Rev 17 [§281] Rev 17:3: A Woman Sits on a Scarlet Beast [Roman Empire]

This podcast explains the imagery and symbolism used by John in Revelation 17:4-5 to describe the history of the Great Whore of false religion who sits on many waters with worldwide dominion in the latter days. In Revelation 17:3, John’s angelic guide physically transported John “in the spirit into the wilderness.” The wilderness was a desolate place representing the habitation of the Great Whore, who is both barren and desolate as the wilderness in which she dwells. In Revelation 17:3, John “saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.” The scarlet coloured beast is the ancient Roman empire, which is also a symbolic synonym for the First Beast in Revelation 13:1. This connection is evidenced by the seven heads and 10 horns present on both beasts, as well as the names of blasphemy imprinted on both images. The blasphemy in both cases relates to false religion in the Roman empire. The woman of false religion in Revelation 17:3 sat upon‒and was thus supported by‒the ancient Roman empire represented by the scarlet coloured beast. The beast is red to represent the blood of martyred saints who were persecuted and died in the ancient Roman empire. Revelation 17:4 coincides in time with the establishment of the Constantinian Church of Rome early in the fourth century AD. At that time, the persecuted Christian religion became the state religion in the Roman empire. The priests and clergymen in this apostate Christian religion were lavished with gifts, position, and power in the Roman empire. John describes this evolutionary transition in Revelation 17:4 as a “woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls.” The evolving woman in Revelation 17:4 also had “a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication.” This means that throughout the long period of the Great Apostasy, this woman of false religion spiritually fornicated with emperors and then governments in the emerging nations of Europe until the time of the Protestant Reformation. At that time, this mother church illegitimately gave birth to a large number of other false religions. She thus became the mother of abominations and the Great Whore of False Religion in the modern era since 1830.