“Two Women, Two Cities: The Ecclesiological and Eschatological Contrast in Revelation 12 and 17”

Abstract

Pastors and lay members in the Trans Pacific Union Mission have been challenged by competing views on the women in Rev 12 and 17. Are the women the same or different? This article offers a comparative, exegetical study of the two women and two cities in Rev 12 and 17. It argues that the woman of Rev 12 symbolises the faithful covenant community—Israel fulfilled in the church—whose identity is marked by obedience and witness, culminating in the Bride, the New Jerusalem. By contrast, the woman of Rev 17 personifies Babylon, an apostate religio-political system whose luxury, idolatry, and coercion are enabled through alliance with the beast, and whose end is judgment. Using literary context, OT intertexts (Gen 3; Isa 54; Jer 50–51; Dan 2–7), and canonical patterns for “Babylon,” the study shows 
the figures are antithetical, not identical. It synthesises Rev 13, 17, and 18 to trace the mechanism, character, and collapse of counterfeit worship, and draws implications: God calls His people to discernment and separation (“Come out of her”), while persevering as the remnant who keep God’s commandments and bear Jesus’ testimony.