Who is the whore of Babylon in Revelation?

This is my attempt to affirm that old covenant Jerusalem is the whore of Babylon mentioned in Revelation, not the Catholic Church.

And here��s five biblical reasons:

1)  The harlot is filled with the blood of the prophets and saints:

-=COMPARE THIS=-

I saw that the woman was drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of those who bore testimony to Jesus. (Revelation 17:6)

Rejoice over her, O heaven! Rejoice, saints and apostles and prophets! God has judged her for the way she treated you.'"(Revelation 18:20)

In her was found the blood of prophets and of the saints, and of all who have been killed on the earth." (Revelation 18:24)

-=WITH THIS=-

Therefore I am sending you prophets and wise men and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town. And so upon you [Jerusalem] will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. I tell you the truth, all this will come upon this generation. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing (Matthew 23:34-37)

Was there ever a prophet your fathers did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered him (Acts 7:52)

These passages clearly speak of the same thing.

2) The Lord was crucified in the great city Babylon:

The woman you saw is the great city that rules over the kings of the earth." (Revelation 17:18)

Then a mighty angel picked up a boulder the size of a large millstone and threw it into the sea, and said: "With such violence the great city of Babylon will be thrown down, never to be found again. (Revelation 18:21)

Their bodies will lie in the street of the great city, which is figuratively called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified. (Revelation 11:8)

Basically the passage tell us the following:

Great city = Babylon

Great city = place where Christ was crucified

Babylon = place where Christ was crucified

But Christ was crucified in Jerusalem.  Is this a contradiction??  No, St. John's use of Babylon is likely a reference to Jerusalem, where Christ was crucified.

Furthermore, Babylon was also referred to as 'Sodom and Egypt'.  What do we know about Sodom and Egypt?  God destroyed Sodom (Gen 19), and we all known about the plagues that fell upon Egypt in the book of Exodus.  So St. John was probably suggesting that Sodom and Egypt's judgment would point to what would happen to Jerusalem in 70AD just as Jesus prophesied in Matt 24:2-3,34

3) Old Testament Israel was described as an unfaithful wife, a harlot: 

Israel is the 'wife of God'? (Jer 2:2, Jer 3:14, Isa 54:5)

She was an unfaithful wife (Jer 3:20, Hos 1:2, Ezek 6:9, Ezek 16, Is 50:1)

She behaved like a prostitute (Jer 3:1)

Especially noteworthy is this passage:

See how the faithful city has become a harlot! She once was full of justice; righteousness used to dwell in her- but now murderers! (Isaiah 1:21)*

*Note: Compare that passage with the following:

Therefore I am sending you prophets and wise men and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town. And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. (Matt 23:34-35)

Was there ever a prophet your fathers did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered him-- (Acts 7:52)

4) She wears an ephod like that of the Jewish high priest:

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The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet, and was glittering with gold, precious stones and pearls. She held a golden cup in her hand, filled with abominable things and the filth of her adulteries. This title was written on her forehead: MYSTERY BABYLON THE GREAT THE MOTHER OF PROSTITUTES AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. (Revelation 17:4-5)

-=WITH THIS=-

Make the ephod of gold, and of blue, purple and scarlet yarn, and of finely twisted linen-the work of a skilled craftsman. (Exodus 28:6)

Make a plate of pure gold and engrave on it as on a seal: HOLY TO THE LORD (Exodus 28:36)

Unlike the seal on the high priest which says 'holy to the lord', the inscription on the prostitute is 'the mother of prostitutes and of the abominations of the earth'.  Quite a contrast! 

5) After old adulterous Jerusalem is judged, the New Jerusalem replaces it.

Jesus prophesied that a time was coming when the temple of Jerusalem would be destroyed (Matt 24:2-3,34), which happened in 70 AD

Jesus implies the temple��s destruction in within the Samaritan woma's life time (John 4:20-21)

Apostle Paul taught that the old covenant Jerusalem would be replaced by the Jerusalem from above (Gal 4:21-31)

The book of Hebrews taught the same thing (Heb 8:8-13, cf. Jer 31:31-34)

Hebrews also tells us that Christians are in the heavenly Jerusalem (Heb 12:22-24)

And so this heavenly Jerusalem from above neatly fits the New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven (Rev 21:2)

-=COMPARE THESE PASSAGES=-

But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother (Galatians 4:26)

But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, (Hebrews 12:22)

-=WITH THESE=-

I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. (Revelation 21:2)

��For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh." This is a profound mystery--but I am talking about Christ and the church. (Eph 5:31-32)

Babylon (i.e. 'Old Jerusalem') in Revelation is judged and done away with (Rev 18:20-21,24)

Jesus prophesied it (Matt 23:34-37, Matt 24:2-3,34),

The NT authors taught it (Hebrews 8:13, Gal 4:25-26,30-31).

So why were they Jews of that day judged?  Because they disowned their own King by murdering Christ (Acts 7:52, Rev 18:24), after all, the chief priests were the ones that said, We have no king but Caesar (John 19:15).  Clearly, they had no loyalty to Christ. 

Jesus prophesied that the kingdom would be stripped away from the Pharisees and given to those who bear fruit (Matt 21:43,45; Rom 7:4, Col 1:6): the Church, which is the heavenly Jerusalem (Heb 12:22, Rev 22:2, cf. Gal 4:21-31).  Therefore, since the whore of Babylon in Revelation neatly fits the identity of apostate Jerusalem as spoken through the New Testament authors, the Catholic Church cannot be the whore of Babylon because it is the New Jerusalem.