If you track the Bible’s own language, the “harlot” has always been Jerusalem/Israel when she broke covenant. Isaiah called her a harlot (Isa 1:21), Jeremiah said she played the harlot with many lovers (Jer 2–3), and Ezekiel showed her chasing Egypt, Assyria, and Babylon (Ezek 16, 23). Revelation is pulling straight from that backdrop. John says the woman is “the great city” (Rev 17:18), the same city “where their Lord was crucified” (Rev 11:8). And Jesus said it was Jerusalem that was guilty of all the prophets’ blood (Matt 23:37; Luke 13:33). That’s not Rome ….that’s Jerusalem.
If you track the Bible’s own language, the “harlot” has always been Jerusalem/Israel when she broke covenant. Isaiah called her a harlot (Isa 1:21), Jeremiah said she played the harlot with many lovers (Jer 2–3), and Ezekiel showed her chasing Egypt, Assyria, and Babylon (Ezek 16, 23). Revelation is pulling straight from that backdrop. John says the woman is “the great city” (Rev 17:18), the same city “where their Lord was crucified” (Rev 11:8). And Jesus said it was Jerusalem that was guilty of all the prophets’ blood (Matt 23:37; Luke 13:33). That’s not Rome ….that’s Jerusalem.