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§17 The Seventh Bowl: The Final Destruction of Babylon (Rev. 16:17–17:18)

The horrors of the seventh bowl plague share in the symbolic significance of Revelation’s number seven: they represent in some sense the conclusion or completion of God’s judgment against evil in accord with God’s plan of salvation. The extended narrative of God’s wrath poured from the seventh bowl not only indicates that God’s battle against evil is at long last completed—It is done! It also spells out more fully the character of the anti-Christian kingdom that God has overcome.

The setting of this scene is the mythic city-state, Babylon. While a map of ancient Rome may help us recognize the city John envisions, Babylon is actually the “global village” of godless power, which determines daily life for every person at any time in human history. The description of Babylon and its punishment is an impression of social evil and its destiny. As such, Babylon is the counterpart of the new Jerusalem, the symbol of the eschatological community where divine blessing is finally found.

Several features of Babylon’s fall are of significance in Revelation’s understanding of the anti-Christian kingdom. While we will take each feature up in turn for analysis, two are most striking and deserve special mention. First, it is clear that Babylon’s ruler, the beast, is responsible for his and Babylon’s demise (cf. 17:8–16). Whether or not this vision predicts Rome’s fall is unimportant; its critical purpose is to transmit timeless truth about the structures and ruling elite of the social order in any age. Secular power always corrupts the powerful and any who submit to anti-Christian norms and values. While injustice and even suffering are sometimes the result of rejecting the secular for the sacred, and while suffering heaped upon injustice may wear down the faithful and open them to compromise, the ultimate reality is this: secular power brings destruction upon itself. To lose one’s life by resisting the norms and values of the anti-Christian kingdom and its rulers is actually to gain life; and the “real world” is the kingdom of God since it is the kingdom left standing at the end of the age.

Second, the dehumanizing values that characterize the evil empire are more clearly in view in this narrative than anywhere else in John’s vision. The grief of those who lament the fall of Babylon (18:9–19) is centered not upon the loss of human life but upon the loss of the city and its great wealth. According to Revelation, at the foundation of evil’s self-destruction is its love and concern for Mammon and self rather than for God and neighbor. Perhaps implicit in this narrative is this conviction: if the people of God abandon the gospel for the seductions of worldliness, then the global village itself is lost to the self-corrupting influences of its own rulers and social institutions. Of course, John’s apocalyptic view of society is rather fatalistic: without the presence of God’s people, who now stand outside the city (cf. 15:2), Babylon the Great is doomed to destruction.

16:17–21 / Prologues introduce stories; they provide readers with clues that guide them to intended meanings found within the story world. Thus, when the seventh angel pours out his bowl into the air, the resulting apocalyptic storm provides a perspective on the collapse of Babylon, the story of which is told in 17:1–19:10.

Everything John writes down describes finality, beginning with the loud voice that announces “It is done!” Of various natural phenomena that confirm God’s edict on earth, the most devastating is the severe earthquake unlike any that has ever occurred since man has been on earth. The earthquake carries symbolic significance as an eschatological clue: in OT and intertestamental writings, earthquakes signal the apocalypse of God’s final judgment (cf. Isa. 13:9–13; 24:17–20; Hag. 2:6–7; T. Levi 3:9). Further, this hailstorm suggests that God’s judgment concludes what the first great hailstorm helped to announce (Rev. 11:19): God has triumphed through the exalted lamb.

In this case, God’s eschatological judgment is exacted especially on the great city … Babylon the Great, the center of secular power. The city is destroyed—split into three parts—as the recipient of a cup filled with the … fury of God’s wrath (cf. 14:8). It is the contents of this eschatological cup that John is now prepared to describe in detail.

John provides two additional clues that help measure the totality of the city’s destruction. First, the earthquake has devastated the very ground on which Babylon is built; islands … and mountains, a complete geophysical reality, are leveled into a plain. Second, the people of Babylon curse God, because the plague of hail was so terrible. Without the protection provided by Babylon’s buildings or nature, its citizens are exposed to God’s horrific wrath, symbolized by the huge hailstones of about a hundred pounds each (cf. Rev. 11:19; Josh. 10:11; Ezek. 38:18–22). The impression left by John’s description of the devastating earthquake concerns not so much the completeness of God’s triumph over evil as its inevitability. At this point, then, the obdurate people can only curse God—a final act of resignation to the Lord’s sovereignty and God’s certain punishment of them.

