The Key to Understanding Babylon in Revelation?

I do not think it is possible to answer every question about the book of Revelation, but some things are much easier to see than others. The key to getting fruitful interpretations out of the book of Revelation, compared to fruitless ones, is to interpret the book through the Old Testament passages that John’s writing is harkening back to. Yes, he wrote the visions he saw, and those visions consist of the Revelation of Jesus Christ, who is the Word of God, and fully represented in the Old Testament, as well as the New. So, the key to understanding what these passages are saying is by comparing Scripture to Scripture.  

Notice this passage from Zechariah 5, and how it informs our understanding of the woman, Babylon, in Revelation.

“1 Again I lifted my eyes and saw, and behold, a flying scroll! 2 And he said to me, “What do you see?” I answered, “I see a flying scroll. Its length is twenty cubits, and its width ten cubits.” 3 Then he said to me, “This is the curse that goes out over the face of the whole land. For everyone who steals shall be cleaned out according to what is on one side, and everyone who swears falsely shall be cleaned out according to what is on the other side. 4 I will send it out, declares the Lord of hosts, and it shall enter the house of the thief, and the house of him who swears falsely by my name. And it shall remain in his house and consume it, both timber and stones.”

A Vision of a Woman in a Basket

5 Then the angel who talked with me came forward and said to me, “Lift your eyes and see what this is that is going out.” 6 And I said, “What is it?” He said, “This is the basket that is going out.” And he said, “This is their iniquity in all the land.” 7 And behold, the leaden cover was lifted, and there was a woman sitting in the basket! 8 And he said, “This is Wickedness.” And he thrust her back into the basket, and thrust down the leaden weight on its opening.

9 Then I lifted my eyes and saw, and behold, two women coming forward! The wind was in their wings. They had wings like the wings of a stork, and they lifted up the basket between earth and heaven. 10 Then I said to the angel who talked with me, “Where are they taking the basket?” 11 He said to me, “To the land of Shinar, to build a house for it. And when this is prepared, they will set the basket down there on its base” (Zechariah 5:1-11).

An angel here explains to Zechariah that all of the evil in the land (of Israel) is in this basket and is here represented by a woman. Elsewhere evil is represented by a man, like in 2 Thessalonians 2, or Revelation 13, but here it is represented by a woman. God is going to take the evil of Israel and build a house for it in the land of Shinar, which is Babylon.

Why is this interesting? Because in Revelation 17 we read this,

“1 Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the judgment of the great prostitute who is seated on many waters, 2 with whom the kings of the earth have committed sexual immorality, and with the wine of whose sexual immorality the dwellers on earth have become drunk.” 3 And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness, and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous names, and it had seven heads and ten horns. 4 The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and jewels and pearls, holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her sexual immorality. 5 And on her forehead was written a name of mystery: “Babylon the great, mother of prostitutes and of earth's abominations.” 6 And I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of the martyrs of Jesus” (Rev. 17:1-6).

This woman had gone from Israel and grown as a force in Babylon, becoming powerful, wealthy and treated like royalty. A force that is now called “Babylon the great, mother of prostitutes and of earth’s abominations.” A force that is drunk with the blood of the saints and witnesses of Jesus. A force that is at work still in Babylon in the days of John and a force which was against the Church and its Lord Jesus Christ.

There are many ways to identify this force. But one way is to see where the Bible says it originated. Where did it originate? Among the sins of the land of Israel. What is even more interesting is that Ezekiel 16:1-3 God directly ties Israel with Babylon, he says there, “16 Again the word of the Lord came to me: 2 “Son of man, make known to Jerusalem her abominations, 3 and say, Thus says the Lord God to Jerusalem: Your origin and your birth are of the land of the Canaanites; your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite.” “Your father was an Amorite…” This is a reference to Abraham, who came from the land of the Chaldees and was an Aramean, Arameans were a subgroup of the Amorites. The first empire of Babylon was founded by Hammurabi the Amorite, it was an Amorite kingdom and power. So here we have another direct link of Israel with Babylon. The Israelites were descended from a man who came out of Babylon, “Ur of the Chaldees” (Gen. 11:28).

Now, this is not conclusive of course, much more could be said, and much more would need to be examined. But here we have a situation where there are two direct links with Israel and Babylon. One from Israel’s origins, and the other from the woman in Zechariah chapter 5 to the woman named Babylon the Great in Revelation 17. Now follow these threads. Look into the text and see if there are any other connections in scripture which point to the identity of Babylon in Revelation being associated with Apostate Israel. You might find it fascinating what you find. But the key to understanding this passage is in comparing what John says about the whore, Babylon, to how the Old Testament identifies the whore, or unfaithful bride. Who was the unfaithful bride in the Old Testament? The answer is obvious.