Revelation 17:1-3

Context

The Great Prostitute and the Beast

17:1 Then¹ one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and spoke to me.² “Come,” he said, “I will show you the condemnation and punishment³ of the great prostitute who sits on many waters, 17:2 with whom the kings of the earth committed sexual immorality and the earth’s inhabitants got drunk with the wine of her immorality.”⁴ 17:3 So⁵ he carried me away in the Spirit⁶ to a wilderness,⁷ and there⁸ I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous names and had seven heads and ten horns.

[17:1] ¹tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence within the narrative.

[17:1] ²tn Grk “with me.” The translation “with me” implies that John was engaged in a dialogue with the one speaking to him (e.g., Jesus or an angel) when in reality it was a one-sided conversation, with John doing all the listening. For this reason, μετ᾿ ἐμοῦ (met’ emou, “with me”) was translated as “to me.”

[17:1] ³tn Here one Greek term, κρίμα (krima), has been translated by the two English terms “condemnation” and “punishment.” See BDAG 567 s.v. 4.b, “mostly in an unfavorable sense, of the condemnatory verdict and sometimes the subsequent punishment itself 2 Pt 2:3; Jd 4…τὸ κ. τῆς πόρνης the condemnation and punishment of the prostitute Rv 17:1.”

[17:2] ⁴tn This is the same word translated “sexual immorality” earlier in the verse, but here the qualifier “sexual” has not been repeated for stylistic reasons.

[17:3] ⁷tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “so” to indicate the implied result of the angel’s invitation to witness the fate of the prostitute.

[17:3] ⁸tn Or “in the spirit.” “Spirit” could refer either to the Holy Spirit or the human spirit, but in either case John was in “a state of spiritual exaltation best described as a trance” (R. H. Mounce, Revelation [NICNT], 75).

[17:3] ⁹tn Or “desert.”

[17:3] ¹⁰tn The word “there” is not in the Greek text, but is supplied for stylistic reasons.