Harlot, Wife, and Mother - Women in Revelation and Hosea

By: Allison L. Hager

In the biblical book of Revelation, nearly everything is symbolic.  There are four instances in the book in which female figures are used as symbols.  These women are Jezebel, the prophetess in Revelation 2, Babylon, “the great whore” in chapters 17 and 18, the woman “clothed with the sun” in Revelation 12, and the bride of the Lamb in Revelation 19 and 21.  Each of these women is depicted as purely good or bad.  Additionally, Gomer, Hosea’s “wife of whoredom” from the book of Hosea, who is meant to symbolize Israel and her relationship to God, is both good and bad.  These five female figures are interesting because they are especially chosen, as women, to symbolize certain things.

The author, who calls himself John , is instructed in chapter 1 to write his visions and he sends them to the seven churches of Asia Minor.   In his letter to the church at Thyatira, he critiques the recipients, who are otherwise doing great works, for accepting a prophetess, who he symbolically calls Jezebel.   It is unlikely that any Christian or Jewish woman would have actually been named Jezebel. So it is likely that he gives this woman the name of the Canaanite wife of Israel’s King Ahab, who caused King Ahab to worship Canaanite deities in 1 and 2 Kings, because the author disapproves of the woman’s teachings and feels that she is causing the people in the church at Thyatira to commit idolatry as Jezebel did in Israel.

            The second symbolic woman is the woman “clothed with the sun.”   The author identifies this woman as a “great portent,” which is a symbolic celestial phenomenon, so the woman is a symbol, not only to the reader, but also to John.   The woman is giving birth when John sees her, but there is a “great red dragon” standing over her waiting to devour her child.   She gives birth to a son, “who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron,” and who is taken up to heaven to be with God immediately after his birth, so that he is safe from the dragon.   Birth imagery is often used to talk about the coming of the messiah.  Furthermore, the description of the child indicates that he is a messianic figure, so it is likely that this woman symbolically represents the “messianic community” from which the messiah comes.   This may mean that she represents the church, whose other children “keep the commandments of God and hold the testimony of Jesus.”   If that is the case, the author would be making a distinction between the messianic community before and after the birth of the messiah, the Jewish community and the Christian community.

            The “great whore” is the third symbolic female figure in Revelation and likely the most significant.   “Godless” cities are often metaphorically characterized as harlots.   In this case the woman is said to represent Babylon, though she almost certainly represents Rome.   When an angel is explaining John’s vision to him, the angel says, “The woman you saw is the great city that rules over the kings of the earth.”   Surely to someone living in the Roman Empire, as John did, this could mean nothing but that the woman represents Rome.   The woman is initially wearing purple and scarlet garments as well as gold, jewels and pearls, which might indicate she is a wealthy courtesan (prostitute) or, perhaps, royalty.   The woman is eventually stripped of her fine clothes, judged by God, killed by the beast and its allies (on God’s behalf even though they are the opponents of God), and burned.   Her death is reminiscent of the death of Jezebel, the queen.   The harlot is accused of sorcery in addition to harlotry.   It is possible that the author is trying to create a link between the harlot from chapters 17 and 18 and Jezebel, the queen from 1 and 2 Kings, who is also accused of “whoredom and sorcery.” The woman in this passage is not called a harlot for the same reasons as the Jezebel of Revelation 2 or her namesake, both of whom induced God’s people to worship foreign gods.  The fornication referred to here is not literal, but is instead a reference to Rome’s unjust economic system, which caused the city/empire and its residents to idolize and lust after money and power and to persecute the Christians that did not, according to John.

            The final female image used in Revelation is the bride of the lamb in chapters 19 and 21.   The bride in these passages is a symbol for the church, which has been brought into a new covenantal relationship with Christ, as a result of God’s gift and the good deeds of its people.   However, in the beatitude from 19:9, the church is most likely the blessed who are invited to the wedding feast.   The bride is also a symbol for the new Jerusalem, which will be the home of God among God’s people on the new earth, or the place where the church will reside.   There is a marked and intentional contrast between the harlot of chapters 17 and 18 and the bride in chapters 19 and 21.   The bride symbolizes the utopian kindom/kingdom of God on earth and the ideal covenant between God (Christ) and God’s people.  Just as prostitution is a distortion of marital relationship (pay money and share sexual relations), the Roman Empire is a distortion of this kingdom.   Rather than a safe place for God’s people, with gates open all the time, symbolizing that there are no threats, and people streaming into the city to worship God, the Roman Empire is a place of danger for God’s people with the threat of persecution and the temptations of the harlot’s riches causing people to be unfaithful to God.

