This distinction has important implications for interpreting the heads of the beast in this chapter. Like Daniel 2 and 7, Revelation 17 contains a clearly defined contrast between vision and explanation. The first two verses of the chapter are an extension of the vision in chapter 16. They serve duodirectionally, looking back to the bowl-plagues and looking forward to the vision of the woman riding on the beast (Rev 17:3-6a). The prophet’s reaction to the vision is given at the end of verse six (Revelation 17:6b). The rest of the chapter (Rev 17:7-18) involves an angel interpreting the audition and vision of the first six verses to John. In the vision, John is carried to the time of the seven last plagues. In the explanation, he is addressed in terms of his own time and place.

This means that in assessing Revelation 17, distinction must be made between the time of the vision and the time of its interpretation. Within a vision, the prophet can travel from earth to heaven and range back and forth from time past to the end of time. Apocalyptic visions are not necessarily located in the prophet’s time and place. But when a vision is explained to the prophet afterward, the explanation always comes in the time, place and circumstances of the visionary.

For example, in Daniel 2 the vision of the statue carries Nebuchadnezzar down a sequence of time to end of earth’s history (Dan 2:31-35). The explanation of the vision by Daniel, however, is firmly grounded in the time and place of Nebuchadnezzar. The interpretation begins with a straightforward, unambiguous assertion, “You are that head of gold (Dan 2:38).” Nebuchadnezzar is then told that the series of kingdoms that follow are “after you” (2:39) in point of time.

As was the case with Daniel 2, the apocalyptic prophecy of Dan 7 is divided into two parts; a description of the vision, in which the prophet is transported through time and space (Dan 7:2-14), and an explanation of the vision, given in the language, time and place of the prophet (Dan 7:15-27). So whenever vision moves to interpretation, the principle of “God meets people where they are” must be applied to the explanations given. This has profound implications for the interpretation of difficult apocalyptic texts like Rev 17:7-11.

After the vision of the woman and the beast in Revelation 17: 3-6a, John’s interpreting angel comes to explain the vision. Among other things, he tells John that the seven heads of beast “are also seven kings. Five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come. . . .” (Rev 17:10). The crucial question is how to interpret the sequence of the seven heads of the beast (Rev 17:10). When is the time of the “one is,” the head that comes between the five that are fallen and the one that is “not yet come?” Is it the time of John, who received the vision, or is it the time of the vision itself, which is an addendum to the bowl-plagues? In Scripture, visionary explanations like this are always given in the time, place and language of the one receiving the vision.

If the explanation comes in the time and place of John, the five kings that “are fallen” are already in the past when John writes the book of Revelation. These were probably to be understood as the five Old Testament superpowers that oppressed the people of God; Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia and Greece. The one that “is” would be the empire of pagan Rome, which dominated the world of John’s day. The one yet to come would exist between John’s time and the very final events in which the beast becomes an “eighth” (Rev 17:11), which is “of the seven”. In other words, I think I know that the apocalyptic pattern of vision and explanation gives us the key to understanding the sequence of kings represented by the seven heads of the beast.