B. Identification of Babylon/Rome (17:1-18)

The judgment of the great harlot in Rev 17-18 elaborates on the judgment emanating from the seventh bowl. Ch. 17 identifies the great city of 16:19 and provides reasons for the judgments of ch. 18.

John ties together chs. 17 and 18 through seven common references. They are the designation of Babylon as a city (17:5, 18; 18:2, 4, 10, 16); Babylon as a woman/prostitute (17:1-7, 9, 15-16; 18:3, 7, 16); the claim that kings prostitute themselves with the woman (17:2; 18:3, 9); earth dwellers drunk with the wine of adulteries (17:2; 18:3, 9); the burning of Babylon with fire (17:16; 18:8-9, 18); the judgment of the harlot (17:1; 18:20); and the mention of the blood of the saints (17:6; 18:24). These common phrases and designations join the chapters together as a literary unit.

Using “prostitute” as a symbol continues the prophetic pattern of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Hosea. Again John forces his readers to recall OT precedents for their experience. The harlot image is another instance of John’s use of contrast; elsewhere he uses the positive feminine images of a mother (12:1-6) and bride (21:2) to depict the faithful people of God.

In the Spirit (17:3) signals the significance of Babylon’s judgment. The phrase appears four times at critical junctures in Revelation—when John receives his call to write (1:10), when he begins his heavenly vision (4:2), when he describes the judgment of the evil earthly city (17:3), and when he surveys the New Jerusalem (21:10). Three of these experiences are blissful, positive times. One, the judgment of Rome, is a time of terrible judgment.

In the Spirit reminds readers of the divine elements in John’s visions even as he reworked OT traditions for the church. John’s experience in the Spirit illumined his study of Scripture. In the Spirit reminds readers and listeners that God undergirded John and prepared John to tell of the tragedy descending on the great city of Babylon/Rome. As John experienced renewal in the Spirit at these four significant intervals in his ministry of writing Revelation, Christians today are called to experience spiritual renewal during their ministries. Continual renewal of the call is as important as the reception of the original call.

Two symbols need identification: Babylon and the Beast. After Nebuchadnezzar’s destruction of Jerusalem in 587 B.C., Jews and Christians depicted their political antagonists as successors to Babylon. Jeremiah referred to Babylon as dwelling by many waters and making “the whole earth drunk” (51:7). Although Rome did not sit on many waters, it sat on seven hills (17:9). References to persecution (vv.6, 14) recall the persecutions of Nero and Domitian. Rome’s civil religion challenged the church with a counterfeit religion culminating in idolatry. Rome was a universal empire (v.18). Rome stands for international oppression, the misuse of affluence, and pride. In John’s symbol system, Rome as Babylon is the opposite of the future New Jerusalem.

The Beast, as stated in comments on ch. 13, symbolizes Emperor Domitian in John’s day. In a larger sense, the Beast represents a political ruler in any age who persecutes the church. In the largest eternal sense, the Beast represents the final antagonist of God and the Lamb.

John judges Rome because of her idolatrous nationalism. A Roman rule based on Roman religion tried to make Christ subservient to Caesar. John called the saints to choose allegiance to Rome or to the church. Like the Barmen Confession of the twentieth century, Revelation calls Christians to give priority to Christ rather than to a political ruler who tries to unite the church and state, or who, as in the case of Hitler, claims to be lord of both the church and the state. Revelation judges an unjust state and calls Christians to withdraw their support from the state when perverted nationalism functions as an idolatrous religion. The Cross must always stand higher than the flag. Ch. 17 shows why Rome as God’s antagonist must be judged. Those reasons will be elaborated on in ch. 18.