Thinking Theopolitically

Chp 5 of Revelation for the Rest of Us, written with Cody Matchett.

What the church needs is the courage to think theo-politically, to think about politics in theological rather than in power, partisan, or economic terms. Here are seven characteristics of Babylon found mostly in Revelation 17-18. Read the texts and add up the prophet’s understanding of political toxicity and corruption. Then think of our country. It’s not hard.

Babylon’s Characteristics

Babylon means military might, exploiter of the economy, and oppressor of the people of God. But there’s far more in this image than one might think. Babylon is present in the sins of the seven churches. The entire sweep of the Book of Revelation is about wiping out the sins of Babylon so there can be a New Jerusalem. Dissidents have eyes for the signs of Babylon, and they see the sinister symptoms of something disordered.

Babylon is far more sinister than a city or even an empire. John discerns the face of evil in Rome. John penetrates deeper than empire or city. He knows the real problem is the Dragon and its sycophants, the Wild Things, and all those who seduced by the Wild Things. The signs of Babylon are visible disorders, like exploitation of bodies in slavery and sexual corruptions, but eliminating disorders does not get to the root. The root is the Dragon, who works through the Wild Things to create Babylon. Put in modern terms, the problem is a darkness called systemic evil.

Revelation reveals the plot of God to wipe the world clean of evil by defeating the Dragon, wrangling the Wild Things, and taking down Babylon. Revelation takes its readers into the heart of evil, defeats it, and leads us triumphantly to the world’s true destiny: The New Jerusalem, the city that flows with peace and justice.

But we live in Babylon now. What then are the signs of Babylon? John’s theme verse for Babylon, found in Revelation 17:2, reads

With her the kings of the earth committed adultery, and the inhabitants of the earth were intoxicated with the wine of her adulteries.

Babylon attracted the political powers of the world into her orbit and being drawn into that circle, everyone became intoxicated with Babylon’s poisoned wine. What was life like inside Babylon’s circle? A straightforward reading of Revelation 17-18 reveals the following seven signs of Babylon. These seven signs manifest idolatries and injustices, but if one wants to reduce them, at the core they express a corrupted, corrupting civil religion and spiritualized politics. I quote again from Richard Bauckham, and this is a thematic statement for the seven characteristics of Babylon. In one word: domination.

“Absolute power on earth is satanic in inspiration, destructive in its effects, idolatrous in its claims to ultimate loyalty.”

The one who follows the Lamb toward New Jerusalem discerns and resists the claims to absolute power by Babylon. These seven characteristics of Babylon provide for us today a template for discernment to become dissident disciples of Jesus.

1. Anti-god (for Jews and Christians)

Babylon formed an anti-God way of life into a rigid system. Jews and Christians had long denounced common idolatries (Isaiah 40-55; Wisdom of Solomon 13-15; Acts 12:21-23; Romans 1:18-32). What they witnessed throughout the ancient world were gods and kings, even kings as gods, revered in temples. They were convinced their Roman neighbors “deified” their emperors. They used names for the emperors like “god” or divi filius, “son of God,” as Octavian (Caesar Augustus) did because his father Julius Caesar was exalted to be among the gods. For Jews and Christians this was blasphemous. Stories ran rampant about the emperor Caligula (aka, Gaius Caesar Augustus Germanicus!) because he demanded an image of himself in Jerusalem’s temple.[1] The story, exaggerated or not, was the word on the street about how the empire’s idolatry worked.

Idolatry is not all alike. One can become an idolater by betraying God in worshiping another god, by rebelling against the covenant God makes with his people, by worshiping a god of our own making, representing, imaging, projecting, or imagining, by becoming allegiant to lesser gods like spirits and demons and angels, by worshiping a “strange” god or offering some “strange” form of worship (Halbertal and Margalit). There is no reason to think that one or only one of these idolatries was in view when John wrote Revelation. Rather, paganism had a rich supply of idolatries and Babylon encompasses them all.

For Christians there was but one true God – Father, Son, Spirit – and there was but one true Son of God, Jesus. For Rome, where pietas or piety ran straight from the family hearth into the public piazza and to the shrines and temples and all the way to Rome itself, there was no distinction to be made between military might, political rulers and emperors, politics, and religion. Empire and religion wove themselves into a seamless whole.

