Analysis Of The Chapter This chapter Revelation 17 properly commences a more detailed description of the judgment inflicted on the formidable anti-Christian power referred to in the last chapter, though under a new image. It contains an account of the sequel of the pouring out of the last vial, and... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THERE CAME ONE OF THE SEVEN ANGELS WHICH HAD THE SEVEN VIALS - See the notes on Revelation 15:1, Revelation 15:7. Reference is again made to these angels in the same manner in Revelation 21:9, where one of them says that he would show to John “the bride, the Lamb’s wife.” No particular one is sp... [ Continue Reading ]
WITH WHOM THE KINGS OF THE EARTH HAVE COMMITTED FORNICATION - Spiritual adultery. The meaning is, that papal Rome, unfaithful to God, and idolatrous and corrupt, had seduced the rulers of the earth, and led them into the same kind of unfaithfulness, idolatry, and corruption. Compare Jeremiah 3:8; Je... [ Continue Reading ]
SO HE CARRIED ME AWAY IN THE SPIRIT - In vision. He seemed to himself to be thus carried away; or the scene which he is about to describe was made to pass before him as if he were present. INTO THE WILDERNESS - Into a desert. Compare the notes on Revelation 12:6. Why this scene is laid in a wilderne... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE WOMAN WAS ARRAYED IN PURPLE AND SCARLET COLOUR - On the nature of the scarlet color, see the notes on Revelation 17:3. The purple color - πορφύρα porphura - was obtained from a species of shellfish found on the coasts of the Mediterranean, which yielded a reddish-purple dye, much prized by... [ Continue Reading ]
AND UPON HER FOREHEAD - In a circlet around her forehead. That is, it was made prominent and public, as if written on the forehead in blazing capitals. In Revelation 13:1 it is said that “the name of blasphemy” was written on the “heads” of the beast. The meaning in both places is substantially the... [ Continue Reading ]
AND I SAW THE WOMAN DRUNKEN WITH THE BLOOD OF THE SAINTS - A reeling, intoxicated harlot, for that is the image which is kept up all along. In regard to the phrase “drunken with blood,” compare Jeremiah 46:10. “The phraseology is derived from the barbarous custom (still extant among many pagan natio... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE ANGEL SAID UNTO ME, WHEREFORE DIDST THOU MARVEL? - He was doubtless struck with the appearance of John as he stood fixed in astonishment. The question asked him, “why” he wondered, was designed to show him that the cause of his surprise would be removed or lessened, for that he would proceed... [ Continue Reading ]
THE BEAST THAT THOU SAWEST WAS, AND IS NOT - In the close of the verse it is added, “and yet is” - “the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.” There are three things affirmed here: first, that there is a sense in which it might be said of the power here referred to, that it “was,” or that, before... [ Continue Reading ]
AND HERE IS THE MIND WHICH HATH WISDOM - Here is what requires wisdom to interpret it; or, here is a case in which the mind that shows itself able to explain it will evince true sagacity. So in Revelation 13:18. See the notes on that place. Prof. Stuart renders this, “Here is a meaning which compris... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THERE ARE SEVEN KINGS - That is, seven in all, as they are enumerated in this verse and the next. An eighth is mentioned in Revelation 17:11, but it is, at the same time, said that this one so pertains to the seven, or is so properly in one sense of the number seven, though, in another sense, to... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE BEAST THAT WAS, AND IS NOT - That is, the one power that was formerly mighty; that died away so that it might be said to be extinct; and yet Revelation 17:8 that “still is,” or has a prolonged existence. It is evident that, by the “beast” here, there is some one power, dominion, empire, or r... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE TEN HORNS WHICH THOU SAWEST - On the scarlet-colored beast, Revelation 17:3. ARE TEN KINGS - Represent or denote ten kings - that is, kingdoms or powers. See the notes on Daniel 7:24. WHICH HAVE RECEIVED NO KINGDOM AS YET - That is, they were not in existence when John wrote. It is implied... [ Continue Reading ]
THESE HAVE ONE MIND - That is, they are united in the promotion of the same object. Though in some respects wholly independent of each other, yet they may be regarded as, in fact, so far united that they tend to promote the same ultimate end. As a fact in history, all these kingdoms, though of diffe... [ Continue Reading ]
THESE SHALL MAKE WAR WITH THE LAMB - The Lamb of God - the Lord Jesus (See the notes at Revelation 5:6); that is, they would combine with the papacy in opposing evangelical religion. It is not meant that they would openly and avowedly proclaim war against the Son of God, but that they would practica... [ Continue Reading ]
AND HE SAITH UNTO ME - The angel, Revelation 17:7. This commences the more “literal” statement of what is meant by these symbols. See the Analysis of the chapter. THE WATERS WHICH THOU SAWEST - See the notes on Revelation 17:1. ARE PEOPLES, AND MULTITUDES, AND NATIONS, AND TONGUES - For an explana... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE TEN HORNS WHICH THOU SAWEST UPON THE BEAST - Revelation 17:3. The ten powers or kingdoms represented by those horns. See the notes on Revelation 17:12. THESE SHALL HATE THE WHORE - There seems to be some incongruity between this statement and what was previously made. In the former Revelatio... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR GOD HATH PUT IN THEIR HEARTS TO FULFIL HIS WILL - That is, in regard to the destruction of this mighty power. They would be employed as his agents in bringing about his designs. Kings and princes are under the control of God, and, whatever may be their own designs, they are in fact employed to a... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE WOMAN WHICH THOU SAWEST - Revelation 17:3. IS THAT GREAT CITY - Represents that great city. WHICH REIGNETH OVER THE KINGS OF THE EARTH - Rome would of course be understood by this language in the time of John, and all the circumstances, as we have seen, combined to show that Rome, in some f... [ Continue Reading ]