Revelation 17

Revelation 17 uses imagery of the intoxicating allure of the great whore as one who holds the “golden cup” representing the unchristian attraction to wealth, greed, power, and domination as a powerfully intoxicating elixir which perverts the minds of faithful believers to turn against God’s will while embracing an attractively reassuring lie which ultimately leads to destruction. The irony of Revelation’s warning is that those drunk on the whore’s cup believe they are engaged in the good, righteous, and patriotic service to their understanding of the Divine.
The Message of Revelation 17 serves as a warning to faithful Christians who idolatrously believe that Christ calls the faithful to control and dominate the world, rather than serve the world in faithful humility. It presents a Biblical anthesis. There are two paths which people may choose. One leads to life through faithful service and surrender; and one leads to death through a relentless pursuit of power and control. For Christians, the prayerful choice is vital. Are we going to be the defenders of Christian fidelity through service and sacrifice, or are we going to be the deathblow to Christ’s ministry through exerting demonic power over the world through our idolatrous lust for control? Christianity is called to drink for Christ’s cup which requires we feed the hungry, welcome the stranger, visit the infirmed and imprisoned, clothe the naked, and care for the least of these. Any theology that invalidates Christ’s commission to Christians is nothing more than the intoxicating wine of the whore’s golden cup of corruption and devastation. As a people of faith, will we choose Christ’s cup or hers?

The focus of attention in chapter 17 is on the religious system that God identified with Babylon in Scripture, and that of chapter 18 is on the commercial system He identified with it. Babylon is not just the name of a city in the Middle East.
"She [Babylon] stands for civilized man apart from God, man in organized but godless community." [Note: Morris, pp. 202-3.]
"The ancient Babylon is better understood here as the archetypal head of all entrenched worldly resistance to God. Babylon is a trans-historical reality including idolatrous kingdoms as diverse as Sodom, Gomorrah, Egypt, Babylon, Tyre, Nineveh, and Rome. Babylon is an eschatological symbol of satanic deception and power; it is a divine mystery that can never be wholly reducible to empirical earthly institutions. It may be said that Babylon represents the total culture of the world apart from God, while the divine system is depicted by the New Jerusalem. Rome is simply one manifestation of the total system." --Studylight

. “In John’s day Rome epitomized all the antagonism and opposition to the Christian faith.” (Mounce) In some ways, the city of Rome was the clearest fulfillment of the Babylon attitude. --David Guzik

==revelation 17:1-2:

1And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:
2 With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.

The kings of the earth committed fornication with the Harlot both because of the allure of her harlotries, but also because she “reigns over the kings of the earth.” Throughout history, she has wielded powerful influence over various rulers of nations beyond Babylon. Fornication is ἐπόρνευσαν [eporneusan - see porneuo], meaning to prostitute, practice prostitution or sexual immorality generally, but also used figuratively to denote the practice of idolatry (Hos. 9:1; Jer. 3:6; Eze. 23:19; 1Chr. 5:25)
To prostitute something is to take that which has a proper use and to turn it into an improper use. A prostitute takes sex, which has a proper use, and perverts it with an improper use, turning it into something illicit, causing fornication. In this case, the harlot represents “religion,” which has a proper use (Jas. 1:26-27), but here has been prostituted for improper use. Rather than serving, it rules. The false use of religion causes spiritual fornication. The word fornication is used both of physical unfaithfulness and also of spiritual unfaithfulness, as in Hosea 1-2; Jeremiah 2:20; 3:1-9; Ezekiel 16:15-41; 23:5-44, etc. It is with this woman that the kings of the earth commit fornication (Rev. 17:2), showing this to be a unity of religion and state.
This aspect of the Harlot is identical with that of the city Babylon: “She has made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication” (Rev. 14:8); Those who fornicated with her were also deceived by her sorcery (Rev. 18:23). Some believe she differs from Babylon itself, but we believe the Scriptural evidence points in the direction of identity. The woman is “that great city which reigns over the kings of the earth” (Rev. 17:18)—Babylon. See One or Two Babylons?Like Tyre of Isaiah’s day, the Harlot has both commercial and spiritual aspects which are opposed to God: “And it shall be, at the end of seventy years, that the LORD will visit Tyre. She will return to her hire, and commit fornication with all the kingdoms of the world on the face of the earth” (Isa. 23:17). --Precept Austin

==revelation 17:3-5:

3 So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.
4 And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:
5 And upon her forehead was a name written, Mystery, Babylon The Great, The Mother Of Harlots And Abominations Of The Earth.

The woman of this chapter is described as being “arrayed [dressed] in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the filthiness of her fornication” (verse 4). Because of the color of her clothing, she is also referred to as the scarlet woman of Revelation.
While modern implications of the color scarlet include infidelity, in the first century when the book of Revelation was written, clothing of a reddish-purple color was “much prized” and was “commonly worn by persons of rank and wealth, Mark 15:17, Mark 15:20, Luke 16:19. The purple color contains more blue than the crimson, though the limits are not very accurately defined, and the words are sometimes interchanged. Thus the mock robe put on the Saviour is called in Mark 15:17, Mark 15:20, πορφύραν porphuran—‘purple,’ and in Matthew 27:28, κοκκίνην kokkinen—‘crimson’” (Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible, Revelation 17:4).
The point behind being dressed in purple and scarlet is that the woman appears to be a woman of wealth and authority. This color of clothing complements her also wearing gold, precious stones and pearls and her use of a golden cup. --David Treybig; Life Hope & Truth

==revelation 17:6-7:

6 And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.
7 And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns.

And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel! I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carried her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns - The apostle was greatly astonished, as well he might be, at the woman's being drunk with the blood of the saints, when the beast which carried her abounded with sacred appellations, such as holy, most holy, most Christian, sacred, most sacred. The angel undertakes to explain to St. John the vision which had excited in him so great astonishment; and the explication is of such great importance, that, had it not been given, the mystery of the dragon and the beast could never have been satisfactorily explained in all its particulars. -Clarkes Commentary

==revelation 17:8-9:

8 The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.
9 And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth.

This beast has seven heads, which have a double signification. (1.) Seven mountains—the seven hills on which Rome stands; and (2.) Seven kings—seven sorts of government. Rome was governed by kings, consuls, tribunes, decemviri, dictators, emperors who were pagan, and emperors who were Christian. Five of these were extinct when this prophecy was written; one was then in being, that is, the pagan emperor; and the other, that is, the Christian emperor, was yet to come, v. 10. This beast, the papacy, makes an eighth governor, and sets up idolatry again. 3. This beast had ten horns; which are said to be ten kings which have as yet received no kingdoms; as yet, that is, as some, shall not rise up till the Roman empire be broken in pieces; or, as others, shall not rise up till near the end of antichrist's reign, and so shall reign but as it were one hour with her, but shall for that time be very unanimous and very zealous in that interest, and entirely devoted to it, divesting themselves of their prerogatives and revenues (things so dear to princes), out of an unaccountable fondness for the papacy. -Mathew Henrys Commentary

==revelation 17:10-18:

10 And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space.
11 And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition.
12 And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.
13 These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.
14 These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful.
15 And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.
16 And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.
17 For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled.
18 And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.