and the letters to the seven churches (2:1–3:22), we concluded that a literary relationship linked these widely separated passages. We then compared the letters to the seven churches to the vision of Babylon and New Jerusalem, concluding that John intended the whore and the bride to be characterizations of the seven churches,55 and not symbols of the church under the Roman imperium. John’s project is not mere description, however. As we also observed, he has a rhetorical intention. The images of
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