Bible Commentary (1871–1879 Edition)
The Vision of the Great Harlot, REVELATION XVII. Babylon, the 3Tot her of all Abomination*.
jecfs; 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 (v. 11). But see the view given, JSoies, v. 9, 10, which I prefer. The crowns formerly on the ten horns (ch. 13. l)have nowdisappeared, 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, i. e., ten in all] is to be divided, will lose their monarchical form in the end [Auberlen] ; but see ti. 12, which seems to imply crowned kings. 4. The colour scarlet. It Is remarkable, is that reserved for popes and cardinals. Paal II. made it penal for any one but cardinals to wear hats of scarlet; cf. Coercmoniala Jiom., 3 sect. 5, c. 5. This book was compiled more than 310 years ago by Marcellus, a Romish archbishop, and dedicated to Leo X. In it are enumerated five dil Tereui articles of dress of scarld colour. A vest is mentioned studded withpearls. The Pope's mitre is oigoldaml precious the rest. Unlike the result in the case of Jerusalem (eh.
11. 13;, wliere "the remnant . . . affrighted . . . gave glory to the God of heaven."
CHAPTER XVII.
Ver. 1-18. 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 ch. 16. 12 stated generally the vial judgment about to be poured ou the harlot, Babylon's power, as chs.
17. and IS. give the same in detail, so cli. 19. gives in detail the judgment on the bea$tanA the falsejmphet, summarily alluded to in ch. 16. 13-15, in connection with tlie Lord's coming. 1. »ii«t<i me—A, B, Vulgate, Syriac, and Coptic omit, many—.So A. But B, "the many waters" (Jeremiah 51. 13); V. 15, below, explains the sense. The whore is the apostate Cliurch, just as the woman (ch. 12) is the Church whilstfaithful. Satan havi ng 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-coloured beaxt, no longer the wife, but the harlot; no longer Jerusalem, but spiritually Sodom (ch. 11. 8). 3. dniiik witVi— Greek, stoites. These are the very characteristics outwaidly which Revelation thrice assigns to the harlot or Babylon. So Joachim, an abbot from Calabria, about a. d. 1200, when asked by Ricliard 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
' 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 (ch. 18. 2) and the spiritual fornication (ch. 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 all that is called God." Roger Hoveden, ^ufiri. Chron.,
1. 2, and elsewhere, wrote, "The harlot arrayed in gold is the Churcti of Rome." Whenever and wherever (not in Rome alone) the Cliurch, instead of being "clothed (as at far as it has been seduced from its " first love " (ch. 2. 4) to
Christ, the heavenly Bridegroom, and given its aflfections to worldly pomps and idols. Tlie woman (ch. 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, first, ch. 12. 1) with the sun" of heaven, is arrayed In earthly meretricious gauds, compromising the truth of God tlirough 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 the transfigured Clnirch prepared for the marriage feast. The woman, the invisible Cliurch, Is latent in the apos-
(v. 16). Soon, like Rome, and lilie the Jews of Clirist'aand the apostles' time leagued with the heathen Rome, Rha will then become the persecutor of the saints (v. 6). In« stead 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 th» self-condemning inscription, " Sedet super univcrsum." Meanwhile the world-powerglves up its hostility and accepts Christianity externally; the beast gives up Its Godopposed character, the woman gives up her Divine one. They meet half-way by mutual concessions; Christianity becomes worldly, the world becomes Christianized. The gainer is the world, the loser is the Church. The beast tate Church, and is the Church militant; the Bride is the Church triumphant. 3. the wilderness—Contrast her in ch. 12. 6, H, liaving apluce in the wilderness-vrovld, but not a home; a sojourner here, looking for tlie city to come. Tsow, on the contrary, she is contented to liave lier portion in this moral wilderness, upon a scarlet . . . benst —The same as in ch. 13. 1, wlio there is descrilicd as here, "having seven heads and ten horns (tlierein betraying that he is representative of the dragon, ch. 12. 3), and upon his heads names (so the oldest MSS. read) of blaspliemy ;" of. also V. 12-H, below, with ch. 19. 19, 20, and cli. 17. 13, It,
16. Rome, resting on tlie world-i)Ower, and ruling it by the claim of supremacy, is the cliief, though not the exclusive, representative of this symbol. As the dragon is for a time receives a deadly wound (ch. 1.3.3), but Is not really transfigured ; he will return worse thiui ever (v. 11- fiery -rerf, so the beast is blood-red In colour; Implying its blood-guiltines.i,aud also deep-dyed sin. TbacarM Is also the symbol of kingly authority, full—all over; not merely "on his heads," as in ch. 13. I, Ibr Its opposition to God Is now aiiout to develop itself In all its iiiti Mislty. Under the harlot's superintendence, the world-powci outs
