A mind with wisdom is needed: Multiple heads explanation 1
9 This calls for a mind with wisdom: the seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman is seated; (Revelation 17:9–ESV)
From church history the seven hills or seven mountains has been routinely assigned to the city of Rome. At this time of John the Roman empire was just that a near worldwide empire with Rome at its center. Much speculation through history has been given as a result of interpretations like this. Will the Roman Empire be resurrected? Will the thing that comes back to life be a political entity like the Roman Empire? Will the thing that comes back to life be a Religio-political structure like the Roman Catholic church on the back of a world wide government?
Those themes have certainly been written on and accepted as factual. Even the European Union has come into the mix as people have spoken of 10 members and 10 horns.
The problem is history keeps marching on and the neat packages well meaning Biblical scholars try to pack around these prophecies fall apart. Sometimes they get remade and recrafted only to fall apart again. My take is to let it be. Perhaps we should take our cue from the way the unsaved responded in verse 8. They marveled WHEN they saw the beast. So often we try to see the future and marvel BEFORE we see the beast. What if we are not even alive until then? I think we should marvel that God sees things from the beginning to the end. We do well to not demand the answers to prophetic events proven too obscure for the scholars and let our marvel sit where it should be: before God and his intentions. I bet we will understand Revelation 17:9 when we need to. That is how I think I want to channel my wisdom to this verse.
If we wish to throw other things in this mix what about seven mountain ranges of the world? Seven continents?
A mind with wisdom is needed: Multiple heads explanation 2
10 they are also seven kings, five of whom have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come, and when he does come he must remain only a little while. (Revelation 17:9–ESV)
When the angel was speaking with John he spoke of seven kings. Five had already run their courses and left this life. One was still running his and at the time of John one more standard king was left to reign. The beast itself would become an eighth, but that is for the next verse or two.
I think that Biblical scholars would generally expand the kings to mean empires, e.g. Egypt, Babylon, Persia, Greece, etc. Maybe he meant major kings of each of these places. No time course is spoken of. Many want to make the 7th the major kingdom they are part of after the time of Rome. What about the contemporary empires like the British? That fell apart after World War 2 devastated it and then the U.S. took the center stage in world management.
It seems to me that easy connectivity of this prophecy of kings defies an easy categorization. The first to present his case seems right till another comes forward and questions him, or another comes forward and offers his well reasoned narrative.
I prefer to not draw my strength from this passage by saying, “here is what the exact meaning is.” I think that must be left to God who in his timing will reveal what it really is. The winner when the reality is revealed is not the one who had guessed the right way. The winner will be the one who rejoices in what God has done. It will be best to look back after the great reveal and then tie it to prophetic scripture. Then we can praise God for what his insights were. Can we praise God, by faith now, believing that what he said will in time be revealed for us to bring our own marvels too?
Leave a Reply