CHAPTER XVII

Chapter XVII (together with Chapter XVIII) is devoted to a common theme – the fate of the beast and the historical judgment of God's Providence over it, and the first of them is devoted mainly to its foreign policy fate, while the second is devoted to its cultural and economic fate. This idea is expressed in the dual image of the harlot woman, Babylon and the kingdom of the beast, both of which merge spiritually almost to the point of identification, although they are still different. We had already had a prophetic vision of the fall of Babylon, the great city, "which made all nations drunk with the fierce wine of its fornication" (14:8). Now the same idea is repeated in more concrete images. In essence, the content of both chapters, seventeenth and eighteenth, is a recapitulation, as is generally characteristic of the style of Revelation. In detail, Chapter XVII is like a political charade or rebus, which had a special acuteness for contemporaries, and for them, of course, it was natural to unravel this political cipher. In this respect, Chapter XVII is similar to Chapter XIII with its riddle of the animal number (666).

Chapter XVII begins with a vision of "the great harlot sitting on many waters," i.e., spreading her influence widely: "The kings of the earth committed fornication with her, and those who dwell on the earth were drunk with the wine of her fornication" (XVII, 2). It was shown by one of the seven angels who had the seven vials of God's wrath, and the content of this chapter also applies to them in terms of meaning. The "great harlot" is here a general and preliminary qualitative designation of the kingdom of the beast, civitas diabolica. The angel promises to "show judgment on her" (1) and leads her for this purpose "in the spirit into the wilderness" (3). This designation "in the spirit" expresses, of course, the special prophetic inspiration, power and significance of this image. The "wilderness" is evidently a symbol of spiritual emptiness and desolation (a parallel and contrast to the same image in XXI, 10, where it says: "He lifted me up in spirit to a great and holy mountain"). "And I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast" (the scarlet color here is a symbol of wealth and splendor). Here, as we see, the image of the woman and the beast outwardly and inwardly converge to spiritual identification. (Of course, here too a parallel in contrast to the "woman clothed with the sun" of Chapter XII begs to be paralleled). The former attributes of the beast, the seven heads and ten horns, known to us from Chapter XIII, are repeated here (3) together with blasphemous names (except for only 10 diadems). If in Chapter XII the beast is described mainly from the point of view of its bestiality (XIII, 2), then here the features of wealth and luxury appear in the first place: "And the woman was clothed in purple and scarlet, adorned with gold, precious stones and pearls, and held a golden cup in her hand, filled with abominations and the uncleanness of her fornication" (4). In this symbolism, which does not require explanation, however, the golden chalice should be especially noted as perhaps representing a blasphemous parody of the Eucharistic chalice. "And on her forehead is written: 'Mystery, Babylon the Great, mother of harlots and abominations of the earth' (5). The inscription of the name on the forehead, peculiar to a harlot, corresponded to such a Roman custom. [69] "Mystery" does not refer here to the special content of Revelation, but indicates the allegorical or mystical meaning of this geographical name. Babylon in general means civitas diabolica in its various manifestations, in the political as well as in the spiritual, and here these two meanings are combined. The anti-Christian character of "Babylon" is expressed in the fact that "the woman was drunk with the blood of the saints and the blood of the witnesses of Jesus" (6). It assimilates the power and will to persecute Christianity. In response to the "great surprise" caused by this quality, which seems to be uncharacteristic of a woman, the angel explains "the mystery of this woman and of the beast that bears her, which has seven heads and ten horns" (7). The "mystery" here also points to the hidden, symbolic meaning of this image, which is common to "this woman and the beast." In other words, their external and internal connection, spiritual identification, is evidenced here. Then the seer proceeds to consider the individual properties of the beast. He is given, first of all, the following definition: "the beast that you saw was and is not." In this part it is even repeated twice in verse 8, at the beginning and at the end, apparently in order to give it greater significance and solemnity. Since the beast parodies the Lamb as the Antichrist, the sacred formula used above more than once in relation to the Lamb is applied to him: "He was, and is, and is to come," but here it is also compensated by the negation: "He was, and he is not." The same formula in its two applications has a different and even opposite ending. In the first case, it ends like this: the beast "will come out of the poor and go to perdition," this is the fate of the Antichrist. In the second case, it is said about him as follows: "The beast was, and he is not, and will appear." This is an allusion to the superstition of the age about Nero redivivus, the dead and resurrected Nero, applied to the Antichrist, who parodies Christ's death and resurrection. First a judgment is pronounced about him in essence, and then concerning his false sign: "Those who dwell on the earth will be amazed, whose names are not inscribed in the book of life from the foundation of the world, seeing that the beast was, and is not, and will appear." This "surprise" will not be the lot of everyone, but only those who will be accessible to him, since they do not belong to the number of the elect, "are not inscribed in the book of life." This text undoubtedly presents a certain dogmatic difficulty, since it sounds in the spirit of predestinationism, and moreover, it speaks precisely of predestination to perdition, or, in any case, to a severe temptation, before which those who are doomed to it are defenseless. In this sense, Revelation XVII, 8 begs for comparison with the texts of Ap. Paul, Rom. VIII, 29 ("whom He foreknew, He also predestood") and IX, 11 ("when He was not yet born, and had done nothing good, that God's will in election should proceed not from works, but from Him who calleth"), and IX, 18: "Whomsoever He willeth, He has mercy on, and whom He willeth He hardens." However, this figurative expression about "life not described in the book from the beginning of the world" should not be understood literally and literally for dogmatic reasons. Otherwise, it would lead to the darkest fatalism, a doom to perdition that is incompatible with God's love and goodness. It is evident, therefore, that here we speak only of God's foreknowledge concerning the various paths of human life. Among them are those who have determined themselves by human freedom, though not to final destruction, but, in any case, to difficult and obstinate paths. Moreover, it is not said in this text, which, moreover, does not have direct dogmatic precision, and in general is not characteristic of the figurative language of revelation.

