---
title: "Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible -  Revelation 17"
description: "CHAPTER 17   :-. THE HARLOT
BABYLON"
image: "/images/missing.jpg"
url: "https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/commentary-critical-and-explanatory-on-the-whole-bible/revelation/17"
---

CHAPTER 17

. THE HARLOT
BABYLON'S GAUD:
THE BEAST
ON WHICH SHE
RIDES, HAVING
SEVEN HEADS
AND TEN HORNS,
SHALL BE
THE INSTRUMENT OF
JUDGMENT ON HER.
As stated generally the vial judgment about to be poured on
*the harlot,* Babylon's power, as the seventeenth and eighteen
chapters give the same in detail, so the nineteenth chapter gives in
detail the judgment on the *beast* and the *false prophet,*
summarily alluded to in , in connection with the Lord's *coming.*

**1. unto me**—A, B, *Vulgate,
Syriac,* and *Coptic* omit.
**many**—So A. But B, "*the*
many waters" ([Jeremiah 51:13](../../../kjv/jeremiah/51/13));
[Revelation 17:15](../../../kjv/revelation/17/15), below, explains the
sense. The whore is the apostate Church, just as "the woman"
([Revelation 12:1-6](../../../kjv/revelation/12/1-6)) is *the
Church while faithful.* Satan having failed by violence, tries too
successfully to seduce her by the allurements of the world; unlike
her Lord, she was overcome by this temptation; hence she is seen
*sitting on the scarlet-colored beast,* no longer the wife, but
the harlot; no longer Jerusalem, but spiritually Sodom ([Revelation 12:1-66](../../../kjv/revelation/12/1-66)).

**2. drunk with**—*Greek,*
"owing to." It cannot be pagan Rome, but papal Rome, if a
particular seat of error be meant, but I incline to think that the
judgment ([Revelation 18:2](../../../kjv/revelation/18/2)) and the
spiritual fornication ([Revelation 18:3](../../../kjv/revelation/18/3)),
though finding their culmination in Rome, are not restricted to it,
but comprise the whole apostate Church, Roman, Greek, and even
Protestant, so far as it has been seduced from its "first love"
([Revelation 2:4](../../../kjv/revelation/2/4)) to Christ, the heavenly
Bridegroom, and given its affections to worldly pomps and idols. The
*woman* ([Revelation 12:1](../../../kjv/revelation/12/1)) is the
congregation of God in its purity under the Old and New Testament,
and appears again as the Bride of the Lamb, the transfigured Church
prepared for the marriage feast. The woman, the invisible Church, is
latent in the apostate Church, and is the Church militant; the Bride
is the Church triumphant.

**3. the wilderness**—Contrast her
in [Revelation 12:6](../../../kjv/revelation/12/6); [Revelation 12:14](../../../kjv/revelation/12/14),
having *a place in the wilderness*-world, but not a home; a
sojourner here, looking for the city to come. Now, on the contrary,
she is contented to have her portion in this moral wilderness.
**upon a scarlet . . .
beast**—The same as in [Revelation 13:1](../../../kjv/revelation/13/1),
who there is described as here, "having seven heads and ten
horns (therein betraying that he is representative of the dragon, [Revelation 13:1](../../../kjv/revelation/13/1)), and upon his heads names (so the oldest manuscripts read)
of blasphemy"; compare also [Revelation 13:1](../../../kjv/revelation/13/1), below, with [Revelation 19:19](../../../kjv/revelation/19/19);
[Revelation 19:20](../../../kjv/revelation/19/20); [Revelation 17:13](../../../kjv/revelation/17/13);
[Revelation 17:14](../../../kjv/revelation/17/14); [Revelation 17:16](../../../kjv/revelation/17/16).
Rome, resting on the world power and ruling it by the claim of
supremacy, is the chief, though not the exclusive, representative of
this symbol. As the dragon is fiery-*red,* so the beast is
blood-red in color; implying its *blood-guiltiness,* and also
deep-dyed sin. The *scarlet* is also the symbol of kingly
authority.
**full**—all over; not
merely "on his heads," as in [Revelation 17:16](../../../kjv/revelation/17/16), for its opposition to God is now about to develop itself in
all its intensity. Under the harlot's superintendence, the world
power puts forth blasphemous pretensions worse than in pagan days. So
the Pope is placed by the cardinals *in God's temple on the altar
to sit there,* and the cardinals *kiss the feet* of the Pope.
This ceremony is called in Romish writers "the adoration."
[*Historie de Clerge,* Amsterd., 1716; and LETTENBURGH'S
*Notitia Curiæ Romanæ,* 1683, p. 125; HEIDEGGER,
*Myst. Bab.*, 1, 511, 514, 537]; a papal coin [*Numismata
Pontificum,* Paris, 1679, p. 5] has the *blasphemous* legend,
"*Quem creant, adorant.*" *Kneeling* and *kissing*
are the worship meant by John's word nine times used in respect to
the rival of God (*Greek,* "*proskunein*").
*Abomination,* too, is the scriptural term for an idol, or any
creature worshipped with the homage due to the Creator. Still, there
is some check on the God-opposed world power while ridden by the
harlot; the consummated Antichrist will be when, having destroyed
her, the beast shall be revealed as the concentration and incarnation
of all the self-deifying God-opposed principles which have appeared
in various forms and degrees heretofore. "The Church has gained
outward recognition by leaning on the world power which in its turn
uses the Church for its own objects; such is the picture here of
Christendom ripe for judgment" [AUBERLEN].
The seven heads in the view of many are the seven successive forms of
government of Rome: kings, consuls, dictators, decemvirs, military
tribunes, emperors, the German emperors [WORDSWORTH],
of whom Napoleon is the successor ([Revelation 17:16](../../../kjv/revelation/17/16)). But see the view given, see on [Revelation 17:16](../../../kjv/revelation/17/16), which I prefer. The crowns formerly on the ten horns
([Revelation 13:1](../../../kjv/revelation/13/1)) have now disappeared,
perhaps an indication that the ten kingdoms into which the
Germanic-Slavonic world [*the old Roman empire,* including the
East as well as the West, the two legs of the image with five toes on
each, that is, ten in all] is to be divided, will lose their
monarchical form in the end [AUBERLEN];
but see [Revelation 17:12](../../../kjv/revelation/17/12), which seems
to imply crowned *kings.*

