NOTES for Rev 17:1-18
Judgment on the evil in which the world lies, and on its bearers, is revealed to the apostle as judgment on the "great prostitute" associated with Babylon (vv. 1-5). The view of Babylon as the center of world evil became traditional for apocalyptic literature, just as it did for post-exilic Jewish tradition in general. After the exile and the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple that preceded it, such associations can be considered quite understandable. But this is not only about old enmity: for the authors of the biblical books, Babylon becomes the symbol of imperial statehood, by definition hostile to God and sooner or later certain to challenge Him. It is no accident that John sees that the woman sitting on the "beast" is "drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus" (v. 6): a power that challenges God, of course, cannot leave His witnesses in peace. The "beast" on which the "great prostitute" sits (v. 3) is evidently the same one John had earlier seen rising out of the sea (Rev. 13:1). Behind the outwardly terrifying picture, as always in apocalyptic visions, lies the spiritual reality that determines the history of the fallen world: behind every earthly power, behind every empire, there inevitably stands the same spirit that breathed life into the "beast from the sea."
It would seem that after Christ's coming into the world there should be no place left in the transforming world either for the "beast" himself or for those whom he supports. But precisely because the Kingdom has not yet been revealed in all its fullness, there is room for them. Yet they do not determine the course of the transforming world's history, although only those who have already become participants in the Kingdom understand the true state of things. The rest merely wonder that nothing in the world has changed even after Christ's coming, not realizing that the "beast from the sea" is doomed and that his supposed triumph is only an appearance, determined by the fact that the process begun with the Savior's coming has not yet been completed (v. 8).
Of course, Babylon here is no longer tied to any geographical or historical reality. It simply becomes the "city," as a symbol of the worst things produced by the civilization created by fallen humanity (v. 18). No nation on earth is free from the spiritual influence of this global civilization. The "prostitute" draws them to herself as a port draws sailors; it is no accident that the "prostitute" sits "on the waters," which symbolize the different peoples who come under the spiritual power of the "prostitute" (v. 15). But humanity appears as such a surging sea only from the "superhuman" height characteristic of satanic arrogance, for which individual people do not exist and humanity is merely spiritual food.
History meanwhile goes on its way, at least this is how it appears to those who think neither about God, nor about His Kingdom, nor about the Messiah sent by Him, and its active participants do not always understand what spiritual processes stand behind the events in which they have happened to take part. Earthly kingdoms replace one another, like the kingdoms mentioned in the Book of Daniel. There four kings and four kingdoms are mentioned (Dan. 7:16-18); God speaks to John of five kings, as we can see, adding to the earlier four that "fifth" one, Antiochus Epiphanes, under whom the Temple was defiled and persecutions fell on the Synagogue. In the sixth king it would then be natural to see the Roman Empire and the collective image of its rulers. But Rome in turn became for the first Christians the image of that very earthly empire whose rulers think that nothing in the world has changed and that history continues as before. In that case, the "sixth kingdom" could be understood as all the states and empires of the Christian era whose rulers, not knowing the Kingdom, turn out without suspecting it to be merely puppets in the hands of the "seventh king," who, as we can see, becomes the "beast from the sea" (vv. 10-11).
Clearly, at the end of history all masks are thrown off, and the "beast," who at first passes off his power as the power of an ordinary earthly ruler, finally announces himself as the "eighth," whom all previous rulers served without understanding whom they were serving. And when the masks are thrown off, fragile earthly prosperity comes to an end: the great battle of the forces of light with the forces of darkness leaves no room for it. The former puppets are cast aside, and the new rulers do not spare what was built before; they destroy the "great prostitute" without any pity (vv. 12-14, 16). Thus the history of fallen civilization comes to an end, devoured by its own creations.