College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
Revelation 17:6-18
Strauss-' Comments
SECTION 58
Text Revelation 17:6-18
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 a great wonder. 7 And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou wonder? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and the ten horns. 8 The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and is about to come up out of the abyss, and to go into perdition. And they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, they whose name hath not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast, how that he was, and is not, and shall come. 9 Here is the mind that hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth: 10 and they are seven kings, the five are fallen, the one is, the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a little while. 11 And the beast that was, and is not, is himself also an eighth, and is of the seven; and he goeth into perdition. 12 And the ten horns that thou sawest are ten kings, who have received no kingdom as yet; but they receive authority as kings, with the beast, for one hour. 13 These have one mind, and they give their power and authority unto the beast. 14 These shall war against the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them, for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings; and they also shall overcome that are with him, called and chosen and faithful. 15 And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the harlot sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues. 16 And the ten horns which thou sawest, and the beast, these shall hate the harlot, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and shall burn her utterly with fire. 17 For God did put in their hearts to do his mind, and to come to one mind, and to give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God should be accomplished. 18 And the woman whom thou sawest is the great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.
Initial Questions Revelation 17:6-18
1.
John saw the drunken harlot and wondered with a great wonder. What did the angel ask him in Revelation 17:7?
2.
Who does John say shall wonder at the woman in Revelation 17:8?
3.
What city of the N.T. World is surrounded by 7 mountains - Revelation 17:9?
4.
How can the beast of Revelation 17:11 be an eighth king, and yet be out of the seven mentioned in Revelation 17:10? Check a good commentary or Bible Dictionary on Nero (redivivus).
5.
Does the for one hour in Revelation 17:12 imply that the ten kings will reign only for a short time under the authority of the beast?
6.
Are the forces of evil unified - Revelation 17:13?
7.
Who initiates the war in Revelation 17:14?
8.
Discuss the descriptive terms for Christians in Revelation 17:14 - called and chosen and faithful.
9.
What does the symbol of the waters mean according to Revelation 17:15?
10.
Does Revelation 17:17 show that God uses evil and those who are enthralled in evil to do His will - ultimately?
11.
What does until the words of God should be accomplished - Revelation 17:17 mean?
12.
The woman is identified as what, in Revelation 17:18?
The great harlot was drunk, not with wine, but with the blood of the saints (hagiôn - those that are holy, set apart. Compare with biblical doctrine of the saint with the erroneous Roman Catholic doctrine of Sainthood. They stand in irreconcilable contradiction), and from the blood of the witnesses. (Marturôn - one who is martyred, because of his bearing public witness of Jesus Christ). And seeing her I wondered with a great wonder, What did John see that caused him to be amazed at the content of his vision?
The angel asked JohnWhy did you wonder? Now the angel is going to explain and identify his imagery. John did not understand and the angel provides him with an inspired, revealed interpretation of the symbolism. How often in The Revelation does God see fit to give John an interpretation of his imagery? The imagery of the seven heads and ten horns are now to be interpreted (note that the imagery is taken from Daniel).
The interpretation now follows. The beast which you saw was, and is not (or does not now exist); and is about to come up out of the abyss, and goes into destruction (apôleian - does not means annihilation, but rather being cut off from the presence of God. (See the note after this verse). The entire earth, with the exception of the redeemed will also wonder or marvel at the beast. There are many attempted explanations of the beast who was and is not and is about to come up out of the abyss,but a very plausible one is the Nero redivivus myth, which was very prevalent late in the first century. We shall give an explanation of this theory in our discussion of Revelation 17:9-12.
Note: Queber (Hebrew) always means Grave, but Sheol does not always mean grave (e.g., 2 Samuel 22:6The sorrows of Sheol). Surely this reveals consciousness. The J.W.'S doctrine book, Make Sure of All Things, p. 154, defines Hell as the grave. In the grave, the claim is made that man becomes extinct or annihilated. Space forbids any extensive examination of this claim, but we will consider two terms (olethros) and (apollumi). Lexicons provide no comfort to those who seek to find an annihilationist doctrine in the scriptures of the N.T. (for olethros see H. J. Thayer, Lexicon, p. 64; Liddell and Scott, new edition, p. 1212-1214; and Arndt and Gingrich, Lexicon of the New Testament and Early Christian Literature, p. 566). All of these lexicons are in agreement that the term means ruin, death, destruction, but they give no evidence that the term means annihilation. The standard text which receives most consideration is 2 Thessalonians 1:6-9 (the import is even clear in the N.W.T.)
... eternal destruction from the fact of the Lord. Here we clearly see that the wicked are separated from God's presence (face of God always means His presence in the Scriptures). Paul uses a form of this same word in 1 Corinthians 5:5 unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the Spirit may be saved. (R.V. 1901) The last statement is a purpose clause. The flesh was separated not annihilated, in order that the Spirit would be saved in the judgment.