17:1–2 / Within the framework of Revelation, the vision of Babylon’s prostitute and her punishment functions as part of an extended footnote (17:1–19:10) that describes the contents of “the cup filled with the wine of the fury” of God’s wrath (16:19b). Its complexity and even confusion have led some to question John’s sources (cf. Beasley-Murray, Revelation, pp. 249–50). However, this betrays a failure to read the story as a wonderfully crafted “mystery,” in agreement with the clue provided by the angelic interlocutor (17:7). Thus, John’s “astonishment” upon seeing the gaudy whore (17:6b), followed by the astonishment expressed by “the inhabitants of the earth” at the reappearance of the beast (17:8) are actually proper responses to this vision that every competent reader, insider or outsider, should share.

Indeed, John’s conversation with one of the seven angels concerning the punishment of the great prostitute (17:1) evokes a considerable degree of suspense in the reader as the angel reveals one clue after another, until finally it provides John with the shocking conclusion: “the beast and the ten horns … will bring her to ruin … and burn her with fire” (17:16).

What is so shocking about the story’s climax is that the powers of the anti-Christian kingdom engage each other in a self-defeating civil war! One suspects the readers are more familiar with the prior picture of the demise of evil that John draws: “the Lamb will overcome them because he is Lord of lords and King of kings” (17:14). That is, evil’s demise comes from outside of the social order—from heaven where truth and righteousness have already triumphed. In the punishment of the prostitute, however, evil turns upon itself in order to “accomplish God’s purpose” (17:17). For all its short-term intoxications, society’s seduction by the idols of secular materialism will lead to the destruction of the inhabitants of the earth.

An angelic messenger, identified only as one of the seven … who had the seven bowls, bids John to Come into the visionary world to witness the punishment of the great prostitute. The opening formula, Come, I will show you, is used again in 21:9 to introduce John to “the bride, the wife of the Lamb.” This common formula suggests that John sees a contrast between the prostitute and the bride. We found this same contrast implicit in 14:1–5, where John sets forth the conditions of Christian discipleship. There is a sense in which this vision about the prostitute prepares the reader for the vision of the Bride, the new Jerusalem, which will conclude Revelation. John’s pastoral perspective is made clearer in arranging his visions in this way; he is concerned that the believer not be intoxicated with the wine of the prostitute’s adulteries (cf. 14:4a) and therefore be disqualified from the 144,000, who constitute the faithful Bride of the Lamb (cf. 14:3b).

The angel also locates the prostitute in a specific place, on many waters, keeping company with the kings … and the inhabitants of the earth. The precise identification of the vision’s various participants is delayed until the conclusion, when we discover the harlot is actually Babylon and the company she keeps actually hates her and will help destroy her. The waters on which they have convened their orgy no doubt allude to the geographical location of ancient Babylon (cf. Jer 51:13), even though the “spin” John gives his description of mythic Babylon derives from ancient Rome and its ruling elite (Boring, Revelation, pp. 179–83).

It would be a mistake in our view to take adulteries literally as “sexual impurity” (contra Morris, Revelation, p. 198). Rather, John uses a prophetic typology to cast religious apostasy as sexual infidelity (cf. Hos. 2:5; Nah. 3:4; Isa. 23:16–17; Jer. 2:20–31; 13:27; Ezek. 16:15–19; Caird, Revelation, pp. 212–13). What disqualifies Babylon’s citizens from the eschatological community is their refusal to acknowledge God as sovereign creator (16:9, 11, 21; cf. Rom. 1:19–21).

17:3–6a / Having accepted the angel’s invitation to witness the prostitute’s punishment, John is transported into the visionary world of Babylon by the Spirit (cf. 1:10; 4:2; 21:10). Rather than viewing the prostitute from close by “on many waters,” John is carried … into a desert, where he is better able to scrutinize her from a distance and where he lives in solidarity with the messianic community (cf. 12:6, 14). Unlike the desert region where the faithful were protected by God (12:6, 14), however, this stark and isolated place is “an appropriate setting for a vision of judgment” (Mounce, Revelation, p. 308). The evils of the prostitute will not distort or interrupt his view of her from there.