**4.** The color scarlet, it is
remarkable, is that reserved for popes and cardinals. Paul II made it
penal for anyone but cardinals to wear hats of scarlet; compare *Roman
Ceremonial* [3.5.5]. This book was compiled several centuries ago
by MARCELLUS, a Romish
archbishop, and dedicated to Leo X. In it are enumerated five
different articles of dress of *scarlet* color. A vest is
mentioned studded with *pearls.* The Pope's miter is of *gold*
and *precious stones.* These are the very characteristics
outwardly which Revelation thrice assigns to the harlot or Babylon.
So Joachim an abbot from Calabria, about A.D.
1200, when asked by Richard of England, who had summoned him to
Palestine, concerning Antichrist, replied that "he was born long
ago at Rome, and is now exalting himself above all that is called
God." ROGER HOVEDEN
[*Annals,* 1.2], and elsewhere, wrote, "The harlot arrayed
in gold is the Church of Rome." Whenever and wherever (not in
Rome alone) the Church, instead of being "clothed (as at first,
[Revelation 12:1](../../../kjv/revelation/12/1)) with the sun" of
heaven, is arrayed in earthly meretricious gauds, compromising the
truth of God through fear, or flattery, of the world's power,
science, or wealth, she becomes the harlot seated on the beast, and
doomed in righteous retribution to be judged by the beast ([Revelation 12:1](../../../kjv/revelation/12/1)). Soon, like Rome, and like the Jews of Christ's and the
apostles' time leagued with the heathen Rome, she will then become
the persecutor of the saints ([Revelation 12:1](../../../kjv/revelation/12/1)). Instead of drinking her Lord's "cup" of
suffering, she has "a cup full of abominations and
filthinesses." Rome, in her medals, represents herself holding a
cup with the self-condemning inscription, "*Sedet super
universum.*" Meanwhile the world power gives up its hostility
and accepts Christianity externally; the beast gives up its
God-opposed character, the woman gives up her divine one. They meet
halfway by mutual concessions; Christianity becomes worldly, the
world becomes Christianized. The gainer is the world; the loser is
the Church. The beast for a time receives a *deadly wound* ([Revelation 12:1](../../../kjv/revelation/12/1)), but is not really transfigured; he will return worse than
ever ([Revelation 17:11-14](../../../kjv/revelation/17/11-14)).
The Lord alone by His coming can make the kingdoms of this world
become the kingdoms of our Lord and His Christ. The "purple"
is the badge of empire; even as in mockery it was put on our Lord.
**decked**—literally,
"gilded."
**stones**—*Greek,*
"stone."
**filthiness**—A, B, and
ANDREAS read, "the
filthy (impure) things."

