Part 2: Who is the Harlot Babylon?
Understanding the Harlot Babylon is a bit complex as we saw in part 1, but the solution comes in part 2. Stay tuned!
The religious aspect
It seems that the model for the harlot in Revelation comes from Jeremiah 2/20–4/30:
- Judah is called a harlot with a harlot’s forehead, acting without shame.
- She is seducing others to sin.
- The blood of the innocent is on her, and she feels innocent.
- Her robe is scarlet, she decorates herself with gold.
- But her lovers despise her and want to kill her.
But the harlot in Revelation is described in chapters 17 and 18 with similar materials as the high priest in the Old Testament:
- the offering for the tabernacle
- the ephod (undergarments)
- the breastplate
- but also in the temple.
The plate of the high priest with the inscription “Holy to the Lord” is also a counterpart to the name of the harlot on the forehead “Babylon the great the mother of harlots and of the abominations of the earth”.
Furthermore was the judgment for the daughter of a priest who became a prostitute was burned with fire which was also the judgment on Babel.
In Ezekiel God confronts Jerusalem for acting as a harlot described in the same priestly garments. In these passages, the harlot is portrayed as the high priest/lover of God who cheated.
In the Old Testament the following cities are described as harlots:
- Tyre which made a covenant with God to build the temple, but was called to judgment for selling Jews into captivity and was called a harlot.
- Niniveh humbled ifself before he Lord and He had mercy on them, but later it was judged for being a harlot.
- Israel has a covenant with God but failed so many times and was called a harlot as in Ezekiel there political and economic dependence on other nations and the idolatry that they got from those nations identify it a harlot.
Again, the pattern is that the harlot is the turning away from a former relationship with God, but the turning away to idol worship. The warning is to the church not to be prostituted to the world like Pergamon with Balaam or Thyatira with Jezebel.
Rather, she should be awake and viligent and self-aware lest be ashamed like Babel.
The economic aspect
The term harlot refers to an illicit relationship, whether religious, political, economic or any combination, e.g. Nineveh and Tyre are called harlots because they brought ruin and defilement to the nations through economic oppression, influence through idol worship.
Economic relationships often lead to religious relationships such as temple gifts, economic dependencies or political influence (Jezebel married into another kingdom). The strongest link to the adultery of Babel with the kings of the earth is Tyre which will ply her trade with all the kingdoms of the earth (or commit fornication with the kingdoms of the earth). The list of trade in Revelation is also very similar to that of Tyre. Tyre was the port for the world and made everyone rich while being paid in naturalia (here with grain). At the end of the chapter she is described as a harlot, where her benefit from the wealth of the nation is her “harlot’s wage”.
Also in Revelation the connection is made with the kings who prostitute themselves with Babel and become rich as a result. The clothing and jewelry items (of the harlot) from the trade list in Revelation are a symbol of wealth. So the harlot is tempting with wealth into idolatry as this might attract as Jezebel tried.
Is Babel the apostate church?
Could it be that Babel is a reference to the church that has gone astray? Well, not really, but the church is always in danger of becoming part of Babel. Babel is the counterpart to the Bride/New Jerusalem and is itself a system. Together with the beast on which it sits on, it represents the evil trinity to deceive the world.
The beast on which the harlot sits represents the political and military power (represented by the emperor), while the harlot represents the supporting system, which is the
- economy (giving wealth or making poor),
- culture with impressive temple worship,
- ideology,
- other aspects of daily such as coins, public holidays, etc.
In all of this, it seeks to bring a better gospel than Jesus by providing
- security through fear of war or persecution,
- wealth through abuse of the weak or exclusion of the ones not compliant,
- feeling superior,
- silencing inconvenient voices.
Since Babel has many parallels to Jezebel, this maybe a special warning to church leaders. But the call to awareness and reflection is for everyone. Maybe that is the reason why Babel is not so clear, so that you can reflect and move out of it every day again. Because Babel is everywhere!
This could be compelling and attractive for the church when it is in persecution or poverty and on the way to more wealth and human appreciation.