Purpose
In Revelation 17:3-6, John, in vision, saw a woman sitting on a seven-headed beast (Rev 17:3). The rest of the chapter explains this vision. One aspect of that explanation is that the seven heads are consecutive and that five are past, one is, and one is to come (Rev 17:9-10). To correctly identify the seven heads, one has to determine the time perspective from which it is said that the sixth head “is.” That is the purpose of this article
Two Views
Jon Paulien, a scholar who is respected as one of the leading experts on the Book of Revelation, argues that, since this explanation was given to John, it uses John’s time as point of reference. It would follow that the first five heads existed before John, the sixth existed in his time, and the seventh later. To justify this approach, Paulien argues that, in Daniel 2 and 7, the visions were explained relative to the prophet’s time perspective. He says that visions can go to any place and time, but explanations in apocalyptic prophecies must always be given from the perspective of the prophet’s time. (Paulien’s article)
In contrast, the current article proposes that the explanation in Revelation 17 is not given to John but given to the end-time church. Therefore, it is given from the time perspective of the end-time church, just before the seventh and final head: [Show More]
Cannot be John’s Time
For the following reasons, the explanation in Revelation 17 cannot be relative to John’s time:
(1) In the explanation part of Revelation 17, the beast “is not” and is in the abyss (Rev 17:8). Both of these indicate that the beast was in a weak phase, but the beast was not weak in John’s time. [Show More]
(2) Given the strong allusions in the description of the beast to Daniel 7 (Rev 13:1-2), it seems logical to limit the seven heads of the beast to the empires mentioned by Daniel. If John lived during the 6th head, five heads preceded his time, but in Daniel 7, there are only three empires before John (Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece). Then, one has no option but to include empires that Daniel does not symbolize as heads of the beast. [Show More]
(3) If John lived during the 6th head, a single head must explain all phases of the beast after John’s time. That does not seem fair. Revelation 12 describes the 1260 days (Rev 12:14) and the end-time war (Rev 12:17), which are two major phases of the beast. [Show More]
Not like Daniel’s explanations
Paulien argues that since Daniel 2 and 7 explain the visions in those chapters relative to the prophet’s time perspective, the same applies to Revelation 17. However, the explanation in Rev 17 is not like in Daniel:
It was one of the plague angels who gave the entire chapter of Revelation 17, implying that that chapter explains the seven last plagues. Specifically, Revelation 17 explains Babylon and the beast she rides, and the seven plagues culminated in the seventh, which fell on Babylon (Rev 16:19).
Therefore, Revelation 17 is an explanation in its entirety. That explanation consists of two parts: a vision and a verbal explanation. But since the whole of Revelation 17 is an explanation, the two parts of the explanation have the same time perspective.
The text confirms that the vision and verbal parts of Revelation 17 describe things from the same time perspective because both describe the beast in a weak phase. In the vision part, the beast is in the wilderness and has no crowns. In the verbal part, the beast “is not” and in the abyss (17:8). [Show More]
Revelation 19:1-3 seems to continue where chapter 16 left off, for it shows God being praised for judging Babylon, indicating that both chapters 17 and 18 are an interlude to explain particularly the judgment on Babylon in the seventh plague.
Took John to a different Time
Since both the vision and explanation in Revelation 17 describe the beast in its weak phase, the two parts form a unit. The shift in the time perspective from John’s time can be explained as that the angel took John to a different time:
In Revelation 21, a plague angel takes John to a high mountain to see the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven (Rev 21:9-10). That is to be an event at or after Christ’s return, which is described in Revelation 19. By implication, by taking John to a high mountain, the angel took John to a different time.
Similarly, Revelation 17 begins when a plague angel takes John to the wilderness to show him the woman sitting on the beast (Rev 17:1-3). Similar to Rev 21, he takes John to a different time.
Time of the End
This section argues that Revelation 17 is an explanation to the end-time church, meaning that the time perspective is the End Time. This is based on the following observations:
(1) Daniel heard that his prophecies would only be understood in the Time of the End (Dan 12:4, 9), subtly implying that all the explanations to the church in the Book of Revelation would be given in that Time.
(2) In other places where the Book of Revelation describes a present time with things happening before and after that time, like in Rev 17, the ‘present time’ is always the Time of the End. [Show More]
In conclusion, the entire Book of Revelation has an end-time perspective, and Rev 17 must be understood accordingly. It is the time when the souls under the altar receive their robes, and the seal of God and the little open book are brought to earth. [Show More]
Conclusion
Therefore, in 17:1-3, the angel took John to the End Time, to a time when the Beast-power was in the wilderness of incapacity (our time of religious freedom), just before the seventh head, when it arises from the abyss of incapacity. That is our time! The angel took John to our time to give God’s people understanding of the prophecies (symbolized by the little book of Revelation 10).