The temptation here is to see the reference to seven mountains
as an illusion to the city of Rome (in John’s day) built on seven hills—and thus to see Rome
as central to any effort to understand (the remainder of) this chapter. For a number of reasons we ought not to go down this road:
Once you begin down that road, you need to attach the names of Roman emperors to the kings of Revelation 17:10, and you end up wide open to speculation on who the seven might be (for there were more than seven), who is the best candidate for the fifth, etc. That is an unfruitful exercise.
The city of Rome was not built on seven
mountains.
Its seven hills never rise above 500 feet above sea level.The book of Revelation is known for its symbolism (as seen repeatedly in previous chapters). So we ought not in the present chapter to become literalists in our reading of this book.
Mountains are relatively easy to defend against attacks from foot soldiers (as armies consisted of in John’s day). A city built on seven mountains (where
seven
is a full number) represents an impregnable metropolis. That’s Babylon, that great prostitute; any human effort to weaken her (and so remove her seductions) is futile.
9 This calls for a mind with wisdom: the seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman is seated;