This is quite a long post, taken from my thesis.

Who is Babylon? We need to know so that we can ensure we are “out” of her. She is certainly not of the cross life. Identifying some of the key characters of Revelation helps us understand eschatology and align our walk with the cross and new life in Christ. In particular, an understanding of the message of Revelation will position the believer in the great victory that is their inheritance in the Kingdom of God.

Two commonly mistaken entities in Revelation are Babylon and beasts. Understanding these as identified in both Revelation and from thier correlative Old Testament prophetic symbolis will help us more accurately read the apocalyptic style. This helps us to at a better understanding of how the apocalyptic messages necessarily relate to the initial letters written mainly in prose in Revelation 2 and 3.

A common, but incorrect scholastic view of Babylon is that of Rome. This may be mistakenly inferred by the fact that she sits on seven hills.  However, the“oros” or seven points of elevation, although a symbol of Rome exalting herself as God are symbolic, the hills are not Babylon. Rather, the hills are what support this entity called Babylon. Babylon is the one sitting on that city of seven hills.

Babylon is first mentioned in Revelation and we hear that she is a city. That is one reason that some mistakenly presume she is Rome. But we must keep our personal and religious prejudices away from the interpretation process.

Just before the fall of “Babylon”, we are told that a messenger is flying in the midst of heaven to preach to earthlings throughout the world. this Paul asserts he has done in Colossians 1:6 and 23; and Romans 1:8 and 10:18. From the Nascent church prespective, the Roman Empire was the whole known world. that is how the term was used. We must understand this or we will easily go astray.

And the angel? The word is literally, “messenger” who “flies”. Flying in biblical apocalyptic genre refers to moving in the Holy Spirit in the heavenly realm. This is the realm, out of which Christians are meant to live their lives. Here’s the passage in apocalyptic genre, Revelation 14:6 -8:

“Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth—to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people— saying with a loud voice, ‘Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come; and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water.’ And another angel followed, saying, ‘Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she has made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.’”

The second messenger is John through Jesus Christ, the revelator prophesying the fall of Jerusalem.

In a later pericope, we get more information about Babylon. She is further described as being “carried” by the beast with ten horns and seven heads in 17:7. As the angel continues to reveal the identity of the harlot to John, he says that “the waters which you saw where the harlot sits are peoples, nations, multitudes, nations and tongues”. Verse 15. This makes the seven hilled entity, carrying the harlot, which is the beast she sits upon, to be a place with international power across the world.

From this information the beast with ten horns and seven heads is clearly identified as Rome. This would have made sense to the original recipients. But again, the beast isn’t Babylon. So we have one city riding upon another’s back. This rider is none other than the kings of Psalm 2 who are about to be crushed by the rod of iron if they don’t kiss the son. We will see that in the description of her seven-fold demonic state below.

Scholar of eschatology, Jonathan Menn acknowledges, that the list of cargoes and the seven hills identified with Babylon may indicate Rome, nevertheless, he says, importantly that “John’s apocalypse far transcends Rome.” Menn rightly identifies the illicit sex of John’s Babylon as indicative of condemnation of “economic injustice, cultural corruption and religious faithlessness”.

Rome could not be accused of harlotry because she was never espoused to God. Only Jerusalem can be accused of religious unfaithfulness.

These are common iniquities as the bad fruit of spiritual death and are also spoken of by a number of Old Testament prophetic voices, mostly related to Israel,

• Isaiah 1:21-31
• Isaiah 3:1-9 – verse 9 compares Jerusalem’s sin to Sodom, as does Jesus in Matthew 10:15, and 11:23,24.
• Isaiah 57:1-13a
• Jeremiah 2:1-37
• Jeremiah 46, 47, 48, 49   – judgment on Egypt, Philistia, Moab Ammon, Edom, Damascus and Elam.

The original judgment prophesied against Israel’s traditional enemies, Babylon in Isaiah 50 and 51 and the judgment against Tyre in Isaiah 23:1-14 in particular, and the demise of her trade wealth, provide material drawn upon for Revelation’s lament of Babylon’s fall in Chapter 18.  Yet it is in the depicted meld of Israel’s historical enemies that we can identify Babylon. Babylon, the harlot is presented in juxtaposition to faithful Israel, the bride. So, the use of a melding of the selfish wealth of the bride’s enemies here indicates the culmination of all that was worldly in the symbol of Babylon. She is so arrogant that she thinks she has done nothing wrong.[1] This was precisely the attitude of the unbelieving rulers of the Jews / Rulers towards Jesus.

While the list of cargoes is seen by Menn as identified with Rome’s first century trade, and well researched by Bauckham,[2] it is difficult to see the lament in Revelation as a result of slow imperial decline. Further, the descriptions of the wealth and trade of Jerusalem as outlined by Josephus, give credence to this entity as Jerusalem. The loss of wealth as described by Josephus is, at times staggering. But there are further indications that Babylon is religiously apostate Jerualem. Revelation describes, in apocalyptic genre, her destruction and the reasons for it. She has crucified the Lord of glory following her killing of all the prophets.

