Revelation 17:1Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

John says, "I saw that the woman was drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus" (Rev 17:6). For all the tortures of the saints always took place by decree of the Roman senate. Although leniency is now shown to believers, the harlot herself has become the source of every decree concerning all nations against the proclamation of the faith.

Some have considered the harlot to be ancient Rome, since it is situated on seven hills. They understood the seven horns of the beast on which she sat as the seven most ungodly kings who persecuted the Church, from Domitian to Diocletian.

But we, in order to agree with the sequence of events, think that by the harlot one should understand the earthly kingdom in general, represented as though in one body.

Or else it is the city that will rule over others until the Antichrist, since ancient Rome has already lost its power, unless one supposes that it will return to it again.

But if the latter is admitted, then the city that now rules remains unexplained. For the Apostle says: “The woman whom you saw is the great city which has dominion over the kings of the earth” (Rev 17:18).

But concerning this, God willing, we shall speak further on.

As the account of the end of the present age and of the events of that time is being completed, the vision turns to another subject. It wishes to show the Evangelist what will happen to Rome.

John says that the angel said to him: “Come, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters.”

By judgment he means the manner of life and government by which, he judged, she lived and which she followed.

He calls her a harlot because she betrayed God and apostatized from Him. Holy Scripture calls this fornication, according to the prophet’s word to the God of all: “You destroy all who depart from You” (Ps 72:27).

By many waters he means the nations over which Rome both presides and rules, as John himself says as he continues.

In a similar way Isaiah also speaks of the devil, whom he portrays in the image of the king of Babylon: “How you have fallen from heaven, O daystar, son of the dawn” (Isa 14:12).

The Holy Spirit considers the body of all the lost, which He calls by different names according to the occasion. He judges that this body, long grown together with many deformities, has reached its limit here.

Destroyed by sins and ensnared by errors, it has gone mad to such a degree of impiety that its members resisted the meek.

In a fitting description, the Holy Spirit presents what is subject to destruction, calling it a harlot. For after being forsaken by the Creator, it gave itself to fornication so as to be violated by demons.

She is “great” because of the monstrous perversities with which she greatly mocked the saints. She sits “on many waters,” that is, on many nations.

Here it is told how the multitude of the lost, abandoned by the Creator, gave themselves over to the mockery of demons. They sit upon the waves, that is, upon the strife among the nations. In contrast, the multitude of believers had one heart and one soul (Acts 4:32). The apostle betrothed that soul to one husband, to present her to Christ as a pure virgin (2 Cor 11:2). With her the kings of the earth committed fornication, and so forth. The whole is greater than its parts. Each of the kings and inhabitants of the earth proudly strives after earthly things. They are corrupted by evil passions, yield to the enticements of this age, and become drunk with madness.

St. Andrew says: "In the spiritual sense we understand the wilderness as any city, or any large and populous society, guilty before God of the soul's drunkenness through fornication and other similar crimes. He saw her sitting on a scarlet beast because, on account of her wicked deeds, she rests upon the devil, who rejoices in murders and blood. In this way she assists the apostate in blasphemies against God."

The judgment of the great harlot. It was customary for the ancient prophets to portray great commercial cities under the image of harlots (Is 23:16-17; Nah 3:4).