The Harlot and the Scarlet Beast

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Texts

Revelation 17–18; 19:7–8; 21:2; Jeremiah 51:7; Isaiah 23:15–17; 47:7–8; Ezekiel 27; Nahum 3:4; Daniel 7:7, 24

Figures

The great harlot, Babylon; the scarlet beast (the beast from the sea); the ten kings

Authority

Scripture

What the text shows

An angel shows John "the judgment on the great harlot who lives near the many waters. The kings of the earth have had intercourse with her" (Revelation 17:1–2). He sees "a woman seated on a scarlet beast that was covered with blasphemous names, with seven heads and ten horns." She is dressed in purple and scarlet, adorned with gold and pearls, and holds "a gold cup that was filled with the abominable and sordid deeds of her harlotry." On her forehead is a name: "Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and of the abominations of the earth." She is "drunk on the blood of the holy ones and on the blood of the witnesses to Jesus" (17:3–6).

The angel explains. The beast "existed once but now exists no longer," and will come again from the abyss (17:8). Its seven heads are seven hills and seven kings, and the beast is an eighth (17:9–11). Its ten horns are ten kings who "have not yet been crowned," who receive authority with the beast "for one hour," are "of one mind," and give their power to the beast; they fight the Lamb, and the Lamb conquers them (17:12–14). The waters are "peoples, nations, and tongues" (17:15). Then: "The ten horns that you saw and the beast will hate the harlot; they will leave her desolate and naked; they will eat her flesh and consume her with fire. For God has put it into their minds to carry out his purpose" (17:16–17). "The woman whom you saw represents the great city that has sovereignty over the kings of the earth" (17:18).

Her fall

Chapter 18 sings the fall: "Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great" (18:2). The kings who lay with her weep "when they see the smoke of her pyre" (18:9); the merchants mourn, for no one buys their cargo any more, a cargo that ends with "slaves, that is, human beings" (18:11–13). "All nations were led astray by your magic potion" (18:23), and "in her was found the blood of prophets and holy ones" (18:24). She had said in her heart, "I sit enthroned as queen; I am no widow, and I will never know grief" (18:7).

The cities of the prophets

John builds the harlot from the prophets' judgments on the great cities. Babylon was "a golden cup in the hand of the LORD, making the whole earth drunk" (Jeremiah 51:7) and said, "I shall remain always, a sovereign mistress forever!" and "I shall never be a widow" (Isaiah 47:7–8). Tyre, the merchant city, is called a harlot who trades with all the kingdoms of the earth (Isaiah 23:15–17), and Ezekiel's lament over Tyre lists its cargo as John lists Babylon's (Ezekiel 27). Nineveh is "a charming mistress of witchcraft, who enslaved nations with her prostitution" (Nahum 3:4). The harlot is every great city that makes wealth, power and pleasure its god.

Two women, two cities

Revelation sets the harlot against the bride. The harlot is clothed in purple and scarlet and drunk with the blood of the saints; the bride of the Lamb "was allowed to wear a bright, clean linen garment" (19:7–8). Babylon falls; the holy city, the new Jerusalem, comes down from heaven "prepared as a bride adorned for her husband" (21:2).

First fulfillment

The NABRE notes are plain: "Babylon, the symbolic name (Rev 17:5) of Rome, is graphically described as 'the great harlot,'" the image of one "who leads people astray into idolatry," with "the great wealth and idolatrous cults of Rome." The seven hills are Rome's (17:9), and the ten horns are "perhaps Parthian satraps" who would turn on "harlot Rome" (NABRE notes on 17:9, 12–13, 16).

The Fathers

St. Hippolytus calls her "this unclean harlot" and reads the woman as "that great city, which reigns over the kings of the earth" (On Christ and Antichrist 29, 39) A Father or Doctor. St. Irenaeus reads the ten kings as the kingdoms into which the empire will be divided, who "shall give their kingdom to the beast" (Against Heresies V.26.1) A Father or Doctor. St. Augustine sees in Babylon the earthly city, formed by "the love of self, even to the contempt of God," set against the city of God (City of God XIV.28) A Father or Doctor.

The Church Church teaching

The harlot is idolatry of wealth and power. Man commits idolatry "whenever he honors and reveres a creature in place of God," including "power, pleasure… the state, money" (CCC 2113); an economy that makes profit "the exclusive norm and ultimate end" is morally unacceptable (CCC 2424). Pope Leo XIV sets the same choice before our age: to "construct a new Tower of Babel" or to "build the city in which God and humanity dwell together," and he calls Babel "a project conceived without reference to God" (Magnifica Humanitas 7).

Where interpreters differ Disputed

• Rome: the first meaning, in the NABRE notes and most modern commentary.
• The earthly city in every age: St. Augustine; every civilization that organizes itself without God.
• Apostate Jerusalem: some modern scholars, reading the harlot as the city that killed the prophets.
• A world economic and commercial system: many modern readers, reading chapter 18's merchants and cargo.

The Church has not decided which the text intends at the end.

Sources

• Revelation 17–19, New American Bible Revised Edition, with notes: Revelation 17; Revelation 18; Revelation 19
• St. Hippolytus, On Christ and Antichrist: New Advent; St. Irenaeus, Against Heresies V.26: New Advent
• St. Augustine, City of God XIV.28
• Leo XIV, Magnifica Humanitas (2026): vatican.va
• Catechism of the Catholic Church 2113, 2424

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