That the depicted Babylon of Revelation fell in “one day” (18:8) through sudden judgment, also moves the meaning from Rome, whose demise was not only protracted, but also incomplete. This is unlike historic Babylon referred to in Jeremiah 50 and 51. The Babylon of Belshazzar’s time fell instantaneously, as predicted and recorded in Daniel 5: 5 -30. But Rome has not yet been wiped out in the judgment sense of burning as in verse 8, like Jerusalem was. The Roman empire crumpled rather than fell. In another sense it has continued in the powerful state of the Vatican, in the later Holy Roman Empire, and as a religious state, and has played a significant role throughout history to this day. Still today, the Greco-Roman part of western culture, even that which is non-Roman Catholic, is maintained in significant ways, including that strong indicator of culture, i.e., language and cognitive paradigms.

Some scholars, particularly preterists, identify mystery Babylon as the generation of scribes and Pharisees subject to the “woe” Jesus speaks of in Matthew 23. It may be argued that Jerusalem is indeed this city because she is the “mother of harlots” (Revelation 17:5), which is the mark on her forehead.

And why her forehead? The forehead is the biblical symbol of executive thinkin; just as the hand is the symbol in the bible of a person’s actions.

This mark is as symbolic as the name Babylon here. She is not the original geographic city of Babylon, but symbolizes that which captivated the people of God from whom they were delivered. In Jeremiah 3:3 we have the same image of a marked forehead as Israel “Therefore the showers have been withheld, and there has been no latter rain. You have had a harlot’s forehead; you refuse to be ashamed.”

In the depiction of Babylon, scene of the exile, she is aligned symbolically with Egypt, in the exodus theme repeated in the words, “Come out of her (Babylon), my people” in Revelation 18:4. The original audience is admonished to depart from spiritual captivity. [3]

Christians know that Jesus is the ultimate deliverer of Israel out of Egypt in typology. He is the one and only pure Israel as identified by the Holy Spirit in Matthew 2:15 verifying Hosea 11:1 as God’s eschatological purpose in Christ, that is, mercy and salvation for humans in Him.  They will become one with Him as the New Jerusalem, the Holy City, also known as the Holy Nation.

According to Gregg, Babylon is already identified in verses 2 and 3 after the repeated announcement of Babylon’s fall. Here we hear the angel identify Babylon as having “become a habitation of demons, a prison for every foul spirit, and a cage for every unclean and hated bird.” These inhabiting entities, being three-fold, are a poetic way of describing the intense fullness of the demonic nature of the habitation. It is the result of what Jesus spoke of for the generation in front of him, those who were challenging Him rudely in Matthew 12:43-45.  Gregg observes that Jesus, during His earthly ministry, had gone throughout Judea, sending His disciples also to preach, heal and cleanse the land of demons.  Gregg rightly sees Jesus’ words of the cleansed house being revisited by seven more demons if Christ were not welcome, meaning Israel by His identification of the subject as “this wicked generation”, would eventually be so demon possessed as to turn on one another in destruction.  This is the “generation” spoken of in Matthew 24, not a generation thousands of years after the event of the fall of Jerusalem.

In Matthew 12:45 Jesus had stated “Then he (the original possessing demon) goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first. So shall it also be with this wicked generation.” We usually hear this in sermons as a personal warning, for deliverance ministries. It does have universal application. However, Gregg posits the original as predicting the fall of Jerusalem in the horrific circumstances Jesus also foretold.  This, then, puts the suggestion of Jerusalem as symbolised by Babylon in a stronger light.

Yet verse 3 of Chapter 18, may seem, to the English reader, to put Babylon in a more international context of spiritual fornication because of the phrase “kings of the earth”. Not so, given that the “kings” of verse 3 are also identified biblically as Jerusalem by the apostles’ prayer in Acts 4. The prayer refers to David’s Psalm 2 where the “kings of the earth” and “rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against His Christ.” We generally think of this phrase as international governing heads of state. However, the apostles apply the words of this well-known Psalm, not to the world at large, but to the worldly kings / rulers of Israel (then under Roman rule) who had just threatened the apostles. These also are named as “both Pilate and Herod”, and by Peter in Acts 4:5 and 8 as “rulers of the people and elders of Israel”. 

Further to this pivotal point in the partial-preterist amillennial view, is our understanding of the word rendered “earth” in the book of Revelation and elsewhere in the New Testament. The Greek word “ge” from which we take our word “geography” can be rendered either “land” or “earth” with equal validity. The rendering of this word as “earth” in the KJV may give the idea of the whole world, in which case John could have used “kosmos” as is done elsewhere.

That this is also the case in Hebrew, I believe, is no unfortunate co-incidence. God, who is sovereign over the number of hairs on every head, is also sovereign over the minutiae of language and the etymological development of every language. The meaning of “ge”, I opine, allows not only specific reference to “the land” of Israel, but also universal application for the people of God in “this age”.  All need to guard against Pharisaic legalism as we will see when we look at the nature of antichrist.[4]

Gregg rightly posits in this case that, given the strong apostolic identifying reference to Psalm 2 in Acts 4:25-28, the entity, Babylon is, in fact, unbelieving Jerusalem, the Jews.

Moreover, I suggest that the use of the Old Testament by apostles of the New Testament, and Luke’s recording of it in Acts, indicates to us that the word “ge” ought to be rendered “land” as in Judea, rather than the earth, elsewhere in Revelation because the context is the same entities.