Verses 9-12 that follow contain a kind of religious-political charade, like the previous ones, and it is not so much solved as riddled and encrypted. This character of this text is already determined in advance by the introductory words to it: "Here is the mind that has wisdom" (9). (This introduction is similar to our liturgical exclamations: "wisdom," which precedes the Biblical readings, or some other words that are especially emphasized in their significance.) In this case, this is an indication or hint at a deliberate lack of agreement, the ciphering of the text for reasons of a political or censorship nature. Here there is a complete parallel of XIII, 18: "here is wisdom", words that also express a special emphasis, and at the same time the cipher, of the text (animal number 666). The seer first turns here to the explanation of the seven heads of the beast (cf. XIII, 1). This is the essence of "the seven mountains on which the wife sits." The simplest way of interpreting on the basis of modernity is, of course, the Septimontium of Rome, which for obvious reasons is not named by name. But now Rome as a symbol of political sovereignty does not, of course, have the significance that it had in the epoch when it could naturally be synonymous with the beast. For us, the "seven mountains" have a common symbolic meaning of the seven, of completeness in the extensive, sense of universal collective imperialism, as well as in the intensive sense of totalitarian statehood. However, another meaning of the septenary number is not indicated here: "And the seven kings, of whom five have fallen, one is, and the other has not yet come, and when he comes, he will not be long" (10). Probably, these political hints were full of significance for contemporaries and attracted special attention, especially since they still had to be deciphered. It is even difficult for us now to say whether this was easy or difficult for them, and whether it did not still imply deliberate esotericism, whether it did not require political commentary, which was passed from mouth to mouth. This is even more difficult, of course, now for historical commentary, in which the latest exegetes are sophisticated in their desire to understand this text in the sense that it could have for contemporaries. This is a crux interpretum, which is a kind of exercise in historical conjecture. Under this septenary number, the names of the Roman emperors are sought, chronologically more or less corresponding to this. [71] But to this week the following addition is made: "And the beast that was, and which is not, is the eighth, and of the seven, and shall go to destruction." (11). The beast, which is the common spiritual, political, and social foundation of all the individual reigns, is here defined as the "eighth," but also "of the seven," the seventh-eighth. What does that mean? First of all, there is a distinction between the general and the particular, the bestiality of individual animals, but at the same time their internal identification remains. Obviously, it is said here that even when the kingdoms accessible to the historical gaze of the seer, with their special heads, cease, then the bestiality will not cease, which will seek and find for itself new, further personifications. Since these will be new historical figures, or kingdoms, or political formations in general, they represent the collective image of the "eighth king." Since it is still the same beast, "which was, and which is not, and will perish," this presupposes the continued existence of the beast kingdom after the Roman Empire and its kings. In this way, the idea of the seer is generalized and, what is especially important here, only a relatively historical character is given to the list of seven kings in whose person the beast was incarnated, existed for contemporaries. Now for us these kings no longer exist, they are forgotten or unknown, so that we have to make every effort to unravel their names, but the general type of the animal kingdom and bestiality in general remains in full force. It stands before us even now in all its spiritual and political power. Thus the exegetical difficulty of this text, which is otherwise difficult to overcome, is resolved for us. With the same understanding, this problem of the seven kings, which was obviously so vital for John's contemporaries, seems almost non-existent to us. Indeed, it may be said that if we were to give it the importance which historical and critical exegesis, which has become sophisticated in its attempts to decipher this cipher, has actually assimilated to it, it would even detract from the very importance of the prophetic text. In its direct and literal sense, it seems to cease to exist for us, and can this not be interpreted in such a way that Revelation has already outlived itself and interest in it belongs only to the field of archaeology and religious-historical? Therefore, it is precisely in order to maintain a correct dogmatic and spiritual perspective in the understanding of the Apocalypse that we are required to have complete religious sincerity in perceiving it in our own perspective, in which we ourselves now perceive it. This prophetic book was written not only for its contemporaries, but for all times, although each epoch reads it with its own eyes and in its own way. We can with a certain calmness — and are ready to say, with a certain carelessness — pass over that which is now incomprehensible to us, insofar as it does not exist in the literal sense, and yet retains no less, if not greater, power in its prophetic being. That is why we allow ourselves not to intensify ourselves in resolving conspiratorial indications and political ciphers, as if passing them by, unlike the majority of exegetes, who concentrate their attention on this, relying on the research they have made, which, in their exhaustive completeness, testify to the absence of indisputable conclusions, and to that extent to their fruitlessness. And, in any case, it is necessary to separate and distinguish between the tasks of both the religious-dogmatic and the exegetical-critical interpretation of Revelation.