The other important word we mentioned is (apollumi). The noun form means destruction and the verb form to destroy, etc. This is the word found in Luke 15 concerning the lost sheep (Luke 15:3, a form of this word is translated lost, not annihilated) Luke 15:9 contains a form of this term and plainly says the coin was lost, not annihilated (after all it would be difficult to find something that had been annihilated) vs. 62 says that the son was lost and found again; it must be very apparent that an annihilated son could not be found.
The Scripture makes inseparable the redemption obtainable only in Jesus Christ as God incarnate and the escape from Hell or the ever lasting separation from the presence of God.
For an excellent study of the term Sheol see the Bulletin of The Evangelical Theological Society. Dec. 1961 - for the article by R. Laird Harris, The Meaning of The Word Sheol as shown by Parallels in Poetic Texts, p. 129.
John states thatHere is (does not appear in the text) the mind (ho nous - the faculty of understanding and judgment) having (present participle - means that the mind constantly possesses) wisdom. Now we learn what the symbols mean. The seven heads are seven mountains (the city of Rome was built around the geographical terrain of seven mountains) where the woman sits (kathç tai - present indicative implying that she constantly occupies the territory) on them,(The last phrase in the Greek text of Revelation 17:9 is translated with Revelation 17:10 in our English Bibles).
There are other cities in the world who occupy seven hills (e.g. Constantinople, Jerusalem, etc.), but they are all inappropriate for John's imagery.
And there are seven kings; five fell (epesan - 1st aor. ind. expresses the fact that five kings fell - in a final, complete act. Expresses the complete over throw of these puppet kings. It is used in The Septuagint for violent overthrow of kings and nations - Isaiah 21:9; Jeremiah 1:15). One is (estin - presently is king), the other not yet come (çlthen - 2nd aor. ind. - shows the fact that the other king has not yet appeared on the scene of Roman history); and whenever he comes he must (dei - expresses necessity) remain a little while (oligon - means a short period of time).
The beast who was and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of (ek - out of) the seven, and goes into destruction. (See note after Revelation 17:8 on the word here translated destruction). John's riddle needs clarification. There are seven kings. There is to be an eighth one, but he is out of the seven. How can he make plausible sense out of this riddle? The seven kings could have been the seven Roman Emperors - (1) Tiberius (ruled from 14 - 37 A.D.; (2) Caligula ruled from 37-41 A.D.; (3) Claudius, 41-54 A.D.; (4) Nero, 54-68 A.D.; (5) Vespasian, 69-79 A.D.; (6) Titus, 79-81 A.D.; (7) Domitian, 81-96 A.D. Galba, Otho, and Vitellius were in power for a short period of time after Nero, but they were not seriously taken as emperors. The five are fallen. It is possible that Nero was omitted from the list because of the myth of his coming to life again. Domitian (81-96 A.D.) is to be identified as the one is (Revelation 17:10). On the basis of the Nero redivivus myth, Nero could meet the requirements of John's imagery in Revelation 17:11 - even he is the eighth, and is out of the seven.. The eighth one was originally one of the seven.
The ten horns are now identified as ten kings. These kings have not yet come to power. God's omnipotent knowledge enables John to have this information revealed to him. These kings and their reign are short lived. They receive authority (same Greek word for power) as kings one hour (hôran is more specifically a very limited period of time than is oligon - a short period or a little while in Revelation 17:10) with the beast. God has control of the universe, even when it appears to man that evil powers dominate the cosmos.
Do the powers of darkness have a unified loyalty to evil and error? (See Acts 20:3; 1 Corinthians 1:10 - for same expression applied to Christians.) John gives us a categorical answer. These have one mind, and they give (didoasin - present tense - active, indicative - they continually give) their power (dunamin - power which they exercise as rulers) and authority (exousian - the authority which their kingly office carries to the beast. Here we see that earthly governments can and are used for the forces of evil. Individuals in a given society can be moral and yet, the society, as a whole, can be rotten to the core. From a Christian viewpoint how is the individual related to his environment? In what sense do individuals exist in our mass society? If men are brought to Christ as individuals who are responsible to our Lord, how can we reach that individual as he participates in our anti-individual social structure? No Man is an Island! In one real sense of the term, there are no such things as individuals in our technological oriented, depersonalized cultures-Read chapter Revelation 13:2. Here we are told that the dragon gave both his authority and power to the beast, so that they all have just one purpose; and all of their authority, etc., is dedicated to the ways of evil. (Read Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - now available in paperback; for background details of Rome's rise and fall.)