This view is further supported by verse 6 of Chapter 17 which tells us that Babylon was “drunk with the blood of the saints and the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.” Jesus, Himself had made reference to Jerusalem as the place of killing martyrs of faith.[5]

At the time of writing, Rome was not the main persecutor of God’s people, the scribes and Pharisees were. These were client rulers of Rome. Certainly Rome had not murdered the ancinet prophets because the empire had not arisen back then.

Jesus names His martyrs from Abel to Zechariah. He accuses the scribes and Pharisees who plotted to kill him of being responsible for all the deaths of the martyrs. How can this be since most of the ones mentioned died before those challenging Jesus were born? The passage speaks of culpability for all sin, they being of the one sinful man Adam. Christ, however redeems with the righteousness of One Man. In the same way, the universal application stands. These Jews and all who reject Christ are responsible for their Adamic sin against the believers of every age.

Som scholars have questioned Jesus’ words about “Abel to Zechariah”, because there is no evidence that the post exilic prophet was murdered by those who returned from exile. This was because they were in a repentant state which favoured the prophets. However, when we read Josephus, we see that the last person standing against “the rulers” was indeed a man named Zechariah who fits the prophetic description Jesus gave in Matthew 23:35. We read of this in In The Wars of the Jews (Book 4, Chapter 5, Paragraph 4), the Zechariah killed by Jewish Zealots shortly before the destruction of Jerusalem.

That Babylon is also referred to as “that great city” in 17: 18 also confirms her identity as symbolic of Jerusalem, because Babylon is also identified as Sodom and Egypt in the warnings of apostasy of Old Testament prophets. This is seen in Revelation 11:8, “the great city which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.”  The angel’s revelation that “the woman that you saw is that great city which reigns over the kings of the earth,” comes as the final revelation about the woman whom John viewed. For the recipients of the letter, this gives them the identity of the wicked entity. For them it’s like a “Who Dunnit” that they can very well identify. Now they can fully understand God’s purpose in eradicating the temporal system of worship which the religious / fallen folk chose to perpetuate beyond Christ’s ascension. This, also, was what the writer of the Hebrews was warning Jews about. The axe John the Baptist prophesied was about to fall, so he was warning them to stay away from the old law/ religion / physical building and stop avoiding fellowship with Christians in their homes[6].

Regarding the wealth of Babylon as an identifier, Josephus gives more information about this in Chapter 5 of the Wars of the Jews when he describes the temple in Jerusalem and its riches which are depicted in Revelation 18:16’s lament of her demise, “clothed in fine linen, purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls.” Josephus observed the Romans’ awe of the Jerusalem temple, noting in particular “there was a veil of equal largeness with the doors. It was a Babylonian curtain, embroidered with blue and fine linen, and scarlet, and purple, and of a contexture that was truly wonderful.”[7]

Jerusalem in the first century drew people from other ethnic groups to trade in her wealth which is described in detail, by Josephus, in the temple in particular, in a number of sections during the Roman Jewish war. John, in writing Revelation would have identified the cargoes and wealth listed in Revelation 18 himself because the culture of the trade was known to him, having been there.

Josephus also notes the division of the Jews during the war into three factions who fell to fighting each other, to the astonishment of the Roman invaders. The tragedy is that this is exactly the strategy God allowed for faithful Israel’s enemies in the Old Testament, something Israel had been warned would happen to her if she walked contrary to the Lord. Again, it is an exemplary lesson for all in the ecclesia.

The lament of Babylon’s fall in Revelation 18 uses the same language of “woe” (οὐαί), rendered “Alas!” in verse 10, as is used by Jesus for all the “woes” to come against “this generation”, that is, the lawyers who block the gospel from others, and apostate Jews. The interjectory “woe” is also seen in Revelation 8:13 against the inhabitants of the land / earth. Jesus’ “woes” are proclaimed against the Jews.[8]

If we mistake Babylon for the world in the Bible, we fall into a devilish trap; we sit smugly thinking we cannot be part of the Babylon system because we are saved. But Babylon, as we see, is not the world, but in today’s parlance, that part of the church that is worldly and has turned backwards to that “other gospel” which is no gospel. Anyone under this misapprehension, risks tearing at one another as James points out.[9]

This makes all the difference to us, challenging our convictions, our walk and our spiritual welfare which is the purpose of the letter of Revelation.

The Bride of Christ is Contrasted with Mystery Babylon

Gregg draws our attention to this entity of Babylon as one in juxtaposition to the bride of Christ.[10] And we have seen this as the two kingdoms – the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of this world under Satan’s rule. We recall it was the binding of Satan that allowed the formation of the ecclesia under the Kingdom of God.

I suggest that this juxtaposition is seen throughout the Old Testament, and that we get glimpses of the comparison in the New.

Wherever the Old Testament points to Israel’s apostasy, giving fair warning of consequences for her contrary walk, the prophets then turn to the Messianic age and the pure remnant Israel and her victory. These indicate what was yet a veiled mystery, i.e., Jesus Christ as Israel saving those who would identify as children of Israel. Similarly, we see the disciples, the “little flock” who inherit the Kingdom in Christ, ask about the parables, asking why Jesus uses such veiled speech. He answers them, indicating the distinction between themselves and those who are really not interested in following Him. “And the disciples came and said to Him, ‘Why do You speak to them in parables?’ He answered and said to them, ‘Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.   For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. Therefore, I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.  And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says: ‘Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, And seeing you will see and not perceive’” Matthew 13:10-14.

