Green River - Red Sea | Chapter Five

Confident that the rocks would hold the two bodies secure on the river bottom, the man retreated to his car. By his calculations, he had at least two hours until sunrise. This was working out just right. In everything give thanks, for this was God's will. While the police busied themselves at the slaughterhouse on Thursday – he had heard about the discovery of the whore in the river on his scanner – he had punished another one. He was going to retrieve her now from her hiding place in the woods.

He smiled, feeling safe as he drove to where he had hidden her a few miles away. Justice will dwell in the desert and righteousness in the fertile field. Not another car or truck passed him on the road. He turned onto a swath of gravel and checked the odometer. Exactly one-quarter of a mile later his high beams caught the slight break in the woods on the right. He turned the car, and it disappeared into the dense darkness of the foliage and trees. He braked to a stop, shut off the engine and got out of the car, careful not to close the door tightly. Although he knew he was alone, that there wasn't another soul for miles, it never hurt to be too cautious.

He had murdered this one two days before, and he wondered if there would be any rigor left. On Thursday he had been in a hurry, but now he could take a few minutes with her. He pulled aside the branches and stared down at the dead woman. She lay on her side, and looked so peaceful, he could almost imagine that she was asleep.

I shall strip you and expose you, naked as the day you were born. He started with her shoes and socks, removing each piece of clothing. Some stiffness remained in her limbs, but not enough to slow him at his work. In a few minutes she was almost completely stripped. Deliberately, he left her bra on, but yanked it up to expose her breasts. Your wine cup is filled with the disgusting filth of your prostitution.

Next, he picked up her blue pants and tied them around her neck, strangling the breath from her once again. Dress in your purple and scarlet. Sitting back on his heels, he could hear his heart pounding in his ears. After a few moments, he took a small leather pouch from his pocket, shook the mountain ash into his hand, and sprinkled the gritty substance over her. Glitter with your golden jewels.

This one he did not bother to carry, still feeling slightly short of breath. Instead he dragged her the few yards back to the car. He picked her up and rolled her into the trunk. Ten minutes later he was back at the river and working his way down the now familiar riverbank. No rock of salvation for this one. He rolled her off his shoulder and let her drop hard on the ground. She lay face down in the tall grass. There was nothing more to do. Her pants remained securely knotted around her neck, her bra fastened around her upper chest, pushing slightly against her breasts.

I now hand you over to those you hate. Your debauchery and whoring will be exposed. He reached down and pulled at her bra. Drink your sister's cup, you whore of Babylon. All of God's enemies must be put under His feet.

The killer slipped silently through the grass, careful to leave no traces. He stopped for a few moments at the water's edge, near his two treasures. How beautiful you are, my beloved, how beautiful you are. Take no notice of my swarthiness, daughters of Jerusalem. Blessed are you who hear the word of God and keep it. You will come to life in Christ.

Feeling invigorated, he regained the hillside in a few long strides. All of a sudden, in the distance, he heard a siren. Surprised, he stepped behind a large fir tree that stood a few feet off the road. A vehicle careened into sight – not a cop. An ambulance! What is an ambulance doing out on this lonely road? Now blood was racing throughout his body. He checked his pulse – about 100. Damn, too high. He had to keep his wits about him. Perhaps he should be grateful for the surprise. It served as a test. He knew it was imperative that he be ready and that he remain calm.

The next tableau in his planned ritual needed to take place a few miles away, secure from any interference. He still had a half hour until sunrise, plenty of time to get there. Eagerly, the man put the car in gear and drove in the direction of the cemetery.

David Reichert, a major crimes detective for King County Police, had been called out for an apparent homicide on Thursday. A woman had been found naked in the river by the slaughterhouse. A sad and sorry situation, but not the kind of thing he hadn't seen before. He would go hard for the killer, but he didn't see any great problem in the investigation.

A concern did linger for Reichert. He checked with the Kent Police Department about one of their investigations. About a month earlier and a half-mile from this victim, a woman named Wendy Coffield had also been strangled with her own pants and left in the river. And a friend of Coffield's, Leann Wilcox, had been strangled about six months earlier. Reichert had investigated Wilcox's murder; she was a hooker, also. She was found miles away and not in the river. Reichert wasn't going to rush to any immediate conclusions, but there did seem to exist a fair number of similarities and connections?

