7 Feb 2014

Revelation 17:1-2

Posted by joncooper

Revelation 17:1: “And 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:”

This chapter is not an easy one to parse. I have seen a great deal of debate on who the woman is, what Babylon represents, and what is going on.

Let’s clear one thing up first. When we are told that the “great whore” sits on “many waters”, those waters are symbolic. We find this out in verse 15 of this very same chapter:

Revelation 17:15: “And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.”

So when the angel refers to “many waters”, what the angel is actually referring to is the scope of the woman’s influence. She has affected “peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues”. We see this same idea echoed in verse 2:

Revelation 17:2: “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 fornication that is talked about here is spiritual fornication; in other words, the woman represents a false religion. This false religion has affected the entire world, and has reached the highest seats of power (the “kings of the earth”).

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