U). The Lord alone by His coming can make tlie 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—ij/., "gilded." stones— (7rcpfr, " stone." fllthlness-A, B, and Andhkas read, "the filthy (Impure) things." 5. upon forth blasphemous pretensions worse than in Pagan days. So the Pope is placed by the cardinals in (iod's temple on. . . forehead . . . name—as liarlots usually had. What a contrast to "Holiness to the Lokd," Inscribed on the mitre oil the high priest's /orc/icrtd.' niyntery—Implying a spiritual fact heretofore lildden, and incapable of discovery by mere reason, but now revealed. As the union the altar to sit there, und the cnrilinals kiss the feel of t he
I'ope. This ceremony is call(>d In Konilsli writers the adoration. Historic de Clerge, Ainsterd., 1716; and LetTENniiROH'S Nolitla Curi<e JlomaiKP, 10H3, p. 125; HkidkgUEK, M]/st. 7J«6., 1, 511, 514, 5.'i7; a Papal coin (Numisniatn of Christ and the Church is a "great mystery" (a spiritual truth of momentous interest, once hidden, now revealed, Epheslans 5. 31, 32); so the Church conforming to the world and thereby becoming a harlot is a counter "mystery" (or spiritual truth, symliollcally now revealed). As Iniquity in the harlot Is a leaven working In "mystny," and therefore called "the mi/stery of Inlciulty," so when she Is destroyed, the Iniquity heretofore working (comparatively) latently In her, shall be revealed In the man of
Pontiflcum. Paris, 1C79, p. 5) has the blasphemous legend, " Quern creant, adorant." Kneeling and Iciss-ing are the wor» sliip meant by St. Jolin'sword nine times used in rcsp(>ct to tlie rival of God (Greek proskunein). Alximinafion, too.
Is the scriptural term for an .Idol, or any creature worshipped with the homage due to the Creator. Hllll, lliere
Is some check on the God-opposed world-power whilst ridden by tlie harlot; the consummated Anllchrlst will ii\i<iiiit!i, the open oinbodlnient of all previous evil. Conlie wlien, having destroyed her, the beast shall be revealed trast the "mystery of God" and "godliness," ch. 10.7; as the concentration and incarnation of all the sclf-deily-
1 Timothy 3. 10. It was Rome that crucified (Christ; that destroy<>d Jerusalem and scattered the Jews ; tlnvt persecuted the early Christians In Pagan times, and Protestant Christians in Papal times ; and probably sliall be aj[alo
Ing God-opposed jirlnclples which liave appeared In various forms and degrees heretofore. "The Church has gained outward recognition 1)3' leaning on the worldpower which In Us turn uses the Church for Ita own ob- ^90
Babylon, Ihe Mother of all Abominations. REVELATION XVII. The Interpretation of the Sevcjt Heaas,
optimi pessima;" when the Church falls, she sinks lower than the godless world, in proportion as her right place is higlier than the world. It is striking that in v. 3, "woman" has not the article, " tht woman," as if she had been before mentioned : for though identical in one sense with the woman, ch. 12, 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 Chris tendora regarded as the woman has apostatized from restored to Its pristine grandeur, such as it had under the Cjesars, Just before the burning of the liarlot and of itself with her. So 'H.iwoi.YtXSS, De Antichristo (who lived in tlie second century), thought. Popeiy 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 (u. 3; the portion of Christianity still in its creed, and thus shall prepare tlie way for Antichrist's manifestation. The name Babylon, which in the image, Daniel 2., is given to the )iead, is here given to the harlot, which marlis lier as being connected with the fourth kingdom, Rome, the lust part of the image. Benedict XIII., in his indiction for a jubilee, a. d.
its first faith. 8. beast . . . was, anil Is not—(Cf. v. 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. Tlie healing of its wound answers to its ascendiny out of the bottomless pit. The beast, or Antichristian world-power, re turns worse than ever, with Satanic powers from hell (cii
1725, called Rome " the mother of all believers, and the mistress of all chui-ches" (harlots like lierself ). Tlie correspondence of syllables and accents In Greek is striking; He porne kai to Iherion; He numphe kai to arnion. The whore and the beast; the Bride and the Lamb, of Iiurlots — Oreek, " 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 whicli separate harlot and woman are not denominational nor drawn ex-
11. 7), not merely from the sea of convulsed nations (ch. 13.
