17:01 Part 1

Mystery Babylon

 

Revelation 17:1 RSV: “Come, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who is seated upon many waters.”

            In order for the Bible to be a Living Word, it must both be interpreted and applied.  Interpretation of the passage concerning Mystery Babylon requires that she be properly identified. She is designated as Mystery Babylon in order to show that it is not speaking of literal Babylon.  Only after proper identification can we rightly interpret the passage and make a valid application of these Scriptures.  Proper identification is also necessary in order to recognize the place of this passage in the structure, for example, the time setting of the book.  A proper identification will also reveal her relationship to the other entities portrayed in the book.  The true identity of Mystery Babylon will also reveal her place in the canon of the Holy Scriptures and bring to a climax and denouement the entire plan of salvation.

 

The Pattern of Prophecy

            The destruction of Mystery Babylon comes as a culmination of the prophecies of God’s wrath and vengeance found throughout the Bible, but especially in the New Testament.  Predictive prophecy had to have a literal fulfillment within the generation to which it was spoken.  (See Commentary at 1:3 “What Is Prophecy“.)  The literal fulfillment served as an example for all time to come and so proved to be predictive on a cause and effect basis.  For example, as the overthrow of Sodom had been predicted and that prediction was fulfilled, it served as an example to future generations.  Indeed, the Old Testament Scriptures are all to be used as an example, and a “schoolmaster.” (Gal. 3:24-5; 1 Cor. 10:11.)  By means of these examples, when and if an entity moved into the same spiritual depravity as Sodom she would suffer the same consequences, even if it were the city of Jerusalem itself.

            The predictive power of Biblical prophecy is based on the fact that those prophecies were literally fulfilled in the realm of history, (time); contrary to the modern pop-prophecy that says they were never yet fulfilled.  It is only the fact that they were indeed fulfilled that makes them a sure word of prophecy.  They are therefore a proven example.  In Biblical predictive prophecy the fulfillment becomes an example that is eternally relevant.  For example, Sodom and Gomorrah became an example of moral depravity.  Just so, the prophet Jeremiah had foretold the Babylonian captivity in detail and his prophecies had come to pass literally in 587 B.C.  Although Judah had gone into captivity because of her sins, many righteous people also suffered, for example, Daniel and the three Hebrew children.  Babylon therefore became an example of the oppressor and persecutor of God’s people.  God’s wrath was promised against her in order to avenge His elect, (Jer. 50 and 51).  That promise was fulfilled literally.

            Literal Jerusalem carried out the persecution and oppression of the Church in the New Testament.  This is evidenced by many passages in the New Testament, one example of which is Stephen, the martyrs, words:

Acts 7: 51-53:  Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers [did], so [do] ye.  Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers:  Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept [it].

Jerusalem, as persecutor and oppressor had therefore moved into the position of “Babylon” and it was therefore necessary that she be destroyed in order to avenge God’s elect, the Church.

            The previous fall of Jerusalem, (circa 605-587 B.C.), as foretold by the prophet Jeremiah and others, as well as Babylon and other cities and nations, served as examples.  That is why the seven churches had to be warned in the book of Revelation.  The fact that Jerusalem, formerly the Holy City of God, had fallen into a Babylon-like condition should serve as a warning to the churches of their fate if they persisted in their sins.  On the other hand, the fact that there had remained a faithful surviving remnant from the Babylonian captivity predicted that there would also be those who remained faithful in the Churches, and they are promised the wonderful blessings of God.

            This is consistent with the fact that God is no respecter of persons in judgment but fulfills His Word, for good or evil, according to the choices made by men.  The choice determines the category, or ‘race,’ into which one falls, not some accident of birth or genetics.  Christ was predestined, but Man can choose his own destiny.  By choosing to be in Christ, we can be predestined in Him as Sons of God, and the converse is also true.  There is no other predestination.

 

Fallen Jerusalem: Daughter of Babylon:

            The community of Jews who failed to return to the land after the Babylonian Captivity, and who were so integrated into Babylon that they had no desire to return, were called “Daughter of Babylon.”  At the close of the seventy-year period of captivity, the Lord speaking through His prophets invited, one might say commanded, His people to “Return.”  But, although they were as the sand of the sea innumerable, only a remnant returned.  Those who refused to return had adapted to the synagogue system, developed in Babylon, which spread throughout the known world and became a man-made substitute for the covenant system.  After the old literal Babylon was destroyed, this “Daughter of Babylon” became, in the eyes of the remnant that returned, Babylon itself.

