Episode 25 Revelation Study – Chapter 17 – The Great Whore

You can watch the livestream of this study at 8pm AEST tonight here.

Tonight we are going to look at Revelation 17 and the rise of the Great Prostitute. This is a fascinating subject. I am going to lay my cards on the table for this one, I think the Great Prostitute is Apostate Jerusalem. I think there is a past fulfilment of this passage but it also points to a future fulfilment, a future judgement, which will incorporate all of God’s apostate people, which includes those who claim to be Christians but who become entangled in the world system. So, tonight I will make the case for my position, but I will also seek to show why others see it differently. As usual before we get into the passage though, let’s look at some of the imagery behind it.

Old Testament Background

The language and imagery of Revelation 17 is saturated with Old Testament themes, particularly from the prophetic books that pronounced judgment on corrupt and oppressive cities and nations.

-        The Harlot Motif: This is one of the most powerful and recurring images in the Old Testament for idolatry and spiritual apostasy. The prophets consistently portrayed unfaithful Israel and hostile foreign nations as a harlot or adulteress (Isaiah 1:21; Jeremiah 2:20; 3:1-10; Ezekiel 16, 23; Nahum 3:4, where it refers to Nineveh). "Babylon the Great, the Mother of Prostitutes" is the ultimate embodiment of this theme—the source and pinnacle of all spiritual unfaithfulness.

-        The Cup of Abominations: The golden cup "full of abominable things and the filth of her adulteries" (Rev. 17:4) directly echoes Jeremiah 51:7, where Babylon is described as "a gold cup in the Lord's hand; she made the whole earth drunk. The nations drank her wine; therefore they have now gone mad." This symbolizes the seductive and intoxicating nature of her corrupting influence.

-        Sitting on Many Waters: The description of the harlot sitting on "many waters" (Rev. 17:1) is drawn from Jeremiah 51:13, where it is a metaphor for Babylon's vast network of influence and trade, situated on the Euphrates. In Revelation, this is explicitly interpreted as "peoples, multitudes, nations and languages" (Rev. 17:15).

-        The Scavenging Birds: The call to the birds of prey to feast on the flesh of the fallen (implied in the judgment) is a classic Old Testament image of divine judgment, seen in Ezekiel 39:17-20 and Isaiah 18:6.

-        The Theme of "Mystery": The angel says the woman's name is a "mystery" (Rev. 17:5, 7). This indicates that while she shares the characteristics of historical Babylon (the archetypal enemy of God's people from Genesis 11 and the Exile), she is not limited to that single historical entity. She is the spiritual essence of Babylon manifested in a new form.

New Testament Background

For John's first-century readers, the imagery would have had an immediate and powerful contemporary resonance.

-        The Seven Heads and Ten Horns: The angel's interpretation is crucial. The seven heads are both seven hills and seven kings (Rev. 17:9-10). The city of Rome was famously known as the city on "seven hills." Some believe this strongly suggests that the first-century manifestation of "Babylon" was the Roman Empire. However, Jerusalem was also said to sit on seven hills.

-        The Beast: The harlot rides the Beast (Rev. 17:3), which comes from the Abyss and goes to destruction (Rev. 17:8). This connects directly to the Roman Imperial Cult and the emperor worship that was spreading across the empire. The Beast represents a satanic, political power that the religious/economic system (the harlot) uses for its own purposes. The "wound that was healed" (Rev. 13:3, 17:8) could be seen as a parody of Christ's resurrection, perhaps embodied in the unstable line of emperors (e.g., the chaotic "Year of the Four Emperors" in AD 69, which to many seemed like the death and rebirth of the empire). Or it could be a real supernatural event that occurred or will occue.

-        Persecution of the Saints: The woman is "drunk with the blood of God's holy people, the blood of those who bore testimony to Jesus" (Rev. 17:6). This was the lived experience of the early church under Roman persecution. Rome, in its idolatrous power, was the direct persecutor. However, before Rome persecuted the church, many people forget that it was the Jewish religious system which targeted believers in Jesus.

-        Economic Alliances: The merchants and kings of the earth who commit adultery with her and grow rich from her "excessive luxuries" (Rev. 18:3, 9-19) point to a deep, complicit economic relationship. The global economy of the day was inextricably linked to Rome.

Some think that when you harmonize all of this that it shows that Revelation 17 presents "Babylon the Great" not as a single, static entity but as a transhistorical, satanic system of seductive, idolatrous, and violent power that opposes God and corrupts the world. It used historical Babylon as its type, was manifest in the first-century Roman Empire, and will find its ultimate culmination in a final, end-times system.

Top 5 Possible Identities for "Babylon the Great"

Given the "mystery" label, various theological interpretations have emerged throughout history. Here are the five most prominent:

1. The Roman Empire (Historical/Literal): This is often considered the most direct interpretation for the original audience among modern teachers. It fits all the details: the seven hills, the persecution of saints, the imperial cult (idolatry), and the economic dominance. In this view, John is using coded language ("Babylon") to prophesy the fall of the persecuting Roman state without explicitly naming it, for safety reasons.

In this view you could say that John is arguing that Rome is a “type” of Babylon. The seductive, powerful, corrupt empire that dominates over the people of the world within its reach.

2. A Future End-Times Global System (Futurist): This view, common in Dispensationalism, sees the Harlot as a future, one-world religious and economic system that will emerge in the last days. It will be a syncretistic, apostate world religion that allies with a revived political empire (the Beast) before being betrayed and destroyed by it. This is seen as the ultimate manifestation of the "spirit of Babylon."

