Revelation 17

Verse 1. I must repeat what I have already taken notice of, both in the preface to the Apocalypse, and sometimes in the annotations, that there are three ways of expounding all the visions of this revelation, from the end of chap. 3 to the end of ver. 10 chap. 20 all of which seem grounded on the opinions of the ancient Fathers. According to the first, all these visions are only to be fulfilled in antichrist’s time, a little before the end of the world. According to the second, the visions may be applied to particular events, which happened in the first three or four ages, under the persecuting heathens, till by Constantine, and the succeeding Christian emperors, idolatry by degrees was extirpated, and the faith of Christ triumphed over all its enemies, whether Jews or pagans. According to the third, by the great city of Babylon, is mystically and metaphorically signified all wicked great cities in the world, all the multitude of the wicked dispersed in all nations, their short and vain happiness, their persecutions and oppressions of the good and faithful servants of God, who live piously in this world, and who are called to be citizens of the celestial Jerusalem in the kingdom of God, where he reigneth for ever with his Angels and saints, and where they all reign with him, happy in his sight and enjoyment. I am more and more inclined to this third exposition, by reading this 17th chapter, with the contents of the 18th, 19th, and 20th chapters, till the 11th verse, and by reading what S. Jerom says in general terms, in his epistle to Marcella, tom. 4, part 1, p. 166, Nov. edit. “that all this book (of the Apocalypse) is either to be expounded spiritually, or if we follow a carnal interpretation, we must content ourselves with Jewish fables. And especially by reading what Saint Augustine has delivered us upon the chief difficulties of the Apocalypse, in his 20th book de Civ. Dei, from chap. vi. to chap. xvi. and from p. 578. to p. 594. tom. 7. Nov. edit. To expound then these chapters together according to this third interpretation. Witham.—Of the great harlot. Nothing can be better applied than this epithet to ancient Rome, which had conquered almost all the kingdoms of the known world, as it is said in ver. 18 she is the great city, a kingdom which hath dominion over the kings of the earth; ver. 9 it was built upon seven mountains; ver. 6 was watered with the blood of the saints and martyrs of Jesus Christ; and in fine, ver. 5 it was the great Babylon, as Saint Peter, in his first epistle, pleases to call it. Calmet.—Come, I will shew thee the condemnation of the great harlot, … Babylon … the mother of the fornications. By this harlot, and this Babylon, is signified the multitude of all the wicked of all times and places, who have abandoned themselves to sensual pleasures, and sought for their happiness in riches and worldly grandeur; for this reason she is said to carry on her forehead this inscription, a mystery; that is, to be understood in a mystical sense of all the wicked, who make up as it were one city, as Saint Augustine observes, which may be called Babylon, the city of confusion, the city of idolatry, and of all manner of vices.—The beast, that is, the devil, carries her, whose suggestions the wicked follow. He comes out from the bottomless pit. He was, that is had a much greater and more extensive power over the wicked world before Christ’s coming and incarnation; and he is not, that is according to Saint Augustine his power hath been much extenuated and lessened since that time. He is bound or chained up for a thousand years, as it is said, chapter 20:2. By which may be understood all the time from Christ’s coming, and the establishing of his Christian Church, till the last and severest persecution under antichrist. See Saint Augustine l. xx. de Civ. Dei. c. vii. And when he shall come again, and be let loose, as it were, in antichrist’s time, he must continue a short while: for all the ancient fathers agree, by the interpretations they give to the Scripture, that antichrist, and consequently the devil with antichrist, must reign but a short time. The scarlet coloured beast, the devil, called the prince of this world, on whom the harlot gilded with gold sat; that is, all the wicked, and particularly all wicked kings and princes, with their worldly greatness, who were drunk with the wine of her prostitution; that is, who abandoned themselves and indulged their passions with all sensual pleasures, and contented themselves with the vain and deceitful happiness of this life; to be convinced of which, the Angel is said to have taken Saint John in spirit into a wilderness from the company of the wicked world, the better to see and contemplate the vanity of their short and false happiness. This woman, this harlot, this Babylon, this multitude of the wicked, especially the heathen persecuting emperors at Rome, and in all other places, (and they who acted against the Christians under them) are said to be drunk with the blood of the saints, and the blood of the martyrs, by putting the Christians, the Catholics and the servants of God to death, from the foundation of the world to its consummation, by the instigation of the beast, the devil. The beast, the devil, is represented with seven heads and ten horns; that is, with many heads and many horns, signified by the numbers seven and ten. See Saint Augustine c. xxiii. p. 606.—The seven heads, as it is said, verse 9, are seven mountains, and seven kings, that is a great many. And also the ten horns, (verse 12) are ten kings. Witham.

Verse 4. Cup.… full of the abomination, and so forth These are common scriptural expressions for the abominations of idolatry, with which ancient Rome had notoriously polluted herself. For not content with worshipping her own heathenish gods, she adopted those of all the countries and nations she had subdued. In Rome itself there were no less than 420 heathenish temples, so that one of their most famous poets, Ovid, (lib. i. Trist.) says:

Sed quæ de septem totum circumspicit orbem,

Montibus Imperii, Roma, Deûmque locus.

