Here is the mind that has wisdom The seven heads are seven mountains, whereon the woman sits.
Revelation 17 stops mid-vision to hand the reader a key, and that key calls for a certain kind of mind. The angel says the seven heads mean two things: hills and rulers. Commentators read the hills as God's plain clue to where this woman has her seat.
Understanding here is not automatic. One writer explains why God made the mark so plain:
Here is the mind that has wisdom, the divine secret for an understanding heart. There need not be much doubt about what the seven mountains point to, and in general there has not been. That Rome was the seven-hilled city is familiar to every schoolboy... In this way God points out what He is speaking of here, in a way plain even to unspiritual souls, if that can be. He has even, if one may say so, gone out of His way to give a needed plain mark of identification. So His saints may know whose blood this system would shed, and who would need the comfort of knowing that He was against this "mother and mistress of the churches."
The detail about mountains works as a location clue. It also rules out the old Babylon in Chaldea, which stood on a plain:
This is a material point, though simple. It is a local mark, intended to show the wise mind where this woman has her seat. There ought not to be the least doubt that it is a reference to Rome. It is true that the name "Babylon" had been used for it, just as Revelation 11 uses Sodom and Egypt as figures for Jerusalem. But the Chaldean capital had nothing to do with the city of Revelation 17. That city had long since passed away as an imperial city, while verse 18 says of this Babylon that it has dominion over the kings of the earth. More than this, the literal Babylon in Chaldea stood on the plain of Shinar. Here the woman sits on seven mountains, and all the world knows that this is the well-known mark of Rome.
The same heads carry two meanings at once. That alone shows this is picture-language. The woman rides the beast, and she also sits on hills:
The seven heads have a double application: first they are seven mountains, on which the woman sits. We may learn here how, while giving much more light as to facts, a symbol cannot be taken literally. The woman was sitting on the beast. So Rome is seated on seven hills, as well as on the Roman empire by its influence. But, besides this, the heads of the beast were seven forms of power which characterised it.
Naming hills ties this religious system to one city, not just to an empire. But her title "mother of harlots" widens the picture:
The seven-hilled city is everywhere recognised as Rome. This identifies the beast with the Roman Empire. But the heads are also the "seven mountains on which the woman is seated." So this is not a mere general link between the empire and this religious apostasy. It is a local link between the religion and the city... As "the mother of harlots," she may have children who walk in her own evil ways but have no direct link with Rome. The principles of idolatry, and of worldly trade unfit for the bride of Christ, have eaten into a large part of Christendom that does not call itself Roman Catholic.
The heads carry a second meaning too: government. These forms of rule followed one another in one city:
It is hard to doubt that these heads or kings refer to the various forms of power which followed each other in Rome. Other beasts were simply said to have one head. But in Rome we hear of seven heads, and the interpreter's words show that these came one after another, not side by side. The figure covers the complete variety of political power that should mark that empire. "Five," it is said, "have fallen." These were the earlier kinds of power in Rome. One head was ruling at that time — the sixth. So the five fallen heads pointed to kings, consuls, decemvirs, military tribunes, dictators, or the like, which had been in Rome before but had now yielded to the emperor.
Commentators differ over what the five fallen heads were. One writer rejects the view that they were the first five Roman emperors:
There might have been some ground for calling these emperors "horns," but "heads" they cannot be. They each and all represent one head or form of government, namely, the imperial.
- Wisdom — The verse calls for an understanding heart. God gives the clue so His people can know this system and take comfort that He stands against it.
- Mark — Seven mountains is a plain mark of place. It rules out the old Babylon in Chaldea, which stood on flat ground.
- Symbol — The heads mean two things at once: hills and rulers. So the vision speaks in pictures, not in flat facts.
- Reach — Her seat is one city. But as "mother of harlots" her principles have spread far past that one system.
- Kings — The heads are forms of rule that followed one another. Five had fallen and the sixth was ruling at the time. Commentators differ on naming the five.
And there are seven kings five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come; and when he comes he must remain [only] a little while.
The angel has just told John that the seven heads carry a double sense: they are seven mountains, and they are also seven kings. Verse 10 places those kings on a timeline: five gone, one present, one still to arrive.
The word "kings" here means a run of governing systems that followed one another in Rome. The angel's count — some fallen, one standing, one still ahead — shows they never overlapped.
"There are seven kings," says the Spirit of God: "five of whom have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come." It is hard to doubt that these heads or kings refer to the various forms of power which followed each other in Rome. Other beasts were simply said to have one head. The Macedonian empire might become four heads, and these were clearly at the same time, not one after another. But in Rome we hear of seven heads. From the language of the interpreter, these are not at the same time but in succession. The figure refers to the complete variety of political power that would mark that empire.
Commentators who name the five list offices that ruled Rome before the emperors:
"Five have fallen." These are Kings, Consuls, Dictators, Decemvirs, and Military Tribunes.
Commentators differ over the five. Two popular identifications fail on the same ground: the symbol here is a head.
Some have applied the five fallen heads to the successive kingdoms of Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia, Greece, and Persia. Others think the reference is to Rome's first five emperors — Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero. The first idea cannot be right, for it is the Beast, that is, the Roman empire, that is before us in the prophecy. Nor can the second theory be right, for the heads are different forms of government. There might have been some ground for calling these emperors "horns," but "heads" they cannot be.
The present tense fixes the moment the angel is speaking from. Since the beast itself at that moment "is not," the only present left is the writer's own lifetime.
