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The Whore of Babylon is one of several Christian allegorical figures of supreme evil mentioned in the Book of Revelation in the Bible. The Whore is associated with the Antichrist and the Beast of Revelation by connection with an equally allegorical kingdom. The Whore's apocalyptic downfall is prophesied to take place in the hands of the beast with seven heads and ten horns. There is much speculation within all religious perspectives on what the Whore and Beast symbolize as well as the possible implications for contemporary interpretations.
[edit] SymbolismThe “great whore” of the biblical book of Revelation is featured in chapters 17 and 18. Many passages define symbolic meanings inherent in the text:
[edit] Identity
[edit] Rome and the Roman EmpireMany Bible scholars agree that "Babylon" is an allegory of Rome; perhaps specifically at the time to some aspect of Rome's rule (brutality, greed, paganism), or even a servant people that does the bidding of Rome. The Roman Catholic commentary of the Jerusalem Bible, the evangelical Protestant commentary of the New International Version Study Bible, the Rastafarians and the liberal Protestant commentary of the Oxford Annotated Study Bible all concur that "Babylon is the symbolic name for Rome" and that (1st century) "Rome" is the "type of place where evil is supreme" (Jerusalem Bible, commentary to Rev. 17). Elsewhere in the New Testament, in 1 Peter 5:13; "Babylon" is possibly used to refer to Rome. This is bolstered by the remark in Rev. 17:9 that she sits on "seven mountains"(the King James Version Bible-the New International Version Bible uses the words "seven hills"), which could be the seven hills of Rome. "Rome" would therefore be the 'new Babylon' and all of the symbolism characterizing Babylon as a wanton "whore," would be transferable to Rome, according to this view. There are a number of smaller symbolic clues that some see as suggesting a link between Rome and Babylon — the Roman Empire in its military occupation of Israel, its repression of the Jewish nation and religion, its destruction of Jerusalem following Jewish revolts in 70 AD and 135 AD, and its persecution of Christians, would lend meaning to the imagery of the 'whore, drunk with the blood of martyrs,' as a wantonly violent and bloodthirsty entity. In Rastafarian ideology both Babylon and Rome are also equated with this modern world in which we live. The Rastas have popularized the name Babylon to refer to what they see as the fundamentally evil modern society. [edit] Earthly Jerusalem
Many Biblical scholars[1] and theologians[2] point out that although Rome was the prevailing pagan power in the 1st century when the Book of Revelation was written, the symbolism of the whore of Babylon refers not to an invading infidel of foreign power, but to an apostate false queen, a former "bride" who has been unfaithful and who, even though she has been divorced and cast out because of unfaithfulness, continues to falsely claim to be the "queen" of the spiritual realm.[3][4] This symbolism did not fit the case of Rome at the time. The first to see Jerusalem in Revelation's Babylon were the French Jesuit Jean Hardouin(1646-1729) and the French Calvinist Firmin Abauzit(1679-1767). According to Abauzit, the seven mountains of Rev 17:9 are the seven hills on which Jerusalem stands[5] and the fall of Babylon is the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD. [1] In Matthew 23:34-37 and Luke 11:47-51, Jesus himself assigned all of the bloodguilt for the killing of the prophets and of the saints (of all time) to the Pharisees of Jerusalem, and, in Revelation 17:6 and 18:20,24, almost identical phrasing is used in charging that very same bloodguilt to Babylon. Further, Jesus stated that "it's not possible for a prophet to be killed outside of Jerusalem."(Luke 13:33). [6] Several Old Testament prophets referred to Jerusalem as being a spiritual harlot and a mother of such harlotry (Isaiah 1:21; Jeremiah 2:20; Jeremiah 3:1-11; Ezekiel 16:15-18; Ezekiel 23).[6] Some of these Old Testament prophecies concerning Judah are in fact very close to the text concerning Babylon in Revelation, suggesting that John may well have actually been citing those prophecies in his description of Babylon.[6] For example, In Jeremiah 13, Judah is warned that because of her whoredom, the cups of all of the people will be "filled with wine," they will be "made drunk," and the nation will be suddenly destroyed. This is identical to the scenario in Revelation 17-18; it also correlates with the warning of Jesus that Jerusalem would be suddenly invaded and destroyed just prior to His return to Earth, in Luke 21:20-22. So, according to this view, John's prophecy about Babylon was merely a detailed repetition of warnings already given by many Old Testament prophets and by Jesus Himself in Matthew Chapter 23. However, Jerusalem never literally ruled over the kings of the Earth, as is specified in the scriptures used. The scholars who defend this position believe that Earthly Jerusalem would "ride the beast" that is control and manipulate the Satanic power behind the various 'pagan' or 'worldly' nations. Some see it as an evil relationship between the harlot, apostate Jerusalem, and the scarlet beast Rome on whom she is seated to crucify Jesus and persecute the Christians. This evil alliance is confirmed in the Book of Acts (Acts 4:26-28, 12:1-3). [7]
