The Chapel Light - June 2009

Let’s talk about a few more interpretive keys to the book of Revelation.  (You may want to have a Bible in front of you to follow this article.)  The last thing John sees in Revelation 16 is the fall of the city of Babylon.  I can imagine that there were all sorts of noise and clouds of dust (recall the fall of the World Trade Center on 9/11!) in the vision.  As the dust settles, one of the angels who had been pouring the vials of God’s wrath emerges to talk with John.  Note the way John’s description is structured (Revelation 17:1-6). One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and talked with me ...  ... saying “Come, I will show you ... ”  ... the judgment of the great harlot ... So he carried me away in the Spirit ...  ... into the wilderness ... And I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast ...  ... and on her forehead a name was written: Mystery, Babylon the Great ... Now turn to Revelation 21:9ff and notice the similar structure. Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and talked to me ...  ... saying, “Come, I will show you ... ”  ... the bride, the Lamb’s wife ... And he carried me away in the Spirit ...  ... to a great and high mountain ... And he showed me the great city ...  ... the holy Jerusalem ... These similarities are not an accident.  They are an invitation to compare and contrast the two situations; the sections are related.  Thus, the next large section in the outline of Revelation is 17:1 – 22:5 (at least, or possibly to the very end of the book; the end of the section is a minor consideration), and is a contrast between two women who represent two cities.     Note that in each section John is invited to see a woman, and in both cases that woman is also a city.  First, John is taken to a deserted wilderness and sees a raucous prostitute riding a seven-headed, ten-horned beast (to whom we were already introduced in Revelation 13).  The woman’s name is Babylon and she is drunk with the blood of martyred followers of Jesus (17:6), i.e. she is a city that loved to put followers of Jesus to death.  By contrast, the second woman John views from a high mountain; she is a pure and spotless bride coming down from heaven, and her name is (New) Jerusalem.  Filthy prostitute ... pure bride.  Mystery Babylon ... NEW Jerusalem.  Killer of the followers of Jesus ... Home of the followers of Jesus.  We are not supposed to simply observe these things.  The very structure invites us to relate the women/cities to one another, to contrast them, to note their relationship to one another.     The angel gives John clues about the identities of the characters in the vision.  The seven heads of the beast are seven mountains; they are also seven kings – one which “is” – which means he was ruling during John’s time.  The city on seven hills and the king who “is” would seem to identify the beast as Rome, famous in the ancient world as the city on the seven hills, and a Roman emperor ruled during John’s time.  But if the beast is Rome, who is the woman that sits on the beast, i.e. that is supported by Rome?  Again, John is given a clue: she is a city that, with Rome, persecutes Christian believers, and she is eventually the victim of the beast herself.  Thus, she is a city that is eventually destroyed by Rome.  So what city might that be? Going further, this prostitute is contrasted (replaced) by a pure and faithful bride – the NEW Jerusalem.  If the bride replaces the prostitute (as the explicit contrast encourages), and the bride is the NEW Jerusalem (cf. 21:2) – then who might the unfaithful prostitute Babylon be?  (Hint: see Revelation 11:8 where she is called by the names of other wicked and unfaithful cities, and 1 Peter 5:13 where Peter uses an interesting code name to speak of the city from which he is writing).     John is given some clues about the identity of the New Jerusalem.  She is the bride of Christ (21:9).  Her foundation is the apostles (21:14).  She is a Jerusalem without a temple, that doesn’t need a temple, because God and the Lamb dwell within her (21:22).  So who is this New Jerusalem who is the bride of Christ?     So what conclusions might we draw about these two women, these two cities?  Why are they depicted as they are?  What is the theological message being sent by the vision to John to give to the persecuted churches of his day?     Finally, did you notice that John introduces the New Jerusalem twice (21:9 and 21:1-2)?  Why is that?  We’ll talk about that unusual little twist in next month’s Scrip ...