The book of Revelation is an inscrutable piece of literature for most people, including many Christians. The apocalyptic style of writing requires a different approach to the interpretation of the book. It must be understood that the book employs many symbols; to interpret the book like historical narrative would be to ignore the clear intent of the author and leads to fanciful theories about its meaning.

Like other apocalyptic works, Revelation has a storyline. It describes the suffering of God’s people and the divine plan for their ultimate deliverance from persecution. Identified in the book are some key persecutors of the church, including the dragon, the sea and land beasts and the great harlot. I would argue that the theme of the book is the judgment of Babylon the great, described as the mother of harlots (17:5).

Not everybody believes that the storyline of Revelation is based in specific historical circumstances. Even among those who do, there is disagreement about the time and nature of those circumstances. Who is Babylon, the great harlot mentioned in the book? Is it Jerusalem? Is it Rome? Is it the actual city of Babylon?

I believe that the name Babylon should be understood symbolically and that the apostle John gave his readers a number of hints about the identity of the great harlot.

In chapter 17, John saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast which appears to be the same beast which he saw rising out of the sea in chapter 13 (vs. 1; compare the descriptions of this beast in chapters 13 & 17). Note John’s description of this woman:

⁴ The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the filthiness of her fornication. ⁵ And on her forehead a name was written: MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. ⁶  I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. And when I saw her, I marveled with great amazement.

Although she was clearly a persecutor of Christians, it becomes clear from other passages in the book that the great harlot was not actually a woman at all! Babylon, as she was called, was really a city. For instance, in chapter 14, an angel announced her fall – “Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she has made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication” (vs. 8). In chapter 15, the great city, great Babylon, was divided into three parts (vs. 19). John was even told by an angel that “the woman whom you saw (earlier in chapter 17 – asd) is that great city which reigns over the kings of the earth” (17:18). In the midst of describing the judgment upon Babylon, John wrote that the kings of the earth who witness her destruction will lament, saying, “Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city!” (18:10).

I believe that the name “Babylon” is symbolic, that John was not writing about the literal city of Babylon in New Testament times. It was the literal city of Babylon which was responsible for the end of the southern kingdom of Judah in the Old Testament. She is portrayed in the Hebrew scriptures as an oppressor of God’s people (Isaiah 14:4). But what city was symbolized by the name “Babylon” in Revelation?

Chapter 11 helps us answer this question. In that chapter John noted that the “holy city” would be tread underfoot for forty-two months (vs. 2). In the Scriptures, Jerusalem was called the holy city (Nehemiah 11:1; Isaiah 52:1; Matthew 4:5; 27:53). John identified this city further in verse 8 as “the great city which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.” Although Jerusalem was described in the Old Testament as both Sodom and Egypt (Isaiah 1:10; Jeremiah 23:14), perhaps other cities, including Rome, might share some of the characteristics of Sodom and Egypt. However, what other city could be described as “where also our Lord was crucified”? It should also be remembered that the Roman-Jewish war, during which the city of Jerusalem was destroyed, lasted approximately three and a half years, the equivalent of forty-two months. Jerusalem, as the representative of the Jewish nation, was tread underfoot for forty-two months.

Jerusalem, the holy city where God chose to “put His name” (Deuteronomy 12:5; 1 Kings 9:3; 2 Chronicles 33:7), had become, in the days of Jesus, an unholy city! She rejected God’s Messiah and became an oppressor of God’s spiritual nation, the church, even as Old Testament Babylon had oppressed the physical nation of Israel. We read of the persecution of the church by the Jews in the book of Acts (e.g., Acts 4; 5; 8:1-3; 9:1-2; 22:4-5; 26:10). Truly Jerusalem was drunk with the blood of the saints! The holy city had “become a dwelling place of demons, a prison for every foul spirit, and a cage for every unclean and hated bird” (Revelation 18:2).

Revelation, like the Charles Dickens novel entitled A Tale of Two Cities, is about two cities. Dickens wrote about Paris and London, but Revelation is about old Jerusalem, the holy city which had become a harlot, and New Jerusalem.

In chapter 21, John saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven. She is prepared as a bride adorned for her husband (vs. 2). However, we quickly learn in this chapter that New Jerusalem is not a literal city either. One of the seven angels who poured out bowls of wrath offered to show John “the bride, the Lamb’s wife” (vs. 9). The angel took John to a high mountain and showed him the great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven (vs. 10), i.e., New Jerusalem. New Jerusalem is the church, the bride of Christ.

Revelation is a book which tells of two cities, literal Jerusalem which had become a vile persecutor of Christians and New Jerusalem, a figurative city representing the church belonging to Christ, “not having spot or wrinkle…but…holy and without blemish” (Ephesians 5:27; Revelation 21:27).