**5. upon . . . forehead . . . name**—as
harlots usually had. What a contrast to "HOLINESS
TO THE LORD,"
inscribed on the miter *on* the high priest's *forehead!*
**mystery**—implying a
spiritual fact heretofore hidden, and incapable of discovery by mere
reason, but now revealed. As the union of Christ and the Church is a
"great mystery" (a spiritual truth of momentous interest,
once hidden, now revealed, [Ephesians 5:31](../../../kjv/ephesians/5/31);
[Ephesians 5:32](../../../kjv/ephesians/5/32)), so the Church
conforming to the world and thereby becoming a harlot is a counter
"mystery" (or spiritual truth, symbolically now revealed).
As iniquity in the harlot is a leaven working in "*mystery,*"
and therefore called "the *mystery* of iniquity," so
when she is destroyed, the iniquity heretofore working
(comparatively) latently in her, shall be *revealed* in *the
man of iniquity,* the open embodiment of all previous evil.
Contrast the "mystery of God" and "godliness,"
[Revelation 10:7](../../../kjv/revelation/10/7); [1 Timothy 3:16](../../../kjv/1-timothy/3/16).
It was Rome that crucified Christ; that destroyed Jerusalem and
scattered the Jews; that persecuted the early Christians in pagan
times, and Protestant Christians in papal times; and probably shall
be again restored to its pristine grandeur, such as it had under the
Cæsars, just before the burning of the harlot and of itself with
her. So HIPPOLYTUS [*On
Antichrist*] (who lived in the second century), thought. Popery
cannot be at one and the same time the "*mystery* of
iniquity," and the *manifested* or *revealed*
Antichrist. Probably it will compromise for political power ([1 Timothy 3:16](../../../kjv/1-timothy/3/16)) the portion of Christianity still in its creed, and thus
shall prepare the way for Antichrist's manifestation. The name
Babylon, which in the image, [Daniel 2:32](../../../kjv/daniel/2/32);
[Daniel 2:38](../../../kjv/daniel/2/38), is given to the *head,*
is here given to the harlot, which marks her as being connected with
the fourth kingdom, Rome, the last part of the image. Benedict XIII,
in his indiction for a jubilee, A.D.
1725, called Rome "the *mother* of all believers, and the
mistress of all churches" (harlots like herself). The
correspondence of syllables and accents in *Greek* is striking;
"*He porne kai to therion; He numphe kai to arnion*."
"The whore and the beast; the Bride and the Lamb."
**of harlots**—*Greek,*
"of *the* harlots and of *the* abominations." Not
merely Rome, but Christendom as a whole, even as formerly Israel as a
whole, has become a harlot. The invisible Church of true believers is
hidden and dispersed in the visible Church. The boundary lines which
separate harlot and woman are not denominational nor drawn
externally, but can only be spiritually discerned. If Rome were the
*only* seat of Babylon, much of the spiritual profit of
Revelation would be lost to us; but the harlot "sitteth upon
many waters" ([Revelation 17:1](../../../kjv/revelation/17/1)),
and "ALL nations have
drunk of the wine of her fornication" ([Revelation 17:2](../../../kjv/revelation/17/2);
[Revelation 18:3](../../../kjv/revelation/18/3); "the earth,"
[Revelation 19:2](../../../kjv/revelation/19/2)). External
extensiveness over the whole world and internal conformity to the
world—worldliness in extent and contents—is symbolized by the
name of the world city, "Babylon." As the sun shines on all
the earth, thus the woman clothed with the sun is to let her light
penetrate to the uttermost parts of the earth. But she, in externally
Christianizing the world, permits herself to be seduced by the world;
thus her universality or catholicity is not that of the *Jerusalem*
which we look for ("the MOTHER
of us all," [Revelation 21:2](../../../kjv/revelation/21/2);
[Isaiah 2:2-4](../../../kjv/isaiah/2/2-4); [Galatians 4:26](../../../kjv/galatians/4/26)),
but that of *Babylon,* the world-wide but harlot city! (As
Babylon was destroyed, and the Jews restored to Jerusalem by Cyrus,
so our Cyrus—a Persian name meaning the *sun*—the Sun of
righteousness, shall bring Israel, literal and spiritual, to the holy
Jerusalem at His coming. Babylon and Jerusalem are the two opposite
poles of the spiritual world). Still, the Romish Church is not only
accidentally and as a matter of fact, but in virtue of its very
PRINCIPLE, a harlot, the
metropolis of whoredom, "the mother of harlots"; whereas
the evangelical Protestant Church is, according to her principle and
fundamental creed, a chaste woman; the Reformation was a protest of
the woman against the harlot. The spirit of the heathen world kingdom
Rome had, before the Reformation, changed the Church in the West into
a *Church-State,* Rome; and in the East, into a *State-Church,*
fettered by the world power, having its center in Byzantium; the
Roman and Greek churches have thus fallen from the invisible
spiritual essence of the Gospel into the elements of the world
[AUBERLEN]. Compare with
the "woman" called "Babylon" here, the woman
named "wickedness," or "lawlessness," "iniquity"
([Zechariah 5:7](../../../kjv/zechariah/5/7); [Zechariah 5:8](../../../kjv/zechariah/5/8);
[Zechariah 5:11](../../../kjv/zechariah/5/11)), carried to *Babylon:*
compare "the mystery of iniquity" and "the man of
sin," "that *wicked* one," literally, "*the
lawless one*" ([2 Thessalonians 2:7](../../../kjv/2-thessalonians/2/7);
[2 Thessalonians 2:8](../../../kjv/2-thessalonians/2/8); also [2 Thessalonians 2:8](../../../kjv/2-thessalonians/2/8)).