John first sees the evil woman sitting on a scarlet beast, clothed in garments of imperial purple and scarlet in contrast to the bride’s simple apparel of “fine linen, bright and clean” (19:8a). Because the bride’s linen symbolizes “the righteous acts of the saints” (19:8b), the prostitute’s contrasting clothes no doubt symbolize her contrasting deeds of unrighteousness. She is also bejewelled with gold, precious stones and pearls in contrast to the even greater riches that adorn the heavenly Jerusalem, the Bride of the Lamb (cf. 21:19–21). While the harlot personifies wealth and power, the seat of her splendor, the scarlet beast, is linked by its red color to the “enormous red dragon” (12:3), Satan (cf. Morris, Revelation, p. 202). Her influence is unquestionably demonic. Thus, the golden cup in her hand (cf. Jer. 51:7) contains abominable things (cf. 18:6) and filth (cf. Caird, Revelation, p. 214), which intoxicated her with the blood of the martyred saints. The contents of her golden cup are thereby contrasted with the heavenly golden bowls which hold “the prayers of the saints” (cf. 5:8). These various contrasts portend another ultimate contrast: for all the brilliance of her appearance, the prostitute’s destiny is destruction rather than salvation. Indeed, we know already that the third woe culminates with God’s vindication of the martyred saints (cf. 16:5–6).

17:6b–8 / John’s astonishment at the spectacle of the evil woman causes the angel to query him: Why are you astonished? The question is rhetorical, and the angel proceeds to explain the mystery of the woman and of the beast she rides, adding mystery to mystery. The angel speaks initially only of the beast, … which once was, now is not, and yet will come—a riddle whose language reflects the well-known “Nero redivivus” legend that the infamous Nero would be resurrected by the Evil One and return to earth as Anti-Christ (cf. 13:3–4; Caird, Revelation, pp. 215–19; Charles, Revelation, vol. 2, pp. 67–72). The phrase is also similar in structure to the creedal formula John earlier used for God (cf. 1:4). By this, some have argued that John intends to contrast the beast’s identity, whose power is satanic and temporary, with God, whose power is redemptive and eternal. In any case, the angel delays giving its cipher for the riddle until 17:9–11.

The angel speaks first of two stages that comprise the beast’s future: the beast … will come out of the Abyss and go to his destruction (cf. 9:1; 11:7). Its source is evil; whenever the beast arises from its home, it comes to destroy. Ironically, however, the way of the beast, which intends to corrupt and destroy others, ends in self-destruction rather than in “grace and shalom” which is the way of Christ (cf. 1:4). Perhaps the greater irony is that the inhabitants of earth, whose sinfulness refuses God’s grace and shalom, continue to be fascinated by evil power, which will ultimately destroy them.

17:9–11 / The appeal to wisdom was used before in 13:18 to solve the political significance of another cryptogram for Roman rule, the number “666.” Most would argue that the angel makes it rather easy for any reader to solve this riddle. Rome was well-known as the city built on seven hills; thus, most would recognize the seven-headed beast the woman rides as Rome. Yet, surely John’s shift to a more literal image of secular power does not intend to deny its symbolic power. In fact, the number seven might carry symbolic meaning for completeness, and hills might draw upon the OT where it stands for political power (cf. Jer. 51:25). Thus, rather than referring to Rome, John may well intend to speak of all political kingdoms—a general reference which calls for wisdom (Mounce, Revelation, p. 314).

In any case, John is not engaging in a polemic against ancient Rome; rather, Rome is the current and best example of mythic Babylon, of secular power that characterizes every other place of human existence. Moreover, the Caesars—past, present and future—are simply the recent exemplars of those ruling elite that have continued to conduct Satan’s business in the sociopolitical order. In this sense, while the angel’s second interpretation of the beast’s seven heads as meaning seven kings may well have the reign of first-century Caesars in mind from Tiberius to Domitian as many have speculated (cf. Schüssler Fiorenza, Revelation, pp. 41–42), it is our preference to take the angel’s cipher as a timeless metaphor for secular rule. Any historical construction of John’s comment is fraught with enormous difficulty; and he has consistently employed seven as a symbol of totality or completion. The addition of an eighth king would seem to indicate that there will always be a ruling elite, bent on evil, governing Babylon—at least for a little while. In that the meaning of the beast in verse 8 seems to refer to ruling elite of the anti-Christian kingdom, John’s purpose is not to confuse but to collapse king and kingdom as equal parts of a common reality.

