Revelation Chapter 17:9-18/Commentary

Revelation Chapter 17:9-18 Revelation 17:9-18 "Here is the mind which has wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits, 10and they are seven kings; five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come; and when he comes, he must remain a little while. 11"And the beast which was and is not, is himself also an eighth, and is one of the seven, and he goes to destruction. 12"And the ten horns which you saw are ten kings, who have not yet received a kingdom, but they receive authority as kings with the beast for one hour. 13"These have one purpose and they give their power and authority to the beast. 14"These will wage war against the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, because He is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those who are with Him are the called and chosen and faithful." 15And he said to me, "The waters which you saw where the harlot sits, are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues. 16"And the ten horns which you saw, and the beast, these will hate the harlot and will make her desolate and naked, and will eat her flesh and will burn her up with fire. 17"For God has put it in their hearts to execute His purpose by having a common purpose, and by giving their kingdom to the beast, until the words of God should be fulfilled.

18"And the woman whom you saw is the great city, which reigns over the kings of the earth."

17:9 “Here is the mind which has wisdom”: “The angel is about to interpret the meaning of the beast’s seven heads and ten horns. The meaning is not clear on the surface. Wisdom is needed to interpret them” (Hendriksen p. 170). This wisdom must come from insight given by God’s word (James 1:5; 1 Corinthians 2:6-8). “The seven heads”: The seven heads on the beast (17:3). “Are seven mountains”: “The seven hills bordering the Tiber on which Rome would immediately come to mind of John’s readers” (Hailey p. 350). This is generally regarded as an unmistakable clue that Rome is intended, since Rome from ancient times was called “the city on seven hills”. Some object by claiming that the seven hills of the city of Rome are not mountains. The weakness of this argument is that the Bible speaks of hills as “mountains” (Matthew 5:1).

17:9 “On which the woman sits”: This woman sits atop the Roman Empire.

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17:10 “And they are seven kings”: This means that the seven heads have a two-fold meaning. “First of all, then, these seven heads symbolize seven mountains, the seven hills of Rome, viewed as the capital of the Roman Empire.

It is the great city that rules over the kings, the mighty ones of the earth. It was in John’s day, the center of antichristian persecution. But it was also the center of antichristian seduction, allurement, and enticement; the woman, the harlot, sits on these seven hills. Secondly, these seven heads also symbolize the seven kings” (Hendriksen pp. 170-171).

At this point some feel that these seven kings are actually seven kingdoms, five of which have fallen. Hendriksen feels that the five fallen kingdoms are Ancient Babylonia, Assyria, New Babylonia, Medo-Persia and Greece. The problem with this view is that there were other world empires, such as Egypt that Hendriksen does not mention.

“Probably the most popular view is that the angel had specific Roman emperors in mind, five of which were fallen, one was then on the throne, and another was yet to come” (Hailey p. 351). The question is where should one begin numbering the emperors? Some start with Julius Caesar, making Nero the sixth (the one who is), and Domitian the seventh. The problem with this view is that it omits true emperors such as Vespasian and Titus. Others start with Augustus, they omit Galba, Otho, and Vitellius, who are viewed as usurpers, calculate Vespasian as the sixth, Titus as the seventh, and Domitian the eighth. This would mean that the letter was written sometime between 68-79 A.D. Hailey offers a different view. “The seven kings, therefore, were a symbolic number, representing all kings or kingdoms, past, present, and future that would oppose the kingdom of God. Each who would come would still be part of the seven” (p. 353). The problem I have with this view is that Revelation was written to deal with a problem in a specific time period (1:1,3). Yes, the principles in the book apply to all world powers that oppose God, but God is dealing with a specific enemy in this book.

17:10 “One is”: One king is presently ruling. “The other has not yet come; and when he comes, he must remain for a little while”: The Roman emperor Titus only reigned for two years.

