Babylon the Prostitute as Political Cartoon

Taking as our starting point Ben Witherington’s statement in his commentary on Revelation, that John’s depiction of Rome as Babylon the harlot in Revelation 17 “involves a comic exaggeration of features, such as we see today in political cartoons” (p.219), today in my class on Revelation I had students make their own political satire cartoons, focusing on any city or world power they chose.

We’ll actually do much of our discussion of what they came up with next time, asking (among other things) why they chose the cities they did, and whether the attempt to think of the depiction of Rome/Babylon as political satire is helpful when it comes to making sense of the text.

Meanwhile, what do readers of this blog think? Is this a useful classroom exercise? Is the comparison with political satire cartoons a helpful one?