What I Think I Know About Rev 17:
3) When you apply the previous principle to Revelation 17, it becomes evident that there are three main entities being described in the chapter.
The confluence of symbols in Revelation 17 lead me to believe that three main entities are in view. The first entity is Babylon, represented as a woman/prostitute in Revelation 17 and as a great city in Revelation 18. I understand Babylon to be a worldwide alliance of religion that rises and falls in the context of the final events of earth’s history. This alliance is named by many names in Revelation: Babylon (17:5, etc.), the great city (18:9-19), the great prostitute (17:1), and the woman who rides the beast. That Babylon is a religious entity seems evident for a number of reasons. For one thing, the woman appears in the desert (17:3), which recalls the final appearance of the woman of Revelation 12, who clearly represents the people of God (cf. especially 12:14-16). As such Babylon is also parallel to Jezebel in 2:20 and in contrast with the bride of the Lamb, the New Jerusalem (19:7-8; 21:9-10). All the women of Revelation are religious figures, two in relationship with God and two in opposition. Babylon is also a persecuting power that turns the “saints” into the “martyrs of Jesus” (17:6). This suggests a focus on religion.
Many scholars have also noticed that the description of the woman/Babylon in 17:4 is highly reminiscent of Israel’s High Priest. The High Priest’s ephod contained purple, scarlet and gold (Exod 28:5-6). The ephod and breast plate contained precious stones (Exodus 28:9-13 and 17-21). The cup in this case may represent the drink offerings of the sanctuary (Exodus 29:40-41 and 30:9; Leviticus 23:13, 18, and 37); and, the forehead inscription resembles the title HOLY TO THE LORD on the High Priest’s miter (Exodus 28:36-38). If Babylon is the sum total of the unholy trinity of Revelation 13 (cf. Rev 16:13, 19), I think I know that she represents worldwide religious authority in opposition to God and His people.
The second main entity is symbolized by the beast upon which the woman rides (17:3). In Revelation 17:1, prostitute Babylon is sitting on “many waters”. We have noted that the waters of Babylon are the Euphrates River (Rev 16:12) and that these are defined later in the chapter as “peoples and multitudes and nations and languages” (Rev 17:15). The waters of Babylon represent the civil and secular powers of this world that support the end-time religious alliance. They are, therefore, parallel to the “kings of the earth” and “inhabitants of the earth” that commit fornication with the prostitute in verse 2. The scarlet beast of verse 3 reminds us of the sea beast of Revelation 13, a counterfeit of the work of Jesus Christ. But while the scarlet beast wears the names of blasphemy, it primarily represents another way of describing the worldwide political confederacy. This becomes clear from the explanation of the vision offered in Rev 17:7-18. The scarlet beast has seven heads and ten horns. The seven heads represent seven kings (Rev 17:9-10). The ten horns represent ten kings (Rev 17:12). So the beast itself is the sum total of political and military power in the world (Rev 17:12-13). The Euphrates River and the scarlet beast are two different ways of describing the same thing. The blasphemy in which this beast engages occurs as part of its union with the aims and activities of Babylon.
The relationship between the prostitute and the political confederacy is a central feature of Revelation 17. She commits adultery with the kings of the earth. She intoxicates their citizens with the wine of her adulteries (17:2). The purpose of the union between the prostitute and the kings of the earth is worldwide dominance and control. This union is also illustrated by the image of the woman riding the beast (17:3, 7). There is a short period in the last days where worldwide religious authority dominates the political landscape of the world. Aspects of this relationship are also seen in the sixth and seventh bowl-plagues. The dragon, beast and false prophet (the unholy trinity of Revelation 13 that unites together in the end-time to become Babylon, cf. 13:15, 16:19) send out demonic frogs to gather the kings of the whole inhabited world for the battle of Armageddon (16:14-16). Then, when Babylon splits into three parts, the cities of the nations also fall (16:19). So the two entities, secular and religious, are anticipated in chapter 16. They unite in opposition to the third worldwide alliance in Revelation 17.
There is also a worldwide unity of the “saints” in Revelation. That alliance makes no appearance in Revelation 17:1-3, but it is visible elsewhere in Revelation. It comes into view in verse 6, where Babylon is described as drunk with the blood of the “saints” and of the “martyrs of Jesus”. Those “with the Lamb” are described as the “called, chosen and faithful” in verse 14. In Revelation 16:15, the faithful are called those who keep watch and hang on to their garments. The people of God in Revelation are elsewhere called the 144,000 (Rev 7:4; 14:1), the great multitude (7:9; 19:1), the remnant (12:17), those who follow the Lamb (14:4), and the saints (14:12). These are not discreet titles, but that they are many ways to talk about the one end-time people of God.
So according to Revelation 17, there will be three, great, worldwide alliances in the world at the very End, the alliance of the saints, an alliance of religious institutions, and an alliance of worldwide secular and political power. (1) The confederacy of the saints will probably not be organized in institutional terms. It is likely that any religious institutions which are truly faithful to God will be destroyed in the run-up to the battle of Armageddon. (2) The confederacy of religion is a worldwide alliance of religious authority. While the pope would be the logical choice to head such a confederacy, Babylon will in fact be much bigger than any single religion (Rev 16:13, 19). The union of religious institutions will occur out of a need to co-ordinate spiritual effort in the face of the significant challenges described in the first five plagues (Rev 16:1-11). (3) Events of the end-time will be such that the confederacy of secular and political power will arise and work with Babylon in a fruitless attempt to overcome the environmental and other challenges that the world faces as it approaches the End. For a short time, the worldwide political alliance places its power and resources in the service of the great religious alliance. The final outcome of this grand alliance is addressed in Revelation 17:16. So I think I know that Revelation 17 outlines three worldwide alliances as the human race approaches the End.