            These four feminine symbols reflect the common roles of women in John’s culture (and in many cultures through the ages) - mother and/or wife, or harlot.  The dichotomy between the wife and mother and the harlot has been used throughout history to control women and their sexuality.   The status of women in these roles is dependent upon their relationships to men.  The wife is wife to a husband, a man.  The mother was impregnated by a man, and is more valued if she produces a male child.  The harlot is dependent upon men for her livelihood and is considered a harlot because of her “socially inappropriate” relationships with men.

Jezebel- A Fornicator and Adulteress

In John’s letter to Thyatira, he admonishes the members of the Christian community in that city for “tolerating” Jezebel.   John writes that she calls herself a prophet, but the reflexive here indicates that she is saying something untrue about herself. And John accuses this Jezebel of “beguiling” God’s servants in Thyatira to “practice fornication and to eat food sacrificed to idols.”

            Thyatira was a city known for its trade and craftsmanship, so it was home to many trade guilds.   These trade guilds would have been vitally important to gentile Christians seeking to maintain business and social contacts.  But it might have been difficult for them to maintain these contacts and be faithful to Christ.   Part of the difficulty would lie in the fact that most meat eaten during the first century would have been eaten as part of festivals of various gods or as part of the meetings of trade guilds.  It would be difficult to tell in such circumstances if the meat had been sacrificed to idols and eating with the community was likely important to being a part of the community.   This may be why Paul said in 1 Cor 8-9 that eating meat sacrificed to idols was permissible, though not encouraged because it might cause other, weaker Christians to stumble.   John, the author of Revelation, may have been from Jewish Palestine where such practices would not have been acceptable.   It is possible, or even likely, that he believed that eating meat sacrificed to idols was idolatry.

            The teaching of the woman called Jezebel would likely have been popular with gentile Christians attempting to keep social and business contacts as well as their faith in Christ.   They were doing good works and being faithful to Christ otherwise, it is probably that they believed her teachings were correct.   She was apparently offering a compromise on the issue of eating meat sacrificed to idols in order to accommodate Christian practices to the surrounding culture, possibly in the same way and for the same reasons that Paul did.   John was dismayed by the extent to which Christians had accommodated the culture around them.

            Jezebel, the prophetess, is accused of fornication and adultery in addition to encouraging people to eat meat sacrificed to idols.   Fornication and adultery are often used in the Bible to indicate idolatry, so it is likely that this “fornication” is metaphorical fornication and did not include any literal sexual acts.   It may be, as mentioned above, that the more conservative John thought that eating meat that had been sacrificed to idols was idolatry.   If that is the case, then John was using two different things- eating meat and fornication- to express the same idea- that Jezebel was the leading God’s people in Thyatira to commit idolatry.

            There is no reason to believe the Jezebel was actually the name of the prophetess (in much the same way that there is no reason to believe that her sin was sexual).  No Jewish or Christian woman would have been named Jezebel, because of the infamy of the wife/queen of King Ahab of Israel. The original Jezebel was a Canaanite noblewoman, the daughter of the Ethbaal King of Tyre and Sidon.  She led Ahab, her husband, to commit idolatry by worshiping the Canaanite gods.   It is likely that John was using a “stock slander” by calling the prophetess Jezebel, because Jezebel was a well-known idolater and metaphorical fornicator.   There are parallels between the historical Jezebel and Jezebel the prophetess as John describes her.  Jezebel the prophetess is accused of a symbolic sexual relationship, leading to idolatry, with the people of Thyatira, while Jezebel the queen was accused of using her actual sexual relationship, her marriage to King Ahab, to induce King Ahab and God’s people, Israel, to commit idolatry.  In this case, there is a parallel drawn from Israel to the church.  Like Jezebel the prophetess, Jezebel the queen is accused of committing symbolic acts of adultery or whoredom, which stand for committing the sin of idolatry and inducing others to do so as well.

Tina Pippin says Jezebel the queen is the classic femme fatale.   She is other, foreign, dangerous, and, therefore, seductive.   Here her name is used to describe a woman who has stepped outside of the bounds of acceptable behavior.  She has become other and dangerous and is described as a fornicator, a seductress.  She seduced some of the people of Thyatira, though they were doing good works, to become unfaithful to Jesus Christ by conforming to the world around them and eating meat sacrificed to idols, which John believes to be idolatry.