17:11 “The beast which was and is not, is himself also an eighth and is one of the seven, and he goes to destruction” Compare this verse with what is said about the beast in 13:3 concerning it’s fatal wound that is healed. McGuiggan feels that this refers to the fact that between the reigns of Nero and Domition the persecution of Christians ceased, thus in a sense the “beastly” nature of the Roman Empire subsided for a while. Many feel that the eighth king is Domition who would resume persecution against God’s people. At this point Premillennial writers argue that the eighth king is the leader

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of a seventh or final world empire, but such an interpretation destroys the context. These kings are successive rulers of a single empire; it would be perverting the text to try to separate them by thousands of years.

“We had the beast located geographically on the seven hills, which meant Rome.

Now we have him located in history to tell us what period of Rome we are dealing with. And there is no period of Rome’s history that will fit this description but the dynasty of the Caesars” (Gregg p. 408).

17:11 “And he goes to destruction”: “The Church will have to exercise patience during the period of the Beast’s ascendancy, but she has the assurance that her enemies will not succeed” (Chilton p. 437).

17:12 “The ten horns which you saw”: The beast not only had seven heads but it also had ten horns (17:3). “Are ten kings who have not yet received a kingdom”: As with the seven kings, various interpretations exist concerning these 10 kings. Some feel that the number ten is to be taken symbolically, representing all the antichristian powers on earth that would arise after the breakup of the Roman Empire. The problem with this view is that these ten kings give their power and authority to the beast (Rome). Thus they do not arise after the fall of Rome, but join forces with Rome against God’s people. Others view these kings as being client kingdoms that were subject to Roman rule. “Rome actually had ten imperial provinces, some have read this as a reference to them” (Chilton p. 437). “Not yet received a kingdom”: These are not future kings or some ten nation confederacy that arises at the end of time, rather these kings are puppet kings who rule while the Rome of the first century was ruling.

17:12 “For one hour”: The period that this alliance will remain and the period that God’s people will be persecuted will be relatively short. Compare with 18:10,17,19.

17:13 “These have one purpose”: “As the saints are to be perfected together in one mind and one spirit, with one soul, striving for the faith of the gospel (1 Corinthians 1:10; Philippians 1:27), which mind is the mind of Christ (Philippians 2:5), so the beast and his associates are of one mind---the mind of the dragon” (Hailey pp. 353-354). Christians need to remember that the powers of evil are united! If the church is going to survive the attacks of evil then God’s people need to be united on God’s truth. “And they give their power and authority to the beast”: This is not the first time that political powers have banded together against God and His people (Psalm 2).

17:14 “These will wage war against the Lamb”: They wage war against the Lamb by persecuting the Christian faith and God’s people. Obviously they cannot directly touch the Lamb, but Jesus so identifies with His people (Acts 9:45), that any attack upon them or the Scriptures is viewed as an attack upon Him. “And the Lamb will overcome them”: Victory is assured. Christ can overcome

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such foes! “The dragon has sought the destruction of the Lamb from the beginning (12:4). All opponents of the Lamb are doomed to defeat” (Hailey p.

354). People need to seriously consider the above statement. All who arrange themselves against God, His truth and His people are the allies of Satan. In the world today we find an alliance of many forces against God, including liberalism, feminism, communism, Islam, Hollywood, Television networks, and so on.

Whose side are you on? Any attempt to undermine and discredit the Bible is to ally oneself with Satan!

17:14 “Because He is Lord of lords and King of kings”: Please note that Jesus is presently Lord of lords and King of kings. Jesus presently reigns when this book is written (Matthew 28:18; Ephesians 1:20-23; 1 Peter 3:22). “And those who are with Him are the called and chosen and faithful”: That’s us!

Are we “with” Jesus? Christians are “the called” because they have accepted the call in the gospel message (Acts 2:41; 2 Thessalonians 2:14). They are “chosen” because those who accept this call to become the chosen (Matthew 22:14).

They are “faithful” because they remain loyal to Christ even in the face of persecution and death (Revelation 14:4; 12:11). “These are not just martyrs. It wasn’t only martyrs that ‘fought with’ Jesus in the battle pictured in this book, it was every man, woman, boy, and girl who refused to buckle under to this ungodly nation” (McGuiggan p. 261).

