King James Version · Under Rome
Revelation 17
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And there came one of the seven which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters: With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the of her fornication. So he carried me away in into : and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten . And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden in her hand full of and filthiness of her fornication: And upon her forehead was a name written, , THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE EARTH. And I saw the woman drunken with of , and with of the martyrs of : and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration. And said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee of the woman, and of that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten . that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the from the foundation of the world, when they behold that was, and is not, and yet is. And here is which hath . The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth. 10And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space. And that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition. And the ten which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive as kings one hour with . These have one , and shall give their and strength unto . These shall make war with , and shall overcome them: for he is of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and . And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and , and nations, and . And the ten which thou sawest upon , these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and , and shall eat her , and burn her with . For hath put in their to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto , until the words of shall be fulfilled. And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.
The 1611 translation, public domain. Its original printing included the Apocrypha, which is why the deuterocanonical books can be read here. Notes and cards are EKLI’s own.
The world at this moment · Under Rome, 63 BC to AD 100 ›
Judea as a client kingdom and then a province. Roads, garrisons, taxes, crucifixion, and a common Greek language that let a message travel the empire faster than any before it.
- Rome
- The republic tears itself apart in civil war and comes out as an empire under Augustus. What follows is two centuries of relative peace across the whole Mediterranean, enforced by legions and paid for by taxes, with safe roads and safe sea lanes. Every one of Paul's journeys depends on that.
- Judea
- Governed first through Herod the Great, a client king of enormous ability and enormous brutality who rebuilds the temple into one of the wonders of the ancient world, then directly by Roman prefects. Crucifixion is the standard penalty for sedition and is used often and publicly.
- The wider world
- Greek is spoken from Spain to Syria, which means a letter written in Corinth can be read in Rome without translation. Jewish communities already exist in most major cities, which is where the first Christian preaching lands. Mystery religions, imperial cult, and philosophy all compete in the same marketplace.
- Further afield
- The Han dynasty rules China and trades silk westward along routes that touch the Roman world at second hand. In Britain the Roman conquest begins within a decade of the crucifixion.