The slaughterhouse victim, Debra Bonner, was identified the day after her body was retrieved from the river. The next day, Saturday, Reichert went to the young woman's home and broke the news to her parents. He also picked up a couple of good leads. Debra – Dub to her family – was a prostitute. Reichert left with the name of her pimp, as well as that of a drug pusher who was owed money by the pimp. Yes, like the others, Bonner was a prostitute, but he was inclined now to discount the possibility that she was connected to the other victims. He had two good suspects close to home; he would check them out.

Saturday drizzle steam-dried to Sunday heat as the temperature of the Green River horror pushed upward, about to escalate to record levels. Reichert was relaxing at home after church on Sunday afternoon when he got the call: a fellow named Ainsworth had come across two dead women pinned by rocks to the bottom of the river. Was this some kind of a joke from the guys in the department? When Reichert reached the river, several police cars were already there and the first body was being dragged from the water.

How is shock measured? What kind of scale gauges the human heart and its capacity for surprise? The two in the river had been entombed only a couple of hundred yards upstream from where Bonner had been found on Thursday. Were they there on Thursday, and had gone unnoticed? Should the police have looked a little harder? What the hell was going on here? Reichert would make sure a thorough search was executed this time.

Reichert himself penetrated the reedy grass along the riverbank. He was stunned as he almost stumbled over another female body, this one lying face down on the grass, a pair of blue pants secured around her neck. She was naked except for her bra, which had been pulled up and over her back.

No more bodies were uncovered that day, but the shock lingered, only to be replaced by numbness as the body count rose in the coming years – slowly, in different places, as inexorably as a flooding river rising on a high tide.

Investigators thought that the body on the riverbank appeared to have been disposed of in haste. Perhaps the killer had been interrupted while bringing this third victim to the river to be joined with the two others. In fact, Opal Mills had disappeared at approximately the same time Debra Bonner had been found at the slaughterhouse on Thursday. Maybe the killer had heard the commotion nearby and dumped Mills in his haste to get away.

It is from the book of Revelation that symbolism is found for the body on the riverbank:

In both the Old and New Testaments, prostitution is considered a metaphor for idolatry, as reflected in the above quote. Prostitution symbolizes belief in false gods. The prostitute of the book of Revelation is "Babylon the great, the mother of all the prostitutes and all the filthy practices on the earth." (Revelations 17:15) In the Old Testament, Babylon is the oppressor of Israel, the conqueror of Jerusalem and the destroyer of the Temple. In the book of Revelation the prostitute, Babylon, represents Rome, the latest enemy of true faith in God. Worship of the Roman emperor was tantamount to the worship of Satan.

In the Old Testament, as a punishment, the prostitute is exposed in the nude (Hos 2:5, Is 47:2-3), stripped for God's vengeance against the evil of idolatry and unfaithfulness. The nude body on the riverbank echoed themes present in both the Old Testament and the book of Revelation in the New Testament. Later verses of the same chapter of the book of Revelation reveal what ultimately happens to the prostitute:

In recent years many prostitutes – Green River and otherwise – have been found murdered on the banks of rivers, in bogs, near or in water – "enthroned beside abundant waters." It is suggestive, as well, that these Green River victims were found so close to a slaughterhouse: "then they will eat her flesh and burn the remains in the fire."

The prostitute in the book of Revelation was "dressed in purple and scarlet." The prostitute on the riverbank wore only a pair of blue pants wound tight around her neck – a deliberate mark of disdain and punishment left by the killer.

At the end of the book of Revelation the Lamb, Christ, is joined to His bride, the new Jerusalem. Christ is wedded to His people. This intimate relationship carries forth the marriage metaphor from the Old Testament. The destruction of the prostitute, Babylon, is consistent with Old Testament retribution against the adulterous wife who has prostituted herself.

The sexualization of the Christ symbols found in both the Christensen staging and the river staging was intended to express the intimate union between the newly redeemed women and Christ. Sacraments of Baptism and Eucharist can be sexualized precisely because they bear the character of mystical union with Christ. The marriage metaphor shortens the already short leap between the mystical and the erotic, which are no doubt tightly joined in the killer's psyche.

