Why is the woman in Revelation 17:5 called "the mother of prostitutes"? The Text in View “On her forehead a mysterious name was written: BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF PROSTITUTES AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH” (Revelation 17:5). Immediate Literary Setting John has just been shown “a woman sitting on a scarlet beast” (17:3) that “drunk with the blood of the saints” (17:6). Verse 18 interprets the symbol: “The woman you saw is the great city that rules over the kings of the earth.” Revelation’s genre—apocalyptic—employs vivid, multilayered imagery. Symbols must therefore be read against (a) the Old Testament, (b) the first-century Roman milieu, and (c) the book’s own internal cues. Old Testament Background: Harlotry as Idolatry In Scripture prostitution frequently functions as a metaphor for covenant unfaithfulness. • Hosea 1–3: Israel “plays the whore” by chasing Baal. • Jeremiah 3:6–9: Judah “defiled the land; she committed adultery with stone and wood.” • Ezekiel 16 & 23: Jerusalem is portrayed as two sisters whose blatant harlotry includes political alliances with Assyria, Egypt, and Babylon. Thus, when Revelation calls the woman a prostitute, it is indicting her for spiritual infidelity—idolatry—and for leading others into the same. Why “Mother”?—Source, Matrix, and Perpetuator Motherhood in biblical idiom denotes origin and influence (Genesis 3:20; Galatians 4:26). By labeling the woman “mother,” John identifies her as 1. The fountainhead of systemic idolatry (traced back to Babel, Genesis 11). 2. The ongoing incubator that births successive “daughters” (false religions, apostate movements, political-economic systems that institutionalize blasphemy). Historical Allusions: Rome, Seven Hills, and Global Reach Verse 9: “The seven heads are seven hills.” First-century readers would immediately think of Rome—literally known as “the city on seven hills” (cf. Martial, Epigrams 4.64; Virgil, Aeneid 6.783). Rome’s imperial cult required worship of the emperor; refusal cost Christians their lives (Tacitus, Annals 15.44). Temples, coins, and inscriptions across the Empire (e.g., the altar to Roma and Augustus unearthed at Pergamum) document this enforced idolatry. Rome therefore serves as the prime historical embodiment of Babylon-the-Great, though the symbol ultimately transcends any single locale. Economic Seduction and Exploitation Revelation 18 details a long catalogue of luxury goods—from gold to “human souls” (18:12–13). Cuneiform tablets from Neo-Babylonian trade archives and first-century papyri from Oxyrhynchus alike confirm vast international commerce driven by imperial centers. The woman’s prostitution is therefore commercial as well as cultic: she sells herself and lures the nations into her marketplace of idolatry. Abominations: Cultic, Moral, and Judicial “Abomination” (Greek bdelygma) in Scripture signals ritual impurity (Leviticus 18), moral outrage (Proverbs 6:16–19), and judicial guilt (Daniel 9:27). The woman is not merely promiscuous but a purveyor of the earth’s “abominations”—child sacrifice, sexual immorality, sorcery (Revelation 9:21), and persecution of the righteous. The Prostitute versus the Bride Revelation sets up a deliberate contrast: • Prostitute: gaudy, drunk, seated on worldly power, judged, burned (17:16). • Bride: “prepared as a bride adorned” (19:7; 21:2), clothed in righteous acts, united to the Lamb forever. One woman symbolizes counterfeit religion married to the world; the other, true religion betrothed to Christ. Eschatological Culmination The imagery gathers every historical Babel-Babylon-Rome into a final, future world system aligned with “the beast” (Antichrist). Daniel 2 and 7 predict a last empire crushed by God’s kingdom; Paul warns of “the man of lawlessness” (2 Thessalonians 2:3). Revelation depicts their demise: “Strong is the Lord God who judges her” (18:8). Archaeological ruins of Babylon and Rome serve as tangible reminders that God has already overturned former iterations, assuring believers of the certainty of the final judgment. Practical and Pastoral Implications a. Separation: “Come out of her, My people” (18:4). Believers must renounce syncretism and economic complicity with evil. b. Witness: Like the prophets, Christians expose idolatry and offer the gospel—salvation through the risen Christ alone (Acts 4:12). c. Assurance: The prostitute’s doom underscores God’s sovereignty. Resurrection power guarantees ultimate victory for the saints (1 Corinthians 15:20–28). Summary Answer The woman in Revelation 17:5 is called “the mother of prostitutes” because she is the archetypal, trans-historical source and propagator of all spiritual prostitution—idolatry, moral corruption, and persecution. Her “children” are the myriad false religious-political-economic systems that lure humanity away from the Creator and from the saving lordship of Jesus Christ. Her final destruction, already foreshadowed by the ruins of ancient Babylon and Rome, assures believers that God will vindicate His holiness and deliver His people. |
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