**6. martyrs**—witnesses.
**I wondered with great
admiration**—As the *Greek* is the same in the verb and the
noun, translate the latter "wonder." John certainly did not
*admire* her in the modern English sense. Elsewhere ([Revelation 17:8](../../../kjv/revelation/17/8);
[Revelation 13:3](../../../kjv/revelation/13/3)), all the earthly-minded
("they that dwell on the earth") *wonder* in
admiration of the beast. Here only is John's *wonder* called
forth; not the *beast,* but the woman sunken into the harlot,
the Church become a world-loving apostate, moves his sorrowful
astonishment at so awful a change. That the world should be beastly
is natural, but that the faithful bride should become the whore is
monstrous, and excites the same amazement in him as the same awful
change in Israel excited in Isaiah and Jeremiah. "Horrible
thing" in them answers to "abominations" here.
"*Corruptio optimi pessima*"; when the Church falls,
she sinks lower than the godless world, in proportion as her right
place is higher than the world. It is striking that in [Revelation 13:3](../../../kjv/revelation/13/3), "woman" has not the article, "*the*
woman," as if she had been before mentioned: for though
identical in one sense with the *woman,* [Revelation 13:3](../../../kjv/revelation/13/3), in another sense she is not. The elect are never
perverted into apostates, and still remain as *the* true *woman*
invisibly contained in the *harlot;* yet Christendom regarded as
*the woman* has apostatized from its first *faith.*

**8. beast . . . was, and is
not**—(Compare [Revelation 17:11](../../../kjv/revelation/17/11)).
The time when the beast "is not" is the time during which
it has "the deadly wound"; the time of *the seventh head*
becoming Christian externally, when its beast-like character was put
into suspension temporarily. The *healing of its wound* answers
to its *ascending out of the bottomless pit.* The beast, or
Antichristian world power, returns worse than ever, with satanic
powers from hell ([Revelation 11:7](../../../kjv/revelation/11/7)), not
merely from *the sea* of convulsed nations ([Revelation 11:7](../../../kjv/revelation/11/7)). Christian civilization gives the beast only a temporary
wound, whence *the deadly wound* is always mentioned in
connection with its being *healed up* the non-existence of the
beast in connection with its reappearance; and Daniel does not even
notice any change in the world power effected by Christianity. We are
endangered on one side by the spurious Christianity of the harlot, on
the other by the open Antichristianity of the beast; the third class
is Christ's little flock."
**go**—So B, *Vulgate,*
and ANDREAS read the
future tense. But A and IRENÆUS,
"goeth."
**into perdition**—The
continuance of this revived seventh (that is, the eighth) head is
short: it is therefore called "the son of perdition," who
is essentially doomed to it almost immediately after his appearance.
**names were**—so *Vulgate*
and ANDREAS. But A, B,
*Syriac,* and *Coptic* read the singular, "name is."
**written in**—*Greek,*
"upon."
**which**—rather, "when
they behold the beast *that* it was," &c. So *Vulgate.*
**was, and is not, and yet
is**—A, B, and ANDREAS
read, "and shall come" (literally, "be present,"
namely, again: *Greek,* "*kai parestai*"). The
*Hebrew,* "*tetragrammaton,*" or sacred four
letters in *Jehovah,* "who is, who was, and who is to
come," the believer's object of worship, has its contrasted
counterpart in the beast "who was, and is not, and shall be
present," the object of the earth's worship [BENGEL].
They exult with *wonder* in seeing that the beast which had
seemed to have received its death blow from Christianity, *is on
the eve of reviving* with greater power than ever on the ruins of
that religion which tormented them ([Revelation 11:7](../../../kjv/revelation/11/7)).