Jesus tells His disciples not to throw pearls (meaning kingdom truth) before swine, which is a metaphor for spiritually unclean people. These are the unrepentant listeners who have hardened their hearts against His Person and message, as in Matthew 7:6. Here, then we have both faithfulness in the disciples, who will eventually understand the cross Life and harlotry of the Jews challenging Jesus. throughout the gospels, it is not the gentiles or the Samaritans that Jesus speaks against, but the religious elite.

The “harlot” then, is a consistent and vivid metaphor because a harlot is not merely a prostitute. A harlot is a woman who has been unfaithful with lovers other than her husband. The classic living parable of this is given in Hosea whom God sent to marry a harlot to teach about Israel’s idolatry and His own mercy. The harlot metaphor is particularly appropriate because it speaks of the betrayal of the most intimate relationship; a relationship which we have seen is God’s eschatological purpose in the earth for humanity. Just a few of the many examples are:

• Leviticus 17:7 “They shall no more offer their sacrifices to demons, after whom they have played the harlot. This shall be a statute forever for them throughout their generations.”
• Numbers 15:39 “And you shall have the tassel, that you may look upon it and remember all the commandments of the Lord and do them, and that you may not follow the harlotry to which your own heart and your own eyes are inclined.”
• Deuteronomy 31:16 “And the Lord said to Moses: “Behold, you will rest with your fathers; and this people will rise and play the harlot with the gods of the foreigners of the land, where they go to be among them, and they will forsake Me and break My covenant which I have made with them.” Judges 8:27 “Then Gideon made it into an ephod and set it up in his city, Ophrah. And all Israel played the harlot with it there. It became a snare to Gideon and to his house.”
• Isaiah 1:21 “How the faithful city has become a harlot! It was full of justice; Righteousness lodged in it, But now murderers.”
• Isaiah 57 is a particularly insightful example of the juxtaposition of harlot and faithful Israel, where from verse one, Isaiah describes Israel’s wickedness, “You offspring of the adulterer and the harlot!” So, the prophet moves through Chapter 58 bemoaning Israel’s sin until in Chapter 59 we see God’s healing hand on those who repent.
• Jeremiah gives us a hint of the mystery of who Babylon is, as Jeremiah tells us it is Israel who has polluted the land with her harlotry. Jeremiah 3:1, 2 ““They say, ‘If a man divorces his wife, And she goes from him And becomes another man’s, May he return to her again?’ Would not that land be greatly polluted? But you have played the harlot with many lovers; Yet return to Me,” says the Lord. “Lift up your eyes to the desolate heights and see: Where have you not lain with men? By the road you have sat for them Like an Arabian in the wilderness; And you have polluted the land With your harlotries and your wickedness.[11]

What is most important throughout the Old Testament is the continual expression of God’s intention to be merciful to Israel when she turns. We see this not only in the parable that Hosea lived, but in the prophets generally. In Jeremiah 31: 31- we get a glimpse of how this will happen, through the grace and power of God. Here, Jeremiah summarises God’s soteriological intention to bring about His eschatological purpose of husbanding Israel,

“Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah— not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. No more shall every man teach his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”

Beasts and False Prophecy

The pericope beginning Chapter 12 deals with the church age. We see from heaven’s perspective, an apocalyptic summary of the incarnation with the mother, Israel identified as the church in various places. In Jeremiah 31:16-20 – she is Israel’s beloved wife, Rachel who will have her children returned to her. She is the remnant of Jeremiah 31:7. In Galatians 4:21-31 Paul presents her as Sarah, mother of faith. We know the male child of Revelation 12 is Jesus as the phrase from Psalm 2:9 “was to rule all nations with a rod of iron” links to Messiah through Acts 4:25 and 26 which speaks of the same person, the Messiah.

I suggest that the recipients of this letter would have known very well that Jesus ministered for three and a half years in Judea. Those among them who were living sincerely “in Christ” would have identified the three and a half is symbolic of His Life in them, being lived out through them now. It may have even been a point of discussion among them. John, an apostle and minister to the Ephesians wrote much of the zōē (Life) in Christ.

The timing is the church age, overlapping the 40 years of Gospel spreading before the temple fell. Just as the fulfilment of the church age, or “this age” is still the thousand-year symbolism. In Chapter 13 it symbolises living “in Christ”. In Chapter 20, its only chapter of mention, it symbolises fullness in Christ as those who are perfected in Him – His temple-bride is also described in these three dimensional numbers. Different biblical symbols may represent a common truth, yet different aspects of that truth are also seen through the use of different symbols. The 12 x 12 x 12 show the truth of the prophets and apostles as foundational to the temple bride. To these, the nascent ecclesia we owe love and thanks for all they endured. So too, we owe love and thanks to the faithful across the past millennia for their carrying of the Word of God into our hands and minds’ renewal.

Revelation readers would know, if only from real life experience, that Satan is not bound in the sense of eradication. The original readers also know this, as acknowledged by Jesus in the letters to them (2:9, 13, 24, and 3:9).