The victims of the Green River killer, mostly prostitutes, were not murdered simply to rid the streets of sin and vermin, which, on its own, would be a kind of straightforward, albeit perverted, moral motive. The Green River killer is both morally righteous and religiously complex. His mission is apocalyptic. As individuals, the murdered women were discrete signs of God's punishment. Collectively, they told a story of sin, punishment, repentance, redemption, union with Christ and apocalypticism. The day of the Lord is near at hand.

The focus of this interpretation of Green River symbolism is on two stagings and two burials. But once the marriage metaphor is understood, the symbolism of all forty-nine victims fairly quakes with its power. Many of the early Green River victims were stripped naked. In the Old Testament, as a punishment, the adulterous wife – likened to a prostitute – was exposed in the nude (Ho 2:5; Is 47:2-3). The sign value of each victim must be separately examined and collectively considered. The body on the riverbank, stripped naked and marked by her garish blue clothing, lay in contrast to the two baptized women in the river. By herself, the body on the riverbank was a sign; with the others, she told a story.

In the Old Testament the marriage and prostitute metaphors march hand in hand. As these metaphors were handed from prophet to prophet, chiefly from Hosea to Jeremiah to Ezekiel, a pattern of escalating violence inflicted by Yahweh upon the unfaithful wife became noticeable. Readers of the prophets may perceive the legitimization of violence toward women as a source of healing for broken relationships. This may be the real message of the Green River killer: violence toward women must be used in order to heal them and save them, and so that witness might be given to the world of the violent judgement of God.

At the end of the book of Revelation, the Lamb is joined to His bride, the new Jerusalem, and together they invite all to the living waters, which symbolize the perfection of eternal life.

The intimate marital union of the Spirit and the bride (the church) carries forth the marriage metaphor to its perfect conclusion. The heavenly city of Jerusalem – imaged as the virgin bride – has been restored, and the prostitute, Babylon, has been destroyed.

Certainly, the marriage metaphor is a powerful one. But just as powerful, and used in stark contrast to the ideal of marriage, is the prostitute metaphor. The prostitute metaphor is first applied in the Hebrew Testament. It is alluded to in Hosea, but takes a defining shape in the prophecies of Jeremiah.

Subsequent Hebrew Testament and New Testament prophets pick up the metaphor and build it into a widening characterization of prostitutes as evil temptresses, women so far astray from decent morality that apocalyptic violence against them is justified. To understand the scope of the violence against women, and especially against prostitutes, referred to in the biblical scriptures, one must delve more deeply into the evolution of the prostitute metaphor in the declamations of the Hebrew Testament prophets.

The references to prostitutes in Hebrew scripture were often used metaphorically. Descriptions of the prostitute were provided to parallel what was occurring in the political, economic, and religious experience of the Hebrew people of the time. The prophet Hosea introduced, through his wife Gomer, the metaphor of the "unfaithful wife, like a harlot," who was intended to personify the relationship of the unfaithful Israel to Yahweh. The infidelity of Hosea's Gomer (and hence, Israel) was seen as opportunistic, casual and naïve. Even so, her behavior still warranted cruel physical and psychological abuse by her husband (Hos 2:8-13).

The prophet Jeremiah described the female sexual behavior of the wife as vulgar and beyond comprehension in its incorrigibility. (Jeremiah 2:17-19) Jeremiah is attempting to tell the Hebrew people that Israel's behavior is even worse than promiscuous. According to Jeremiah, Israel has degenerated in her behavior from that of a promiscuous wife (like a harlot) to that of a prostitute. (Jeremiah 2:20-25)

Jeremiah prophesied in the latter part of the seventh century, when the political trouble of Israel and Judah in the previous century – the time of Hosea – had disintegrated even further. Egypt and Babylon competed with one another for domination of Judah. In large part, Jeremiah claimed, it was the idolatry of the Hebrew people – worshiping Baal and gods other than the one Yahweh – that brought their political and economic ruin (Jeremiah 2:17-18).

Jeremiah prophesied in the midst of the Babylonian conquest. He hurled his words urgently at the people, the kings, priests, and false prophets. He called for personal renewal, to a return to the covenant – or the people would suffer God's wrath. Jeremiah's prediction of God's retribution did indeed occur. Jerusalem was leveled by an invading Babylon in 587 BC, and the Temple was destroyed. Jeremiah continued to preach and was later exiled to Egypt.

To describe the situation to his people, Jeremiah emphasized the relationship between the broken marriage of Yahweh and Israel and the disaster of the current situation, thus mirroring the disintegration of a marriage with the political chaos Israel experienced (Jeremiah 2:2-3).

