“The great city” is said to be the place “where their Lord was crucified” (11:8). 1 Pet 5:13).Įven so, there is much to suggest another reading. And of course, there is the precedent, within the New Testament itself, of speaking of Rome under the figure of “Babylon” (cf. The heads of the dragon on whom the woman rides “are the seven high hills on which the woman is seated” (17:9). After all, who else but the imperial city can be said “to have dominion over the kings of the earth”? And after the persecutions of the first century under Nero and Domitian, who better to describe as “drunk with the blood of saints and the martyrs of Jesus”? There is also the remark that seems to place the great city on the traditional seven hills of Rome. As John himself makes clear, “The woman that you saw is the great city which has dominion over the kings of the earth” (17:18).īut what city is “the great city”? Who is “Babylon?” There is much in the Book of Revelation to suggest Rome. Of this, the whore-the one “drunk with the blood of the saints and the blood of the martyrs of Jesus” (17:6)-is an image. This, the eventual and lasting refuge of the faithful, is the counterpart and foil to “the great city” (18:10) who now lords over the persecution of the faithful. In the Book of Revelation, John concludes his visions with an account of “the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband” (21:2). Thankfully, there’s a more intelligent reading, and one that is much richer as well. But just who is this harlot? The Catholic Church, of course! Well, at least that’s what half the vitriol on YouTube would have us think. With this, Revelation introduces us to the figure of a woman “with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and with the wine of whose fornication the dwellers on earth have become drunk” (17:2). “Come, I will show you the judgment of the great whore” (17:1). That great destroyer of hope in the efficacy of Christ’s victory calls us to look beyond her.
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