The Woman Clothed with the Sun - A Mother

            The woman clothed with the sun is a symbol that appears in heaven.   She is like a “queen of the cosmos,” because she is described with the powerful symbols of sun, moon, and stars.   She is outfitted like a goddess, specifically recalling some prominent goddesses of the ancient world.   She is pregnant and gives birth to a son, who is meant to rule, which, combined with the dragon/serpent pursuing her, brings to mind Leto, the Greek goddess and mother of Apollo, a Greek god, and Isis, an Egyptian goddess who gives birth to Horus, an Egyptian god.   These three women give birth to future male rulers.  The woman clothed with the sun, along with Isis and Leto, is pursued by a dragon- or serpent-like monster.   The children of these women conquer their enemies.   These stories would likely have been well-known in John’s day and he could have drawn on them, though some of the elements are different.

            The woman is in the midst of labor when John initially sees her.   Childbirth is a metaphor in the New Testament for bringing the reign of God.   Throughout the Bible, birth imagery is often used to describe the coming of the messiah.   The description of the woman’s son as one who rules all the nations with a rod of iron, which refers to Psalm 2 and indicates a Davidic Messiah who will conquer enemies of Israel, combined with this common birth imagery helps to indicate that the woman’s son is a messiah.   The woman clothed with the sun has in the past been thought to be Mary, the mother of Jesus.   However, this is unlikely, because there are no Christian features in this story.  It is probable that this is a based on a Jewish story, which has been incorporated, so it is unlikely that the woman is Mary even though there are no known Jewish stories involving a monster chasing after the Messiah.   It is likely that the woman represents the persecuted messianic community that brought forth the Messiah, both Israel from whom the Messiah came and the church.

            After her child is taken away to heaven to be protected from the dragon that wishes to eat him, the woman clothed with the sun, now a mother, is taken to a safe place in the wilderness that God has prepared for her, and she is nourished.   The wilderness is the place where the Israelites found refuge and salvation from the Egyptians.   During their time in the wilderness they were dependent on God for nourishment, as this woman is.   In this passage, it appears that the woman is the personification of the persecuted Christian community, who will find nourishment and safety in God.

            According to John, the church is being persecuted by Rome.   The dragon that pursues the woman clothed like the sun and her children is clearly a representation of Satan, the enemy of God.   He has the same number of heads and horns as the beast in Revelation 17:3, which represents Rome, because the seven horns represent seven hills on which Rome sits.   The woman and her other children are the church who are faithful to God despite the threats and temptations of Satan.  Satan is thrown down from heaven in the middle of the passage describing the woman, which shows that while the Christian community may experience hardship while Satan is on earth, they are ultimately protected and nourished by God as the woman is, and someday, Satan, like the monsters that attacked Apollo and Horus, will be defeated by the woman’s messianic son.

Babylon - The Great Whore

            John is taken to the wilderness in chapter 17, where he is to see God’s judgment of Babylon, the great whore.   Babylon, the harlot, is accused of fornication (like Jezebel in chapter 2), which means that Babylon has not been faithful to God in some way.   The metaphor of the prostitute is often used in the Old Testament to describe “godless” cities or nations.   The woman is described as wearing purple and scarlet, gold, jewels, and pearls.  This style of dress indicates wealth.  She is dressed like a well-off courtesan, perhaps even a royal like Jezebel the queen.   The harlot also refers to herself as a queen in chapter 18, indicating that even if she is not in fact royal she sees herself as royal.   The jewels are indicative of her seductive nature. Babylon, the harlot, is said to hold in her hand a cup full of abominations/pollutions and the impurities of her fornication, the wine of fornication, off of which the inhabitants of the earth have become drunk by her seduction. To drink from the wine of the wrath of her fornication also means to drink from the wine of the passion of her fornication.  The Greek word thymos, meaning wrath, also means passion.   The passion of her lovers will soon be met with the wrath of God.  The sin of the harlot has not only polluted the harlot, but all the inhabitants of the earth.

The harlot, in 17:1, is seated on many waters, which we are told stand for people, languages, or nations.   In 17:3, she is seated on a scarlet beast full of blasphemous names with seven heads, which are seven mountains or seven kings, and ten horns.  These seven mountains are the seven hills on which Rome is located, as mentioned in reference to the dragon in chapter 12.   Any attempt to decode who the kings might be is doomed to failure, and it is clear from the seven hills and the waters, which represent the peoples over which Rome rules, that Babylon, the harlot, is a symbol for Rome.  The harlot is said to be drunk on the blood of the saints and the witnesses to Jesus Christ, which refers to the author’s belief that Rome was persecuting Christians.