Such futurists, who are not always dispensationalists which should be noted, would agree with the first interpretation and say that as God judged the Roman Empire, so too will he judge every empire and eventually the final world empire.

3. The Apostate Religious System (Historical/Protestant): Popularized by Reformers like Martin Luther, this view identifies Babylon as the apostate Christian church, specifically the papacy and the Roman Catholic Church. The arguments point to the Vatican's location on seven hills, the corruption and wealth of the church during certain historical periods, and the accusation of syncretism with pagan practices and political power.
4. The Spirit of Godless Civilization (Idealist/Symbolic): This view sees Babylon not as a specific institution but as the symbolic embodiment of any and all human systems—political, economic, religious—that are organized in rebellion against God. It is the world system, characterized by pride, idolatry, oppression, and seduction, which has existed from Babel to Rome to the present day and will continue until Christ's return.
5. A Symbol of Compromised Jerusalem (Preterist): A minority but significant view suggests that for John's audience, "Babylon" could also refer to the corrupt Jewish leadership in Jerusalem that had compromised with Rome and rejected the Messiah. The harlot imagery was used by Jesus (Matt. 23:35) and the prophets for Jerusalem's unfaithfulness. The destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 is seen as the fulfillment of this judgment. However, this view struggles with the clear Roman imagery (seven hills) and the global, not just Jewish, scope of the Harlot's influence. How could Jerusalem be influential around the world?

Evaluation of Seven Mountain Dominionism

Seven Mountain Dominionism (also known as Kingdom Now Theology or Cultural Mandate) is significantly and directly influenced by a misinterpretation of Revelation 17:9.

But let’s evaluate this:

• The Core of the Influence: Seven Mountain Dominionists take the phrase, "The seven heads are seven hills on which the woman sits," and reinterpret it not as the seven hills of Rome or seven kingdoms, but as seven spheres of societal influence that Christians are commanded to "take dominion" over. These are typically identified as:
1. Religion
2. Family
3. Education
4. Government
5. Media
6. Arts & Entertainment
7. Business
• The Theological Flaw:

• Context is Judgment, Not a Mandate: In Revelation 17, the "seven hills/mountains" are part of a vision of a corrupt, evil system (Babylon) that is under God's judgment and destined for destruction. The chapter is a warning against this system, not a blueprint for Christian engagement. To take a symbol of supreme evil and turn it into a divine mandate for societal control is a fundamental misreading of the text's intent.
• Misidentification of the Symbol: The angel explicitly clarifies the meaning: "They are also seven kings" (Rev. 17:10). The primary meaning is political/kingly, not societal spheres. The "mountain" imagery in Daniel 2 (a stone becoming a mountain that fills the earth) is sometimes conflated with this, but in Revelation 17, the mountains are part of the Beast's structure, not God's kingdom.

• Conclusion on the Influence: The influence of Revelation 17 on Seven Mountain Dominionism is profound but is based on a contextual and exegetical error. It extracts a single symbolic detail from a passage about God's judgment on evil and re-purposes it to support a theology of worldly power and dominion, which stands in stark contrast to the New Testament's consistent theme of the church as a faithful witness, often suffering in the world, while awaiting the return of Christ to establish His kingdom.

Let’s now go through our questions:

Chapter 17 –

1. How is Babylon described in verse 1? Why is this significant? Let’s look at Ezekiel 16 because I think it is important in understanding the imagery of “faithful bride” and “whore.”

1.1  It is God’s people who get accused of being the whore, more often than not. So we must keep this in mind as we interpret the identity of Babylon.

 

2. What does he mean by the fornication and being made drunk with the wine of her fornication in verse 2?

 

3. If the woman sits on the beast? What does this say about her relationship with the beast? Note this woman is wicked, she is allied with evil, and she is contrasted with the righteous bride of 19, and 21. What does this tell us?

 

4. What does verse 4 bring to mind for some people (the statue of liberty, the Catholic church). But really it is just symbolic of her power, royalty, and wickedness. This woman is a devil woman in other words.

 

5. Vv.4-5 So the woman is Babylon – “Mystery, Babylon the Great, The Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth.”

 

6. So, this woman was drunk with the blood of the Martyrs (v.6, 18:24).

 

7. Vs. 8 is it possible that Babylon is Babylon rebuilt? Rome Rebuilt? Or the Roman Catholic Church rebuilt? What is the beast that was, is not, and is again?

 

8. “9 This calls for a mind with wisdom: the seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman is seated…” What are the seven mountains? Some people say Rome, some people say the seven mountains of the world system? What is it?

 

9. What does verses 10-11 mean?

 

10. vv 12-13 what is the role of the 10 kings who are not yet, and who give their power to the beast? If this is future, what does this say about the current world order?

 

11. These kings make war with the beast, an obvious reference to the final battle in chapter 13. Note, who is with the lamb in this final battle? “Called, chosen and faithful?” Who is that?

 

12. What does verse 15 tell us about the whore? Does this mean this is a cosmopolitan multi-cultural city? Or that this is a multi-cultural empire? What does this teach us about multi-culturalism: is it God’s idea for humanity, or the beasts? Why does evil utilize it?

 

13. Vv. 16-17 Why do the horns (kings) turn against the woman? This makes sense if it is religion or if it is an entity that the kings are not a part of. One way to look at this is that the last final empire will decimate false religions, and set up the worship of the beast as the final, and last world empire. You could hypothesize that this is a secular religion of some kind really. But what do you think? 

 

14. So, the great city, of v.19, is the woman. So the great city and Babylon are the same city.