Reference: Babylon, Mystical
Fausets
(Re 16:19,17-18; 19:2-3). Not 1Pe 5:13, where "Babylon" can only mean the literal Babylon: "the (church) at Babylon .... saluteth you." A friendly salutation is hardly the place wherein to find mystical phraseology. The whole epistle, moreover, is remarkably plain, and contains none of the imagery of prophecy. Moreover the literal Babylon was the center from which the Asiatic "dispersion" (dispersed Jews), whom Peter addresses, was derived. Babylon contained many Jews in the apostolic age ("one of the greatest knots of Jews in the world:" Lightfoot, quoted in Smith's Dictionary), and doubtless "the apostle of the circumcision," Peter, who had among his hearers on Pentecost (Acts 2) "the dwellers of Mesopotamia," would visit the Jews there. "Bosor," which Peter uses for Pethor (Nu 22:5; 1Pe 5:14), is the Aramaic pronunciation moreover; Josephus contra Apion, 1:7, Ant. 15:3, section 1, also favors the Aramaic Babylon.
The "woman arrayed in purple and scarlet color, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication, and upon her forehead having a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH" (Re 17:4-5), is avowedly mystical. The later Jews regarded Rome in the same light as their fathers regarded Babylon (Jer 51:7, compare Re 14:8.) John had seen the woman "clothed with the sun, and the moon (the earth's satellite) under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars "; i.e. God's pure church of the Old Testament and of the New Testament clothed with the Sun of righteousness, and having the twelve patriarchs and the twelve apostles as her coronet (Revelation 12).
Then she was "persecuted" by" the dragon, Satan," but nourished by divine Providence for "three and a half times" "in the wilderness" of the Gentile world. But now he prophetically sees her sadly and awfully changed. So he "wondered great admiration." The spiritual Jerusalem has become mystical Babylon; the church has become the harlot! The same truth under the same imagery appears in Isa 1:21, "How is the faithful city become an harlot!" That the world should be beastly (Daniel 7) is natural, but that she whose calling was to be the faithful bride should become the Babylonian whore is monstrous (Jer 2:12-13,20). Not that the elect apostatize; but Christendom, as a whole, and as the visible "woman," has apostatized from its first faith and love. The elect invisible church, the true "woman" and "bride," remains hidden in the visible that has become the harlot, and shall only be manifested when Christ our Life is manifested (Col 3:1).
External prevalence over the world, and internal corruption by the world, (the spirit of the world ruling the church) is symbolized by the world-city's name Babylon; the contrast to "Jerusalem above, the mother of all" believers (Ga 4:26), the "holy Jerusalem, that great city," which shall hereafter on the "new earth" "descend out of heaven from God, having the glory of God" (Re 21:10). The Roman Catholic Church is the prominent type of Babylon, resting on the world power, and arrayed like it in its "scarlet" gauds, and ruling it by its claim of supremacy, while the beast or secular power on which it rests is "full of names of blasphemy," which after the harlot's overthrow shall be more glaringly displayed. It and the Greek apostasy are whorish in principle, by external and internal idolatry and systematized worldliness.
The evangelical Protestant church is pure in theory, and eschews image and host-mass worship; but in so far as it yields to "covetousness which is idolatry," and conforms to the world, it partakes of the harlot and ceases to be the bride. Compare Achan's "Babylonian garment," Jos 7:21; Hebrew: "a robe of Shinar." While the Syrians were noted for dyeing, and the Phrygians for patchwork, the Babylonians inwove their garments (Tertullian De Habitu Mul., i.), i.e. tapestry work with colored figures inwoven or wrought with the needle: Pliny H.N., 8:48. Septuagint has psilee poikilee, "a smooth, pictured coat." Such garments passed through Jericho in the trade between the Phoenicians and Babylon (Eze 27:24.) In the case of both the Catholic churches and the Protestant churches God's retributive law holds good.
