PART II
THE IDENTITY OF BABYLON

A "JEWISH BABYLON"?

"I will shew thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters" (Rev. 17: 1).

"Babylon is Jerusalem" (Revelation, p. 209, H.A.W.)

"The influence of Jerusalem throughout the Roman Empire was amazing. Every city of any size had its colony of Jews, and through the synagogue these all gave allegiance to Jerusalem, making direct annual payments to the temple and accepting the jurisdiction of the Sanhedrin" (Revelation, page 210, H.A.W.).

The ecclesias in Asia Minor would have had little reason to see Jerusalem as their great enemy. Jerusalem had no power over them. They did have reason however to fear Rome and to look forward to its destruction. Furthermore the apostle in writing of Jerusalem would have had no reason to use a cypher; he could have referred to it by name without fear of reprisal. But Rome had the power to oppress and living under its authority required caution. It was Rome who controlled the waters, for she held full sway over the peoples of the Mediterranean world.

"The waters that you saw, where the harlot is seated, are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues" (Rev. 17: 15 RSV).

Rome was the great maritime power who controlled the Mediterranean Sea; she had mastery over all shipping and access to all ports. She not only ruled the sea but all the nations surrounding it, from Europe to Asia, including the Middle East and Africa. All these people, including the inhabitants of Jerusalem and Judaea were subject to her edicts. The following historical references describe the situation that existed in the first century.

"Because the province of Judaea was such an infinitesimal sector of the sprawling Roman empire, and because its people so conscientiously avoided assimilation into the dynamic yeast of the new western civilization, the military and political histories which have come down to us from these distant times scarcely mention the Jews at all.

If ever, they are passed off as a troublesome but relatively insignificant minority occupying a strange and ancient city at the brink of a distant desert. Their Messianic prophecies were considered so mystic and arcane by philosophers and so unrealistic by politicians that none but the most curious bothered to record the ripple which their religious unrest made in the stream of contemporary events." 1

"The overwhelming influence in the first century of the Christian era was the Roman empire. At the time of Jesus the Romans controlled southern Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. The legions and navies of the empire had made the Mediterranean a Roman lake." 2

A correct application of Revelation, chapters 17 and 18, must depend upon a right understanding of the first chapters of the prophecy. Approaching the book carefully from its beginning, we are led to consider it as a message to seven Gentile ecclesias - believers whose ties to Judaism and contemporary Jerusalem had been disconnected. The book must be seen as having primary relevance to this community, the Ecclesia in the Gentile Roman world in the latter part of the first century. Thus, expositors have most often viewed the Revelation as unfolding history relating, not to Israel, but to that community which is represented in Rev. 1: 12, 20 by the seven golden lampstands. These represent the household of faith - the ecclesias.

The foundation laid in these early chapters direct us to a consideration of what is to take place from that time forward with respect to the Christian community. Significantly, Bro. Whittaker in his Revelation, a Biblical Approach almost passes over the first three chapters of the Apocalypse. But they are essential as the groundwork for our consideration of the book as a whole. These chapters focus our attention upon the conditions of the ecclesias along with exhortations and warnings directed to them - rather than leading us to consider the Jewish nation or the judgment of Jerusalem. "Those things which must shortly come to pass" concern the first century Ecclesia. Thus when we come to Revelation 17 and 18 we see a connection with what has come before.

As Israel "played the harlot" and forsook Yahweh, so the betrothed of Christ followed the same tragic course. What is first revealed in the early chapters of the Apocalypse is the elect woman. She is given warnings of her precarious position before God, and she is told that she will be rejected unless she repents. Then we see in Rev. 12 a further stage of development, for there is depicted a compromised woman delivered of a man child of sin. Finally there are the visions of a woman abandoned to sin - a harlot. From the vision of the Ecclesia we have been led to a picture of the Apostasy - fully developed and targeted for destruction.

1 Williams, The Holy City, p. 228.

2 Sarno, The Cruel Caesars, Their Impact on the Early Church, Preface, x, 3.