Prostitute Riding the Scarlet Beast (Part 1)

Brief Background

For those who are just joining us, we are working our way through the book of Revelation. John the son of Zebedee was in exile on the isle of Patmos. Yeshua was revealed to him there, and John was commanded to write to seven communities in Asia Minor (modern day Turkey).

Last week we have discussed the Seventh Bowl of Wrath, and today we begin to talk about the Prostitute riding the Scarlet Beast. We also read the first few verses of Rev. 17 because I wanted to show that the sentencing of the great prostitute is directly connected to the Seventh Bowl.

Today we will read the entirety of Chapter 17, but will then focus in on the first few attributes.

Let’s go ahead and read, Rev. 17 .

Revelation 17 TLV

Then one of the seven angels holding the seven bowls came and spoke with me, saying, “Come, I will show you the sentencing of the great prostitute, who sits on many waters. The earth’s kings committed sexual immorality with her, and those who dwell on the earth got drunk with the wine of her immorality.” So he carried me away in the Ruach into a wilderness, and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous names and had seven heads and ten horns. The woman was clothed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls. She was holding a golden cup in her hand full of detestable things and the filth of her immorality, and on her forehead was written a name, a mystery: “Babylon the Great, the mother of prostitutes and the detestable things of the earth.” And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the kedoshim and with the blood of the witnesses of Yeshua. When I saw her, I was totally astounded. But the angel said to me, “Why are you astonished? I will tell you the mystery of the woman and of the beast that carries her, which has the seven heads and ten horns. The beast that you saw was, and is not, and yet is about to rise up from the abyss and head for destruction. Those who dwell on the earth—whose names have not been written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world—will be astonished when they see the beast, because he was and is not and is to come. “This calls for a mind having wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman is seated. They are also seven kings— five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come; and when he comes, he must remain a little while. The beast that was and is not—he himself is the eighth, and is one of the seven, and is heading for destruction. The ten horns that you saw are ten kings who have not yet received royal power, but receive authority as kings with the beast for one hour. These kings are of one mind, and they give their power and authority to the beast. They will make war against the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them—because He is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those with Him are called and chosen and faithful.” Then he tells me, “The waters that you saw, where the prostitute is seated, are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues. The ten horns that you saw, and the beast—these will hate the prostitute. They will make her desolate and naked, and devour her flesh and burn her up with fire. For God has put it into their hearts to do His will, and to be of one mind, and to give their royal power to the beast until the words of God are fulfilled. And the woman that you saw is the great city exercising kingship over the kings of the earth.”

The Mother of Prostitutes

No matter which way we read this passage, we have to acknowledge that this vision is symbolic. The good news is that the angel tells John what the different symbols represent.

There are three basic characters, The Great Prostitute, the Scarlet Beast and the Kings and People of the Earth. If I was to list out all of the descriptions of each it would look like this:

Great Prostitute

Sits on Beast & by many waters

Clothed in purple & scarlet

Adorned with gold, precious stones & pearls

Holds golden cup of immorality

Name written on forehead

Drunk with blood of martyrs

Scarlet Beast

Full of blasphemous names

Seven heads

Ten horns

Was, is not, about to rise up from abyss

Kings and People of the Earth

Committed sexual immorality with her

Become drunk with the wine of her immorality

Names not written in the Book of Life

Peoples, multitudes, nations & tongues

Angel’s Definitions

Each time I started typing, I found myself having to go back and provide more definitions. So instead I have decided to provide all the definitions first, and then we can go into the discussion of other Scriptures, historical context, interpretations throughout history, and practical application.

For simplicity, I am going to follow the outline that I have just presented.

The Great Prostitute is a city, “the great city exercising kingship over the kings of the earth.” Rev. 17:18

To sit on Beast represents both a familiarity with the Beast, but also a distinction.

The Many Waters are “peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues.” Rev. 17:15

To be clothed in purple & scarlet is synonymous with wealth. Both colours were very difficult to come by, and were therefore very expensive.

Adorned with gold, precious stones & pearls refers also to the wealth of this city.

The golden cup of immorality has been referred to many times, and is the sum of all the wickedness and sinfulness of the people.

The name written on forehead explains that this city is, “Babylon the Great, the mother of prostitutes and the detestable things of the earth.” Rev. 17:5b

To be drunk with blood of kedoshim and the martyrs is a reference to the lust for violence especially directed toward the followers of Yeshua.