            The beast is the woman’s partner on whom she rides.  This seems to be a sexually charged statement and fits with the sexual portrayal of the woman.  This relationship seems to be very different than the relationship between the dragon and the woman clothed with the sun.  However, in 17:16, the woman is killed by the beast because she has been judged by God; she is made desolate and stripped naked, her flesh is devoured, and she is burned.  This tells of the bad end that meets those who engage in activities that displease God, even at the hands of their partners in those activities.   Her death calls to mind the death of Jezebel in 2 Kings, which also was the result of engaging in activities displeasing to God.   Like the Jezebel of Revelation chapter 2, who is thrown on the bed for the sin of “fornication,” John tries to show that the punishment of the harlot fits the crime by saying her judgment will be rendered to her as she herself has rendered.  However, she is to drink a double drought from her cup, so her punishment is not proportional.   She is doubly punished for her sins.  And the burning of the woman does not seem in proportion to the sin of “fornication.” John also makes it clear, however, that her sins are judged by God, not simply by him or the Christians of the community.

            The harlot, who represents Rome, is killed in a terrible way and judged by God, but for what?  The “fornication” of which Jezebel was accused in chapter 2 was a metaphor for leading the people to idolatry.  However, there is no mention of the people of Rome worshiping other Gods in chapters 17 and 18, though they certainly did, so this must be a different sort of idolatry.  Rome, the great harlot, has glorified herself (instead of glorifying God) and lived luxuriously.   This indictment of Rome’s greed and pride perhaps gives the reader an indication of why John believed that Rome should be destroyed.   The costs of Rome’s luxuries for the middle class and the rich and wars fought to keep these luxuries created an unfair burden on the lower classes in the Empire.   Murphy proclaims that John believed Rome was an unjust system, symptoms of which were Christian persecution and economic injustice. The fall of Rome for John would mean the end of the lust for power that drove the world’s economic system as well as the collapse of the system itself.

To fornicate with Rome, the harlot, would mean participating in the economic and political injustice.   Rome’s partners in fornication, the kings of the earth , lived in luxury because of the wealth of Rome.  They mourn her passing because of their loss and they also try to distance themselves from her as she is burning, because they fear they will be punished with her.   The merchants of the earth, who supplied the harlot with her purple and scarlet and jewelry, mourn her passing because they had gained their wealth from Rome.   The people of Thyatira, to whom John wrote, were people participating in this economic system, so if they did not “come out” of Rome as John suggests they would be devastated by her destruction like the other merchants.  The shipmasters mourn her passing because of the wealth that is lost with her.   In a reversal of the traditional relationship of harlotry, the patrons of the harlot were made wealthy by their relationship with her.  But because they were not the people of God and did not “come out of her,” as God instructed, they also share in the negative consequences of her actions in which they participated.   Though they appear desperate to separate themselves from Rome it is too late, the judgment has occurred and they will suffer for their alliance with her and they are left to mourn the loss of their fortunes.

For Christians, the call to “come out of her” means they are not to involve themselves with Rome’s political or economic escapades, or they will find that they will be punished along with Rome.   They are to be like the (other) children of the woman clothed with the sun who keep the commandments of God and hold the testimony of Jesus.   Like in Thyatira, John does not see compromise with the surrounding culture as an option.   Glory is not meant for Rome, but is instead meant for God, so participating in Rome’s glorification of herself is not acceptable.  When Rome is judged, the faithful in heaven rejoice as they are instructed, because Rome has corrupted the earth and has now fallen.   They give glory to God, to whom it is due for the judgment of the whore, Rome.   It is disconcerting if one thinks of the woman (or a city/empire full of people, including women and children), that the faithful are rejoicing over a woman who has been stripped, devoured, and set on fire, but Revelation is within a long tradition of biblical stories that seem (and may well be) vindictive.

The harlot is in the tradition of the Jezebel, the dangerous, other, sexual woman.   She is judged and punished for the crimes of “whoredom and sorcery” as Jezebel is.  The people of Thyatira who were listening to the prophetess, called Jezebel by the author, would have experienced the judgment of the harlot as partners in her “fornication,” her unjust economic system.

