Readings:
Revelation 17-18

One of the angels that poured out the bowl judgments approached John to show him in detail what happened to the harlot that rides on the beast. She’s described as “sitting on many waters” and this is an allusion to gentile nations and how the priests of the temple in Jerusalem had often comprised on God’s laws to appease the non believers.

She’s also said to be wearing purple, scarlet and gold, this is how the kingdom of Judah was described in Jeremiah 4:30. Most likely, this was a common way for prostitutes to dress to signal customers, and would’ve been known to people in that time and place as an obvious reference to them.

This woman is so excited by the death of Christians that she’s described as being drunk on the blood of martyrs. It’s far beyond the persecutions that Paul was involved in, where he was doing what he wrongly perceived as being right. This woman is doing evil and knows it, but enjoys the benefits she receives from the gentile nations so much she refuses to stop.

The seven hills in the identity of the beast is a clear reference to the city of Rome. The seven kings are an obvious reference to the emperors of Rome, who would never call themselves king thanks to the memory of the last king, Tarquinius Superbus. If you count Julius Caesar, who was technically also not an emperor but was considered one by Jewish historians like Josephus and even by Roman historians like Suetonius, the. The first five ended with Claudius, making Nero the sixth who was, and Galba the seventh who would be for only a little while. Galba was only emperor for a few months before being unseated during the Year of The Four Emperors. This would place the dating of Revelation squarely in the era of the early dating hypothesis.

At the end of their courtship, the many nations will turn on the woman and destroy her with fire. The beast is very obviously the Roman Empire, and the woman can be identified as either the the religious and civil syncretism found there or the apostate priests and Levites in the city of Jerusalem who have prostituted themselves to the Romans and will now be destroyed by them, culminating in the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD.

The following chapter is a lament of the falling of Babylon, once again symbolizing the sinfulness that has reached its full height in Jerusalem. The plea to come out of her is an echo of Jesus’ warning to leave Jerusalem when they see the fulfillment of his prophecies in the Olivet Discourse. Anyone who stayed most likely died, but the Christians who heeded to warning fled to Pella and survived.

This lament borrows heavily from the words used by Ezekiel and Jeremiah when they sang the woes of Tyre and Jerusalem be for their destruction.

Tomorrow’ Readings:
Revelation 19