To discern and to become a dissident of the Babylons of our world Christians need to have eyes to detect the presence of anti-god systems and institutions. Because Rome as Babylon was a seamless whole we will need more than this single indicator but we begin with it.

2. Opulence

Babylon luxuriated in opulence, indulgence, entertainment, and games. This is what John says: Babylon “was dressed in purple and scarlet, and was glittering with gold, precious stones and pearls” (17:4). The rich got richer as the poor remained in their crowded, beggarly, and ignored conditions. Rome itself was a city of both wealth and squalor, power and powerlessness. Take the fashionable, over-the-top, Great Gatsby-like banquets of Romans with abundance of status as we read in the famous “Feast of Trimalchio” (see Petronius’ Satyricon, 26-78). The guests began with a bath of hot steam. With slaves attending and scurrying about to obey their every command and with entertainers singing and playing instruments, the guests at the banquet enjoyed hors d’oeuvres, observed or participated in games, and then began to eat succulent, extravagant foods like peahens’ eggs. They washed their hands with wine, and then vintage wines were served. Then a dish: ram’s-head chick-peas, beef, kidneys and animal testicles, figs, muffins and cakes, fish, crawfish, goose, mullets, and honey. Then the meal of fowl and sow and rabbit and more! It goes on and on, the indulgences deeper and the desires intoxicated and the stories bawdier and talking louder. A stereotype? Yes. Satire? Yes. Like Revelation’s language? Yes. One of the best ways to communicate opulence is hyperbole!

Dissidents perceive opulence for what it is. Showy disdain for the normalities of the rest of the population. Rampant indulgence. Displayed desire and conspicuous consumerism. Running right through it all, a sense of superior status.

3. Murderous

What Rome called pax Romana, the peace of Rome, was subjugation of enemies either through violent conquer or surrender. To be emperor one needed the chops of military victories, and the more impressive the enemy, the more status to the emperor. Emperors with less than impressive victories magnified puny military conquests to establish their own glory. Adrian Goldsworthy specializes in the so-called pax Romana, and here is his description of it:

Precision is impossible, but we can confidently state that over the centuries millions died in the course of the wars fought by Rome, millions more were enslaved, and still more would live under Roman rule whether they liked it or not. The Romans were imperialists.

To write Rome’s history means composing a history of war. Inspiring fear through murder, in other words, terror, was the way of Rome.

In John’s terms, “the woman [Babylon, Rome] was drunk with the blood of God’s holy people, the blood of those who bore testimony to Jesus” (17:6). There was then enough opposition to the Christians for some in western Asia Minor to die for speaking up and speaking out for Jesus. A man named “Antipas,” John tells the church in Pergamum, “was put to death in your city” (2:13). In one of John’s many interludes we are told that there was an innumerable host from across the world who had “washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (7:14) – they were put to death for their witness to Jesus as the world’s true Lord. That is, they were (dead) dissidents.

Dissidents of Babylon discern a desire to scatter the ashes of death over anyone and anything that dares to resist.

4. Image

By all accounts Babylon impressed the watching world with its strategies, engineers, and architecturally brilliant temples, palaces, buildings, theaters, and sporting spectacles in ever-growing stadiums. And roads and aqueducts crisscrossing the empire. Marble-shaping-images everywhere. The monumental buildings testified to the impressive glory of Rome, its victories and its leaders.[2] Everyone observed the power and glory and reach of Babylon (=Rome) and were stunned. Except the dissidents, the oppressed, the slaves, the captured, and the poor. Put otherwise, most everyone! John makes this very point when he says that humans were “astonished” (17:8). That’s what Babylon wanted (and always has wanted).

Babylon works in many today who spend their time cultivating images and their persona. They construct platforms on which they perform with their cultured persona so that others can adore them. They are living into some image instead of the image of God in Christ.

