| The
Snyder Bible ArcCenter Back Uncloaked Home Next |
||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| REVELATION UNCLOAKED! | ||
| A scholarly yet prophetic commentary on every verse in The Revelation of Jesus Christ. | ||
| Module 4: The History of Babylon | ||
| Part 1: Revelation Chapter 17a: | ||
| The Whore of Babylon | ||
|
| Valeria Messalina, AD c.22-48, married Claudius, later Roman Emperor Claudius I, in 39 or 40. She bore him two children, Britannicus and Octavia. Extremely promiscuous, Messalina manipulated her husband into executing a number of those who rejected her advances or otherwise angered her, but she herself was executed after Claudius's secretary Narcissus informed the emperor of her secret marriage to Gaius Silius. CLICK ON PICTURE for more info. |
||
|
|
|
|
| Presented by J H Snyder,
M.Div. |
Rev 17:1-7,15-18 04.05 The Whore of Babylon Babylon the Great! 04.05.01 The Great Whore Rev 17:1,2,6 Rev 17:{1} Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, "Come, I will show you the judgment of the great whore who is seated on many waters, {2} with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and with the wine of whose fornication the inhabitants of the earth have become drunk." Rev 17:{6} And I saw that the woman was drunk with the blood of the saints and the blood of the witnesses to Jesus. When I saw her, I was greatly amazed. The seven bowls contain plagues of judgment that are poured out upon the earth by angels, as described in chapter 13. One angel of the bowls explains the vision of the Great Whore: She is seated on many waters, i.e. extensive is her fame, authority and power. "Seated" may also imply a sexual act. Indeed, she has been lascivious with many in authority. Harlotry is symbolic of idolatry; "sacred" prostitution was the norm for many pagan religions of that time and was practiced extensively in Rome, involving women, men, eunuchs and children. There is an important religious aspect to the symbol of the Whore. (In his drive for forced morality, Emperor Domitian banned homosexual practices and had several vestal virgins put to death on the grounds of adultery.) The "wine" has a double meaning here: (1) the drinking of the blood (wine) of the sex act, an occult practice well documented in the early Christian literature; and (2) the blood of the saints martyred by Rome, the "other children" of the woman of Rev 12 (:11). Not only have kings become drunk with both the foul wine and the holy wine, but all the people have participated in the imperial cult of Emperor worship and paganism. They have become drunk with false religion, perversion and murder. An important parallel may be drawn with Proverbs 7 in its comparison of the wise woman named Wisdom and the simple harlot of a few chapters later. Let us comparing the holy woman of Rev 12 with this great whore. 04.05.02 Mystery Babylon Rev 17:3-5 Rev 17:{3} So he carried me away in the spirit into a wilderness, and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous names, and it had seven heads and ten horns. {4} The woman was clothed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and jewels and pearls, holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her fornication; {5} and on her forehead was written a name, a mystery: "Babylon the great, mother of whores and of earth's abominations." John is carry away in the spirit again, and he finds himself in a "wilderness," which I described earlier as typically a place of demons, monsters, and dangerous wild beasts. Jesus himself was "driven" or "cast out" (ekballo, per Mark 1) into the wilderness; so was Paul (Galatians 1). John the Baptist ministered in such a place. Although Palestine is bordered by wilderness on the east, the word here designates a spiritual dessert: a place many of us know well. The Whore mounts a red horse. Some exegetes (like A. N. Wilson) see this as a sex act, which may well be the intended implication. The blasphemous names are those reserved for the Almighty, but stolen by the Emperor. ("Names" refer to imperial titles, which include "lord," "god," "god of god," etc.) They also may include the names of the Roman gods, considered demons by St. Paul. Seven heads and ten horns, once again, refer to the first seven Emperors and ten unnamed future kings which most of us understand in the light of contemporary politics to be the heads of the European Union. The Whore is rich beyond measure, possessing gold, jewels and pearls. She is attired in the robes of royalty. Her cup of abominations and impurities is golden. Upon her forehead there is a legend, a mark: “MYSTERY BABYLON.” Verse 5b may be translated in two ways: (1) like the NRSV above: the name itself is a mystery, or (2) "mystery” is part of the title; i.e. "The Great Mystery Babylon, mother of whores and of earth's abominations." In early Greek texts (written in lower case), this title has always been capitalized; quite unusual. I prefer the second translation, which is probably the more traditional one, and is still reflected in the KJV. Mysterion literally means "mystery;" but it is also synonymous with the word "cultic." Mysteries were religions with secret rites, handshakes, words, texts, etc. There were a multitude of "mysteries" in those days, including the Mystery Isis (imported from Egypt) and the Mystery Mithras (imported from