1). Christian civilization gives the beast only a temporary wound, whence the deadly U'ound is always mentioned in connection with its being healed up, tlie nonexistence of the beast in connection with its reappear ance; 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 har
' ternally, but can only be spiritually discerned. If Rome were the only seat of Babylon, mucli of the spiritual profit of Revelation would be lost to us; but the harlot "sitletli upon many waters" {v. 1), and "all. nations have drunk of the wine of her fornication" (u. 2; ch. 18.3; " the earth," eh. 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 herlot, on the other by the open Antichristianity of the beast; the third class is Christ's "little flock." go—So B Vulgate, and Andrea.s read the future tense. But A and iRENiBUS, "goeth." Into perdition—The continuance of this revived seventli (i. e., 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." whlcU—rather, "when they behold the beast llmt it was," &c. .So Vulgate, was, and is not, and yet Is—A, B, and Andreas read, "... and shall come" self to be seduced by the world; thus her universality or catholicity is not that of the Jerusalem which we look for (" the MOTHEK of us all," ch. 21. 2 ; Isaiali 2. 2-4 ; Galatians
(lit., "be present," viz., again: Greek kai parestai). The Hebrew tetragrammaton, or sacred four letters in Jehovah " who is, wlio was, and wlio 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 tliem (ch. 11. 10). 9. Cf. ch. 13. 18; Daniel 12. 10, where similarly spiritual discernment is put forward as needed in order to understand the symbolical prophecy, seven Ueads and seven mountains — The connection between mountains and kings must be deeper tlian the mere outward fact to which incidental allusion is made, that Rome (the then world
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 Vnesun—the Sun of righteousness, shall bring Israel, literal and spiritual, to the holy Jerusalem at his coming. Babylon and Jerusalem ai-e the two opposite poles of tlie epiritual world.] Still, the Romish Churcli is not only aeeidentally, and as a matter of fact, but in virtue of its very princii'le, a harlot, the metropolis of wlioredom, "the mother of harlots;" whereas the evangelical Protestant Church is, according to her principle and fundamental creed, a chaste woman; the Reform;Uion was a protest of the woman against the harlot. Tlie spirit of the heathen world-kingdom Rome had, before the Reformation, changed the Church in* the West into a Churchcity) is on seven hills (whence heathen Rome had a national festival called Septimontium., the feast of the sovt f hilled city [Plutarch]; and on the imperial coins, jin* as here, she is represented as a woman sealed on seven hilk Coin of Vespasian, described by Captain Smyth, fioman
State, Rome; and in the East, into a State-Church, fettered by tlie world-power, liaving its centre in Byzantium; the Roman and Greek churches have thus fallen from the invisil>le spiritual essence of tlie Gospel into the elements of the world. [Aubeklen.J Cf. with the " woman" called ''Babylon" here, the woman named "wickedness," or " lawlessness," " iniquity" (Zecliariah 5. 7, 8, 11), carried to Babylon; cf. "the mystery of iniquity" and " tlie man of sin," "that wicked one," lit., "the lawless one" (2 Tliessalonlans2.7,8; also Matthew 24. 12). G. martyrs—witnesses. I %vondfrc<l ivftlt {{reat nflmirntinn—As the Creek is the same in the verb and the noun, translate the latter "wonder." John certainly did not admire lier in the modern English sense. Elsewhere {v. S; cli. 13.3), all tlie earthly-minded (" tliey tiiat dwell on the earth") ifonc/er
Coins, p. 310; Ackerman, 1., p. 87). The seven heads aiu hardly be at once seven kings or kingdoms (v. 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" (v. 15), so "mountains" have a sjmbolic.al meaning, viz., promiiiput seals of power. Especially such as are prominent hindrances to the cause of God (Psalm G8. 1(>, 17; Isaiah 40. 4 ; 41.15; 41i.
11; Ezekiel 35.2); especially Babylon (which geograpliically was In aplaiin, but siiiritually is called a destroying mountain, Jeremiali 51. 25), in majestic contrast to which stands Mount Zion, " the mountain of tlie Lord's lioiisc"
In admiration of the beast. Here only is John's wonder called forth; not the 6ea«<, but the woman sunken into the harlot, the Church become a worlil-lovlng apostate, moves his sorrowful astonishment at so awful a cliange. That the world should be beastly is natural, but tliat the
(Isaiah 2. 2), and the' heavenly mount ; ch. 21. 10, "a givat an<l liigii mountain . . . and that great city, the holy Jerusalem." .So In Daniel 2. 3'), the stone becomns a >noiin- <am—Messiah's universal kingdom supplanting the previous world-kingdoms. .\s nature shadows forth the great realities ol the spiritual world, so seven-hillej 591 fialthful 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.