The Bride of the Lamb

            As a continuation of the praise for the fall of Rome, the great multitude begins to praise God, because the marriage of the Lamb has come.   In this praise hymn, the bride represents the church, which is now entering into a close covenantal relationship with Christ, the Lamb.   The bride is clothed in fine linen, bright and pure, which symbolizes the righteous deeds of the saints.   The pure, white linen of the bride is in contrast to the purple and scarlet worn by the harlot, Babylon.   The union of the church with Christ is possible because the faithful did not defile themselves by involving themselves with the harlot, Rome, economically or politically.

            In chapter 21, the bride is the new Jerusalem.   This new Jerusalem is pure and virginal like a bride; it is not a restored Jerusalem.   Like the hopes the guests have for a bride on her wedding day, the people to whom John writes are to hope in the new Jerusalem.  In the new Jerusalem, God will dwell among God’s people, so there will be no need for a temple.   God says, “I will be their God and they will be my children,” which is similar to God saying in Jeremiah, “I will be their God and they will be my people.”   In that part of Jeremiah, the prophet is talking about a new covenant that will be made with the God’s people.   There must be a new covenant in Jeremiah, because the people of God broke the original covenant, though God was their “husband.”   The new Jerusalem may be the new covenant between God and God’s people.   There is a new marital relationship between God/Christ, and God’s people, the church.

            The passage from Jeremiah 31 makes reference to the people of God being led out of Egypt and the “old” covenant that was made with them at the time.   The covenant that was made when the people came out of Egypt was the giving of the law, the Ten Commandments.   Moses received those commandments on a mountain, and John goes to a mountain “in the Spirit” to see the bride descend from Heaven.   John is witnessing the giving of a new covenant on a mountain.  The people escaping the terrible Roman Empire into the utopian new Jerusalem is reminiscent of the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt.  John recounts that the harlot, Rome, experiences plagues immediately before she is destroyed and the people are freed from her rule by her destruction, like the plagues of Egypt and the freedom of the Israelites.   God dwelling among the people without a temple in the new Jerusalem is reminiscent of the time in the wilderness (and in the Promised Land until a temple was built) when God lived in a tent and was always available to the people.   The new Jerusalem is the Promised Land, a new covenant between God and the people of God.

            Sometimes the woman clothed with the sun is identified with the bride, the new Jerusalem.   The woman clothed with the sun gives birth to a messianic male child.  She is then protected by God in the wilderness from the beast, Rome, while the messianic child is taken up to heaven.    Isaiah 66 uses imagery similar to that used in chapter 12 to describe the emergence of the new city.   Zion is the mother and the new Jerusalem is the child.   This is meant to symbolize the rebirth of the community after exile.   In chapter 21, the community is no longer exiled to the old world, the Roman Empire.  They are now in the new Jerusalem, which is represented by the bride of Christ and the (male) offspring of the woman clothed with the sun.

            The symbolic women of revelation fall in to the dichotomy of harlot and wife or mother.  The woman clothed like the sun is the mother of the messianic figure and the new Jerusalem.  The bride is a pure, virginal image for the new Jerusalem.  The prophetess Jezebel participates in fornication and adultery, for which her namesake, Jezebel the queen, is called a harlot.  The harlot, Babylon, is in the image of a Jezebel.  She is depicted as a seductress who led men- kings, merchants, and seafarers- to engage in fornication with her to support her luxurious lifestyle.  These women fall sharply on one side of the line or the other.  Such is not true of Gomer, the prophet, Hosea’s wife of whoredom.

Gomer- Wife and Mother of Whoredom

            Like the Bride of the Lamb, Gomer, Hosea’s wife of whoredom, is a marriage partner metaphor for the relationship between God and God’s chosen people.  The book of Hosea begins with God telling the prophet, Hosea, to take for himself “a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom.”   He is told to do this because the people of Israel have committed “great whoredom” by forsaking God.   Hosea goes and marries Gomer, with whom he has three children, whose names symbolize the situation Israel has gotten itself into.  Like the son of the woman clothed with the sun, Jezreel, Gomer’s first child, is somewhat messianic.  It is said that the earth and all the crops will answer him and it is said that “great will be the day of Jezreel.”

