[B-Greek] Revelation 16:19 - the great city

Marko Jauhiainen mark at tpu.fi
Tue Dec 27 02:49:47 EST 2005



On 27.12.2005 02:17, Otto Erlend Nordgreen wrote:

>> Grammatically speaking, are "the great city," in this verse, and "Babylon 
>> the Great" two seperate entities? That is, would someone reading this in 
>> Greek get the idea that John was referring to two different entites before 
>> he did any additional research? Or, is there something here in Rev 16:19 
>> itself that gives an indication that both of these are the same?
> 
> According to J.-P. Ruiz: _Ezekiel in the Apocalypse: The Transformation of 
> Prophetic Language in Revelation 16, 17--19, 10_. (Frankfurt a.M.: Peter 
> Lang, 1987), this would indeed be a possible interpretation.
> 
> Ruiz has been followed by Rissi (in his monograph on "Babylon the great") 
> and, more recently, Jauhiainen (in his study of the use of Zechariah in the 
> Apocalypse).

Just a clarification: Ruiz argues that there is a transition of 
reference with regard to the "great city" in Revelation (i.e., it 
sometimes refers to Rome, and sometimes to Jerusalem) and that in 16:19 
it indeed refers to Rome.

I, on the other hand, place a bit more weight on the possibility that 
"the great city" and "Babylon the Great" are different entities. 
However, the issue cannot be settled on the basis of the structure of 
the Greek sentence alone, IMHO.


Marko Jauhiainen



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