When the church forsakes her true Husband for the love of the world (contrast Ps 45:10-11), the world, the instrument of her sin, becomes the instrument of her punishment. Already this is taking place in Spain, Italy, Austria, and France (Re 17:16). Our turn shall come next; as in the case of Israel first, then Judah (Ezekiel 23), then the restored Jews at the destruction of Jerusalem by Rome, for whom Jerusalem gave up the true "King of the Jews" (Joh 11:48,50; 19:15). Then "iniquity" shall be no longer as now in "mystery," but openly developed in the last awful Antichrist who shall combine the world against Christ in a system of superstitious credulity and infidelity together (2 Thessalonians 2; Re 16:13-16; 17:17; 19:19). The final judgment on Babylon the whore (Revelation 17), after the elect shall have been translated out of it and transfigured, seems to be just before the judgment on Antichrist.
Babylon, the spiritual whore, is succeeded "the false prophet," who ministers to Antichrist and perishes with him (Re 19:20). Rome's forced outward unity, of which its one official language, Latin, is the symbol while inwardly there is spiritual confusion, answers to Babel, the scene of the forced attempt at concentration of power and peoples, issuing in utter confusion of tongues; so too, in a wider sense; does all Christendom in its apostasy from apostolic unworldly purity, faith, and love.
The harlot retains human shape as woman, does not become a beast; i.e., has "the form of godliness while denying the power." (Manliness is godliness, because man was made in the image of God.) The worldliness of the church is therefore the most worldly of all worldliness, and shall be terribly judged by God. But the whore or Babylon is not to be confounded with the beast. She, however degraded, has borne the divine image; the beast never has. She must fall before the beast develops all his hostility to God.
See Verses Found in Dictionary
And he will send messengers to Balaam, son of Beor, to Pethor, which is by the river of the land of the sons of his people, to call to him, saying, Behold, a people came forth out of Egypt: behold, it covered the eye of the earth, and it dwelt from before me.
And he will send messengers to Balaam, son of Beor, to Pethor, which is by the river of the land of the sons of his people, to call to him, saying, Behold, a people came forth out of Egypt: behold, it covered the eye of the earth, and it dwelt from before me.
And I shall see in the plunder a wide cloak of Shinar, a good one, and two hundred shekels of silver and one tongue of gold of fifty shekels from its weight, and I shall desire them, and shall take them, and behold them hid in the earth in the midst of my tent, and the silver under it.
And I shall see in the plunder a wide cloak of Shinar, a good one, and two hundred shekels of silver and one tongue of gold of fifty shekels from its weight, and I shall desire them, and shall take them, and behold them hid in the earth in the midst of my tent, and the silver under it.
Hear, O daughter, and see, and incline thine ear, and forget thy people and thy father's house;
Hear, O daughter, and see, and incline thine ear, and forget thy people and thy father's house; And the king shall desire for himself thy beauty, for he is thy Lord; and worship thou to him.
And the king shall desire for himself thy beauty, for he is thy Lord; and worship thou to him.
How was the faithful city for a harlot! I filled with judgment; justice will lodge in her; and now they are killing
How was the faithful city for a harlot! I filled with judgment; justice will lodge in her; and now they are killing
Be astonished, ye heavens, at this, and shudder; be ye greatly desolate, says Jehovah.
Be astonished, ye heavens, at this, and shudder; be ye greatly desolate, says Jehovah. For my people did two evils: they forsook me the fountain of living waters, to hew out for them wells, broken wells which will not hold water.
For my people did two evils: they forsook me the fountain of living waters, to hew out for them wells, broken wells which will not hold water.
For from of old I broke thy yoke, I burst thy bonds; and thou wilt say, I will not serve; for upon every high hill and under every green tree thou turnest one side, committing fornication:
For from of old I broke thy yoke, I burst thy bonds; and thou wilt say, I will not serve; for upon every high hill and under every green tree thou turnest one side, committing fornication:
Babel a cup of gold in the hand of Jehovah, making all the earth drunk: the nations drank from her wine; for this the nations will be foolish.
Babel a cup of gold in the hand of Jehovah, making all the earth drunk: the nations drank from her wine; for this the nations will be foolish.
They thy merchants in perfections in coverings of cerulean purple, and variegation and in treasures of variegated stuffs bound with cords and made fast in thy markets.
They thy merchants in perfections in coverings of cerulean purple, and variegation and in treasures of variegated stuffs bound with cords and made fast in thy markets.