Persia). So here is Mystery Babylon -- the cult of Babylon, Babylon still recognized today as the "mother" of all pagan religion. A contemporary mystery familiar to all is Freemasonry. The Christian church is not free of the mysterious. For example (and there are many examples), we "worship" Easter (Ishtar, Ashteroth), a Babylonian deity, with eggs and rabbits and all the trimmings, and we retain this pagan holiday in the church calendar. Babylon / Rome is the mother of pagan religion, as John recognized in his day. But we as believers still do not choose to recognize the paganism we retain. VALERIA MESSALINA PLAYS THE WHORE: The Whore is the caricature of the lecherous Valeria Messalina, the wife of emperor Claudius, who in depicted on engravings in a form similar to John's description in Rev 17:3ff. Messalina was 32 years younger than Claudius; his third of four wives. With her ascension to the throne (feeling secure in bearing Claudius his only heir), she set off on a killing spree that ended the lives of many distinguished senators. She is best remembered for her adultery with literally anyone and everyone, from senators to actors. Finally, she committed bigamy with one of her lovers. Claudius had Messalina executed for her crimes, but not before she became a symbol of Roman excess for generations to come. Her son and Claudius’ heir, Britannicus, was murdered by Nero. Nero married her daughter, Octavia. You may meet Valeria Messalina first hand in the motion picture The Robe, Part II. THE GODDESS OF ROME: Messalina was Rome the whore. In a spiritual sense, Rome always ruled its emperors. Dea Roma (Goddess Rome) was depicted on coins of the period riding on the seven hills. Her name was a "mystery" – if it were invoked she might be forced to leave her seat. But the solution to the mystery of her name is found in the Latin word for the city itself -- Roma. Love is the name of the goddess of the city of Rome. In Latin, the word amor means love, and amor is Roma spelled backwards. In the next verses we find that this is indeed the identity of the woman. She is Rome. 04.05.03 The Whore's End Rev 17:7,15-18 Rev 17:{7} But the angel said to me, "Why are you so amazed? I will tell you the mystery of the woman, and of the beast with seven heads and ten horns that carries her. {15} And he said to me, "The waters that you saw, where the whore is seated, are peoples and multitudes and nations and languages. {16} And the ten horns that you saw, they and the beast will hate the whore; they will make her desolate and naked; they will devour her flesh and burn her up with fire. {17} For God has put it into their hearts to carry out his purpose by agreeing to give their kingdom to the beast, until the words of God will be fulfilled. {18} The woman you saw is the great city that rules over the kings of the earth." "Peoples and multitudes and nations and languages" will yield their armies to the beastly Emperor to make war on the innocent. And the 10 kings of the future will hate the city and its king, since they are forced to surrender their power and authority and yield their kingships to her. As Fr. Sena observes, evil will "turn upon itself and destroy the harlot." This is Yahweh’s method of defeating large and powerful armies. He sends confusion, and the aggressor turns upon itself, as documented several times in the scripture and other quasi-biblical sources. Internal strife and civil war was business as usual in the days of the original Empire. The conquest of its capital city by its own semi-independent armies began as early as 82 BC, when Sulla captured Rome and had thousands of his opponents executed, continuing right up to the end of the Empire in 476 AD. As in the past, the idolatrous end-time Axis will consume itself. In summary, the Whore has been made to symbolize one world religion. But this is not necessarily the case. In fact, the Whore stands for the idolatry, which originated in the Dragon and is propagated by Rome and its Empire. As far as I know, the only religion outlawed by the early emperors in the first few centuries AD was Christianity. Anything else but the keeping of the commandments of God and the testimony of Jesus was not only permitted, but encouraged. But both Christianity and Judaism were understood in the mind of Rome as subversive atheism. Today one need not look to the mish mash of the New Age Movement to find paganism. The church calendar is made up primarily of pagan holidays mixed up with biblical Christianity that church people of all stripes, from UUs to UMCs to AOGs to SBAs, celebrate religiously. To name a few blatant pagan carry-overs: Christmas, with its trees and Santas, is paganism imported directly from both Rome and Germany. As mentioned above, Easter is nothing but the holy day of Ashteroth / Astarte, the Whore of Babylon, refined and polished up with a napkin from the empty tomb. Here in the south, Mardi Gras is the biggest "Christian" holiday of the year. Mardi Gras originated in the Greek Mysteries. The only groups I know today that are even attempting biblical religion (avoidance of paganism) are sabbatarian groups, Messianic Jews, "sacred name" groups, Adventists and Jehovah Witnesses. Shouldn't "the Church" shed the pagan trappings of the "Mother of Harlots" in order to observe the holy days that Jesus himself observed and commanded? |
||
|
|