            This “Daughter of Babylon” remained strong in numbers, wealth and influence.  As in all communities of the dispersion, they assimilated racially.  Their schools interpreted the Law to their own advantage, and indeed finally became the dominant force in “Judaism” with the completion of the Babylonian Talmud centuries later, (circa AD 500).

            There was even a strong strain of Babylon in those who returned, as we know from the need to purge the remnant community of those who had married into Babylonian stock along with their children.  (See Ezra 9 and 10.)

            After the prophecies of Isaiah and Jeremiah had literally come to pass upon Judah and Jerusalem the word ‘Babylon” ceased to have its old literal meaning and became a symbol.  Those who returned to Palestine after the captivity were known as “the faithful remnant.”  This term ‘faithful remnant’ also became a theme, a pattern, and example of those who, throughout the Biblical history, remained faithful in spite of the apostasy of the majority.

            References to this remnant are so numerous in Isaiah and Jeremiah that space will only permit a few.  Isaiah 1:9 RSV:

If the Lord of Hosts had not left us a few survivors, we should have been like Sodom, and become like Gomorrah.

 

10:19-22 RSV: The remnant … will be so few that a child can write them down.  In that day the remnant of Israel and the survivors of the house of Jacob will no more lean upon him that smote them, [i.e. Babylon] but will lean upon the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, in truth.  A remnant of them will return, the remnant of Jacob to the mighty God.  Destruction is decreed, overflowing with righteousness.

 

            But there was to be a time of a second return, as foretold in Isaiah 11:10-11 RSV:

In that day the root of Jesse shall stand as an ensign to the peoples; him shall the nations seek, and his dwellings shall be glorious.  In that day the Lord will extend his hand yet a second time to recover the remnant which is left of his people. 

 

            The time of the gathering of this second remnant is specified: “In that day“, the day when the root of Jesse (Christ) should stand as an ensign to the people.  Romans 11:5 clearly shows that this was and is being accomplished in Christ.  The Holy Seed is Christ and the faithful remnant is His Body, the Church.  This cutting off of the offspring and posterity of Babylon is in view when Christ, speaking against the fallen Jerusalem, says: “Behold, your house is forsaken and desolate.”

            Isaiah 14:22 RSV:

I will rise up against them,’ says the Lord of hosts, ‘and will cut off from Babylon name and remnant, offspring and posterity,’ says the Lord. 

 

From 14:1 we know that this is in connection with the promise to Israel of restoration.  The fact that Isaiah’s prophecies were literally fulfilled makes them an example for later generations.[1] 

            It was in Babylon that the synagogue system of worship sprang up which was in fact a man-made solution to their alienation from the Temple and the land, a way to side-step God’s wrath and work out their own salvation.  It was in many ways a rival system to the Temple worship as ordained in the Law and the synagogue system was known as “Babylon” to the faithful remnant that returned to Judea.  This synagogue system spread throughout the world wherever the Jews had communities, and indeed was a convenient way to maintain a sense of identity wherever their trade routes made dispersion profitable.  In these communities intermarriage with those who had some memory or tradition of descent from Israel, as well as proselytes among the other “Gentiles” altered both their racial makeup and their religion.  The doctrine of expediency quickly gained control of the interpretation of the Law.

            These synagogue communities set the pattern for the “Judaism” that has existed to this day.  The idea of dual citizenship made it possible to be both a ‘Roman’ and a ‘Jew‘ at the same time.  By this ruse, they could hide their identity by claiming to be whichever was safest or most profitable for the moment.  If they wished to be called ‘Jews’ they took that name; if not, they could immediately be Romans, Egyptians, Persians, Germans, Spaniards, or whatever.

            Today, they can hide their nationality behind their religion or their religion behind their nationality.  It is significant that many “Jews” take another name as citizens of “Israel,” which is only another means of hiding their identity and becoming either fish or fowl, as the situation warrants.  Christ saw through these facades when He said: 

Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees which is hypocrisy.  Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. (Luke 12:1-2 RSV) 

Truly, Babylon means ‘confusion,’ a means of deliberate deception.

