Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Revelation 17:6

"And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. And when I saw her, I wondered with a great wonder." — Revelation 17:6 (ASV)

This mother prostitute is also the source of the shed blood of the followers of Jesus (cf. 2:13), the martyrs referred to throughout the book (6:9; 7:9ff.; 13:8; 18:24). Though there is no direct reference here to Rome or Jerusalem, early Christian readers would understand that whenever they were threatened with death by any temporal power—whether political, religious, or both—they were in reality facing the blood-thirsty mother prostitute God was about to judge and destroy once for all. To be drunk with blood was a familiar figure in the ancient world for the lust for violence.