**9.** Compare [Revelation 13:18](../../../kjv/revelation/13/18);
[Daniel 12:10](../../../kjv/daniel/12/10), where similarly
spiritual discernment is put forward as needed in order to understand
the symbolical prophecy.
**seven heads and seven
mountains**—The connection between *mountains and kings*
must be deeper than the mere outward fact to which incidental
allusion is made, that Rome (the then world city) is on seven hills
(whence heathen Rome had a national festival called *Septimontium,*
the feast of the seven-hilled city [PLUTARCH];
and on the imperial coins, just as here, she is represented as a
*woman seated on seven hills.* Coin of Vespasian, described by
CAPTAIN SMYTH
[*Roman Coins,* p. 310; ACKERMAN,
1, p. 87]). The seven heads can hardly be at once seven *kings*
or *kingdoms* ([Revelation 17:10](../../../kjv/revelation/17/10)),
and seven geographical *mountains.* The true connection is, as
the *head* is the prominent part of the body, so the *mountain*
is prominent in the land. Like "sea" and "earth"and
"waters . . . peoples" ([Revelation 17:10](../../../kjv/revelation/17/10)), so "mountains" have a symbolical meaning,
namely, prominent seats of power. Especially such as are prominent
hindrances to the cause of God ([Psalms 68:16](../../../kjv/psalms/68/16);
[Psalms 68:17](../../../kjv/psalms/68/17); [Isaiah 40:4](../../../kjv/isaiah/40/4);
[Isaiah 41:15](../../../kjv/isaiah/41/15); [Isaiah 49:11](../../../kjv/isaiah/49/11);
[Ezekiel 35:2](../../../kjv/ezekiel/35/2)); especially Babylon
(which geographically was in a *plain,* but spiritually is
called a destroying *mountain,* [Ezekiel 35:2](../../../kjv/ezekiel/35/2)), in majestic contrast to which stands Mount Zion, "the
mountain of the Lord's house" ([Ezekiel 35:2](../../../kjv/ezekiel/35/2)), and the heavenly mount; [Ezekiel 35:2](../../../kjv/ezekiel/35/2), "a great and high mountain . . . and that great city,
the holy Jerusalem." So in [Ezekiel 35:2](../../../kjv/ezekiel/35/2), the *stone* becomes a *mountain*—Messiah's
universal kingdom supplanting the previous world kingdoms. As nature
shadows forth the great realities of the spiritual world, so
seven-hilled Rome is a representative of the seven-headed world power
of which the dragon has been, and is the prince. The "seven
kings" are hereby distinguished from the "ten kings"
([Revelation 17:12](../../../kjv/revelation/17/12)): the former are
what the latter are not, "mountains," great seats of the
world power. The seven universal God-opposed monarchies are Egypt
(the first world power which came into collision with God's people,)
Assyria, Babylon, Greece, Medo-Persia, Rome, the Germanic-Slavonic
empire (the *clay* of the fourth kingdom mixed with its iron in
Nebuchadnezzar's image, a *fifth* material, [Daniel 2:33](../../../kjv/daniel/2/33);
[Daniel 2:34](../../../kjv/daniel/2/34); [Daniel 2:42](../../../kjv/daniel/2/42);
[Daniel 2:43](../../../kjv/daniel/2/43), symbolizing this last
head). These seven might seem not to accord with the seven heads in
[Daniel 7:4-7](../../../kjv/daniel/7/4-7), *one* head
on the first beast (Babylon), *one* on the second (Medo-Persia),
*four* on the third (Greece; namely, Egypt, Syria, Thrace with
Bithynia, and Greece with Macedon): but Egypt and Greece are in both
lists. Syria answers to Assyria (from which the name Syria is
abbreviated), and Thrace with Bithynia answers to the
Gothic-Germanic-Slavonic hordes which, pouring down on Rome from the
North, founded the Germanic-Slavonic empire. *The woman sitting on
the seven hills* implies the Old and New Testament Church
conforming to, and resting on, the world power, that is, on all the
seven world kingdoms. Abraham and Isaac dissembling as to their wives
through fear of the kings of Egypt foreshadowed this. Compare [Ezekiel 16:1-63](../../../kjv/ezekiel/16/1-63);
[Ezekiel 23:1-49](../../../kjv/ezekiel/23/1-49), on Israel's
whoredoms with Egypt, Assyria, Babylon; and [Matthew 7:24](../../../kjv/matthew/7/24);
[Matthew 24:10-12](../../../kjv/matthew/24/10-12); [Matthew 24:23-26](../../../kjv/matthew/24/23-26),
on the characteristics of the New Testament Church's harlotry,
namely, distrust, suspicion, hatred, treachery, divisions into
parties, false doctrine.

