PART II
THE IDENTITY OF BABYLON

HARLOT CITIES

References can be found in the Old Testament prophets in which Jerusalem was termed a harlot. Some writers have therefore concluded that the harlot of Revelation should also be identified with Jerusalem. However, in the Old Testament several cities are termed harlots. The expression is used of Tyre (Isa. 23) and Nineveh (Nahum 3: 4) and the descriptions are remarkably similar to those applied to the Babylon of Revelation. Tyre is spoken of as committing fornication with the kingdoms of the world, and Nineveh is described as "the well favored harlot, the mistress of witchcrafts, that selleth nations through her whoredoms, and families through her witchcrafts." As a result of their wickedness these cities faced a destruction similar to that which was reserved for the apocalyptic Babylon.

Israel, Judah and Babylon are all charged with spiritual whoredom in the Old Testament. Babylon, Ezekiel tells us, practiced harlotry with Judah. "And the Babylonians came to her into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their whoredom, and she was polluted with them" (Ezek. 23: 17).

The king of Babylon is indicted in Isaiah 14 in terms that parallel the condemnation of Babylon in the Apocalypse. "How hath the oppressor ceased! The golden city ceased!" Lucifer, the Babylonian ruler, was judged for his oppression of the nations and his blasphemy against the God of heaven (Isa. 14: 12, 13).

Babylon, the preeminent Old Testament harlot city, cannot point to Jerusalem as its antitype in the Revelation, because Isaiah involves Israel in the destruction of Babylon. (We would have the paradox of Israel vanquishing herself!) Isaiah paints a picture of a clear contrast: Israel versus Babylon.

"And Babylon, the glory of the kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellence, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah ... For Yahweh will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel..." 1

"They (the Jews) shall take them captives, whose captives they were;" writes the prophet, "and they shall rule over their oppressors" (Isa. 14: 1-2). These statements occur in the context of the destruction of Babylon - with obvious latter day overtones! And other prophets join in confirming the contrast.

"The portion of Jacob is not like them; for He is the former of all things: and Israel is the rod of His inheritance: the LORD of hosts is his name ... and I will render unto Babylon and to all the inhabitants of Chaldea all their evil that they have done in Zion in your sight, saith Yahweh." 2

"Deliver thyself, O Zion, that dwellest with the daughter of Babylon. For thus saith Yahweh of hosts; After the glory hath he sent me unto the nations which spoiled you: for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of His eye." 3

It is necessary that there be a continuation of Babylon in some form for a final, latter day destruction. The mantle was passed to pagan Rome which shared with its earlier counterpart the two distinguishing features: oppression and blasphemy. Nebuchadnezzar demanded the worship of the golden images he had made to represent himself and his great empire; the Caesars likewise required the worship of themselves and their images. As the Jewish Ecclesia suffered under the yoke of Babylon, so the Ecclesia of Christ endured persecution in the pagan Roman empire.

It has been observed by many writers that the prominent features of idolatry which existed in the original Babylon were transmitted to pagan Rome and that many of these elements were preserved in the apostate Church. The doctrine of the Trinity and the immortality of the soul, the worship of a madonna and child and the veneration of "the Queen of Heaven" were some of the many features these harlot-city systems held in common. A continuity of apostasy can be seen, beginning with ancient Babel, the progenitor of Babylon, and ending with apostate Christendom. Pagan Rome merged into papal Rome, which in a very real sense also "ruled over the kings of the earth" (Rev. 17: 18). Babylon is thus perpetuated to challenge the Messiah himself at his coming. It is then that the long awaited prophecy will be fulfilled. "So shall Babylon the great city be thrown down with violence, and shall be found no more" (Rev. 18: 21 RSV).

Babylon
The Harlot City

"... the great whore that sitteth upon many waters: with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication ... I sit a queen and am no widow."
- Rev. 17, 18

1 Isa. 13: 19; 14: 1, 2.

2 Jer. 51: 19-24.

3 Zech. 2: 7-9.

4 Virgil, Aenid, VI.

5 Ibid., VII.

6 Llewellyn, Rome in the Dark Ages, p. 284.