According to verse 4, this woman is “clothed in purple and scarlet.” Purple signifies dignity with authority (John 19:2-3). This color is a blend of blue and red; it signifies the blending of heavenly things with earthly. This is the appearance of the apostate church. The woman is also clothed in scarlet, the characteristic of the apostate Roman Church. We have already pointed out that the color scarlet is found everywhere in the Vatican. The most striking use of scarlet is in the garb of the cardinals, who have red hats and red robes.
The woman is “gilded with gold and precious stone and pearls” (v. 4). Gold, precious stone, and pearls are the materials with which the New Jerusalem is built (21:18-19, 21). But the woman, the apostate church, is not solidly built with these precious things as the New Jerusalem is; she is only gilded with these treasures as an ornament for outward display. This is her deception to attract people. It is the prostitute’s false appearance.
The prostitute holds in her hand “a golden cup full of abominations and the unclean things of her fornication” (v. 4). Gold in figure signifies the divine nature of God. Hence, the golden cup here means that the apostate church does have something of God in appearance. But within, her golden cup is full of abominations and the unclean things of her fornication, full of idolatry, pagan practices, and filthiness in a heretical, sinful, religious relationship.
Verse 6 says, “And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus.” This indicates that the Roman Church has killed the saints and the witnesses of Jesus, having slain more of the saints than the Roman Empire did. The Roman Church does not kill the saints directly, but indirectly through the Roman Empire. Thus, she is drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus.
The saints are those who are separated, sanctified, unto God, living a holy life for God even unto death. The witnesses are those who are a living testimony of the Lord Jesus, faithful also unto death. The witnesses of Jesus are also the saints; however, the saints may just live a separated and holy life, not complying with the apostate church; yet they may not stand out to testify against the apostasy of the Roman Church as did witnesses like Antipas (2:13). The woman is drunken with the blood of both the saints and the witnesses.
The angel told the apostle John, “And the woman whom you saw is the great city, which has a kingdom over the kings of the earth” (v. 18). While the prostitute denotes the religious Babylon, signifying the Roman Church, the woman in this verse denotes the material Babylon, signifying the city of Rome. This is called the great city, which has a kingdom over the kings of the earth. When John wrote this book, Rome was the city that had a kingdom over the kings of the earth. What Antichrist and his ten kings will hate is the prostitute, the Roman Church, not the woman, the city of Rome, where their administration is based.