Revelation 17


	It is a great temptation in this chapter to rush on to the interpretation -- we get so little help from the Apostle in this, we cherish all we get -- but we must resist. He is about to interpret a vision; let’s see the symbolism of that vision before he tells us to whom it applies.
	Adultery in the Old Testament is always figurative of idolatry. See, for example, Hosea 1 or Ezekiel 16. We must contrast this picture with the later one of the pure Bride of Christ. What most don’t know (didn’t either, until I found this) is that adultery/idolatry is not an “either/or” proposition; it’s a “one or many proposition.
	The Canaanite religions had a creator God named “El” -- sound familiar? It’s one of the names of God. They also had many others, including his consort, Astarte, the fertility goddess. So the temptation was not either Jehovah or the other gods; it was “El” AND the other gods. (Very similar to adultery’s temptation of “your wife” or “your wife and other women.”)
	Prosititution is also used as a symbol for idolatry. (See, for example, Jeremiah 3:1-9). It’s worse; you get paid for it. (What do you think of “evangelists” who get rich at it?) The name on the forehead was a common Roman practice; it allowed a prostitute to use a false name (and one Empress, at least, did just that). Note particularly the charge is the “mother” or prostitutes -- not content with being one, she raises more.
	Note one thing: like all sin, this is attractive! The clothing is royal and rich. Note also: the view is better from a distance -- in the wilderness, the desert, where the air is clear. The church sees her Lord more clearly in the times of suffering, too.
	Mystery Babylon takes some explaining. John would have been familiar with the story. It begins with Nimrod, who, by rabbinical tradition, was a hunter of souls. He it was who inspired the tower of Babel (hence the name Babylon) -- the tower of pride. In doing so, he started a mystery religion. In that religion his consort, Semiramus or Rhea, gave birth -- virgin birth -- to a son, Tammuz. This son was slain by a boar, but (surprise!) rose again, celebrated by the feast of Ishtar. His mother was worshiped as the “Queen of Heaven” (see Jer. 44:16-22). The sign of this religion? A cross!
	Now, the chief war god of this religion was Bel. Remember the emperor Constantine? He claimed to be a Christian -- but on the reverse of his coins is a temple of Bel. Many feel that at his time Christianity merged with this Babylonian cult (still very much alive at the time). This is also the religion that gave us the “modern” forms of much of astrology, seances, “black magic” and some of witchcraft.
	John knew all this. He would have seen in Babylon all that I have just described.
	Drunkenness, as Jeremiah 51:6-9 and especialliay 25:15-17 would have it, is God’s way of destroying the mighty. As the Greeks would have put it, “He whom the gods would destroy they first make mad.”
	(Footnote: McGee and Smith see two Babylons, religious and commercial. The interpretation is unique, and emphasizes the perils of this book.)