Simple answer
Revelation 17 introduces the woman called Mystery Babylon riding a scarlet beast. The chapter directly defines the waters as peoples and the ten horns as kings, while more specific historical identification remains interpretive.
Revelation 17:1–6 — The woman and the beast
Revelation 17:1–6 describes a richly arrayed woman seated on many waters and on a scarlet beast with seven heads and ten horns. She bears the name “Mystery, Babylon the Great” and is depicted as drunk with the blood of saints and martyrs of Jesus.
BPG understands the woman as a religious/religious-political system by comparison with wider biblical woman/bride imagery and the chapter’s religious characteristics. Revelation 17 itself calls the woman “that great city” in verse 18 rather than explicitly stating “woman = church.”
Revelation 17:7–18 — Symbols the chapter explains
Revelation 17:15 explicitly defines the waters as peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues. Revelation 17:9–10 connects the seven heads with seven mountains and seven kings, and Revelation 17:12 identifies the ten horns as ten kings who receive authority.
These direct definitions should anchor the study before later historical identifications are proposed.
Evidence boundary
Revelation supplies several symbol definitions. Assigning the mountains, kings, beast phases, or city symbol to particular historical entities requires additional historical evidence and remains interpretive.
Historicist reading of Babylon
BPG’s historicist framework understands Babylon as an apostate religious-political system rather than merely the ruins of the ancient Mesopotamian city. The Babylon study develops that broader biblical case.
Specific head/horn mappings have varied among interpreters. The broad Babylon-system interpretation should not be confused with every detailed historical scheme proposed for Revelation 17.
Revelation 17:16–18 — Babylon’s alliances turn against her
Revelation 17:16–18 describes the horns and beast turning against the woman. The chapter therefore portrays her political alliances as temporary and her judgment as ultimately carried out through powers that once supported her.
Frequently asked questions
Does Revelation 17 explicitly say the woman is a church?
No. Verse 18 directly calls her “that great city.” BPG’s religious-system application is a biblical/historicist synthesis.
What do the waters represent?
Revelation 17:15 explicitly defines them as peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues.