What is the context?
One of the angels with the bowls invites John to see the punishment of a woman called the great prostitute. She sits on many waters, has relationships with the earth’s kings, and intoxicates its inhabitants with her immorality. The next scene begins to explain Babylon’s judgment announced in chapter 16.
Carried in the Spirit into a wilderness, John sees her riding a scarlet beast with seven heads, ten horns and names that dishonor God. The woman and the beast are connected, but remain distinct figures. She is carried by the same kind of hostile power already described in chapter 13.
Her clothing and ornaments display wealth and splendor: purple, scarlet, gold, precious stones and pearls. Her golden cup, however, is filled with abominations and impurity. What looks magnificent carries corruption. The name on her forehead identifies her as Babylon the Great, a mother of prostitutes and abominations.
The final description exposes the cost of that power: she is drunk with the blood of saints and witnesses for Jesus. John’s amazement is met by the angel’s promise to explain. The vision’s own explanation will identify the waters as peoples and nations and the woman as a ruling city.
How is this passage commonly understood?
The USCCB notes identify the woman with Rome in its ancient imperial setting, connecting her wealth and unfaithfulness with idolatry and the persecution of Christians. Wesley also identifies her with the city of Rome, but distinguishes her from the beast as papal power. His reading concerns a later history of the city and its religious and political rule.
Walvoord expects a future corrupt religious system allied with the beast’s political power. He distinguishes the woman’s downfall from the fall of Babylon described in chapter 18.
These identifications should remain attributed to the teachers and documents that hold them. The chapter itself establishes the relationship with rulers, the corruption beneath the wealth, and the violence against God’s people. Those features provide the basis on which proposed identifications must be tested.
Where does this fit in God's plan?
The cup and waters recall Jeremiah 51:7 and 13, where ancient Babylon intoxicates the nations and dwells beside many waters with great wealth. Verses 24–25 announce God’s reckoning for the evil done against Zion. Revelation reuses those pictures to show that worldly splendor does not place an oppressive power beyond judgment.
Nahum 3:4–7 likewise describes a city, Nineveh, through the picture of a seductive prostitute whose conduct harms nations. This is a biblical parallel for the kind of imagery John sees. The wider theme is God confronting power that enriches itself, leads others into corruption and brings suffering, rather than allowing its success to continue without an answer.
What is our position?
We don't have a position on this passage yet. When our study reaches a conclusion the text supports, it will appear here.