In Jeremiah's day, while prostitution was discouraged, it was still tolerated. However, the prostitute was vilified and marginalized (Deuteronomy 23:17-18). In the book of Jeremiah, his words contain a confluence of prostitute and animal images suggesting that female sexuality is both vulgar and wild (Jeremiah 2:23-24). The sexuality of the prostitute epitomized the evil nature of female sexuality, and a woman's potential to hold a disturbing power over a man in the sexual realm.

The prostitute was seen as having magical powers. She seduced men and lured them with her wiles – through the clothing she wore, through her physical and social charms, and through her cosmetics and perfumes. The dance of sexual interplay between man and prostitute was also marked by tolerance of violence toward the prostitute.

The Hebrew people who heard the prophecies of Jeremiah were familiar with both the religious laws and with the actual practices of their people. Adultery was forbidden for both men and women. In practice, however, a double standard was well accepted when it came to the sexual activity of married men outside of marriage. Since nothing having to do with honor or shame was at stake, and since no other man's lineage was threatened, a married man would in most instances not be punished for consorting with a prostitute.

In this patriarchal Hebrew society, the term rape referred to forced sex with a woman who "belonged" to another man. Forcing sex upon a prostitute would not have been understood as rape. In fact, the prostitute was viewed as a temptress, who lured men through their carnal desires. They were vulnerable to her powers, and as a result the violation of a prostitute's sexuality by a man was an understandable male remedy for his personal humiliation. As a wronged husband punishes his wife who plays the whore, God's punishment and retribution of Israel for her idolatry is startling in its violence.

The book of Jeremiah is steeped in various metaphors that lament the current political crisis and moral decay of the Hebrew people.

But no metaphor, especially as it symbolizes the practice of idolatry, was more powerful than the woman as whore, in all of the captivating sexual imagery and societal disgrace it symbolized. Using the behavior of the prostitute as an example, Jeremiah, Ezekiel (and later John in the New Testament book of Revelation ), describe the Hebrew people's disobedience – like a whore, to the very first of the ten commandments from Moses: "you shall have no other gods before me" (Exodus 20:3) – and the terrible consequences for this disobedience.

Approximately one generation after Jeremiah, the prophet Ezekiel appeared on the scene. Ezekiel was exiled to Babylon before the collapse of Jerusalem in 587 BC, and began his ministry shortly thereafter. The political situation during Jeremiah's day had been problematic; when Ezekiel arrived, it had become disastrous. Prior to the fall of Jerusalem, while himself in exile, Ezekiel warned of the awful retribution of God if Judah (the southern kingdom of Israel) didn't change its adulterous ways. Ezekiel's language is much more apocalyptic than Jeremiah's, and threatens extreme violence and the judgment of God:

Following the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple (events allowed by God because of Judah's unfaithfulness) Ezekiel preached a message of reconciliation and future hope of messianic revival and a return to Zion.

In Ezekiel, the city of Jerusalem is personified as the unfaithful wife. She is worse than unfaithful. In fact, she is worse than a prostitute, since the exchange of money is in the opposite direction, from her to her lovers (Ezekiel 16:14). There is a devolution of the metaphor of the unfaithful wife from Hosea – promiscuous, like a harlot and naive – to Jeremiah – a stubborn prostitute – to Ezekiel, worse than a prostitute. However this may have been conceived, the prostitute now is portrayed as the epitome of the unfaithful people of Yahweh, deserving of whatever the Lord might do or allow to happen.

Ezekiel went beyond the manhandling or rape image suggested by Jeremiah to a bloody reign of terror. Ezekiel suggested that the whore, Jerusalem, deserved to be hacked, mutilated, and murdered (Ezekiel 16:40). Violence and aggression against women is portrayed as justified, as indeed it was in the patriarchal society of the time. God, the perpetrator of the violence – while out of control in his righteous rage and unpredictable in his wrath – is completely within his rights. The need to rid the Hebrew society of idolatry was the aim of the prophets. On a literal rather than a metaphorical level, therefore, whether intended or not, the scriptures are full of language that insists upon the need to violently rid the world of prostitutes.

