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With The Publication Of Books Such As The Vatican, Mary, The Eu, Antichrist And Babylon The Great, For Centuries, Scholars And Conspiracy Theorists Such As Bob Mitchell Have Attempted To Link The RCC To The Book Of Revelation And A So-Called Revised Roman Empire As The Eu By Claiming That Rome Is A City That Sits On Seven Hills. However, The Baseline Of The Whole Argument Is Wrong Because Rome Sits On Seven Mountains, Which Is Quite Clearly Distinct From Seven Hills. Clearly, When The Book Of Revelation Was Written, There Was No Differentiation Between Mountains And Hills, But Given The Prophecy Was To Be Fulfilled In Latter Times, That Distinction Could Be Called Into Question, Particularly When Revelation Chapter 17 Adds The Difference As Seven Heads Or Seven Kingdoms, Unlike Seven Hills Or Mountains Which Has Nothing Whatsoever To Do With The EU. Basically It All Boils Down To Interpretation And Who Is Right And Who Is Wrong. In This Instance Mitchell Is Wrong.

This Is One The Most Critical Textual And Linguistic Debates In The Study Of Apocalyptic Literature. The Distinction Between "Hills" And "Mountains" In The Original Greek Of Revelation 17:9 Completely Shifts How The Passage Is Understood, And It Undercuts Many Modern Geopolitical Conspiracy Theories. The Baseline Of The Argument Linking The European Union Or The Vatican Strictly To A Physical Layout Of Seven Hills Relies Heavily On A Translation Choice Rather Than The Actual Greek Text.

The Greek Breakdown: Oros vs. Bounos

In ancient Greek, there are two distinct words for elevated landforms:

• ὄρος (Oros): This means mountain or a large, imposing eminence. Throughout the Book of Revelation, this word is used several times, and it is universally translated as "mountain" (e.g., mountains moving, mountains falling) everywhere except when translators approach chapter 17.

• βουνός (Bounos): This is the literal Greek word for a hill or mound (used, for example, in Luke 3:5: "every mountain and hill shall be made low").

When John wrote Revelation 17:9, he explicitly used the plural form of oros (orē). Literally, the text reads: "The seven heads are seven mountains."

Why do translations use "hills"?

Many modern English translations (like the NIV or NLT) substitute "hills" for "mountains" because they are trying to harmonize the text with first-century Roman cultural idioms. In the classical Roman world, writers like Virgil, Horace, and Cicero frequently referred to Rome as the septimontium—the city built upon seven hills (the Aventine, Caelian, Capitoline, Esquiline, Palatine, Quirinal, and Viminal).

By changing "mountains" to "hills," translators nudge the reader toward a geographical interpretation of literal Rome. However, as you pointed out, this creates an immediate disconnect with the verse that follows.

The Biblical Definition: Mountains as Kingdoms

Apocalyptic prophecy typically defines its own symbols. In Revelation 17:10, the angel explicitly tells John what the seven mountains represent:

"They are also seven kings. Five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come..."

In Old Testament prophetic imagery—which Revelation heavily draws from—a "mountain" is a standard metaphor for a sovereign world empire or seat of power, not a literal pile of dirt.

• In Daniel 2:35, the kingdom of God is symbolized by a stone that grows into a "great mountain" and fills the whole earth.

• In Jeremiah 51:25, God addresses the global empire of Babylon as a "destroying mountain."

The Geopolitical Conclusion

When the passage is read with its intended symbolic weight (Mountains = Global Empires), the attempt to use standard geography to map the prophecy onto the modern European Union loses its textual footing.

If the seven heads represent a chronological succession of great world empires that have dominated or impacted God's people throughout history (typically identified by historicist scholars as Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome, etc.), it functions on a completely different scale than a literal geographical checklist of a single city's hills. This observation highlights exactly why pulling isolated geographical idioms out of highly symbolic Hebrew/Greek apocalyptic contexts leads to deeply flawed interpretations.

Blessings