The Woman on the Beast

17:1-2The great prostitute

The angel promises to show John "the judgment of the great prostitute who sits on many waters." That is a legal word. Chapter 17 is a courtroom scene, and the verdict has already been given in 14:8 and 16:19.

Her crimes are two. "The kings of the earth committed sexual immorality" with her, and "those who dwell in the earth were made drunken with the wine of her sexual immorality." In the Old Testament, whoring is the standard picture of worshipping other gods and trusting other powers. She seduces kings through politics and ordinary people through wine. The first group give her their loyalty. The second drink in her way of life until they cannot think clearly.

Notice that she "sits on many waters." Jeremiah described the original Babylon in similar words, and that city really was built on rivers and canals. But the angel later gives the interpretation of the waters himself: "peoples, multitudes, nations, and languages" (17:15). Her reach is as wide as humanity.

Whatever Babylon is, then, she is not a small matter. She is a power that has the whole world drinking.

17:3-6Beautiful, rich, and drunk on blood

John is carried "in the Spirit into a wilderness," which is where the other woman, the church, was kept safe in 12:14. There he sees "a woman sitting on a scarlet-colored beast, full of blasphemous names, having seven heads and ten horns." The beast is the one from chapter 13, and she rides it. The empire holds the power, and she directs the desire.

Look at how she is dressed: "purple and scarlet, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls." She looks magnificent. She holds "a golden cup," and the cup is "full of abominations." That is the whole strategy of temptation in one picture: gold on the outside, filth on the inside. The beauty is real, and so is the poison.

On her forehead is a name: "MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT." Babylon, remember, is where the tower of Babel was built, by people who said, "let's make a name for ourselves" (Genesis 11:4). "Mystery" suggests that this name has a deeper meaning, beyond a single city.

And then the terrible detail: she is "drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus." The glittering city is built on the bodies of God's people. John says, "I wondered with great amazement." So would we.

17:7-8The beast that was, and is not

The angel asks, "Why do you wonder?" and promises to explain the mystery. First, the beast: "The beast that you saw was, and is not; and is about to come up out of the abyss and to go into destruction."

Hear the echo. Chapter 1 described God as the one "who is and who was and who is to come." The beast tries to copy that. He "was," he "is not," and he "shall be present" again. This is the counterfeit of the Lamb, who was slain and is alive. Rising from the abyss is a very different thing from rising from the grave.

Many scholars think this refers to the ancient story, current in the first century, that Nero would return after his death. Others see a more general pattern in which oppressive power seems to die and then returns in new form. Either way, the beast's resurrection gets the same reaction every time: the world marvels.

The ones who marvel are those "whose names have not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world." The implication is quiet and wonderful: those whose names are written there are not carried away by the spectacle. John's readers, under pressure, might fear that the beast is unstoppable. The angel's answer is that the beast's power can dazzle the world, but it cannot touch what is written in heaven.

17:9-14Seven mountains, ten kings, one Lamb

"Here is the mind that has wisdom," the angel says, and then gives a puzzle. "The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits. They are seven kings." Five have fallen, one is, one is yet to come, and the beast himself is an eighth who belongs to the seven.

For the first readers, the seven mountains would have sounded very much like Rome, which was widely known as the city on seven hills. That is why many scholars hold that Babylon here stands first of all for Rome and its empire. Others agree that Rome was in view but think the seven are symbolic of completeness, so that Babylon represents the world's rebellious powers in every age. A third group looks to a future form of the same thing. Careful readers have disagreed on how to count the kings, and I would be cautious about anyone who is too sure.

The ten horns are "ten kings who have received no kingdom as yet," who give their power to the beast "for one hour." And then comes the sentence that matters most in the chapter: "These will war against the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings, and those who are with him are called chosen and faithful."

Whatever the numbers mean, the outcome is not in doubt. The Lamb who was slain wins by the cross. And he does not fight alone. His people are with him.

17:15-18The city that devours itself

The last scene is a shock. The beast and the ten horns, her former partners, "will hate the prostitute, will make her desolate, will strip her naked, will eat her flesh, and will burn her utterly with fire."

That is how corrupt power ends. It consumes its own. The ones who were seduced eventually turn on the seducer, because a system built on greed and fear has no loyalty left when it runs dry.

Then comes a line that is easy to read past: "For God has put in their hearts to do what he has in mind." Even the destruction of Babylon is not an accident of politics. The writer of Proverbs said, "The king's heart is in Yahweh's hand like the watercourses. He turns it wherever he desires" (Proverbs 21:1). The wicked do their own will, and the Lord uses it to bring about his.

Finally the angel names her: "The woman whom you saw is the great city, which reigns over the kings of the earth." In John's day, only one city did that. Yet the language is wider than one century, and that is why the chapter has spoken to Christians under many empires.

Notice what the passage does not do. It does not give us a list of present governments to point at. It gives us a pattern to recognise, a seduction to refuse, and a Lamb to follow.