            In the first century, when the book of Revelation was written, Jerusalem was a double city which was about to split into two, just as the community had been divided previously when the faithful remnant was called out of Babylon.  In New Testament times the Christians were the faithful remnant and the Pharisees had become Babylon, warring against Christianity, trying to put them in bondage to the Law, and literally slaughtering them physically.

            As the secular rulers of the City and Judea, as well as the religious authorities in the Temple and the synagogues, they had made the literal City and all Judea into “Babylon”.  Just as the prophets of old had warned the faithful remnant to flee from Babylon, the Christians were called out of the fallen Jerusalem.

            There is no other Biblically significant event of the first century that could come anywhere near qualifying as the “fall of Babylon” other than the fall of Jerusalem.  Indeed, since the prophecy had been recorded, it was essential that the fulfillment also be recorded Biblically.  This was the justification for the canonization as Scripture of the entire New Testament.

            Many of the passages in Revelation chapters 17, 18, and 19 have direct referents in the prophecies against Jerusalem and Judah in the Old Testament.  Many more refer to the “Daughter of Babylon” or the “Daughter of Zion.”[2]

Lamentations 4:11 RSV:  The Lord gave full vent to his wrath, he poured out his hot anger; and he kindled a fire in Zion, which consumed its foundations.

            The most telling of all to the identity of Mystery Babylon is the theme of vengeance and wrath which ties together all of the prophecies of wrath and vengeance in the whole Bible, but especially those regarding Jerusalem, Judah and Babylon.  Jesus had foretold that the destruction of Jerusalem would be a time of “great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be,” (Matt. 24:21, with reference to Daniel 12:1).  Josephus reports:

That neither did any other city ever suffer such miseries, nor did any age ever breed a generation more fruitful in wickedness than this was, from the beginning of the world (Wars 5.10.5).[3]

            Just as the terms ‘Israel’, ‘Jerusalem’, ‘Jew’, and ‘Zion’, etc. become translated into higher and better concepts in the New Testament, so did the term ‘Babylon‘, take on a broader, symbolic meaning.  Such changes in meaning and usage are the very heart of the life of language.  (See Commentary at 11:8 “Jerusalem, a Double City.”)

 

IDENTIFYING ‘MYSTERY BABYLON

            Mystery Babylon must be identified by the Scriptures if we are to make any sense of the book of Revelation.  She can be positively identified by the description given her in chapter 17 in the context of the New Testament, which in turn interprets Old Testament Scriptures.  Understanding is impossible if one ignores New Testament definitions of Old Testament concepts, for example of ‘Jew’, ‘Israel’, ‘Jerusalem’, ‘Zion’, etc.

            Knowledge of the historical context also helps to identify Mystery Babylon.  We have histories of the Roman Empire as well as the accounts by Josephus of the wars that transpired in Judea and culminated in the destruction of Jerusalem.  Although the “Jews” despise Josephus since that time, his histories have withstood critical examination as to their authenticity.  From other secular histories we can learn that the prophecies of Christ were indeed literally fulfilled in the realm of time, although not every detail of secular history has survived.  We also have some context for the book in the folk writings and rabbinical material from that period which helps to identify the symbols as the original recipients of the prophecy understood them.

            The only candidate for Babylon the Great that fits the historical, Biblical and literary context is Jerusalem, – more specifically, the Jerusalem that had fallen into whoredom against God and bondage to the Law, that had  usurped political power, that had joined herself to the power of Rome and that had prided herself on her fleshly relationship to Abraham.


[1] Promises of re-gathering of Israel after the Babylonian captivity: Isaiah 27:12-13; 54:7; Jeremiah 29:13-14; 31:7-10; 32:37; Ezek. 11:17; Mic. 2:12; 4:6-7; Zeph. 3:19; Hosea 1:11.

[2] For example: “Daughter of Babylon“: Isaiah 47:1; Jeremiah 51:33; Zech. 2:7; “Daughter of Zion”: Psalm 9:14; Isaiah 1:8; 4:4; 10:32; 37:22; 52:2; etc.

[3] The famine that resulted from the siege of Jerusalem caused so many deaths that they could not bury them, (Wars, 5.13.7).  The deaths from the civil war were so great in the space round about the temple, that it was compared to a cemetery, (6.2.3).

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