Among the original readers are the remnant who are obedient in His strength. Their testing is initiated in Chapter 12 verse 17. The next scene therefore shows the beast from the sea who will bring testing and judgment. The beast from the sea refers to those who are not followers of the Lamb. the “sea” in symbolism describes all that is not to be saved in the war of 66-70AD. Much of the use of the word “saved” in the New Testament is in reference to the very soon coming judgment. Peter, for example advises the Jews from the Dispertion at Pentecost to, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation” Acts 2:40. Notice Peter doesn’t say to save themselves from hell. their repentance was going to save them from what was coming throughout the Roman Empire for Jews in that generation. Indeed the word Satan itself is not a proper noun, but the word “enemy”, untranslated. Often it is used to describe those humans opposing Jesus. This is what is meant by paul when he predicts the “soon” of 70AD, “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet” (Romans 16:20).

And believers know that the devil is limited in what he can do in “this age” anyway. He is now more than a defeated foe to those in the fullness of Christ. Satan cannot stop the formation of the ecclesia; nor can he have any part of those who stay wholly “in Christ” as they are always covered by Christ and the enemy has no part in Him. If he is resisted, he must flee.[12] He has always been limited under the sovereignty of God; however, ecclesial establishment is seen at Pentecost, the harvest of the grain or first fruits. This speaks of the ecclesia who, we now see was tested for 40 years under God’s sovereignty, just as Jesus was by the devil. Only now, unlike the Eden experience, they are empowered to follow the Lamb wherever He goes in Chapter 14:4, the early church or first fruits of the 144,000. But beyond those few who walked the narrow path, we now see after 70AD, innumerable people / ethnos who worship the Lamb. That is why the “few” who made it to “the end of the (Old Covenant) age” became the many , innumerable, even from the planting as of a mustard seed / symbolism.

Related to the beast is the dragon appearing in a new pericope. He initiates the beastly endeavours. Many scholars see this as the central pericope of Revelation. Believers may readily see this entity, the dragon, is Satan, which is confirmed also in Revelation 20 where he is bound by the victory over him on the cross. This is the identical event seen in the pericope which begins in Chapter 12. Here we see the “binding” of Satan enabling ecclesial formation; the binding of 12:9 is the same as 20:2 and 3.

We note that the dragon tries to bring judgment on the woman (Israel) in Chapter 12. This is depicted by a the “flood” of 12:15 but God had both the remnant that gave birth to Jesus, and perfect Israel absolutely in His hand. The earth opened its mouth and took the judgment blood of Christ so that the woman, now the new Israel, was totally protected from judgment in Christ.

Menn rightly observes that although the beast imagery is frequently applied “to a supposed end time individual, the Bible always applies beast imagery to empires, forces and entities that transcend the individual.” [13]

The sea that this beast is drawn from is a biblical metaphor of unregenerate humanity, that is why the disciples are called fishermen of men by Jesus in their early encounters. Gregg posits that it is the dragon who draws the beast from the sea, or in practical language, the worldly empire. The reason is in verse 1 of Chapter 13 where the text is commonly rendered first person. The Alexandrian text has the person as “he stood on the sand of the sea.” The dragon draws the beast from the sea because he is the antecedent in verse 17 to whom the pronoun “he” refers in 13:1, which, in the original text, is written without chapter and verse divisions.

There are three descriptors to the beast as he appears in Revelation 13:

• Overall, he is like a leopard
• His feet were like the feet of a bear
• His mouth was like the mouth of a lion

The imagery of the beast is taken mainly from the Book of Daniel and melds all the qualities of those kingdoms indicated by the four different beasts of Daniel 7 which also came up out of the sea. This too is metaphor for world systems.  The beasts of Daniel’s visions can be more easily seen in tabular form:

Chapter 2		Chapter  7	Chapter 8
Gold head	Babylon	Lion with eagles’ wings
Silver chest	Medo-Persian	Bear	Ram – 2 horns, one higher is Persia
Bronze	Greek	Leopard – 4 wings	He goat horn Divided into 4 after Alexander’s death
Iron and Clay	Roman	Terrible beast ten horns. Little horn arises

Daniel Chapter 2 has the initial dream of Nebuchadnezzar with the four kingdoms which came between Daniel’s time and the Messiah. They appear in Chapters 2, 7 and 8. Angels help Daniel by identifying beasts with kings / empires.

This is clearly seen in the beast symbolism of Daniel from which the beast of Revelation is drawn. Even the ten horns of the Roman Empire are seen in both Daniel 7: 7 and repeated in Revelation 13:1. Gregg, in calling the initial beast of Revelation 13 a “collage” of the beasts of Daniel, opines that the beast symbolises all world systems, or political systems that are enemies of God’s people. The first beast, being a political entity. The second being a religious entity as a false prophet, is the same religio-political system as it morphs with insistence that people bow down and worship emperors, systems and governmental authorities, and deny the worship due to God. The beast, the false prophet, Gregg rightly suggests are earthly tools of the dragon with all three working in concert. See my post Part 4 – Seven Kings of Revelation, Five Have Fallen.

