The woman that you saw is the great city that has rulership over the kings of the earth. Rev. 17:18.
The image of the "great city" clearly has universal application. The book of Revelation calls it Sodom, Egypt, Jerusalem, and Babylon (Rev. 11:8; 14:8). It is still a factor in the world at the end of history (Rev. 17). So it is likely that early readers of Revelation would have identified this image with Rome. The great city "has rulership" (present tense) over the kings of the earth. The beast the woman rides is also seven mountains, which would probably remind first-century readers of the seven hills of Rome. First-century Jews and Christians often referred to Rome as Babylon, etc. There may be a lesson for us in this identification.
Around the time of the composition of Revelation the legal standing of Christians in the empire had begun to come under threat. Jews were taking action to isolate Christians from the synagogue. But Judaism was the only religion that was exempted from Roman religious law. To be seen as separate from Jews, therefore, put Christians in real peril.
A second problem that Christians began to face were accusations from their Gentile neighbors. As Gentiles came to see a distinction between Christian faith and Judaism, they often examined Christianity with hostile contempt. They accused Christians of being "haters of the human race." Pagan rituals and rhetoric saturated public events in Asia Minor. Christians, therefore, usually avoided them so as not to compromise their faith. Pagans began to think of them as antisocial.
The general population, on the other hand, took a smorgasbord approach to religion. They felt free to pick and choose among a variety of ideas. Much like today, they did not appreciate people who thought that they were right and that everybody else was wrong. As a result they accused Christians of "atheism" because they would not worship any god but their own. The peoples of the empire each had their own religious preferences, but added worship of the state gods as a token of their allegiance to the state. But Christians would not accept the state gods as objects of worship. So pagans considered them "atheists."
Christians, oddly enough, also faced charges of "cannibalism." It had to do with Gentile perceptions of the Lord's Supper, in which Christians were "eating the body and drinking the blood" of their Lord. Although Christians understood such statements in a spiritual way, apparently their pagan neighbors did not. So stories circulated that Christians sacrificed children and others in order to eat them at their Lord's table. Such accusations combined to create an insecure world for Christians to live in.
Lord, I am grateful to live in relatively sheltered times. Keep my faith strong when life is good.
The image of the "great city" clearly has universal application. The book of Revelation calls it Sodom, Egypt, Jerusalem, and Babylon (Rev. 11:8; 14:8). It is still a factor in the world at the end of history (Rev. 17). So it is likely that early readers of Revelation would have identified this image with Rome. The great city "has rulership" (present tense) over the kings of the earth. The beast the woman rides is also seven mountains, which would probably remind first-century readers of the seven hills of Rome. First-century Jews and Christians often referred to Rome as Babylon, etc. There may be a lesson for us in this identification.
Around the time of the composition of Revelation the legal standing of Christians in the empire had begun to come under threat. Jews were taking action to isolate Christians from the synagogue. But Judaism was the only religion that was exempted from Roman religious law. To be seen as separate from Jews, therefore, put Christians in real peril.
A second problem that Christians began to face were accusations from their Gentile neighbors. As Gentiles came to see a distinction between Christian faith and Judaism, they often examined Christianity with hostile contempt. They accused Christians of being "haters of the human race." Pagan rituals and rhetoric saturated public events in Asia Minor. Christians, therefore, usually avoided them so as not to compromise their faith. Pagans began to think of them as antisocial.
The general population, on the other hand, took a smorgasbord approach to religion. They felt free to pick and choose among a variety of ideas. Much like today, they did not appreciate people who thought that they were right and that everybody else was wrong. As a result they accused Christians of "atheism" because they would not worship any god but their own. The peoples of the empire each had their own religious preferences, but added worship of the state gods as a token of their allegiance to the state. But Christians would not accept the state gods as objects of worship. So pagans considered them "atheists."
Christians, oddly enough, also faced charges of "cannibalism." It had to do with Gentile perceptions of the Lord's Supper, in which Christians were "eating the body and drinking the blood" of their Lord. Although Christians understood such statements in a spiritual way, apparently their pagan neighbors did not. So stories circulated that Christians sacrificed children and others in order to eat them at their Lord's table. Such accusations combined to create an insecure world for Christians to live in.
Lord, I am grateful to live in relatively sheltered times. Keep my faith strong when life is good.
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