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Echoes of Revelation
Revelation never quotes the Old Testament outright, yet no New Testament book refers to it more. See both texts side by side, why they don’t match, and what John does with them.
Revelation 17:4, a golden cup in her hand
The woman's golden cup and the wine that makes the nations drunk come from Jeremiah's picture of Babylon as a golden cup in the Lord's hand.
Revelation 17:4; Revelation 18:3, in every translation this tool compares.
A trophy cup can be a prize or a poison, depending on what is poured into it. Jeremiah called Babylon a gold cup held by the Lord, and the whole world got drunk from it. The nations drank, and they lost their minds. John sees the woman holding a golden cup full of the filth of her immorality. The nations have drunk the wine of her passion. The cup that Jeremiah put in God's hand now sits in hers.
A golden cup held in a hand, and nations drunk on its wine. The Greek of Jeremiah 51:7 reads a golden cup (poterion chrysoun), Babylon, in the hand of the Lord. It makes all the earth drunk, and the nations drink her wine. Revelation 17:4 has a golden cup (poterion chrysoun) in her hand. In 18:3 the nations drink the wine of her immorality.
In Jeremiah, Babylon is the cup and the Lord holds it. In Revelation the woman holds the cup. Jeremiah's cup carries God's judgment to the nations; John's is full of abominations and impurity, the idolatry she spreads. Beale says the wine still comes ultimately from God's hand, as does her destruction (17:17).
The cup stands for Babylon's promise of prosperity, which numbs people to her evil, Beale says. Jeremiah's next words, Babylon has suddenly fallen (51:8), are echoed in 18:2. The drinkers will soon drink God's cup of wrath instead (16:19; 18:6).
Not a literal drinking party. Beale reads the wine as the lure of wealth and idolatry. MacArthur reads it as the world swept up into a false religion.
Beale calls this a partial allusion to Jeremiah 51:7-8, where historical Babylon is a gold cup held in the Lord's hand that makes the whole earth drunk, the nations drink her wine and go mad, and then Babylon suddenly falls. The wine comes from Babylon's hand but ultimately from God's, as does her destruction. He links the cup's contents, abominations, to idolatry, since abomination is a common Greek Old Testament word for idols, and unclean things to the unclean spirits of 16:13. At 18:3 he again cites Jeremiah 51:7 and 25:15 for drinking. Keener cites Jeremiah 51:7 for the nations made drunk on Babylon's wine. The ESV Study Bible and the NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible cite Jeremiah 51:7 at 17:4, and the NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible cites it at 18:3. Some copies read the fornication of the earth in 17:4, which Beale thinks is a scribe's attempt to bring the verse closer to Jeremiah. The grade is drawn here: golden cup in the hand is word for word in the Greek.
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- G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation (New International Greek Testament Commentary), comment on 17:4 and 18:3
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Revelation 17:2
- ESV Study Bible, note on Revelation 17:4
- NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible, note on Revelation 17:4
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, note on Revelation 18:3
- Septuagint, Jeremiah 51:7, Interlinear Greek-English Septuagint
- SBL Greek New Testament (MorphGNT), Revelation 17:4 and 18:3
- John MacArthur, The MacArthur Study Bible (ESV), note on Revelation 17:2 and 17:4