When we imagine this beast with seven heads and ten horns, each horn being crowned, we see 70 crowns. I suggest this is significant because it is the same number of years Judah was in captivity according to both Jeremiah and Daniel’s calculations and the dates of the return of the exiles from Babylon. Seventy was the number of Sabbaths forsaken by the Jews. Religiosity denies rest absolutely. This beast has God’s sovereign authority (crowns) to take rest from those who should have been God’s holy people. We see that while those sealed are not subject to the beast, those who dwell in the land are captive to the seventy crowns and have “no rest day or night” Revelation 14:11.

As seven is also the bringing of a creative work to a close, we would expect the agent of closure of the harlot in Israel to appear in the apocalypse, to feature the number seven. And this we will see when we look at Revelation 13:1. Seven heads on a beast – heads are for thinking. God moves on the neurons of the Roman leaders, Vespasian, four vying emperors and Titus to take the historic actions they do. When God uses a wicked nation to punish any nation, even His own people, He speaks of moving the defeating nation, often with thoughts. It is under His authority, just like the entity of Revelation 6:2. Therefore, we see the authorizing crowns for the judgments on Jerusalem, are seven multiples of ten. The ten also speaks of the Egyptian plagues and the law or Israle’s failure to keep it. Jerusalem has behaved like Egypt. It is God’s work to bring to fruition the end of apostate Jewry and what has degenerated into a cult religion of carnal sacrifice, just as His prophets had said He would. And it is under His sovereign hand that the nascent ecclesia goes forth into the known Gentile world as a consequence.

Hearing this, the believers in Asia Minor know also that what Christ has promised them will not fail to eventuate.

Beasts, being identified as empires or kingdoms, tell us that this particular beast is an empire known to John’s readers which would not be one many hundreds or thousands of years hence.  We may see the beast universally applied as we suffer persecution today. This is the universal application of the letter for all believers; but this does not name an individual as a world ruler to signify the end of the world. That is not Revelation’s message.

The two witnesses must testify. That’s what witnesses do. And in this matter the reformers of the Sixteenth Century restored the ecclesia onto the right path. We are a confessional church; we confess Christ and Him crucified. And this is the essence of our soteriology:

• Their words are the fire coming out of their mouths in 11:4, in the form of the Word of God.
• They are the temple of God now in the inner court.
• Their prophecy is the same as Christ’s indicated by the length of His earthly ministry (11:3).
• It devours sin in the hearers (Deuteronomy 8:3; Romans 10:17).
• Jesus is the Word, who is the consuming fire (Hebrews 12:20).
• They agree with the Word of God; that is why there are two of them in Covenant with the Lord. Witnesses must be at least two. Two begins an ecclesial group (Matthew 18:19,20), 2 Corinthians 13:1).
• They are depicted as olive trees and are therefore the new Israel because, unlike those prophesied in Deuteronomy 28:40, the two witnesses / olive trees stand in God’s presence, as in Ephesians 2:6. The imagery is drawn from Zechariah 4:1-14, speaking of Messiah, the Light of the World and those “in Him”.
• And Revelation 11:5 is the counter-intuitive line to comfort the original recipients of this letter of Revelation – it is approximately central to the entire text both physically and semantically: Any person wanting to harm the two witnesses won’t be able to. They are secure in Christ. On the contrary, even their deaths are witnesses against their enemies. Any hatred or judgment of the witnesses / ecclesia brings judgment on the enemies. This last point means they too may become crucified in Christ and have their sin judged away from them – or they will suffer the judgment / punishment they put on the ecclesia / Christ,  “….they will be killed in this manner”. Revelation 18:6 depicts the judgment; 11:13 is suggestive of their turning under judgment. In the end all must walk in the crucified in order that all is under the feet of Jesus Christ.
• In 11:7, their testimony or confession results in the death of the witnesses. Thus, it is with all believers. all are spiritually crucified with Christ. The believer makes a good confession of Christ and is then dead and buried with Him in baptism / washing. The believer is then dead to the world. This is the counter intuitive comfort for Smyrna who are about to be thrown into prison; and for all true believers who hear this letter. Martyrdom is spiritual before it is physical.

This is Biblical Christology coming into fullness in a practical way, The Way – the martyrdom of the saints. All believers are called to martyrdom, whether we live physically or go early to be with the Lord. We are dead in Christ and no longer live; we have been subject to the first resurrection in Him as well. How else can we live in this amazing power that enables us to soar over old sinful habits as if they no longer have a hold on us? We are dead men to the world, but alive to the Love of God in Christ. Already resurrected as in Revelation 20:5 Galatians 2:20.

In this resurrection seen in Revelation 11:11 we have the Pentecost experience of Acts 2:1-47. We see men amazed when a life is truly transformed; clearly it is seen that they live in heavenly encounter, verse 12.  This is what the move of God, depicted in an earthquake in verse 13 indicates. This is the earth (actually Promised land) moving event: the ecclesia is established, men give glory to God, but those who don’t, are the one tenth of the city which fell. The “one-tenth” is a division by law in symbolic terms. This refers to Jerusalem. The number ten being the law of God prophesied against those who walk contrary to God, and now reject Christ. Fractions are symbols of the inverse of their denominating numeral. Therefore, the one tenth depicts the destruction of all that ten represents biblically. We see Revelation will soon bring the ten plagues in depiction once again. These are the plagues on Egypt which apostate Jerusalem also suffers, having fallen into the worldly sin of rejecting Christ during His ministry and in the early preaching of the ecclesia in Judea.