            In the first chapter of Hosea, Gomer appears to be a good wife, producing children for her husband, though she has been identified as a “wife of whoredom.”  But in the second chapter, her sins are exposed and she is threatened with judgment.  Gomer’s children are told to plead with their mother.   Much like the people of God in the city of Rome, they are to “come out from her.”   They are not to participate in the sin of their mother.  They are called to be faithful like the (other) children of the woman clothed like the sun.   The children are instructed to plead with their mother, because “she is not [Hosea’s] wife and [he] is not her husband.”   This does not mean a divorce has occurred.  It means that she has abdicated her role has wife by committing harlotry.   She has broken the covenant she made with her husband.  She is told to “put away her whoring from her face, and her adultery from between her breasts.”   This statement makes reference to the sin behind the sins of harlotry and adultery.  The people of Israel have forsaken God; they are worshiping other gods.  This verse is an allusion to the true sins of the people, because cultic jewelry was worn on the forehead and between the breasts by devotees of Baal.  Thus, to remove the whoring from one’s face and the adultery from between one’s breasts refers to taking off this cultic jewelry and ceasing to worship false gods.  Like in Revelation, glory is meant for God alone.

            Chapter 2 of Hosea says that if Gomer does not put away her harlotry and her adulterous ways, she will be stripped naked and exposed, turned into parched land, and killed with thirst.   The great harlot, Babylon, is “made desolate and naked,” just as Gomer is, but she is also killed, devoured, and burned.   Gomer is judged and punished for chasing her lovers in the same way that Rome, for which the great harlot stands, pursued wealth and power.  Gomer is prevented from reaching her lovers so that she might realize it was better with her husband and return to him. Instead of realizing that conversion to Christianity and separation from Rome are better, the kings, merchants, and seafarers of Rome continue to pursue their lover and the “dainties” she provides, until it is too late for them to separate themselves from her.

            Unlike Rome, when Gomer is brought into the wilderness, she is responds and repents, returning to her marital covenant.   She is not stripped naked and made desolate, because she is willing to renew her covenant.  Hosea says, “I will take you for my wife forever.  I will take you for my wife in righteousness, and in justice, and in steadfast love, and in mercy.”   These seem to be like wedding vows, creating a new or renewed covenant between the husband and wife.  This renewal of covenant is somewhat like the new covenant between God and the people, symbolized by the marriage of the Lamb and the bride in Revelation 21.  The wife in Hosea is taken in righteousness and justice and love and mercy.  Those are the hallmarks of the new kingdom.  The people of Israel, the chosen people of God, experience renewal in Hosea, as the people of God experience renewal in Revelation.

            Gomer, the wife, mother, and harlot, is antithetical to the idea that women are either wives and mothers or harlots.  There is not a strong dichotomy in Hosea like there is in Revelation of good or bad, bride or harlot.  The people of Israel are still God’s partners in the covenant despite their unfaithfulness of that covenant.  The whole relationship does not have to be wiped out and begun from scratch as God wipes out the heavens and the earth and creates new heavens and a new earth in Revelation.  The relationship is renewed.

            Gomer is a more realistic idea of what a woman might be.  She is not all good or all bad.  She bears her husband children and she repents of her fornication.  She is a symbol that is realistic to the real situation of Israel, not totally depraved, but not righteous either.  In the book of Revelation, the female figures are unrealistic.  They are parodies of a Jezebel, a harlot, a mother, and a bride.  The bride is completely pure.  The harlot is completely evil.  The Jezebel, though she is part of a group which is doing good works, is portrayed as evil, deserving of a grotesque punishment.  Though it is wonderful that John portrays women - the mother and the bride - in a positive light, these portrayals of women are still limited.  They show women in roles that are stereotypical and are dependent on their relationships with men.

Works Cited

Aune, David E.  Revelation 1-5.  Vol. 52 of World Biblical Commentaries. Edited by David A. Hubbard and Glenn W. Barker.  Dallas, TX: Word Books, 1997.

Aune, David E.  Revelation 6-16.  Vol. 52B of World Biblical Commentaries. Edited by David A. Hubbard and Glenn W. Barker.  Dallas, TX: Word Books, 1997.

Aune, David E.  “The Revelation To John (Apocalypse).”  Pages 2307-2337 in The HarperCollins Study Bible: New Revise Standard Version with the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books.  Edited by Wayne A. Meeks et al.  New York: HarperCollins, 2003.

Mays, Jeremy Luther.  “Hosea.”  Pages1329-1346 in The HarperCollins Study Bible: New Revise Standard Version with the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books.  Edited by Wayne A. Meeks et al.  New York: HarperCollins, 2003.

Murphy, Frederick J.  Fallen is Babylon: The Revelation to John.  The New Testament in Context.  Harrisburg, PA: Trinity, 1998.

Pippin, Tina.  Apocalyptic Bodies: The Biblical End of the World as Text and Image.  New York: Routledge, 1999.

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