BABYLON THE PROSTITUTE
Revelation 17:1-19:10
CHAPTER 17: The Prostitute on the Beast
1. "Babylon has been mentioned twice so far: Rev. 14:8 announced the fall of Babylon
["Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great."] and in Rev. 16:19 we are told of the pouring out
of the seventh bowl and read" "God remembered Babylon" and gave her the cup of his
wrath to drink. But neither of these verses tells us what she symbolizes. But Rev. 17
will identify her for us and Rev. 18 will describe, in the most graphic detail, her
destruction.
2. The angel shows John a woman who is sitting on a scarlet beast [the beast from the
sea]. She is seated on the beast because Rome the great persecutor and Rome the
prostitute (violence and vice) were closely associated with one another.1 The woman is
decked out with fine clothing and bedecked with jewels, pearls, and precious stones. A
decadent lady! She is drunk with the blood of God's holy people.
3. "The beast you saw" [Rev. 17:8], in addition to being ridden by the woman and
having seven heads and ten horns, 'once was, now is not, and will come up out of the
Abyss and go to his destruction.' These four stages in the biography of the beast may
well be an allusion to Nero redivivus, which has already been mentioned [Rev. 13:3].
According to this myth, Nero once was, now is not [he committed suicide], will rise again
[either literally at the head of an army or symbolically in the policies of Domitian] but will
be destroyed. But this is also the course of evil--active from the beginning, seeming
sometimes to die down, reasserting itself but ultimately to be destroyed." 2
4. Biblical scholars are divided as to whether the five are the Roman emperors from
Augustus to Nero or [because of the background in the prophecy of Daniel] five
kingdoms or empires: Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome.
5. The ten horns [17:12] are said to be ten kings that serve for one hour [a very short
period of time] are probably references to the many Roman governors throughout the
land. They too make war against the Lamb, but the Lamb is victorious over them as are
the Lamb's followers who are the "called, chosen, and faithful [17:14].
6. The many waters where the prostitute sits are the peoples of the world. The woman
John saw [17:18] is the great city that rules over the kings of the earth--Babylon is the
1
2
John R. W. Stott, The Incomparable Christ, IVP, p. 225.
Stott, p. 226.
BABYLON THE PROSTITUTE
Page 1
symbol; Rome is the reality for Rome was the very essence of hostility to Christ and his
church.
CHAPTER 18: The Destruction of Babylon
1. Rome is going to be destroyed! It will take another 320 years for that to happen in
AD 410. It was known as 'the eternal city" and thought to be invulnerable. And the
reason for the destruction of Babylon [Rome] is because she had infected the nations,
kings and merchants of the earth with her adulteries and luxuries [18:3].
2. Next comes a warning to get out of Babylon and thereby escape its judgment [18:4].
Although the time is short there is still time to renounce Babylon and flee from her and
be saved from the destruction coming.
3. Three groups of the godless within Babylon are addressed: the kings of the earth
[18:9-10]; the merchants of the earth [18:11-17; and the seafarers of the world [18:1719]. This section resembles an Old Testament funeral dirge [see Ezekiel 26-28 where
Ezekiel offers a lament over Tyre and Sidon]. The statement about the merchants
suggests an economic collapse.
4. Revelation 18 concludes with a combination of opposites: a celebration and a
lament. What is being celebrated and why the joy? Because the justice and judgment
of our all-righteous God is worthy of celebration.
5. The final picture of Babylon's doom is shown as a mighty angel throwing a boulder
into the sea with a huge splash--it will be a violent end to an evil empire. But at this
point please notice something important: 18:6-8 reveals that Babylon's judgment and
destruction is brought on by her own actions--the chickens have come home to roost!
6. "In the first century AD Babylon was Rome. But Babylon has flourished throughout
history and throughout the world. Babylon is Vanity Fair, wherever it exists. Its profile
can be drawn with ease from these chapters. It seems to have six components: (1)
idolatry [spiritual unfaithfulness, even promiscuity], (2) immorality [literal as well as
symbolic], (3) extravagance and luxury [Rev. 18:3, 7-8], (4) the use of sorcery and
magic [Rev. 18:23; Isa. 47:1-2], (5) tyranny and oppression, leading to martyrdom of
God's people [Rev. 17:6; 18:24; Isa 14:4-6], (6) arrogance, even self-deification [Rev.
18:7; Isa 14:13-15; 47:7-8; Jer. 50:31-31; Ezek. 28:2]. The urgent call still comes to
God's people to come out of her, in order to avoid contamination."3
3
Stott, p. 230.
BABYLON THE PROSTITUTE
Page 2