What is the Identity of the Great City In Revelation?

 

What is the identity of the Mystery city Babylon in Revelation? I have heard many people surmise about the identity of this city in my time as a Christian and pastor. But I have seen far fewer people approach the issue exegetically. When you look at what the Bible says about the city, from multiple biblical angles, there really is only one solid contender. Here is an example of this from something else I am writing,

“We pick up Babylon again in Revelation 16:17-21, at the last bowl judgement. 

“17 The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple, from the throne, saying, “It is done!” 18 And there were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, and a great earthquake such as there had never been since man was on the earth, so great was that earthquake. 19 The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell, and God remembered Babylon the great, to make her drain the cup of the wine of the fury of his wrath. 20 And every island fled away, and no mountains were to be found. 21 And great hailstones, about one hundred pounds each, fell from heaven on people; and they cursed God for the plague of the hail, because the plague was so severe” (emphasis mine). 

Clearly in this passage Babylon is “the great city”. Notice that again it is being distinguished from the nations, that is the Gentiles. Some might not see this connection as explicit, perhaps reading “the great city” and “Babylon the great” as different cities. But this does not make sense conceptually because “Babylon” and “great city” were virtually synonymous in the Ancient World. There is a reason that Alexander the Great was so determined to conquer it, and place his throne there, as were many other conquerors equally determined to also do for millennia. But if this is not enough to convince you, then Revelation 18:21 should be. We read there, “Then a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, “So will Babylon the great city be thrown down with violence, and will be found no more…” (emphasis mine). Here, we again are not given the identity of Babylon, but we see that it is “the great city.” Babylon is identified as “the great city” in multiple occasions in Revelation 17 to 18, for instance 17:18; 18:10, 16, 18, and 19. There can be no doubt that “the great city” in Revelation is Mystery Babylon. And we are told in 16:19 that “the great city was split in three parts”.

But what city is Babylon? Is it the city conquered by Alexander? Well, again the Bible helps us, because it interprets itself. This passage is likely harkening back to Revelation 11 which tells us,

“8 and their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city that symbolically is called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified…13 And at that hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell. Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven” (emphasis added). 

Both Revelation 11 and 16 mention “the great city” being damaged by an earthquake. We have also noted that Babylon was virtually synonymous with ‘great city’ in the ancient world. But to first century Jews, particularly godly Jews, what city was “the great city”? Jerusalem, Mt Zion, the City of David. This is very clear, even without having to read that “the great city” is the city “where their Lord was crucified…” Though Jesus was crucified outside the city, outside the camp (Hebrews 13), on the hill of Golgotha, there is only one city associated with his death: Jerusalem. He was not crucified just outside Jericho, or Athens, or Rome, he was crucified just outside of Old Jerusalem, which is now contained within the contemporary walls Jerusalem. This shows the forward-looking nature of this prophecy. So, if both Jerusalem and Babylon are the great city and they are, then Babylon is clearly being used symbolically to refer to “the great city” that apostatized or rejected God.

To add weight to this interpretation, we read in an end times reference in Zechariah 14:4 –

“4 On that day his feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives that lies before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west by a very wide valley, so that one half of the Mount shall move northward, and the other half southward. 5 And you shall flee to the valley of my mountains, for the valley of the mountains shall reach to Azal. And you shall flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then the Lord my God will come, and all the holy ones with him.”

Jerusalem will be split by an earthquake in the end of days, in the midst of being judged by God (cf. Zech. 14:1-3). Now this passage says it will be split in 2, Revelation 16 says it will be split in three parts. But the locus of the Zechariah passage is specifically on the Mt of Olives, so there is no reason that this split could not be one part of the larger split of the whole city of Jerusalem mentioned in Revelation 16. If we take this into account, then when the city is split in three one of those chasms opens up along the Mt of Olives which will be split in two. This shows there is no reason to see a contradiction.

Taking all of this together, there are just too many points of cross reference to swat away the fact that the whore, Babylon, is apostate Jerusalem, or apostate Israel. Remember cities can work as stand ins for the people that originate in that city. The Scriptures often symbolize them in that way.”  

A careful examination of the text in Revelation 17-18 shows us multiple references that point to Mystery Babylon representing Apostate Israel. I encourage you to look at what these chapters say in light of what the Bible says about Israel. I especially encourage you to look at what city in the Bible is responsible for persecuting the prophets and the saints (Rev. 18:24).