The marriage and prostitute metaphors continue in the New Testament. Ezekiel and Jeremiah of the Hebrew scriptures railed against their persecutors Assyria and Babylon, personifying them as whores. In the book of Revelation, the author, John, borrows from the Hebrew apocalyptic tradition to express the crisis in faith caused by the persecution of Christians by the Romans. In the book of Revelation, Rome is symbolically represented as Babylon.

Just as the Israelites were oppressed by Babylon, the Christians faced persecution by Rome. In reflecting on the struggle between the early Christian church and the Roman state, John speaks to the final struggle between God and Satan. The victory of God is revealed, along with the final annihilation of all who are hostile to God – especially the whore, Babylon.

It is in discussion of the whore of Babylon (Rome) that further violence toward the prostitute is elaborated on in terrifying imagery:

From the time of the prophet Hosea in the seventh century BC until the writing of the book of Revelation shortly after 73 AD, the marriage and prostitute metaphors were used to help people understand the nature of the relationship between God and God's people. The metaphors rang true because, to the people who heard them, they mirrored their own patriarchal society where women had no, or few, rights.

While it may not have been their intention, the prophets' use of the metaphors also led to a general stereotyping of women, especially in their sexuality, into a few limited categories, at least one of which was portrayed as being shameful and evil. Then, too, in metaphorically describing God as being like the husband, the prophets characterized men – especially in relationships with women – as powerful, blameless and justified in committing heinous acts of violence against women.

In the apocalyptic metaphor, the language of the relationship between human beings and God, and in Revelation between the church and Christ, describes adulterous women and prostitutes as particularly vilified. Graphic violence against prostitutes is declared to be a necessary step in eradicating evil, restoring a broken relationship with God, and bringing about apocalyptic redemption.

(1) "Hosea's metaphor of the marriage between Yahweh and Israel gives an entrée into the divine-human relationship as no other metaphor can. It engages the reader in a compelling story about a God who is loving, forgiving, and compassionate, in spite of Israel's sinfulness." Gale A. Yee, The Women's Bible Commentary, Carol A. Newsom and Sharon H. Ringe, Eds. (Westminster/John Knox Press, Louisville, KY: 1992), 200. (See also: Essay: The Marriage Metaphor in Chapter 4)

(2) In his discussion of the fall of Athens, historian Arnold Toynbee writes: "A fatuous passivity towards the present springs from an infatuation with the past; and this infatuation is the sin of idolatry which, in the primitive Hebrew scheme of religion, is the sin most apt to evoke the vengeance of 'a jealous god.' Idolatry may be defined as an intellectually and morally purblind worship of the part instead of the whole, of the creature instead of the Creator, of time instead of eternity." Arnold Toynbee, A Study of History (Great Britain: Oxford University Press and Thames and Hudson Ltd., 1972) 171.

(3) "In Hosea, the wife was an adulterer; but in Jeremiah she was a prostitute, a whore, a slut. Since he seemed interested in using the metaphor to talk about decency more than marriage norms, less attention was given by Jeremiah to drawing out the figure of both wife and husband …The prophet constructed his rhetoric not only to draw a direct parallel between the woman's sin (shamelessness, loose behavior) and her punishment (exposed and shamed) but to insist that her punishment was reasonable and inescapable. …To make them understand fully the impact of the ruin that awaited them, the prophet forced his male audience to endure the scene of a woman having her clothes snatched above her head (13:20-27). …It was strong imagery, meant to signify the shame, humiliation, and indignity that awaited the prophet's audience. (13:26ff)" Renita J. Weems, Battered Love: Marriage, Sex and Violence in the Hebrew Prophets, (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1995), 56.

(4) "[For a man who is afraid of the flesh] the prostitute incarnates evil, shame, disease, damnation; she inspires fear and disgust; she belongs to no man, but yields herself to one and all and lives off such commerce. In this way she regains that formidable independence of the luxurious goddess mothers of old, and she incarnates the Femininity that masculine society has not sanctified and that remains charged with harmful powers. In the sexual act the male cannot possible imagine that he owns her; he has simply delivered himself over to the demon of the flesh. This is a humiliation, a defilement peculiarly [for those] who regard the flesh as more or less abominable." Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1952) 181.

(5) "The Hebrew morality of adultery rested upon the primitive conception of the wife as the property of the husband. Only the rights of the husband could be violated. Hence illicit intercourse was not adultery if the woman were unmarried. The wife and her partner could violate the rights of her husband, but the wife had no rights which her husband could violate." John L. McKenzie, S.J.: Dictionary of the Bible, (Touchstone Publishing, New York, NY, 1995. (Copyright 1965 by Macmillan Publishing Company), 14.