17:15 “And he said to me”: The angel explains another image in this vision.

“The waters which you saw where the harlot sits”: (17:1 “the great harlot who sits on many waters”). “Are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues”: “The angel next explains that the many waters represent the empire and the many ethnic groups and nationalities over which Rome held sway (5:9; 13:7). A major weakness of Rome was its inability to amalgamate the diverse peoples into one. Rome could conquer and control by force, but it had no cohesive power with which to cement the conquered into a homogeneous kingdom” (Hailey p. 355). Long ago Daniel had predicted not only the rise of the Roman Empire but this weakness in the Empire as well (Daniel 2:42). The nations and peoples of the world are often liked to “the sea” (Isaiah 17:12-13; 57:20-21).

Chilton and others argue: “Jerusalem could truly be portrayed as seated on many waters because of the great and pervasive influence the Jews had in all parts of the Roman Empire before the destruction of Jerusalem. Their synagogues were in every city” (Chilton pp. 438-439). While it is true that the Jews had influence and lived in all parts of the Empire, the influence that the synagogue had was for the most part a good influence (Acts 15:21).

17:16 “And the ten horns which you saw, and the beast, these will hate the harlot”: The fall of the harlot (the great city: 17:18) will accurately come from the beast that she was upon and the kings who had allied themselves with the beast.

“Sudden changes from fierce love to bitter hated, familiar enough in private

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history (2 Samuel 13:15), find their parallel in the history of nations” (Harkrider p.

201). “This is an example of evil’s self-destruction. The principle of love being corrupted to lust and turning to hate, which in turn destroys, can be illustrated by nations today” (Hailey p. 355). “Wicked men are not just one happy band of brothers. Being wicked, they give way to jealousy and hated. At the climax their mutual hatreds will result in mutual destruction” (Gregg p. 417). Some feel that this verse is also predicting a time when the puppet kingdoms that had served Rome will eventually turn on her. “No reader of the Decline and Fall can be at a loss for material which will at once illustrate and justify the general trend of St. John’s prophecy” (Sweete p. 225).

17:16 “Make her desolate and naked, and will eat her flesh and will burn her up with fire”: “Such metaphors of nakedness and cannibalism are not unknown in Scripture (Nahum 3:5; Micah 3:2f)” (Hailey p. 356).

17:17 “For God has put it in their hearts to execute His purpose by having a common purpose, and by giving their kingdom to the beast, until the words of God will be fulfilled” Daniel noted that God does rule in the kingdoms of men (Daniel 4:17,25,32).

This does not mean that God overrides a person’s freewill, but God allows this alliance to form. There are times that God can use nations to fulfill His purpose and yet that nation does not view itself as fulfilling any divine purpose (Isaiah 10:6-7). God’s motive and purpose for using a nation is often completely different from the motives and purposes of the leaders and people of that nation.

“The tools of providence are destroyed, after they have unconsciously served their purpose” (Isaiah 10:12f) (Gregg p. 417). The reason that such tools are judged or destroyed is because their motives for doing something are not pure motives, rather they are often evil and selfish. For example, Assyria in the Old Testament destroyed Israel, not because they were seeking to do God’s will, but because they were bent on world conquest.

“God’s objective in putting it in their (the king’s) hearts to come to one mind was that His words of judgment against the harlot should be accomplished. Not a word failed—all came to pass” (Hailey p. 356).

17:18 “The woman whom you saw is the great city, which reigns over the kings of the earth” Please note that the city is not merely supported by the kings of the earth, but she reigns over them. Clearly this refers to Rome, the city that ruled the world in the day that John wrote this letter.

“The church has had two great enemies and one rival for the affection which is rightfully hers. The enemies who sought her destruction were the beast out of the sea (the world power that would crush and trample under foot) and the beast

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out of the earth (false religion that demanded worship at her shrine). The rival, who was also any enemy, is the world which tries to entice and persuade her to commit spiritual fornication� (Hailey pp. 356-357).

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