According to this view, the "great city"(Rev. 17:18, 11:8) in the Book of Revelation, the Earthly Jerusalem is opposed(cf. Rev. 2:9-10,3:9) to the spiritual, heavenly, new Jerusalem, which is the Christian Church of the faithful of Jesus (the bride): "And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband." (Revelation 21:2) [edit] Roman Catholic Church[edit] Protestant ReformationMost Reformation writers and all Reformers themselves, from Martin Luther (who wrote On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church), John Calvin, and John Knox (who wrote The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women) identify the Roman Catholic Church with the Whore of Babylon.[8][9] This opinion influenced several generations in England and Scotland when it was put into the 1599 edition of the Geneva Bible. Identification of the Pope as the Antichrist was written into Protestant creeds such as the Westminster Confession of 1646. The identification of the Roman Catholic Church with the Whore of Babylon is kept in the Scofield Reference Bible (whose 1917 edition identified "ecclesiastical Babylon" with "apostate Christendom headed by the Papacy") and pro-Reformation writings such as those of I.M. Haldeman, and it is kept alive by contemporary figures such as Ian Paisley and Jack Chick. The "drunkenness with the blood of saints and martyrs," by this interpretation, refers to the veneration of saints and relics and the Sunday sacredness, which is viewed by Reformers as idolatry and apostasy. Some Protestants commonly used the phrase "Whore of Babylon" to refer to the Roman Catholic Church. The Protestant reformers were not the first people to call the Roman Catholic Church the Whore of Babylon. There was a fairly long tradition of this kind of name-calling by opponents of the Papacy. Frederick Barbarossa published missives that called the Papacy the Whore of Babylon, and the Pope the Antichrist, during the course of his protracted quarrel with Pope Alexander III. Dante equated the corruption and simony in the office of the Papacy with the Whore of Babylon in Canto 19 of his Inferno:
When the Florentine religious reformer Girolamo Savonarola also called the Papacy the Whore of Babylon, he meant something closer to the Reformers' usage; these claims, however, were based chiefly on social and political disagreements with Roman Catholic policy, or, at their strongest, accuse the Papacy of moral corruption. The Protestant reformers, in contrast, seriously considered the Papacy to be at least potentially the apocalyptic figure mentioned in Bible prophecy, and included the claim in Bible commentaries as well as polemics. They meant something more than to accuse the Roman Catholic Church of political or moral corruption; they claimed that, as a church, it taught a Satanic counterfeit plan of salvation, one that would lead its faithful to Hell rather than to Heaven. [edit] SwedenborgianismAccording to Swedenborgian doctrine, the Whore of Babylon symbolizes the lust for power within the Roman Catholic Church. It is believed that the book of Revelation is a spiritual allegory for the downfall of traditional Christianity, and its revival into a New Church. Each symbol in Revelation is thought to have correspondence with some aspect of the spiritual state of the Christian Church. In the book "Apocalypse Explained" Swedenborg expounds an explanation of Revelation that includes judgement on the corrupted leadership of the Catholic Church, as the Whore of Babylon. [edit] Latter Day Saint movementIn the Latter Day Saint movement, which accepts the Bible as scripture, additional books within its canon describe the Whore of Babylon as a "great and abominable church". According to the religion's Book of Mormon, the great and abominable church was formed soon after the life of Jesus and is responsible for the Apostles' deaths and the Great Apostasy (1 Ne. 13:5-6). The church was said to be instrumental in corrupting the Bible and removing from it "the most plain and precious parts of the gospel of the Lamb" (1 Ne. 13:34). Although some followers of the religion's founder Joseph Smith, Jr.—including prophets and apostles of the LDS faith—have understood the great and abominable church to refer to the Catholic church or Protestantism, the book states that there are "two churches only": one that follows Jesus, and another that follows the devil (1 Ne. 14:10-11); therefore, many adherents understand the references in the Book of Mormon to refer metaphorically to all followers of Satan. [edit] Traditionalist CatholicsA handful of Traditionalist Catholics and sedevacantists, who do not accept the 1969 revision of the rite of Mass and consider the recent popes to be heretics, believe that the official Roman Catholic Church as it has existed since Vatican II or the election of Pope John XXIII is in fact the Whore of Babylon.[10] They differ from the Protestant view only in that they consider the Catholic Church before the Second Vatican Council to be the "real" Catholic Church, with which they claim continuity. In their eyes, the present-day Roman Catholic Church is a blasphemous mockery. [edit] Catholic responsesThe Roman Catholic Church denies the claim that it is the being referred to by the Book of Revelation as the Whore of Babylon. At the height of the Reformation era tensions, Roman Catholic authors often accused specific Protestant leaders of being potential Antichrists; these leaders, however, did not include St Robert Bellarmine, who taught that a personal Antichrist would arise before the end of the world, as do most Protestants who take a position today. The use of the idiom appears to have dwindled, along with the rise in secular terminology to replace religious symbolism. Among the explanations are that the term is contrary to evangelical methods and goals and socially unconstructive, and so the tradition is kept only internally if it is kept at all. The rise of dispensationalism as a school of interpretation of the end times has also caused many Protestants to revise their interpretation of these passages in a way that diminishes the certainty of their identification of the Whore of Babylon with any present religion. [edit] United States