5. Militarism

Rome accumulated all it had by military might and power. Rome tellingly rejected the use of “king” (rex) for its premier leader. Instead, it preferred “emperor,” which is the translation of imperator, a term referring to military commanders. The ruler of Rome was the most powerful man, and as the mightiest man, he was a militarist. On each coin was the emperor’s bust, often with a laurel wreath, the symbol of a military victory. In 17:13 we read that the kings of the world “will give their power and authority to the beast.” It probably didn’t take much imagination for John’s readers in the seven churches to know this truth: Rome was the center of the world, the blessing of the gods, the glory of the people – and it was all these things and more because of ruthless power and relentless strategy.

Galgacus, a Caledonian [British] chief, speaking of the Roman army and its ruthlessness, called them “robbers of the world” and said “To robbery, slaughter, plunder, they give the lying name of empire” and they call it “solitude” and “peace.”[3] Closer to the time of the Book of Revelation, no doubt lingering in the memory of John himself, is what the Jewish historian Josephus said about Vespasian after a victory over Jews along the Sea of Galilee. Some wanted the whole lot of Jews killed on the spot, Vespasian hesitated, marched them south to Tiberias, trapped them, moved them to the stadium, and this is what happened:

[Vespasian] then gave orders for the execution of the old and unserviceable, to the number of twelve hundred; from the youths he selected six thousand of the most robust and sent them to Nero at the isthmus [at Corinth, as slave labor]. The rest of the multitude, numbering thirty thousand four hundred, he sold, excepting those of whom he made a present to Agrippa … and the king in his turn sold them (B.J. 3.532-542, quoting 539-541).

This is but a foretaste of the violence of Titus against Jerusalem in the siege of 70AD. He broke apart all he could (including the temple), burned all he could, and killed all he could (Josephus, never afraid of exaggeration, estimated more than a million deaths), and he did so with as much blood and gore as a Roman army could muster. They mopped up their victory at Masada.

All this is in the memory bank of John as he describes Babylon as full of military might. It puts the words of Revelation 18:13 in bold face: “human beings sold as slaves.” The Greek text has “bodies, the life-forces of humans.” Slavery is about owning and exploiting involuntary bodies. Dissidents discern exploitations of other humans – whether man, woman, or child.

6. Economic Exploitation

Rome, aka Babylon, aggregated, accumulated, exploited, taxed, and traded – and these were the daily experiences of everyone. Mosaics in Pompeii record this very point. In houses one could read on the floor “Hello Profit!” or “Profit is Happiness!” The poor resented the wealthy as much, if not more, in western Asia Minor as they did anywhere else, and the poor agitated for redistribution. The blistering criticisms of Revelation 18 then fit quite well with the social conditions of the time. The injustices of exploitation constantly simmered just below the surface of society.

There are several indicators of Babylon’s economic exploitations in John’s words: “the merchants of the earth,” he says, “grew rich from her excessive luxuries” (18:3). Rome’s party spirit was an unstoppable, unsatisfying treadmill of desire and indulgence with a never-ending demand of titillating supplies. The trade market, known also from other writers of the time like Strabo and Pliny (Natural History), was extensive and known in detail. The Mediterranean Sea today is filled with sunken ships that didn’t deliver, and one can read about new discoveries every year.

Closer to home, one of the main routes for trade, the Great Trunk Road, passed by the traditional author’s, John’s, home in Galilee. So close that he probably knew the luxuriant items on his list from childhood. In Revelation 18:11-13, reformatted here, typifies Roman trade whoever the author of the book may have been:

The merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her because no one buys their cargoes anymore—

cargoes of gold, silver, precious stones and pearls;

fine linen, purple, silk and scarlet cloth;

every sort of citron wood,

and articles of every kind made of ivory, costly wood, bronze, iron and marble;

cargoes of cinnamon and spice,

of incense, myrrh and frankincense,

of wine and olive oil,

of fine flour and wheat;

cattle and sheep;

horses and carriages;

and human beings sold as slaves.

One writer quipped that one can travel the world to see what it has to offer or one could go to Rome and see it all there (Shelton, #172). The merchants sold what Babylon was buying, and the flow toward Rome was ceaseless. Dissidents to this day are clued in to the seemingly unstoppable power of economic exploitation and consumerism. [Delete chart.]