The heads are also seven kings. They rule one after another, not at the same time. Five had already fallen, one was, and another was yet to come, only to exist for a short time. The beast himself is the final one. Imperial Rome was clearly what existed in the apostle's day. "One is" we must take as applying to the apostle's day. At the time of the vision the beast itself "is not." The only other present time would be the time the apostle lived in.
A long stretch of history lies between the sixth head and the seventh. In it the empire was not there at all.
"The other has not yet come." So between the breakup of the empire and its future devilish reappearance many centuries have passed. "When he comes he must remain only a little while." This is the seventh head. It is the rise of the fallen empire under new conditions, as presented in chapter 13:1.
The brief span given to the seventh becomes a test.
Here again we find this last ruler, whose duration is so brief, has been by some attributed to the papacy. That seems unreasonable. A system which has existed for so many centuries should not be taken as the one that only continues for "a little while," especially when this king is put in connection with five other kings which had passed away.
One writer sees Napoleon as a shadow of the last head, perhaps even the seventh. He still warns against turning a likeness into a fulfilment.
It is quite true that events often foreshadow the fulfilment of a prophecy. The first Napoleon passed across the stage of the world. By his energy and speed of conquest he was an undoubted shadow of the final head of the Roman Empire, if not the seventh head himself. But it is a mistake to think that striking agreements with the thing predicted mean you have found the complete fulfilment.
And the believer loses nothing by not knowing the details:
To understand the prophetic word you do not require history. Suppose the simple Christian believes that the five forms of power fell before the existing imperial one — what of importance can history add? He is assured on the word of God that there were five, though he may not know their histories or their characters. Further details are of no importance to the believer.
- Heads, not men. The seven kings are seven forms of Roman government. They come one after another, not side by side.
- Five fallen. Kings, Consuls, Dictators, Decemvirs and Military Tribunes had all gone before John wrote.
- One is. The sixth head was the imperial line of the Caesars. It stood in John's own day, which dates the vision from his present.
- One to come. The seventh is the fallen empire rising again under new conditions. Centuries pass first, in which the beast "is not."
- Only a little while. Its short span rules out any long-running system. It also warns against pinning the prophecy on a passing figure from history.
And the beast that was and is not, he also is an eighth, and is of the seven, and goes into destruction.
The angel has just counted seven kings: five fallen, one reigning, one still to come. Now he adds a figure who breaks the count — a beast that is both an eighth and one of the seven. The riddle is how something can be new and old at once, and why its single stated future is ruin.
One writer traces the beast through four stages. The first two are already behind us:
It "was." The Beast existed as one huge united empire under a long line of emperors. "Is not." It has no political existence now. The countries and lands once inside it are still there, of course, but the empire itself came to a shameful end in A.D. 476. That ancient empire, famous and vast, has not existed for many centuries.
The number marks a new source of power behind the empire:
The Beast in its last and worst state comes up out of the abyss. That is different from how it first rose, and different from its future revival by human hands. So it stands as a complete picture on its own, and that earns it the name an "eighth." Satan revives it, and that devilish character is why it is given this number. Revelation 13 shows the empire coming back by human means; Revelation 17 shows its revival from hell.
The number itself carries this sense elsewhere in Scripture:
EIGHT. A new start outside the order of creation, yet linked to it: so it stands for resurrection. Circumcision came on the eighth day, when a new fellowship began. Eight people were saved in the ark, to start a new world… The new form of the future Roman empire will be the eighth.
New in origin, but not new in kind:
When he has risen, he will be the "eighth" — that is, under his eighth "head," or form of government. Still he "is of the seven," because although he has only just risen to power, it is only an old, earlier form of power brought back. In the kind of power, it is one of the seven brought into being again; but in the way it actually appears, it is an "eighth," or new headship over the empire.
The verse speaks of the beast, yet the seven heads were kings. One ruler so fills the empire that the two names become one:
The eighth head is one individual ruler, yet he bears the name of the beast, or the empire, because in character he is the empire. He stands at the top, directing all its authority. He is of the seven, because some earlier form of power will carry on, or be taken up again. But he will be the eighth, because something about him will be so unusual that it deserves a name of its own.
Some push this identification too far. One writer warns against that:
Some see the beast (the empire) and its last head as one, and so have even argued for the literal resurrection of a person here. That is only a wild fancy. Real resurrection could only come from God, and the beast in its last form is completely under Satan's power. So the rising up out of the abyss is figurative, just as the beast itself is.
Commentators do not agree on how the eighth relates to the seventh king of verse 10. One takes the eighth to be the seventh head revived in the same person:
He himself will receive a deadly wound… So he falls as the seventh head, but rises by Satan's power as the eighth head.
Another keeps them as two men. The seventh gives way to the "little horn":
The seventh head continues for a short time only. We may take him to be a person of importance, in control when the empire first reappears. Then the "little horn" — Satan's own choice — takes his place. That horn rises up looking "greater than its companions," and three kings fall before him.
The other heads simply fell. This ending falls on persons, and it takes the empire down with it:
The two great leaders, heads of the political power and of the religious power, are thrown alive into the lake of fire; those under them and their armies perish forever. The first five heads fell one after another. Then the sixth came to a violent end. The seventh merges into the eighth, and the eighth suffers a judgment more terrible than anything in history. This head and the Beast are one, so if the head is destroyed the whole Beast must go into utter ruin.
- Was — the empire really existed, ruled by a long line of emperors, and then it ended.
- Is not — the empire is gone today, but that is not the end of the story; it comes back.
- Eighth — the number marks a new start, and what makes it new is that Satan, not God, raises it.
- Of the seven — the form is nothing new; an old shape of imperial power comes back under a new head.
- Destruction — the eighth head and the beast are one, so its judgment is not decline but the lake of fire and utter ruin.