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What I Think I Know About Rev 17: 2) Multiple symbols can represent the same entity in reality.
This principle is stated explicitly in Revelation 17:9-10, ESV: “. . . the seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman is seated, they are also seven kings. . . .” Revelation 17 can be totally bewildering if each symbol is treated as a unique entity. But the chapter simplifies quite a bit when you realize that the same entity in reality can be represented by more than one symbol in Revelation. For example, Jesus is represented in Revelation as a son of man, a Lamb, as a male child, and as simply Jesus Christ. The end-time people of God are represented by the woman of Revelation 12, the 144,000, the great multitude, the saints, and the remnant.
This principle can be seen at work in the first three verses of Revelation 17. In 17:1 a prostitute sits on many waters. In 17:2 she commits adultery with the kings of the earth. In 17:3 a woman sits on a beast. That woman is called both prostitute and Babylon in verse 5. So it is clear that the prostitute of verses 1 and 2 is the same entity as the woman of verse 3 and Babylon; a worldwide unity of religion in opposition to God and His people. Similarly, the waters of verse 1 (defined as the political powers of the world in verse 15), the kings of the earth in verse 2, and the beast of verse 3 all represent the same entity: The secular, political powers of the world who support Babylon for a time but then destroy her at the End (17:16). So I think I know that multiple symbols in Revelation can represent a single entity in real life. The enemies of God at the End are not multiple in the chapter, they are two in number (more on this later), Babylon and the beast.
Revelation 17 as a whole is an elaboration of the sixth and seventh bowl-plagues (Rev 16:12-21)
This connection (between Rev 17 and 16:12-21) is signaled in the very first verse of chapter 17, ESV: “Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me. . . .” This is a clear connection between chapter 17 and the content of chapter 16. But the question remains: Which of the seven bowl angels is interacting the Seer of Patmos here? A clue to the answer lies in the fact that the angel’s message has something to do with water: “Come, I will show you the judgment of the great prostitute, who is seated on many waters” (Rev 17:1, ESV). Three of the bowl-plagues have something to do with water. The second bowl falls on the sea (Rev 16:3), the third bowl falls on the rivers and springs (Rev 16:4-7), and the sixth bowl falls on the Euphrates River (16:12). Which of the three bowl-angels is the one we encounter in Revelation 17? Since the waters of verse 1 are associated with the great prostitute, and she is later defined as Babylon the great (Rev 17:5), the angel of the sixth bowl (the one associated with the drying up of the Euphrates River) is the one in view when you get to 17:1.
This makes sense in light of the Old Testament background to Revelation 17. The “many waters” is a striking verbal parallel to Jeremiah 51:13. There, Babylon is addressed as “you who dwell by many waters”. Ancient Babylon was a twin city located in the midst of an extremely dry desert. Its “many waters”, therefore, can only be a reference to the mighty Euphrates River, that passed through the very center of the ancient city (cf. Jer 50:33-38; 51:36). So I think I know that Revelation 17 is closely related to the sixth bowl-plague, in which the Euphrates River is dried up.
The parallel with Revelation 16 is also extend to the seventh bowl plague (Rev 16:17-21). The immediate introduction to the Babylon visions of chapters 17 and 18 is in 16:19: “God remembered Babylon the Great.” The details of what happens when God “remembers” Babylon are found in Revelation 17 and 18. In addition, the battle of Armageddon in 16:16 finds its counterpart in Revelation 17:14, where the ten horns, the counterpart to the “kings of the whole world” (Rev 16:14, ESV), make war with the Lamb. So I think I know that Revelation 17 is an elaboration of the sixth and seventh bowl-plagues in chapter 16.
What I Think I Know About Rev 17
Revelation 17 is one of the most difficult parts of the Bible to interpret, particularly verses 7-11. When I was teaching at Andrews University, therefore, I decided to make Revelation 17:7-11 the topic of a PhD seminar class. Five PhD students signed up for the class. For the first fifteen hours of class time, I offered guidance from my experience in handling difficult Bible texts, and a basic overview of Revelation 15-18. I also led the students through the Greek of Revelation 17, word by word and sentence by sentence. The five doctoral students then selected topics related to portions of Revelation 17:7-11, after which they researched and wrote 40-60 page papers on their respective portions of the passage. Each student then took a three-hour segment of the class to share their paper and lead out in the discussion on that topic. The last class session we debriefed on what we had all learned from our intensive engagement with the passage. We all concluded that we were less certain about the meaning of Revelation 17:7-11 than we had been when the class began.
I take some implications from that experience: 1) My definition of a “problem text” is one where it is ten times easier to shoot down someone else’s interpretation of the passage than to create a compelling one yourself. 2) The more time you spend on Revelation 17 the more challenges you see in the text. 3) If the result of group study on a passage results in a total lack of consensus on the meaning of the chapter, that group has probably done their work well.
But let’s not linger on that negative note. I thought it might be helpful to point to several things in this chapter that can be stated with some confidence. Hence the title: What I Think I Know About Revelation 17. I share this as a culmination of more than 40 years of specialized study.