Descriptions of prostitutes in the Greco-Roman literature usually indicate they drink very little “for professional reasons” (Aune 3:927.) There really is not more degrading way of describing a woman than as a drunk whore. That the woman is a prostitute is bad enough, but she is a drunk prostitute. The prostitute is drunk on the blood of the saints.Why is the head of the beast’s empire portrayed as a female prostitute? She is not just a whore, she is the mother of all whores. Is this “on her forehead was written a name, a mystery:” or “on her head was written a name: MYSTERY”? In verse seven, the angel interprets the “mystery” of the woman, so it is likely here that the name of the woman begins with BABYLON rather than mystery.
BABYLON THE GREAT HOW TO
There is a problem of how to read the verse with respect to punctuation.
The word for the color purple here covers a range of colors from deep purple to black. She was dressed in purple and scarlet.The various descriptions of the woman add to the vividness of the image: It is Rome which is demanding worship in chapters 2-3, and it is Rome which persecutes the saints. The “final” empire as Rome is consistent with Daniel 2 and 7, and with the rest of Revelation. Israel herself is compared to a prostitute in Jer 3:6-10 Ezek 16:15-22 23:49 Hos 4:12-13 5:3.Īlthough there are some commentators who made the woman represent Israel, but the vast majority of writers associate the woman with Rome, especially given the evidence below. Prostitutes are common images in the Old Testament for unfaithfulness, for example, Jerusalem Isaiah 1:21, Tyre in Isaiah 23:16-17 and Nineveh in Nahum 3:4.
Nothing much can be made of this color, although it is similar in color to that of the red dragon who gave his authority to the beast in chapter 13. This beast is not unlike the beast from chapter 13 or the fourth beast of Daniel 7, other than the color scarlet. It is possible the image of a beast is of a throne, and the woman is the king. Rather than the king, we see a prostitute riding a scarlet beast. The woman in Revelation 17 is riding a “scarlet beast.” We might have expected to see the beast himself, or the king who represents the beast.