It is significant in our view that there is a terminus ad quem. Eternality belongs to God, and thus to “grace and shalom.” The beast’s reign of terror has limited duration and can not continue beyond that final moment of his destruction, which is ordained by God “from the creation of the world.”

17:12–14 / The angel’s interpretation of the beast’s ten horns continues the essential thrust of the previous cipher. Like “mountain,” the animal’s horn is a familiar OT symbol for authority or power (cf. Dan. 7:7, 24) and in Revelation for satanic power (cf. 12:3). The ten kings who have not yet received a kingdom may refer back, as Beasley-Murray recommends, to the “kings from the East” who exercise their authority outside the borders of Babylon (16:12, 16; Revelation, p. 258). If this is correct, then we understand why it is that “the beast and the ten horns” (17:16) will finally turn against Babylon’s whore, whose only influence lies within the city’s borders.

Although they have one purpose and will give their … authority to the beast, the authority of the beast’s confederacy lasts only one hour (cf. 18:10, 17, 19) “for the Antichrist himself speedily goes to perdition” (17:11; Beasley-Murray, Revelation, p. 258). While these clues do not add much to John’s understanding of the mystery, the angel does provide a compressed definition of the beast’s terminus ad quem: the beast and ten kings will make war against the Lamb, which the Lamb quickly wins because he is Lord of lords and King of kings (cf. 19:11–21). The faithful followers who accompany the Lamb do so not to fight but to witness his destruction of the beast and its royal liege. Because only true disciples follow the Lamb “wherever he goes” (14:4), they share in his triumph as well as in his suffering.

17:15–18 / The angel is now prepared to show John what it promised to him at the outset: the prostitute’s identity as well as her punishment. With these last clues the mystery is solved. The final clue provides the identity of the woman: she is the great city, Babylon, which rules over the kings of the earth. This should startle the reader, since she is brought to ruin, left naked, her flesh eaten, and burned with fire by those very kings over which she now rules! They have deceived her, for they really belong to the beast (cf. 17:13). The destiny of the anti-God kingdom is self-destruction.

The vocabulary used to describe the prostitute’s punishment in verse 16 alludes to the OT story of two whoring sisters, Oholah and Oholibah, found in Ezekiel 23. John draws upon this typology to interpret and write down the climax of his vision for his readers. Ezekiel employs the story as a typology of Israel’s idolatry (Ezek. 23:48–49); accordingly, the two sisters represent Israel. They become prostitutes in Egypt, giving themselves with increasing lewdness to the ruling elite of Israel’s various enemies (Ezek. 23:1–21). In disgust, the Lord first provoked their lovers and ex-lovers to disfigure them (Ezek. 23:22–27), and then the Lord handed them over to their hated enemies to leave them “naked,” to kill their sons and daughters, and to “burn down” their houses with fire (Ezek. 23:28–47).

For John, Ezekiel’s oracle comprises God’s words, which are fulfilled in the new situation inaugurated by the slain Lamb. In this sense, it provides a theological frame to understand the angel’s vision of the prostitute and evil’s self-destruction. John states it sharply: evil destroys evil, so that God can accomplish his purpose. The dualism of Christian apocalypticism is theocentric and ironical. Even as the sisters’ illicit lovers became agents of God’s punishment, so also the great prostitute’s satanic lovers turn on her, performing on God’s behalf what God had promised: the destruction of the evil dominion she represents.

But there is a caveat behind John’s use of Ezekiel 23: recall that the two whoring sisters represent apostate Israel, who is punished because of idolatry. By way of analogy, the story of the prostitute could be the story of an unfaithful church, whose destiny is destruction if it fails to repent and keep itself pure (cf. Rev. 2:20–23), and to follow the Lamb wherever he goes.