Wahyu 17:1

The Great Prostitute and the Beast

17:1 Then ¹  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 punishment ³  of the great prostitute who sits on many waters,

Wahyu 17:3

17:3 So ⁴  he carried me away in the Spirit ⁵  to a wilderness, ⁶  and there ⁷  I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous names and had seven heads and ten horns.

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

[17:1]  ² tn 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]  ³ tn 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.”

[17:3]  ⁴ tn 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]  ⁵ tn 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]  ⁶ tn Or “desert.”

[17:3]  ⁷ tn The word “there” is not in the Greek text, but is supplied for stylistic reasons.