The Overthrow of Babylon
December 8, 2021
Lesson 12: The Book of Revelation
Revelation 17:1 – 20:10
Rubel Shelly, teaching
1. What do you know about the history of ancient Babylon? Its evil practices? Its oppression of the Chosen People?
2. Why does Babylon become the perfect “code name” for Rome in the Book of Revelation? How might this have been a practical way to avoid trouble in circulating the book? In addition to its practical value, what was the theological impact of using the city’s name?
3. Rome is not only tagged with the name “Babylon” but is simultaneously called a “great prostitute” (17:1) and “Babylon the Great / the Mother of Prostitutes / And of the Abominations of the Earth” (17:5). Why is prostitution used so often in Scripture as a way of characterizing idolatry? Cf. Nah 3:1-4; Isa 23:15-18.
4. What is the relationship of the “great prostitute” to the beast she is riding? What is her relationship to the Lamb of the Apocalypse? As Babylon falls under judgment, how is she treated by her former suitors? (cf. 17:16). What is the obvious explanation for this reversal of attitude and behavior?
5. What is the image you get from reading the graphic description of Rome’s overthrow in Chapter 18? What warning does God give to his own people in Chapter 18?
6. In the face of a great lament over Rome’s fall by the unredeemed (18:9-20), what is the reaction of Heaven to its overthrow in Chapter 19? What new image is introduced at 19:7? What is the contrast here with the woman seen in Chapter 17?
7. How do you interpret the “thousand years” of Revelation 20?
More than once John had found comfort for himself and his people by proclaiming the fall of Rome. So certain is he that God will judge the persecutors of the church that he now devotes two chapters to an account of the crashing down of the fabulous “grandeur that was Rome.” To say directly that God will destroy imperial Rome would have been, of course, altogether treasonous in the eyes of the imperial authorities. So, like a prisoner writing in code from a concentration camp, John characterizes the power of evil as Babylon (though a Roman official of even moderate intelligence could not fail to see his mother city reflected in a text that spoke of a city set on seven hills that held dominion over the kings of the earth [17:9,18]). Just as Babylon represented to the Hebrews all that was wicked and symbolized persecution, so for John, Rome was another Babylon, the source and fountainhead of all seductive luxury and vice, living in voluptuous materialism and selfishness. (Bruce Metzger)
1. What do you know about the history of ancient Babylon? Its evil practices? Its oppression of the Chosen People?
2. Why does Babylon become the perfect “code name” for Rome in the Book of Revelation? How might this have been a practical way to avoid trouble in circulating the book? In addition to its practical value, what was the theological impact of using the city’s name?
3. Rome is not only tagged with the name “Babylon” but is simultaneously called a “great prostitute” (17:1) and “Babylon the Great / the Mother of Prostitutes / And of the Abominations of the Earth” (17:5). Why is prostitution used so often in Scripture as a way of characterizing idolatry? Cf. Nah 3:1-4; Isa 23:15-18.
4. What is the relationship of the “great prostitute” to the beast she is riding? What is her relationship to the Lamb of the Apocalypse? As Babylon falls under judgment, how is she treated by her former suitors? (cf. 17:16). What is the obvious explanation for this reversal of attitude and behavior?
5. What is the image you get from reading the graphic description of Rome’s overthrow in Chapter 18? What warning does God give to his own people in Chapter 18?
6. In the face of a great lament over Rome’s fall by the unredeemed (18:9-20), what is the reaction of Heaven to its overthrow in Chapter 19? What new image is introduced at 19:7? What is the contrast here with the woman seen in Chapter 17?
7. How do you interpret the “thousand years” of Revelation 20?
More than once John had found comfort for himself and his people by proclaiming the fall of Rome. So certain is he that God will judge the persecutors of the church that he now devotes two chapters to an account of the crashing down of the fabulous “grandeur that was Rome.” To say directly that God will destroy imperial Rome would have been, of course, altogether treasonous in the eyes of the imperial authorities. So, like a prisoner writing in code from a concentration camp, John characterizes the power of evil as Babylon (though a Roman official of even moderate intelligence could not fail to see his mother city reflected in a text that spoke of a city set on seven hills that held dominion over the kings of the earth [17:9,18]). Just as Babylon represented to the Hebrews all that was wicked and symbolized persecution, so for John, Rome was another Babylon, the source and fountainhead of all seductive luxury and vice, living in voluptuous materialism and selfishness. (Bruce Metzger)