**10. there are**—Translate, "they
(the seven heads) are seven kings."
**five . . . one**—*Greek,*
"the five . . . the one"; the first five of the seven are
*fallen* (a word applicable not to *forms of government
passing away,* but to the *fall* of once powerful empires:
Egypt, [Ezekiel 29:1-30](../../../kjv/ezekiel/29/1-30);
Assyria and Nineveh, [Ezekiel 29:1-26](../../../kjv/ezekiel/29/1-26); Babylon, [Revelation 18:2](../../../kjv/revelation/18/2);
[Jeremiah 50:1-51](../../../kjv/jeremiah/50/1-51); Medo-Persia,
[Daniel 8:3-7](../../../kjv/daniel/8/3-7); [Daniel 8:20-22](../../../kjv/daniel/8/20-22);
[Daniel 10:13](../../../kjv/daniel/10/13); [Daniel 11:2](../../../kjv/daniel/11/2);
Greece, [Daniel 11:4](../../../kjv/daniel/11/4)). *Rome*
was "the one" existing in John's days. "Kings" is
the Scripture phrase for *kingdoms,* because these kingdoms are
generally represented in character by some one prominent head, as
Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar, Medo-Persia by Cyrus, Greece by Alexander,
c.
**the other is not yet come**—not
as ALFORD, inaccurately
representing AUBERLEN, *the
Christian* empire *beginning with Constantine* but, the
*Germanic-Slavonic* empire *beginning* and continuing in
its beast-like, that is, HEATHEN
Antichristian character for only "a short space." The time
when it is said of it, "it is not" ([Daniel 11:4](../../../kjv/daniel/11/4)), is the *time* during which it is "wounded to
death," and has the "deadly wound" ([Daniel 11:4](../../../kjv/daniel/11/4)). The external Christianization of the migrating hordes from
the North which descended on Rome, is the *wound* to the beast
answering to the *earth swallowing up the flood* (heathen
tribes) sent by the dragon, Satan, to drown the woman, the Church.
The emphasis palpably is on "a *short* space," which
therefore comes first in the *Greek,* not on "he must
continue," as if his *continuance for some* [considerable]
*time* were implied, as ALFORD
wrongly thinks. The time of external Christianization (while the
beast's wound continues) has lasted for centuries, ever since
Constantine. Rome and the Greek Church have partially healed the
wound by image worship.

**11. beast that . . . is not**—his
beastly character being kept down by outward Christianization of the
state until he starts up to life again as "the eighth"
king, his "wound being healed" (), Antichrist manifested in fullest and most intense
opposition to God. The "he" is emphatic in the *Greek.
He,* peculiarly and pre-eminently: answering to "the little
horn" with eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking
great things, before whom *three of the ten horns were plucked up
by the roots,* and to whom the whole ten "give their power
and strength" ([Revelation 17:12](../../../kjv/revelation/17/12);
[Revelation 17:13](../../../kjv/revelation/17/13); [Revelation 17:17](../../../kjv/revelation/17/17)).
That a *personal* Antichrist will stand at the head of the
Antichristian kingdom, is likely from the analogy of Antiochus
Epiphanes, the Old Testament Antichrist, "the little horn"
in [Daniel 8:9-12](../../../kjv/daniel/8/9-12); also, "the
man of sin, son of perdition" ([Daniel 8:9-27](../../../kjv/daniel/8/9-27)), answers here to "goeth into perdition," and is
applied to an individual, namely, Judas, in the only other passage
where the phrase occurs ([Daniel 8:9-27](../../../kjv/daniel/8/9-27)). He is essentially a child of destruction, and hence he
has but a little time ascended out of the bottomless pit, when he
"goes into perdition" ([Revelation 17:8](../../../kjv/revelation/17/8);
[Revelation 17:11](../../../kjv/revelation/17/11)). "While the
Church passes through death of the flesh to glory of the Spirit, the
beast passes through the glory of the flesh to death"
[AUBERLEN].
**is of the seven**—rather
"springs *out of* the seven." The eighth is not merely
one of the seven restored, but a new power or person proceeding *out
of* the seven, and at the same time embodying all the God-opposed
features of the previous seven concentrated and consummated; for
which reason there are said to be not *eight,* but only *seven*
heads, for the eighth is the embodiment of all the seven. In the
birth-pangs which prepare the "regeneration" there are
*wars, earthquakes,* and *disturbances* [AUBERLEN],
wherein Antichrist takes his rise ("sea," [Revelation 13:1](../../../kjv/revelation/13/1);
[Mark 13:8](../../../kjv/mark/13/8); [Luke 21:9-11](../../../kjv/luke/21/9-11)).
He does not *fall* like the other seven ([Luke 21:9-42](../../../kjv/luke/21/9-42)), but is *destroyed, going to* his own *perdition,*
by the Lord in person.