However, here, in order to avoid misunderstandings, it is necessary to add the following. This cannot detract from our reverent attitude towards the word of God, which for us is Revelation among the other books of the Old and New Testaments. But at the same time it is necessary to establish a general principle that our comprehension of the sacred text never has an exhaustive, final character, it always deepens and increases, preserving for us in this sense new possibilities of understanding. This is all the more true of books of a symbolic-prophetic nature, such as Revelation.

CHAPTER XVIII

THE FALL OF BABYLON

This chapter is entirely devoted to the episodic disclosure of one theme, which has already been outlined above (XVI, 19): God's judgment on Babylon and her destruction. It is revealed in a number of paintings and images. This chapter is distinguished by a lengthy and even somewhat verbose character as a certain artistic development of this theme. It opens with the vision of "another angel descending from heaven and having great power; the earth is illumined by His glory" (1). Although he is the herald of the destruction of Babylon, it is not directly said that he was the executor of this message, although, of course, the latter can be assumed, since the decree of God also has in itself a perfecting power. "And he cried out with a loud voice, saying, 'Babylon is fallen, Babylon is fallen' (2-3), and then follows an allegorical description of this fall in its causes and effects. The aorist form (επεσεν) here refers to an accomplishment which, however, still belongs to the future, but here prophetically anticipates it. At the same time, "another voice from heaven speaking" is heard to "My people" (4-9). Before analyzing the content of this address, we must pose a preliminary question both regarding the angel "descending from heaven" and the "other voice" also from heaven (similar questions have already arisen before us). Both voices from heaven are addressed to the "earth", to the earthly, human world. However, does this mean that they as such are both audible and recognizable on earth, or do they express the will of God in general, to which the internal and external laws of the course of events correspond? In general, it itself does not reach the consciousness of the characters themselves, except in cases of special prophetic illumination of the elect (like a seer). From the outside, it is expressed in the concatenation of seemingly random events leading to a fatal end for Babylon. An empirical literal understanding of these prophecies as untrue would be simply superstitious. Nor is it required by the sacred text itself, given its correct dogmatic understanding. Although there is a direct connection between the heavenly decrees and their earthly accomplishments, which are fulfilled through the angelic world, this connection between earth and heaven does not eliminate the fact that angels and men belong to different worlds, are on different planes, although not metaphysically (since they equally belong to the created world), but concretely empirically. This common belonging of them to the created world does not eliminate what for man, since he remains in earthly life and does not pass into the world beyond the grave, the existence of angels and all their continuous and concrete participation in our life remains transcendental for us. It is an intelligible postulate of faith, although it can be extremely vital for us, as a source of hope. Therefore, such testimonies of John refer to the highest and authentic reality of history, but not to its empirical flow. This does not mean, of course, that these prophecies are incorrect or fantastic. On the contrary, they correspond even to an ontological reality higher than empiricism. But it is hidden from direct observation for man as a historical ontology. This higher reality is revealed to prophetic contemplation and is visible from the world beyond the grave, whose life passes in communion with the angelic world. Therefore, from there, human history appears as an apocalypse. In this sense, it is a narrative about it, written as if in the language of the spiritual world about what is happening on earth. In this sense, it is necessary to comprehend it by its content, but not by its literal exposition, in translation into earthly, empirical language. Rather, a reverse translation is required here.