The use of the "Great Satan" metaphor by some fundamentalist followers of Islam makes an implicit comparison of the United States to ancient Babylon and Rome. Those who equate the US with Mystery Babylon liken the United States to the Roman Empire — and therefore to Babylon — because of what they charge is its high-handed treatment of other countries as a military superpower. South American intellectuals from the 1960s and 1970's political movements have been known to use this metaphor as well. American religious right organizations like the American Family Association, see the United States as decadent, evil and anti-Christian; and 'drunk with the blood of the saints' due to its popular culture as well as its earthly military and technological superiority. Not only is Mystery Babylon, in Revelation 17 and 18, described as a great consumer and superpower, but she is destroyed by the beast kingdom of the Antichrist with its seven heads and ten horns. The beast with seven heads and ten horns is a reference to Daniel's description of the kingdom of the Antichrist, in Daniel 7:23-25. Additionally, an online organization claims that the Statue of Liberty bears relatively close resemblance to the Whore; the statue was modeled after the Roman goddess Libertas, which they suppose had come from the chief Babylonian goddess Ishtar.[11] Babylon (or the Whore) is also described as sitting upon many waters (Revelation 17:1); this may apply to either the United States, which stretches from the Pacific to the Atlantic and which has a trading empire across the oceans; or to the Statue of Liberty, which sits in New York Harbor. Furthermore, if the "beast" is identified as the United Nations, then the U.S. might be seen as being its rider, since it is one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and hosts the UN headquarters in New York City. Another aspect of interest is that the United States has "conquered" the historical capital of Babylon in Iraq during the Iraq War. By virtue of tradition, this implies that America has taken up the mantle of the Babylonian Empire. Such an interpretation has been promulgated by individuals such as Texas preacher Texe Marrs. [edit] Soviet UnionDuring the Cold War, United States popular culture was engendered to view the former Soviet Union as a "Babylon" of sorts — a monster to be defeated. Dispensationalist study Bibles and commentaries such as the Scofield Reference Bible and The Late Great Planet Earth typically identified the Soviet Union, or earlier Russia, with Gog, also an allegorical figure of evil that appears in Revelation and the Book of Ezekiel (although it is important to note that Gog and Magog are themselves defeated by the Beast who rules Babylon). A great many parallels could be drawn to the USSR, and for that matter, the British Empire, and Nazi Germany. The demise of the Soviet Union has led dispensationalists to revise their commentaries. [edit] Resurgent Ottoman EmpireThere is a theory linking the “whore of Babylon” to a resurgent Ottoman Empire and militant Islam. The belief in an Islamic link to the whore of Babylon is not new – Christian groups as theologically diverse as Eastern Orthodox believers (i.e., the Byzantine Emperor) and the Protestant English Puritans noted similarities between Revelation and medieval Islam. However, Constantinople, today known as Istanbul, has (like Rome) been known as the city built on seven hills. It also sits on "many waters" (Rev. 17:1), and was capital of both the Ottoman Empire and Roman Empire. This theory, which takes issue with the tendency in the United States and Western Europe to view the world through a Western perspective, is being promoted by publication of books, such as Walid Shoebat's book Why I Left Islam, and AntiChrist: Islam’s Awaited Messiah, by Joel Richardson. [edit] Jehovah's WitnessesJehovah's Witnesses believe that the Whore of Babylon symbolizes the world empire of false religion,[12] including, but not limited to, Christendom, a term they use to refer to the part of the world that claims to be Christian.[13][14] Among John’s visions recorded in the book of Revelation appear pronouncements of judgment against “Babylon the Great,” as well as a description of her and of her downfall.[15] Jehovah's Witnesses believe Babylon the Great must be viewed as a symbolic city, of which the literal city of Babylon was the prototype. Therefore, they look to the features of Babylon on the Euphrates, for clues as to the identity of the symbolic city of John’s vision. The Bible lists Babel first when giving the ‘beginning of Nimrod’s kingdom.’[16] Throughout the Hebrew Scriptures the ancient city of Babylon is positioned as the enemy of Jehovah God and his people.[citation needed][17][18][19] Though Babylon became the capital of a political empire in the seventh and sixth centuries B.C.E., it was known during its entire history as a religious center from which religious influences radiated in many directions.
Babylon’s religious influence is traced eastward to India.[21]
Thus, ancient Babylon’s religious influence spread out to many peoples and nations, much farther and with greater potency and endurance than did her political strength. Like mystic Babylon, the ancient city of Babylon, in effect, sat on the waters, located, as it was, astride the Euphrates River and having various canals and water-filled moats.[22][23] These waters served as a defense to the city, and they provided the thoroughfares upon which ships brought wealth and luxuries from many sources. Notably, the water of the Euphrates is depicted as drying up prior to Babylon the Great’s experiencing the wrath of divine judgment.[24]
[edit] In modern fiction
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