an antichrist.
The King who came after Titus is Domitian, who reinstated the Emperor
cult and brought persecution to a whole new level. That would qualify as an antichrist in my
book.
The
only problem with this interpretation is that we know John wrote in the time of
Domitian. However, this chronology
presented makes the vision seem like John wrote this during Vespatian’s time. This could be explained by the fact that John
had the vision earlier in life and is just now writing the letter. Or, John could be writing it in a way so as
to divide up the kings into groups and trace the destructive downward spiral of
the Roman Emperor as a type of history lesson.
Whatever the case, we can see John’s point: the leaders will play their
part in bringing the destruction of the prostitute and they will slowly produce
a self-destructive pattern while doing it.
The Beast’s Characteristics
The
beast is here described as one who “was, is not, but will be.” A few blogs earlier I made mention to the Nero
Redivivus belief that Nero would be reborn.
This would seem to be a reference to that time period. More importantly, this beast is going to
confound the people on the earth whose names have not been written in the book
of life. This is essentially saying that
the only way to keep ourselves from being confused and swept away by the
passions of this world is to keep ourselves focused on Christ and God. John is encouraging the people underneath
persecution to stay true to God’s Word and the teachings about Christ. Only in them is truth found. I think that’s pretty good advice even today.
The
only major unexplained reference is the ten horns. It is likely that the ten horns represent
some sort of internal government within the Roman Empire such as satraps. It could also represent ten areas of the
known world which refused to be beaten into submission to Rome. However, this is largely a symbol that is
lost on today’s readers.
The Ensuing War
What
we can say about the war that ensues is that the Lamb will be victorious and
that God’s faithful and chosen ones will share in His glorious victory. Furthermore, in v. 17 we see that in
destroying the woman the ten kings assume that they are working on their own
desires and for their own unified purpose.
Yet, they ultimately serve God even if they do not acknowledge it. This not only reminds of the self-destructive
nature of human sinfulness, but it also reminds us that nothing is outside of
God’s domain in working His plan within this world.
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