The forces of evil gather to make war with the Lamb. Satan tempted Christ because he did not know the ultimate nature nor the power to overcome evil which our Lord possessed. Again, Satan puts the Lamb to the test, and calls Him to do battle. John's imagery does not remind us of any species of Pacifism which is so dominate today under the auspices of the love of God. The Lamb will overcome them; because He is Lord of lords and King of kings (see Deuteronomy 10:17; 1 Timothy 6:15; Revelation 1:5)and the ones with Him are called, and chosen, and faithful. Here John is giving us three characteristics of a child of God. The first two reveal God's approach to man; the third manifests man's response to God's call through the Word, and being chosen in Christ. (See 2 Peter 1:10; Romans 8:28 ff; Revelation 2:10; Revelation 2:13.) The passage found in 2 Peter 1:10 is crystal clear that the Christian man has something to do in order to make his calling and election sure. The entire passage from the pen of Peter implies that if we do not do the things listed there - then our calling and election is not sure! We must not fail to see the significance of the third characteristic of the victorious Christian - faithful!
The Angel interprets the imagery of the waters in this verse. The waters are peoples and crowds, and nations, and tongues. (See Isaiah 8:7; Psalms 18:4; Psalms 18:16 - for the symbol of water.)
The greatest danger any conquering nation has is the people whom they have enslaved. The Roman empire was the melting pot of the heterogeneous population of the world.
The ones who revelled in the immoral mire of the infamous Roman life are going to revolt. Even Rome's closest associates were about to throw off allegiance to the empire. The worst possible enemies anyone can have are those who are formerly intimate friends. This is to be Rome's fate. The ten horns (Revelation 17:12 - are kings which have no kingdom - yet) and the beast, these will hate the harlot, and will make her naked and having been desolated (çrçmomençn - perfect - passive - participle - meaning that she is completely desolated, and that her condition was brought upon her by outside force. This is the significance of the passive voice), and will eat her flesh (the text has a plural fleshes), and will consume (katakausousin - this form gives the picture of completely burning to the ground. This is the force of kata - the initial part of the word) - with fire. The empire will be pillaged and sacked, and burned until the glory of her wealth and power is no longer to be seen. It is gone forever!
Even in the midst of this severe persecution God had not abdicated His throne. God permitted men to be enthralled with evil. Paul makes this same claim in Romans chapter Romans 1:24-32, when he declares that God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts.. Paul uses the phrase - God gave them up three times in nine verses. The second chapter of Romans begins Wherefore thou art without excuse, O Man,.. Even though God gave them up unto their evil passions, they were responsible to Him, and would give an account of every word, deed, and thought on the great day of judgment. God permitted evil to persist, until the words of God should be accomplished. The Hebrew concept of word means both spoken and the produced effect. God's word shall not return unto Him before it accomplishes His divine purpose. What is the relationship of human effort to the divine plan of the ages?
Now the last image is identified by the angel. The woman, the great harlot is the great city having a reign (or a kingdom) over the kings of the earth. No other city could meet the requirements of this imagery - other than Rome, the capital of the immoral Roman empire! Rome controlled all the small, satellite kingdoms in the civilized world. God's wrath will always be poured out - even upon so-called Christian nations. Is not this the plight of our contemporary, western, Christian civilization? We need revival immediately, if we are to survive.
Discussion Questions
Chapter Revelation 17:1-18
1.
In what passage in The Revelation has the judgment of Babylon already been announced - Revelation 17:1?
2.
Name one O.T. prophet who uses the imagery of a harlot - Revelation 17:1.
3.
Study Jeremiah 51:13 and discuss John's description of Babylon - Revelation 17:1.
4.
Study the Book of Hosea for background in considering the imagery of fornication as signifying spiritual apostasy - see Hosea 2:5; Hosea 3:3; Hosea 4:14, etc. - Revelation 17:2.
5.
According to the teaching of Revelation 17:2 can a saved person ever be lost?
6.
Does the wilderness play a great place in biblical literature? What significance might it have - Revelation 17:3?
7.
Is there any necessary connection between sin, culture and wealth - Revelation 17:4?
8.
What is the source of John's imagery in Revelation 17:5?
9.
Is the biblical doctrine and the Roman Catholic teaching about sainthood compatible - Revelation 17:6?
10.
Did John understand the vision of the great harlot - Revelation 17:6-7?
11.
What is the myth of Nero redivivus - Revelation 17:8?
12.
Does the word destruction mean annihilation according to the note after Revelation 17:8?
13.
What is a plausible explanation of John's riddle in Revelation 17:11?
14.
How could John know about the ten kings who had not yet come to power in Revelation 17:12?
15.
What does John say in Revelation 17:12 which implies that the reign of evil is to last only a very short time?
16.
The Body of Christ is not united. What power does Satan have which enables the forces of darkness to be of one mind, which the forces of light do not possess - Revelation 17:13?
17.
Discuss the statement found in the comment on Revelation 17:13 - that no man is an island.
18.
What are the three characteristics of God's children according to Revelation 17:14?
19.
What are the former friends of Rome going to do to her according to Revelation 17:16?
20.
According to Revelation 17:17how long is God going to wait until He avenges the faithful Christians?