Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Revelation 11:8

"And their dead bodies [lie] in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified." — Revelation 11:8 (ASV)

John mentions the place of the attack on the witnesses and of their death: “The street of the great city, which is figuratively called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified.” This verse is both full of meaning and difficult to interpret. At first glance, John seems to be referring to the actual city of Jerusalem, where Christ died. Yet his terminology implies more than this. The city is called the “great city,” a designation that refers to Babylon throughout the rest of the book (16:19; 17:18; 18:10, 16, 18–19, 21). Moreover, John’s use of the word “city” (cf. 3:12) is symbolic. In fact, there are really only two cities in this book, the city of God and the city of Satan, which is later referred to as Babylon. A city may be a metaphor for the total life of a community of people (cf. Hebrews 11:10; 12:22; 13:14).

Here the “great city” is clearly more than merely Jerusalem, for John says it is “figuratively called Sodom and Egypt.” “Figuratively” (GK 4462) means “spiritually, in a spiritual manner, full of the divine Spirit.” Elsewhere in the NT, this word characterizes that which pertains to the Spirit in contrast to the flesh (1 Corinthians 2:14–15; Ephesians 1:3; Ephesians 5:19; Colossians 3:16; 1 Peter 2:5; et al.). Thus the spiritually discerning will catch the significance of the threefold designation of this city. It is called “Sodom,” which connotes rebellion against God, the rejection of God’s servants, moral degradation, and the awfulness of divine judgment (cf. Ezekiel 16:49). In Isaiah’s day the rebellious rulers of Jerusalem were called the rulers of Sodom (Isaiah 1:10; cf. Ezekiel 16:46). The second designation is “Egypt.” Egypt is a country, not a city. It is virtually certain that by John’s day, Egypt had become a symbolic name for anti-theocratic world kingdoms that enslaved Israel. The third designation is “the great city... where also their Lord was crucified” (cf. Matthew 23:28–31, 37–38; Lk 13:33ff.; 21:20–24).

If, as most commentators believe, John also has Rome in mind in mentioning the “great city,” then there are at least five places all seen by John as one— Babylon, Sodom, Egypt, Jerusalem, and Rome. This one city has become, in the eyes of the spiritually discerning, all places opposed to God and the witness of his servants. Wherever God is opposed and his servants harassed and killed, there is the “great city,” the transhistorical city of Satan, the great mother of prostitutes (cf. 17:1ff.). What can happen to God’s witnesses in any place is what has already happened to their Lord in Jerusalem.