Key ideas:
1. The unjust empires of oppression will come to an end—In Jesus, the new reign of God has already begun.
2. We are called to “come out” from such empires, creating a community of contrast.
I. Opening Devotion on p. 69, 1st column. (Rev.15:3b-4a)
II. Summary
John closes his Revelation with “a tale of 2 cities”: the evil Babylon or Rome and the New Jerusalem or City of God. In today’s session, we look at the promised judgment and destruction of the first.
We encounter a powerfully repellent picture of the Roman Empire, largely based on imagery from the O.T. Apparently, in comparison with other writers of the time, John is fairly mild in his description of “the pathology of the drunken empire that has intoxicated the world.”
The Roman Empire personified itself as a woman in the form of the goddess Roma. John also personifies Rome as a woman, but as “the great whore”. Rome controlled the world through a combination of seduction, intimidation and violence--politically, economically, and through a state religion which included emperor worship.
John indicts the Roman Empire, not just because of its persecution of Christians but also because of the domination system which controls and exploits. The victims of Roman injustice finally see God’s justice.
In chap. 18, a voice from heaven says, “Come out of her, my people…” We are called to choose between the cities.
This is a difficult chapter, full of symbolism, showing that John was immersed in the Old Testament, and its images readily came to his mind, although they seem strange to us.
III. The Choice Between Two Cities
Have someone read Isaiah 1:21. (How the faithful city has become a whore!)Someone else--Isaiah 21: 9b. (Fallen, fallen is Babylon) Jeremiah 51: 12-13 (The Lord has both planned and done what he spoke concerning the inhabitants of Babylon. You who live by mighty waters, rich in treasures, your end has come.)
The ancient city of Babylon had the Euphrates River running through it and lots of criss-crossing canals. The Roman Empire encompassed much water—the Tiber, the Mediterranean, the Aegean Sea. But in v. 15, John says the waters are the peoples and multitudes and nations and languages permeating the empire. And in 17:18, he makes clear that the great whore is the great city that rules over the kings of the earth, i.e. Rome.
As we’ll see in this lesson and the next, John sets the 2 cities in contrasting parallelism: the great whore and a bride. In Greek the word polis, meaning city, is feminine. And it was common to personify cities as female. Sort of like we do ships. In Rev. 17:18, it’s made clear, “The woman you saw is the great city that rules over the kings of the earth.” Rome is called the great whore for 2 reasons: She turned away from her loving Creator to embrace passing pleasure and profit. And not only does she sin herself, she deliberately entices others to sin.
Puzzling images: Have someone read Jeremiah 51:7. (Babylon was a golden cup in the Lord’s hand, making all the earth drunken; the nations drank of her wine, and so the nations went mad.) Ah—there’s the golden cup image of v. 4, full of stuff—abominations and impurities of her fornication—to make people mad. The term fornication refers to idolatry—worshipping power and materialism and consumption.
Not surprisingly, she’s bedecked with jewels, and wearing royal purple and “power red,” superficial signs of supremacy. It’s a vivid image and “the whore of Babylon has become the ultimate evil woman in cultural imagination.”
The woman is said to have a name on her forehead; in Rome prostitutes in public brothels wore frontlets on their heads with their names. She was actually drunk with the blood of Christians, reveling in the slaughter.
The beast is full of blasphemous names—the misused titles for God, appropriated by emperors and the many gods in the Roman pantheon.
The phrase about the beast in v. 8—“it was and is not and is to come”—is another parody of the true God.
The 7 heads are said in verse 9 to represent 7 mountains or hills, a reference to the city of Rome. But they’re also 7 kings, 5 having fallen, one living and the other has not yet come and will stay only a little while. According to Barclay, the 5 kings are emperors: Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero. Then came 3 short-lived claimants to the throne. “One is living” may refer to Vespasian who brought stability back after Nero. Then came Titus who reigned for only 2 years, maybe “the other has not yet come; and when he comes, he must remain only a little while. In verse 11, “the beast that was and is not; it is an 8th but it belongs to the 7 and it goes to destruction.” Remember that a lot of people thought Domitian, because of his evil ways, was a veritable Nero. A historian of the time, Juvenal, referred to him as “a bald-headed Nero.” Juvenal was executed, by the way.
Seven is the number for completeness, so maybe it refers to all the Roman rulers. However, that leaves some of the details unexplained.
In v. 12, the 10 kings who are to receive power for one hour, meaning a short time, may refer to heads of state with alliances with Rome. They join the beast in the war against the Lamb, and in v. 13, we read that “the Lamb will conquer them, for he is Lord of lords and King of kings.
And those with the Lamb are called and chosen and faithful.
IV. It’s about the Economy: In On p. 65, 2nd¶, our author says in the vision of Babylon the primary emphasis is economic and political and has nothing to do with gender. Revelation 18 makes this clear.
In the 4th ¶ she writes, “Rome lives by its predatory trade, trafficking in resources from the farthest points of the Roman Empire, exploiting people and creation both near and far in the process. ” Question 3.
Question in middle column, p.69: How do John’s indictments of Rome compare with life in American culture? What might John have to say about the U.S. What place does power and/or possessions have in your life? What would you mourn most, if you lost it?”
V. All the King’s Horses, All the king’s Men:
In Rev. 18:7 Babylon (Rome) says “I rule as a queen. I am no widow, (dependent on others) and I will never see grief.” (eternal dominance). The original Babylon made such a claim, and look at what happened to it. In chap. 18, John describes the destruction of the Roman Empire.
Question 4 on p. 66
Bruce Metzger says, “Like the tolling of a funeral bell, we hear the repeated lamentation: ‘Alas, alas, the great city!’ What are the 3 groups who lament the fall of Rome? Why do they weep and mourn for her?
Ms Rossing, on p. 66, points out what she calls “the cargo list”. In 18:13, she calls attention to “slaves—and human lives.” Almost half the population of Rome were slaves in John’s time. Just another commodity to be traded. And John denounces it. The phrase “and human lives” could also refer to the gladiators who died for entertainment.
Rome also mistreated the earth, she says, as archaeological evidence shows. Ephesus is now about 6 miles from the sea on which it was once a port. Over-consumption, exploitation, ecological devastation. And we come to Rev. 18:21-24, the end of the empire. Have someone read.
VI. Putting the Empire on Trial:
Rossing likens chapter 18 to a trial because there’s no battle here, just judgment. The entire empire is on trial, including those who had grown powerful and rich through involvement with Rome’s economic system. The plaintiffs are the victims of injustice, especially the saints and witnesses to Jesus, on whose blood the great harlot was drunk.
Read verse 20. Question 6. Or, from p. 69, How do we interpret what appears to be Christian rejoicing at the doom of others? Do we want to cheer when evildoers “get what they deserve?” How do we deal with that?
Read Rev. 18:4. Question 7.
VII. Close with prayer on p. 68.
An alternative way to approach chapter 18 is in the 3rd column on p. 69, by having 5 groups take the role of plaintiffs, defendants, charge, judge, and sentences, with the verses indicated.
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