The Scarlet Beast is directly related to the beast of Beast of the Sea in Rev. 13:1-8 as well as the fourth Beast in Dan. 7:7-8 . The Beast represents the final world empire.

Full of blasphemous names is similar to Rev. 13:1 where the Beast has many slanderous names. Also, since blasphemy and slander are both spoken, we see a similarity with Dan. 7:8 where the mouth speaks boastfully.

The seven heads represent kingdoms. Specifically we are told in Rev. 17:9-10 that they are seven mountains. Mountains in prophetic literature represents kingdoms ruled by a king. We are told that five of these kingdoms have fallen, one is in existence, and one has not yet come.

Ten horns refer to specific rulers. We will read the passage from Rev. 13 and Dan. 7 in just a minute to see just how similar these descriptions are. What we are told in Rev. 17:12-14 is that these 10 kings are subordinate to the Beast, they give their power and authority to the Beast

Was, is not, about to rise up from abyss. The Scarlet Beast is the eighth kingdom, but is a resurrected kingdom that comes from the previous kingdoms. Rev. 17:11

Kings and People of the Earth represent the rest of the unbelieving world that are not a part of the 10 kings mentioned.

The world will commit sexual immorality and idolatry with this great city.

Become drunk with the wine of her immorality. There will be great wealth to be made, and great power to be had throughout the world. It will be and intoxicating city.

Since their names were not written in the Book of Life, there is still a distinction between followers of Yeshua and the rest of the world.

Peoples, multitudes, nations & tongues will flock to this city. It will be the bucket list place for all people.

Other Scriptures

To gain a broader understanding of this passage let us now read Rev. 13:1-8 and Dan. 7:7-8.

Revelation 13:1–8 TLV

Then I saw a beast rising out of the sea, that had ten horns and seven heads. On his horns were ten royal crowns, and upon his heads were slanderous names. Now the beast that I saw was like a leopard, his feet like a bear’s, and his mouth like a lion’s. And the dragon gave him his power and his throne and great authority. One of his heads seemed to have been slain, but the fatal wound was healed. The whole earth was amazed and followed the beast. And they worshiped the dragon, because he had given authority to the beast. They also worshiped the beast, chanting, “Who is like the beast, and who can make war against him?” The beast was given a mouth uttering great boasts and blasphemies. It was given authority to act for forty-two months. Then he opened his mouth with blasphemies against God, to slander His name and His tabernacle—that is, those dwelling in heaven. He was also permitted to make war against the kedoshim and overcome them, and he was given authority over every tribe and people and tongue and nation. All who dwell on the earth shall worship him—everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the Book of Life of the Lamb who was slain.

Daniel 7:7–8 TLV

“After this in my vision at night, I looked and behold there was a fourth beast—terrifying, frightening, tremendously strong, with large iron teeth. It devoured and crushed—and anything that was left it trampled with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that came before it; it had ten horns. “While I was pondering the horns, behold, another horn, a small one, sprang up between them, and three of the first horns were uprooted from before it. And behold, this horn had eyes resembling human eyes and a mouth speaking boastfully.

In Rev. 13:2 we see that this final empire will be a composite of all the previous empires. It is “like a leopard, his feet like a bear’s, and his mouth like a lion’s”; all of these descriptions are similar to the different empires listed in Dan. 7 where the typical understanding is that they represent the Babylonian, Medo-Persian and Greek empires. The fourth beast in Dan. 7:7-8 is distinguished from the other empires. Many commentators think that this fourth beast is Rome, but I happen to think that it is bigger than Rome.

The reason for this is that John is told that the seven heads represent seven kingdoms. The description of these kingdoms is as follows:

Five have fallen;

One is;

The other (the 7th) has not yet come, when he comes he must remain for a little while;

The eighth kingdom, the Scarlet Beast, is one of the seven and is headed for destruction.

There are a variety of different explanations for the five that have fallen. There is the historic approach, where the five kings represent five different Roman emperors. The difficulty is that we do not exactly know which emperor was alive at the time of the writing of Revelation. It was probably Domitian, but he was the twelfth emperor, so it does not quite add up.

Another approach is to look at the numbers completely symbolically. Some reason for this would be as follows:

Word Biblical Commentary, Volume 52C: Revelation 17–22 (Comment)

(a) Seven, a symbolic number widely used in the ancient world, occurs fifty-three times in Revelation to reflect the divine arrangement and design of history and the cosmos. The enumeration of just seven kings, therefore, suggests the propriety of a symbolic rather than a historical interpretation.