**12. ten kings . . . received no
kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings . . . with the beast**—Hence
and from [Revelation 17:14](../../../kjv/revelation/17/14); [Revelation 17:16](../../../kjv/revelation/17/16),
it seems that these ten kings or kingdoms, are to be contemporaries
with the beast in its last or eighth form, namely, Antichrist.
Compare [Daniel 2:34](../../../kjv/daniel/2/34); [Daniel 2:44](../../../kjv/daniel/2/44),
"the stone smote the image upon *his feet,*" that is,
upon the *ten* toes, which are, in [Daniel 2:44](../../../kjv/daniel/2/44), interpreted to be "*kings.*" The ten
kingdoms are not, therefore, ten which arose in the overthrow of Rome
(heathen), but are to rise out of the last state of the fourth
kingdom under the eighth head. I agree with ALFORD
that the phrase "*as* kings," implies that they
reserve their kingly rights in their alliance with the beast, wherein
"they give their power and strength unto" him ([Daniel 2:44](../../../kjv/daniel/2/44)). They have the *name* of kings, but not with
undivided kingly power [WORDSWORTH].
See AUBERLEN'S not so
probable view, see on [Revelation 17:1](../../../kjv/revelation/17/1).
**one hour**—a definite
*time* of *short* duration, during which "the devil is
come down to the inhabitant of the earth and of the sea, having great
wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a *short time.*"
Probably the three and a half years ([Revelation 11:2](../../../kjv/revelation/11/2);
[Revelation 11:3](../../../kjv/revelation/11/3); [Revelation 13:5](../../../kjv/revelation/13/5)).
Antichrist is in existence long before the fall of Babylon; but it is
only at its fail he obtains the vassalage of the ten kings. He in the
first instance imposes on the Jews as the Messiah, coming in his own
name; then persecutes those of them who refuse his blasphemous
pretensions. Not until the sixth vial, in the latter part of his
reign, does he associate the ten kings with him in war with the Lamb,
having gained them over by the aid of the spirits of devils working
miracles. His connection with Israel appears from his sitting "in
the temple of God" ([2 Thessalonians 2:4](../../../kjv/2-thessalonians/2/4)),
and as the antitypical "abomination of desolation standing in
the Holy place" ([Daniel 9:27](../../../kjv/daniel/9/27);
[Daniel 12:11](../../../kjv/daniel/12/11); [Matthew 24:15](../../../kjv/matthew/24/15)),
and "in the city where our Lord was crucified" ([Matthew 24:15](../../../kjv/matthew/24/15)). It is remarkable that IRENÆUS
[*Against Heresies,* 5:25] and CYRIL
OF JERUSALEM
[RUFINUS, *Historia
Monachorum,* 10.37] prophesied that Antichrist would have his seat
at Jerusalem and would restore the kingdom of the Jews. JULIAN
the apostate, long after, took part with the Jews, and aided in
building their temple, herein being Antichrist's forerunner.

**13. one mind**—one *sentiment.*
**shall give**—So *Coptic.*
But A, B, and *Syriac,* "give."
**strength**—*Greek,*
"authority." They become his dependent allies (). Thus Antichrist sets up to be *King of kings,* but
scarcely has he put forth his claim when the true KING
OF KINGS appears and dashes him down in a moment to
destruction.

**14. These shall . . . war with the
Lamb**—in league with the beast. This is a summary anticipation
of [Revelation 19:19](../../../kjv/revelation/19/19). This shall not be
till *after* they have first executed judgment on the harlot
([Revelation 17:15](../../../kjv/revelation/17/15); [Revelation 17:16](../../../kjv/revelation/17/16)).
**Lord of lords,**
&c.—anticipating [Revelation 19:16](../../../kjv/revelation/19/16).
***are*******—not
in the *Greek.* Therefore translate, "And they that are
with Him, called chosen, and faithful (shall overcome them, namely,
the beast and his allied kings)." These have been with Christ in
heaven unseen, but now appear with Him.

**15.** ([Revelation 17:1](../../../kjv/revelation/17/1);
[Isaiah 8:7](../../../kjv/isaiah/8/7).) An impious parody of
Jehovah who "sitteth upon the flood" [ALFORD].
Also, contrast the "many waters" [Isaiah 8:7](../../../kjv/isaiah/8/7), "Alleluia."
**peoples, and multitudes, and
nations, and tongues**—The "peoples," c., here mark the
universality of the spiritual fornication of the Church. The
"tongues" remind us of the original Babel, the confusion of
*tongues,* the beginning of Babylon, and the first commencement
of idolatrous apostasy after the flood, as the tower was doubtless
dedicated to the deified heavens. Thus, Babylon is the appropriate
name of the harlot. The Pope, as the chief representative of the
harlot, claims a double supremacy over all *peoples,* typified
by the "two swords" according to the interpretation of
Boniface VIII in the Bull, "*Unam Sanctam,*" and
represented by the two keys: spiritual as the universal bishop,
whence he is crowned with the miter and temporal, whence he is also
crowned with the tiara in token of his imperial supremacy. Contrast
with the Pope's *diadems* the "many diadems" of Him
who alone has claim to, and shall exercise when He shall come, the
twofold dominion ([Revelation 19:12](../../../kjv/revelation/19/12)).