Consequently, the seventh trumpet sounds with the third woe coming quickly upon the enemy of the ecclesia. This Chapter 11 depicts things from an ecclesial perspective so it is fitting that we now see the Parousia from heaven’s perspective. The fact that the believers in Asia Minor are seeing this through John’s visions is a Word teaching tool of Ephesians 2. Believers are called to see themselves from the heavenly citizenship perspective because the Kingdom of God, in reality, has been inaugurated. The view is not mere rhetoric, but a spiritual reality to sustain faith through the trials to come. These are the trials perfecting the bride, and the reason she does not fear the beast.

I return now to Revelation 13 and the beast imagery, even though we have seen “the beast” as Rome above. This in Chapter 13 follows the birth and ministry of Christ. We see the sovereignty of God in Verse 5 where authority is accorded the beast, i.e., political system/s to continue its blasphemy. We see it is a culmination of all Daniel’s beastly animals; and just as Daniel had interpreted the dream, that Kingdom was the greatest up until the time of Christ. Rome has been divinely allowed to rule the Holy Land and we see her Jewish and Idumean client rulers beginning with Herod, then the religious leaders, also politically empowered by Rome and finally Pilate and Caiaphas – all against the Anointed One. These simply cannot afford to have Messiah, the anointed one as that was known to mean a King of the Jews. Jewish Kings are known by anointing. It would mean losing the power they held under Rome. The very idea was a threat to murderous Herod, client King under Rome; all Jewish rulers hold power under Rome – in this symbolism here they even become one entity. We also see three violent factions war against one another in Revelation 16:19 which is recorded in history in Josephus, Book 5 Chapter 2. Operating under Adam’s “free will” means the wicked would be allowed to have their own way. Those who would not submit to Christ, were being given over to the “strong delusion” they had chosen. They would reap the consequences of what they had sown in accord with Deuteronomy 28:15-68 and Leviticus 26:14-39. But it is well to read of Israel’s potential to repent in the rest of Leviticus 26.

And while that repentance did not appear to happen during the Jewish war which decimated the promised land, we know all Israel will be saved and that Christ is the Saviour of all.

When we read of the Roman Jewish war in Josephus’ Wars of the Jews, we see continual blasphemy. This entity, the beast, commits the ultimate blasphemy of crucifying the Lord of Glory, blasphemes His Name and His law of love. The reason he is granted to overcome the saints is because they have made their confession in Christ as witnesses as we saw in Chapter 11. They are one with Christ. He kills them. They are either physically martyred or continue to be transformed into Christ’s humble crucified image. It is a joy to be dead in Christ because they know the step is also, simultaneously the first resurrection of their spirit within – a spirit of power over sin. Thus, they defeat their former father of lies who kept them captive. But if anyone leads others into captivity, they themselves are captive. As Jesus said to the Pharisees in the woes to apostate rulers of Israel,

 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell (Gehenna)[15] as yourselves.” Matthew 23:15

Note here, they are sons of Gehenna, aka, the burning rubbish tip into which many of their bodies were thrown during the war. It is not hell.

And since martyrdom of any kind is a win-win situation for the believer, all believers are encouraged at this time to have patience and faith in their trials, “Here is the patience and the faith of the saints” Revelation 13:10.  The trials, death to self and martyrdom only produce more goodness, Romans 8:28. This was designed to encourage the original hearers of the pericopes of Revelation. It also encourages us.

The second beast is another entity with some difference. He is trying to appear like Jesus. He has two horns like a lamb. However, he has the speech of the dragon which betrays his origin (not born of Christ). This beast is also known as the false prophet, working in accord with the dragon. It comes up from the (promised) land where it should have served God. But it has not followed Christ and is therefore also still a fallen entity. It is reliant on the authority of the first beast which we have established in Chapter 17 is Rome. So these are specifically the false religious leaders. They are liars and because of their actions, they also result in other wicked men giving false prophesies of salvation during the Roman-Jewish war.  In this war that the book of Revelation is predicting, which followed soon after the writing, we know false prophets greatly misled many people. We can read the history where so many were deceived and died through these false hopes from false prophets. See Josephus, The Wars of the Jews, Book 6, Chapter 5.

However, the believers are sealed in God and have not taken the mark of the beast. This means they neither think nor act like the beast, their foreheads are sealed in the mind of Christ.[16] They don’t act like him; the symbolism for behaviour is that their right hands are sealed in the fine linen of the bride,[17] thus, their acts are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, because He has been made sin for us.

There is universal application, too for all time where false religion has persecuted true believers in Christ. There have been many instances, historically where the genuine remnant has had to stand apart from state sanctioned churches who also fill the beast role.[18]

The Harlot, Babylon is Carried by the Beast Universal

More dangerous than the guile of state religion as the beast, I suggest is the legalistic church which is in danger of becoming a cult of its leadership, through self-aggrandizement and control of believers. This in effect is regicide, a usurping of Christ’s place in the ecclesia which often reduces the people to what Paul calls “mere men” worshipping a man. The harlot church can be state sanctioned even where there is a separation of church and state constitutionally. This can happen when monetary grants and taxation exemptions have been made with accompanying obligations to the state. As previously alluded to, state financial support of church established schools empowers the state to have a say as to the curriculum and practices of the schools. Wherever a conflict of interest has been created, regarding power or supply, we see the pattern. This is what is symbolised by the Harlot riding the beast who eventually turns on her. The state, Rome, who joined in crucifying the Lord of Glory, eventually was the agent to destroy Jerusalem and the temple system as predicted by Jesus in Matthew 24 and the angel in Daniel 12:7.