(b) The seven heads of the beast, first interpreted as seven hills and then as seven kings, is based on the archaic mythic tradition of the seven-headed dragon widely known in the ancient world. Since the author is working with traditional material, this again suggests that precisely seven kings should be interpreted symbolically.

(c) Rome, founded in 753 B.C. according to Varro, was an Etruscan monarchy until the expulsion of the last Etruscan king, Tarquinius Superbus, in 508 B.C. From the perspective of canonical Roman tradition, there were exactly seven kings in all.

Another approach is to see the kings are representative of kingdoms. For instance, it could be Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, five empires of the world who at one point or another conquered and controlled Israel. However we are not specifically told that these are the nations.

The Empire that existed at John’s time, the one that “Is”, was the Roman Empire. So the next question is, “What is the seventh empire to rule the nation of Israel, the empire that had not yet come and would remain for a while?”

We have spoken of this before. I realise that many people believe that this 7th Empire was the Holy Roman Empire, the Western leg of the Roman Empire. However I disagree. I believe that the next empire to conquer the world was actually the Islamic Kingdom (or Caliphate in Arabic) which conquered all of the Eastern Roman Empire, the land of Israel, all of North Africa, and most of Spain and Greece. This empire did not end until the end of WW1, where the Light Horsemen of Australia helped liberate the land of Israel from the Ottoman Empire, the last of the Islamic Empires.

The eighth kingdom will be a revival of one or all of the previous empires. This final empire will include the majority of the land mass of all the previous empires that have been mentioned. But does that mean that the Anti-Messiah does not rule the entire world?

Interpretation of Mountains

Here in Rev. 17:9 “The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman is seated.” Some of your translations may have that that the seven heads are seven “hills”, however that is more a demonstration of translator bias then it is consistent. What I mean is that Rome was known to be situated on seven hills, and there are coins from that time that show the goddess Roma seated on those seven hills. This could be an allusion to that, however, the Greek word used, ore, is translated as “hills” only in this place in Revelation. In the seven other places in Revelation where the word, ore, is used it is translated as “Mountain.”

“Mountain” makes more sense from a prophetic point of view. For instance in Isa. 2:2 see a reference to Israel as a mountain being set above other nations.

Isaiah 2:2 TLV

It will come to pass in the last days that the mountain of Adonai’s House will stand firm as head of the mountains and will be exalted above the hills. So all nations will flow to it.

Again in Jer. 51:25, a passage we read recently, we see that Adonai declared that he will bring judgement against Babylon, and he calls them the “destroyer of the Mount” which is a reference to the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem.

Another reference would be Dan. 2:35, the interpretation of the Dream of Nebuchadnezzar.

Daniel 2:35 TLV

Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were crushed together, and became like chaff from summer threshing-floors that the wind blows away. Not a trace of them could be found. Then the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.

Here we see that Adonai declares that He will establish His kingdom over the earth, and likens it to a great mountain. One final passage would be Zech. 4:6-7 which is a prophesy to the Ancestor of Yeshua, Zerubbabel.

Zechariah 4:6–7 TLV

Then he responded to me by saying, ‘This is the word of Adonai to Zerubbabel saying: “Not by might, nor by power, but by My Ruach!” says Adonai-Tzva’ot. “What are you, great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become a plain. He will bring out the capstone with shouts of “Grace, grace” to it.’ ”

In all of these cases, we see that the prophets refer to Kingdoms/Empires as mountains, and that is confirmed by the last words of Rev. 17:9 where it says “They are also seven kings.”

Application for Today

I need to end there for today, but we will pick up from here next week. Rav. Sha’ul, where he speaks of the Day of Adonai. I want to close with an encouragement that Yeshua gave to His Talmidim on the night that he was betrayed. Yeshua said, Jn. 13:34-35

John 13:34–35 TLV

“I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, so also you must love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

He continued and said, Jn. 14:1-3

John 14:1–3 TLV

“Do not let your heart be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in Me. In My Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to Myself, so that where I am you may also be.

Therefore I want to encourage you all, that in spite of all the perilous times that are prophesied in Revelation, and in spite of all the difficulties we are going through now, we are told:

Love one another as Yeshua loved us

Don’t be troubled by circumstances

Trust in God and in Yeshua

Yeshua is preparing a place for us to dwell