(6) "Several of the feminine images in Revelation presuppose a traditional symbolic use of the image of "adultery" or "fornication" to represent idolatry. The eighth-century prophet Hosea was among the earliest to use the word "fornication" (In Hebrew the meaning of the word is broader than that but inclusive of "adultery") as such a metaphor. Hosea depicted God's relationship to Israel as that of a faithful husband to a "fornicating" wife, with the wife's "lovers" corresponding to gods other than Yahweh. "To fornicate" or "to play the whore," then, became virtually synonymous with engagement in idolatry (see, e.g. Hos 1:2, 2:1-13, 3:1, 4:12-13, Ex 34:16, Lev. 17:7, 20:5, Deut. 31:16, Judg. 8:27, 2 Kings 9:22, Isa. 57:7-13, Jer. 3:1-10, Ezek. 16:15-58; 23:1-49). John is borrowing this scriptural pattern when he portrays Jezebel and the city of Rome ("Babylon") as "whores" (symbolizing their alleged involvement in idolatrous activities) and also when he depicts the "heavenly Jerusalem" as a pure virgin (suggesting abstinence from any form of idolatry as well as total commitment to God, cf. 2 Cor. 11:2)." Susan R. Garrett, "Revelation" from The Women's Bible Commentary, Carol A. Newsom and Sharon H. Ringe, Eds., (Westminster/John Knox Press, Louisville, KY: 1992), 378.

(7) "Directing their messages to male audiences, they [the prophets] catered to a prevailing desire of those in power [the patriarchs] to see themselves as the real victims in marriages and thus to justify their turning to violence. Indeed, as fascinating and as provoking as the marriage metaphor may seem to modern interpreters, and as shocking as its detailed descriptions of sex must have seemed to ancient audiences and must seem to modern audiences, the marriage metaphor was in many respects a relatively conservative poetic device for imparting religious teachings. It supported the status quo in a patriarchal world and left unchallenged male power over and aggression against women." Renita J. Weems, Battered Love: Marriage, Sex and Violence in the Hebrew Prophets, (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1995), 79.

(8) "From an early date it was believed that the John who wrote Revelation was the apostle John, but the author himself does not make that claim. His reference in 21:14 to the "twelve apostles" suggests that he viewed them as figures of the past. Though some scholars have suggested that the author was a certain elder from Asia Minor named John, he is probably a figure unmentioned elsewhere in the extant early Christian literature. He appears to have known the Hebrew, not the Greek, version of the Jewish Scriptures. Moreover, he is quite hostile toward Rome ("Babylon"). These traits indicate that the author may have been a Palestinian Jew who had come to Asia Minor in the aftermath of Jewish defeat in the first revolt against Rome (66-73 C.E.)." Susan R. Garrett, "Revelation" from The Women's Bible Commentary, Carol A. Newsom and Sharon H. Ringe, Eds., (Westminster/John Knox Press, Louisville, KY: 1992), 378.

(9) "Some of the book's [Revelation's] most important symbols use feminine imagery. The new Jerusalem is envisioned as "coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband" (21:2). At the opposite extreme, the city "Babylon" (a symbolic name for Rome) is portrayed as a whore, "holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her fornication" (17:4). As a third example, a woman who is "clothed with the sun" and who gives birth to the Messiah plays a role in the pivotal twelfth chapter of the work. Each of these symbols reflects the male-centered culture of the first century: women are caricatured as virgins, whores, or mothers. …The stereotyped feminine images in the book do not represent the full spectrum of authentic womanhood, either in John's day or in our own. The images grow out of the patriarchal culture of the first century, which valued the control or management of women's sexuality by men. In such a culture, the virgin (who remains subject to male control) and the whore (who does not) can come to represent diametrically opposite realities: purity and obedience versus corruption and evil. Exploring the cultural roots of John's metaphoric language about women will enable us to understand what he was trying to say at those points, but the dehumanizing way in which he phrased his message will remain deeply troubling." Susan R. Garrett, "Revelation" from The Women's Bible Commentary, Carol A. Newsom and Sharon H. Ringe, Eds., (Louisville, KY: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1992), 377.