17:9
The mention of seven hills strongly implies that Rome is seen as a type of the things John is describing, for Rome was built on seven hills. However, this does not mean that Rome is the complete embodiment of all that John sees. Human society without God inevitably descends into chaos and evil. We see this happening with Western societies as they abandon their Christian roots.
17:10,11
We are now also told of seven kings. There are two main routes of interpretation. One sees them as various Roman emperors. The other sees them as seven kingdoms, the first five being Old Babylon, Assyrian, New Babylon, Medo-Persian and Graeco-Macedonian. Rome is the sixth, and the last points to all future kingdoms. I tend to favour the latter explanation. Whatever the case, the key point is that evil has existed in the past, does today, and continues until the end. The beast is an eighth king. He follows on in the line of the previous kingdoms. The most important point is that he “is going to his destruction”. Evil has continued for a long time, but there is an end to it all.
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