**16. upon the beast**—But A, B,
*Vulgate,* and *Syriac* read, "*and* the beast."
**shall make her
desolate**—having first dismounted her from her seat on the beast
([Revelation 17:3](../../../kjv/revelation/17/3)).
**naked**—stripped of all
her gaud ([Revelation 17:4](../../../kjv/revelation/17/4)). As
Jerusalem used the world power to crucify her Saviour, and then was
destroyed by that very power, Rome; so the Church, having apostatized
to the world, shall have judgment executed on her first by the world
power, the beast and his allies; and these afterwards shall have
judgment executed on them by Christ Himself in person. So Israel
leaning on Egypt, a broken reed, is pierced by it; and then Egypt
itself is punished. So Israel's whoredom with Assyria and Babylon was
punished by the Assyrian and Babylonian captivities. So the Church
when it goes a-whoring after the word as if *it* were the
reality, instead of witnessing against its apostasy from God, is
false to its profession. Being no longer a reality itself, but a
sham, the Church is rightly judged by that world which for a time had
used the Church to further its own ends, while all the while "hating"
Christ's unworldly religion, but which now no longer wants the
Church's aid.
**eat her flesh**—*Greek*
plural, "masses of flesh," that is, "carnal
possessions"; implying the fulness of carnality into which the
Church is sunk. The judgment on the harlot is again and again
described ([Revelation 18:1](../../../kjv/revelation/18/1); [Revelation 19:5](../../../kjv/revelation/19/5));
first by an "angel having great power" ([Revelation 19:5](../../../kjv/revelation/19/5)), then by "another voice from heaven" ([Revelation 19:5](../../../kjv/revelation/19/5)), then by "a mighty angel" ([Revelation 19:5](../../../kjv/revelation/19/5)). Compare [Revelation 19:5](../../../kjv/revelation/19/5), originally said of Israel, but further applicable to
the New Testament Church when fallen into spiritual fornication. On
the phrase, "eat . . . flesh" for prey upon one's property,
and injure the character and person, compare [Psalms 14:4](../../../kjv/psalms/14/4);
[Psalms 27:2](../../../kjv/psalms/27/2); [Jeremiah 10:25](../../../kjv/jeremiah/10/25);
[Micah 3:3](../../../kjv/micah/3/3). The First Napoleon's
Edict published at Rome in 1809, confiscating the papal dominions and
joining them to France, and later the severance of large portions of
the Pope's territory from his sway and the union of them to the
dominions of the king of Italy, virtually through Louis Napoleon, are
a first instalment of the full realization of this prophecy of the
whore's destruction. "Her flesh" seems to point to her
temporal dignities and resources, as distinguished from "herself"
(*Greek*). How striking a retribution, that having obtained her
first temporal dominions, the exarchate of Ravenna, the kingdom of
the LOMBARDs, and the
state of Rome, by recognizing the *usurper* Pepin as lawful king
of France, she should be stripped of her dominions by another usurper
of France, the Napoleonic dynasty!
**burn . . . with fire**—the
legal punishment of an abominable fornication.

**17. hath put**—the prophetical
past tense for the future.
**fulfil**—*Greek,*
"do," or "accomplish." The *Greek,*
"*poiesai,*" is distinct from that which is
translated, "fulfilled," *Greek,* "*telesthesontai,*"
below.
**his will**—*Greek,*
"his mind," or *purpose;* while they think only of
doing their own purpose.
**to agree**—literally, "to
do" (or *accomplish*) one mind" or "purpose."
A and *Vulgate* omit this clause, but B supports it.
**the words of God**—foretelling
the rise and downfall of the beast; *Greek,* "*hoi
logoi,*" in A, B, and ANDREAS.
*English Version* reading is *Greek,* "*ta rhemata,*"
which is not well supported. No mere articulate utterances, but the
efficient *words* of Him who is *the Word: Greek,* "*logos.*"
**fulfilled**— ().

**18. reigneth**—literally, "*hath
kingship* over the kings." The harlot cannot be a mere *city*
literally, but is called so in a spiritual sense (). Also the beast cannot represent a spiritual power, but a
world power. In this verse the harlot is presented before us ripe for
judgment. The eighteenth chapter details that judgment.

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