What Does Revelation 17:1 Mean?
One of the seven messengers who hold the seven bowls comes and speaks with me, saying, Come here. I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits upon many waters.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:THE KEY
The “many waters” are not scenery: the next verse names them as peoples, so the announced judgment concerns a power seated over human communities.
THE MEANING
A figure sits above a vast human field, and you are being shown that her judgment is already in view. Her apparent reach does not place her beyond being seen and assessed.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that power spread across many peoples is beyond judgment dissolves here: the verse names its judgment as something that can be shown.
THE ROOT
κρῖμα
krima
GROWS FROM
κρίνω
krinō
To distinguish, decide, or judge; the related noun κρῖμα means a decision or verdict.
The judgment here is a verdict: the great figure and her reach are being brought into view for assessment. The same Greek root names distinguishing and judging, linking the act of seeing clearly with the decision made about what is seen.
ALSO GROWS
krisis: judgment, decision
κρίσις
This related form makes explicit that the verse announces a decision concerning the figure.
kritēs: judge
κριτής
The root also names the one who makes the judgment, connecting the verdict to an act of discernment.
diakrinō: distinguish, discern
διακρίνω
This compound carries the root into discernment, echoing the verse’s promise that the judgment will be shown.
THE PATTERN
Power seated over peoples is exposed and judged, however vast its reach appears.
O you who settle upon many waters, abundant in storehouses, your end has come, the cubit of your gain.And he says to me, The waters that you perceived, where the harlot sits, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.For all the nations have drunk from the wine of the seething of her selling herself, and the kings of the earth have sold themselves with her, and the traders of the earth have grown rich from the abundance of her feasts.THE THREAD
And he says to me, The waters that you perceived, where the harlot sits, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.This verse gives the image its own key: the waters beneath the figure’s seat are peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues. Her judgment therefore concerns a power pictured as resting over human communities.
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