An example of this Babylonian church, or harlot, has already been mentioned regarding the German church under Hitler in pre-war Germany. It submitted to becoming a harlot by adopting the then chancellor as “lord” over itself, precipitating a “coming out of her” on the part of Christian churches who stayed faithful to the testimony of Christ. The state demanded worship of itself and its dictator; the harlot sat there thinking she was comfortable and persecution proof. It was only the remnant who refused to give up Christ who stayed true.[19]

And this is where the prophecy of history has its application for the recipient churches and for us today. Paul tells Timothy, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.” 2 Timothy 3:16,17. That is the purpose of all Scripture, including the book of Revelation, not fanciful guess work to gather a following for oneself or one’s organisation, but disciples making disciples who “…follow the Lamb, (Jesus Christ) wherever He goes.”[20]

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[1] Revelation 18:7b “….for she says in her heart, ‘I sit as a queen and am no widow, and will not see sorrow.’”

[2] Bauckham, Economic Critique, p 79, cited in Menn, p 292.

[3] See Bauckham, The Theology of the Book of Revelation, p 98-101. Bauckham also notes the exodus theme in John’s re-write of the Song of Moses, with the emphasis on Christ as judge and avenger of the martyrs as well as Saviour.

[4] Matthew 23:1-12.

[5] Luke 13:33 “Nevertheless I must continue on my way today and tomorrow and the next day; because it is not possible for a prophet to die outside of Jerusalem.”

[6] Hebrews 8:13 and 10:25 In speaking of the obsolescence of the Old Covenant, the writer of Hebrews was discouraging synagogue worship, in favour of the ecclesial gatherings in homes. It is actually the opposite of what institutional religion preaches. It is interesting to note that no second scripture as given to establish this doctrine of calling a meeting in a building on a set day, “worship”. That is because there is no second witness to establish this was what the writer meant. Context and audience, again are important in understanding what was going on for these people who faced very serious economic sanctions (i.e., they needed to return to the mark of the beast and forfeit their faith) if they didn’t keep to the synagogue.

[7] Josephus, F., The Wars of the Jews, 5.5.4.

[8] See Matthew 23, which is placed in the text immediately before the passage where Jesus warns the disciples to flee when they see the fulfilment of this prophecy in the surrounding of Jerusalem.

[9] James 4:1- “Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, ‘The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously’?

But He gives more grace. Therefore, He says: ‘God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.’”

[10] Gregg, S, The Narrow Path, Verse-by-Verse, Commentary on Revelation 17 https://www.thenarrowpath.com/audio/verse-by-verse/revelation/14_2012_Revelation_17.mp3 accessed 11th November 2022.

[11] Revelation 18:3 tells us something of the surrounding nations of Israel. There are those who have been influenced by Babylon’s fornication. Israel was created as a light for the Gentile nations – like a model nation, and indeed the only natural nation to be so created. Other modern nations and states have had very strong Christian origins, but have never been the theocracy that Israel was intended to be. No other nation state has been a Christ-type. Israel’s fornication, therefore has been her failure of purpose to her neighbouring states as well as her failure to love God. Even the kind of disobedience in cleansing the land was a failure of love of neighbour when seen from a godly perspective of the eradication of such evil as polluted land and humanity. 1 Samuel 15:1-35 is a very sad example of this failure.

In her disobedience to God, Jerusalem also contaminated others. In Jeremiah 25:1-38 we see the fury of the Lord prophesied over the nations who have drunk of the wine of her fornication.

[12] James 4:7 “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”

[13] Menn, Biblical Eschatology, p189.

[14] Gregg, S, The Narrow Path, Verse-by-Verse, Commentary on Revelation 13 https://www.thenarrowpath.com/audio/verse-by-verse/revelation/14_2012_Revelation_13.mp3 accessed 11th November 2022.

[15] Jesus refers here to the burning rubbish tip outside Jerusalem where there was a continual fire. The bodies of criminals not given a funeral were also thrown there.

[16] 1 Corinthians 2:16 For “‘who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?’ But we have the mind of Christ.” Philippians 4:7 “…and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”

[17] Revelation 6:11 “And a white robe was given to each of them”; 19:8 “And to her (the bride) was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.”

[18] 2 Corinthians 10:4 reminds the battle is always spiritual and our fight is not carnal. We become the Harlot when we try to ride the beast, i.e., when we use the material political system to try to achieve ecclesial goals. We are not meant to become embroiled in politically supported means. While we are in the world and subject to earthly authorities, and we do good wherever we are called, the state has no part in qualifying an ecclesial group or funding it. The beast will surely turn on the harlot.

[19] Kroll, P., Church history: The Protestant Church in Hitler’s Germany and the Barmen Declaration

  https://archive.gci.org/articles/the-protestant-church-in-hitlers-germany-and-the-barmen-declaration/ Accessed 20^th November 2022.

[20] Revelation 14:4