If we let him thus go, all will believe on him: and the Romans will come and take away also our place and nation.
If we let him thus go, all will believe on him: and the Romans will come and take away also our place and nation.
Neither turn ye in your thoughts that it is profitable to us, that one man die for the people, and the nation perish not.
Neither turn ye in your thoughts that it is profitable to us, that one man die for the people, and the nation perish not.
And they cried, Take away, take away, crucify him. Pilate says to them, Shall I crucify your King? The chief priests answered, We have no king but Caesar.
And they cried, Take away, take away, crucify him. Pilate says to them, Shall I crucify your King? The chief priests answered, We have no king but Caesar.
But Jerusalem above is free, which is mother of us all.
But Jerusalem above is free, which is mother of us all.
If therefore ye be risen with Christ, seek things above, where Christ is sitting on the right hand of God.
If therefore ye be risen with Christ, seek things above, where Christ is sitting on the right hand of God.
The chosen together in Babylon, greet you; also Marcus my son.
The chosen together in Babylon, greet you; also Marcus my son.
And another angel followed, saying, She fell, Babylon fell, the great city, for all nations has she given to drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.
And another angel followed, saying, She fell, Babylon fell, the great city, for all nations has she given to drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.
And I saw out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the wild beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs.
And I saw out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the wild beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs. For they are the spirits of demons, doing signs, to go out upon all the kings of the earth and of the whole habitable globe, to gather them together for the war of that great day of God, the Omnipotent Ruler.
For they are the spirits of demons, doing signs, to go out upon all the kings of the earth and of the whole habitable globe, to gather them together for the war of that great day of God, the Omnipotent Ruler. (Behold, I come as a thief. Happy he watching, and keeping his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.)
(Behold, I come as a thief. Happy he watching, and keeping his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.) And he gathered them together in a place called in Hebrew Armageddon.
And he gathered them together in a place called in Hebrew Armageddon. And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and a great voice went out from the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done.
And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and a great voice went out from the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done. And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great shaking, such as was not since the time men were upon earth, such a great shaking.
And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great shaking, such as was not since the time men were upon earth, such a great shaking. And the great city was in three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon was remembered before God, to give her the cup of the wine of the wrath of his anger.
And the great city was in three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon was remembered before God, to give her the cup of the wine of the wrath of his anger.
And the woman surrounded with purple and scarlet, and covered with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and the impurity of her harlotry:
And the woman surrounded with purple and scarlet, and covered with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and the impurity of her harlotry: And upon her forehead a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, MOTHER OF HARLOTS, AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
And upon her forehead a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, MOTHER OF HARLOTS, AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the wild beast, these shall hate the harlot, and shall make her desolate and naked, and they shall eat her flesh, and shall burn her in fire.
And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the wild beast, these shall hate the harlot, and shall make her desolate and naked, and they shall eat her flesh, and shall burn her in fire. For God gave to their hearts to do his purpose, and to do one purpose, and to give their kingdom to the wild beast, till the words of God be fulfilled.
For God gave to their hearts to do his purpose, and to do one purpose, and to give their kingdom to the wild beast, till the words of God be fulfilled.
For true and just his judgments: for he judged the great harlot, who corrupted the earth with her harlotry, and he avenged the blood of his servants from her hand.
For true and just his judgments: for he judged the great harlot, who corrupted the earth with her harlotry, and he avenged the blood of his servants from her hand. And the second time they said, Alleluia. And her smoke goes up for ever and ever.
And the second time they said, Alleluia. And her smoke goes up for ever and ever.
And I saw the wild beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to war with him sitting upon the horse, and with his army.
And I saw the wild beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to war with him sitting upon the horse, and with his army. And the wild beast was seized, and with him the false prophet having done signs before him, with which he deceived them having received the stamp of the wild beast, and them worshipping his image. Living, were they two cast into the lake of fire burning with sulphur.
And the wild beast was seized, and with him the false prophet having done signs before him, with which he deceived them having received the stamp of the wild beast, and them worshipping his image. Living, were they two cast into the lake of fire burning with sulphur.
And he brought me away in the spirit upon a mountain great and high, and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God,
And he brought me away in the spirit upon a mountain great and high, and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God,