7. Arrogance

All six signs above of Babylon roll into this one. Rome turned arrogance into virtue. “In her heart,” John knows by discernment, “she boasts, ‘I sit enthroned as queen. I am not a widow; I will never mourn’” (18:7). Isaiah had said nearly the same thing about the original Babylon: “You said, ‘I am forever – the eternal queen!’ (47:7) and she said “I am [that’s blasphemy in the highest], and there is none besides me. I will never be a widow or suffer the loss of children’” (47:8). Arrogance starts at the top of the empire, or perhaps we should say that the system rewards the arrogant at the top, and then lines up everyone in a hierarchy of status.

At the end of his life the emperor Augustus wrote up his accomplishments and someone inscribed them in front of his mausoleum. (The original has unfortunately not survived.) His account, called in Latin Res Gestae Divi Augusti, or “The Acts of the Divine Augustus,” put on record one of the most significant texts for comprehending the arrogance of empire. Of his thirty-four sections, I cite just one. This first selection trots out his military successes, his parading of victims from his victories, and public honors, always omitting the violence, bloodshed, and savagery:[4]

Twice I have celebrated triumphal ovations and three times I have driven triumphal chariots and I have been hailed twenty-one times as victorious general, although the senate voted me more triumphs, from all of which I abstained. I deposited the laurel from my fasces [rods of office] in the Capitoline temple, in fulfilment of the vows which I had taken in each war. On account of affairs successfully accomplished by land and sea by me or through my deputies under my auspices the senate fifty-five times decreed that thanksgiving should be offered to the immortal gods. Moreover the days during which thanksgiving has been offered by decree of the senate have amounted to 890. In my triumphs nine kings or kings’ children have been led in front of my chariot. I had been consul thirteen times at the time of writing, and I was the holder of tribunician power thirty-seven times [AD 14] (Res Gestae 4.1-4).

We are now at the opposite end of the ethic of following the Jesus of the cross. Jesus’ victory came by means of a hideous crucifixion. Augustus exposes for all to see the Way of the Dragon – self-adulation, human accomplishment, and false humility. Though power, through violence, through murder, through exploitation of others for the sake of indulgence and opulence.

By Augustus’ own design there is precious nothing about his family, about morals or character. Instead, it’s all about his mighty power, his annexation of other country’s land and produce, his undeniable benevolence (or redistribution), and the display of marble in a new Roman forum. This is a display of the ego of one man, that is at the same time, the ego culture of Rome and its empire. Dissidence discern narcissistic arrogance.

Summary

Again, if one chooses a single term for Babylon, the most important term follows behind the militaristic sense of conquering, and it is the term domination (Domination unto death is the Way of the Dragon.) In fact, the later emperor, Diocletian, required his subjects to call him dominus, and some historians refer to a transition with Diocletian from an “empire” to a system called “dominate.” Domination bundles all the signs of Babylon into one:

Anti-god

Opulence

Murderous

Image

Militarism

Economic exploitation

Arrogance

When John calls the seven churches to exit or “come out” of Rome (18:4), he’s pressing against the status system.

These are the signs of Babylon that come to the surface in Revelation 17-18. One can discover more of these signs in the series of judgments in chapters six through sixteen, but the major “character traits” of Babylon, whom John calls the great prostitute, present themselves in the seven terms above. These will set the tone for how Babylon penetrated the seven churches, and how they come to expression in churches today.

Dissidents discern Babylon.

Babylon today exhibits little difference than John’s own Babylon, and we will turn later in this book to look at how to discern Babylon today.

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[1] Josephus, Antiquities 18.261-309; Tacitus, Histories 5.9.

[2] You can see a theoretical (and impressive) reconstruction of ancient Rome at this website:

https://www.romereborn.org/

I admit to getting lost in wonder at this website every time I visit.

[3] From Tacitus, Agricola 30.14, in Everyman’s Library; A.J. Church, W.J. Brodribb.

[4] All translations are of the Latin text by Alison E. Cooley, Res Gestae Divi Augusti: Text, Translation, and Commentary (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009).