Verse 5. A mystery. That is, a secret, because what follows of the name and title of the great harlot is to be taken in a mystical sense.—Babylon. Either the city of the devil in general; or, if this place be to be understood of any particular city, pagan Rome, which then and for 300 years persecuted the Church, and was the principal seat both of empire and idolatry. Challoner.

Verse 6. Drunk with the blood of the saints. Such was pagan Rome, for innumerable were the martyrs she put to death, both throughout the extent of her vast dominions, and even in her own bosom, the city itself. These were the victims of the ten persecutions raised by Rome against the Christians. Such was the woman drunk with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. Pastorini.

Verse 8. The beast which thou sawest. This beast, which supports Babylon, may signify the power of the devil; which was, and is not, being much limited by the coming of Christ, but shall again exert itself under antichrist. The seven heads of this beast are seven mountains or empires, instruments of his tyranny; of which five were then fallen, as above, chap. 13 ver. 1. The beast itself is said to be the eighth, and is of the seventh; because they all act under the devil, and by his instigation, so that his power is in them all, yet so as to make up, as it were, an eighth empire distinct from them all. Challoner.

TR reads “yet is” instead of “shall be present”

Verse 9. Seven mountains. We have already observed that ancient Rome stood upon seven mountains. The same cannot be said of modern Rome, as some of the hills are not inhabited.—The seven heads … are seven kings, or seven Roman emperors, who were particularly distinguished as the chief supporters of idolatry, and the most virulent persecutors of the Christian religion. Their names were Nero, Domitian, Severus, Decius, Valerian, Dioclesian and Antichrist.—Five of them are fallen or gone, that is Nero, Domitian, Severus, Decius, Valerian, who supported the idolatrous empire for a time; one is, that is Dioclesian, with whom the reign of idolatry falls; and the other is not yet come, that is, antichrist.

Verse 10. Five are fallen, one is, and the other is not yet. The meaning of this is obscure. And perhaps it were better to own with Saint Augustine that we do not know the meaning, than to advance suspicions and conjectures. But it is not improbable that by these seven kings may be understood the collection of kings, in what are called the seven ages of the world, from its creations to its consummation. The first age, is reckoned from Adam to Noe, and the deluge: the second age, from Noe to Abraham; the third, from Abraham to Moses; the fourth, from Moses to David; the fifth, from David to Christ. These five were past, and fallen, when Saint John wrote. The sixth is, and is to last from Christ to antichrist. And another, the seventh, is not, being the time of antichrist, and only a short time. See A. Lapide on this verse. Witham.

Verse 11. The beast that was, and is not: is the eighth: and is of the seven. The devil reigns with the kings in all these ages: he is of the seven, because he is the prince under whom reign the wicked in all ages: he is also the eighth, inasmuch as he is their prince, and they are only his instruments. Witham.

Verse 12. The ten horns, or ten kings, which thou sawest, as yet have received no kingdom, but shall receive power as kings one hour after the beast; or, as it is in the Greek, with the beast. According to the common interpretation, this must be referred to ten, or many kings, who are different from all the wicked kings that had been, and who should follow and live at the same time with the beast, by which here seems to be signified antichrist. Or, if by these ten kings we understand all the wicked kings, who were to come after Saint John wrote, to the end of the world, they had not yet kingdoms, but the kingdoms which they should have, and all their vain happiness, would be very short, and at the same time they would be under the beast, and subject to him. Witham.—Ten horns. These denote ten kings or ten powers; namely, Goths, Huns, Alans, Vandals, Saxons, Burgundians, Franks, Heruli, Suevi, and so forth the chief of the Barbarians that invaded the Roman empire in the fifth century.—They shall receive power as kings, one hour after the beast; that is, they will serve under their own leaders, to assist pagan Rome a little against its enemies; and their one design is afterwards to take the fruitful provinces of Rome to themselves, which we know they did. Pastorini.—Ten kings. Ten lesser kingdoms, enemies also of the Church of Christ; which nevertheless shall be made instruments of the justice of God, for the punishment of Babylon. Some understand this of the Goths, Vandals, Huns, and other barbarous nations that destroyed the empire of Rome. Challoner.

Verse 13. These have one design, to make themselves as happy as they can in this world: and their power they shall give to the beast, being always slaves of the devil. Witham.

Verse 14. These shall fight with the Lamb. Their actions and affections being always led away with the love of this world, which is an enemy to Christ and his doctrine: but the Lamb, Christ, shall overcome them, and punish them, when he pleases: for he, Christ, God and man, is Lord of lords, and King of kings; and as Saint John says again, (chapter 19:16,) has written on his thigh, the King of kings, and Lord of lords, to signify to us his divinity, or divine nature. Witham.—All these different people were either heathens or heretics, and of course were bitter enemies to the Catholic religion; but the Lamb overcame them, by turning their hearts, and converting them to Christianity.

Verse 15, and so forth The waters which thou sawest, where the harlot sitteth, signify the different nations, in all which is a multitude of wicked, especially among the great ones of this world. Witham.