Thus, another voice from heaven contains a warning and an exhortation addressed to the faithful and believers, and which apparently resounds in their conscience as its command and self-determination in the face of historical reality as a criterion and norm of internal and external self-determination. This voice addresses the people of God, who obviously exist on earth (although it is not said in large or small numbers, and this is not decisive here), with an appeal and appeal, however and through whom they are expressed: "Depart from her, my people, that you may not be partakers of her sins, and not be exposed to her plagues, for her sins have reached unto heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities" (4-5), and the same is true in the following verses (6-8). If one can ask oneself at all to whom this voice from heaven belongs, it is evident that "my people" is spoken, at any rate not by an angel, but by God, and of God as the one who judges, who is the Father (the same applies to the words of v. 8: "Mighty is the Lord God who judges her"). However, this could also have been said by Christ, since He executes judgment on earth. One can ask oneself far and further to whom the further words of this address are spoken, and to whom the further words of this address refer: "Render unto her as she has repaid you, and repay her twice according to her works" (v. 6 ff. v. 7).

If the first address refers to the people of God,[72] then to whom does the second, "repay," repay? To angels or men? The first understanding does not correspond to the text, which does not speak at all about angels sent for this purpose, and the second is even more inappropriate, since it is not given to people to be the obedients of God's commands about the retribution of sins. Obviously, only the interpretation that we applied above is applicable here. We are talking about the connection, about the course of historical events, which contain the fulfillment of God's will and God's wrath. At the same time, their meaning can remain outside or above their consciousness, the List der Vernunft, which has already been mentioned above, is at work here. The Babylonian harlot is accused of being "glorified and luxurious" (7), and in return she is given the same amount of "torment and sorrow." Her punishment is described in allegorical and hyperbolic images: "in one day (of course, this period does not allow for literal application, but means only the suddenness and rapidity of events) executions, death and weeping and famine are spun on her, and she will be burned with fire" (8). All this means a combination of various historical disasters, which at the same time are not even compatible, but in the end lead to extermination, "burning by fire."

The second part of the chapter (8-20) is devoted to the characteristic lamentations [73] for the fall of "the great Babylon, the mighty city" with the repeated refrain "woe to thee" (10, 16, 19) in the mouths of three different groups of mourners: the kings of the earth, the merchants, and the sailors. Of course, there is no need to limit the boundaries of "Babylon" to Rome alone, even if this was characteristic of the seer himself. But in any case, it also presupposes the presence of other kings of the earth, so that Babylon has a collective meaning, it is not so much a geographical and political concept as a moral and mystical one.

The first lamentation comes from the kings of the earth, "who committed fornication and luxuriated with her" (9). The second lamentation, from earthly merchants (11-17a), is perhaps less mystical and more "cultural-historical", and at the same time a rhetorical picture of ancient commercial life with a rather random and even chaotic, albeit characteristic, list of marketable goods, a kind of trade catalog or price list (12-13). Of course, it is quite different from the present industrial trade, in that it is not productive, but of a consumptive character, and relates chiefly to articles of luxury, so that the object of this whole approximate list is to show the wealth and luxury of Rome. Here the characteristic addition to it catches attention; After various luxuries, "both human bodies and souls" are added: the first refers to bodily depravity (prostitution, slavery, gladiatorship, and other fights), the second to spiritual venality and depravity in general.