Revelation 17:1-8 - Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

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Bible Comments

Revelation 17:1. harlot. waters: the description of Babylon in Jeremiah 51:13, thou that dwellest upon many waters, is here transferred to Rome. [Ultimately it goes back probably still further. The many waters refer to the watery chaos, the chaos monster, so that the beast on which the woman sits is really identical with the many waters on which she is said to sit in this verse. A. S. P.]

Revelation 17:2. kings. fornication: the imagery is that of OT (cf. Isaiah 23:17). The sin of which these kings were guilty consisted in purchasing the favour of Rome by accepting her suzerainty and with it her vices and idolatries (Swete).

Revelation 17:3. into a wilderness: cf. Isaiah 31. scarlet-coloured beast: the beast, as in Revelation 13:1-10, is the political power of Rome personified in Nero. The term scarlet indicates the pomp and splendour of the Empire. full of names of blasphemy: i.e. the imperial titles which claimed Divine honours for the Emperor. seven. horns: Revelation 12:3 *.

Revelation 17:5. Mystery: the term here means symbol, and the whole phrase signifies, This woman is the symbol of Babylon the Great.

Revelation 17:6. drunk with the blood: a reference to the Neronian persecution. [If a Jewish source has been employed here, the original reference may have been to the appalling bloodshed in the war with Rome and the sufferings which followed the suppression of the rebellion. See p. 774. A. S. P.]

Revelation 17:7. the mystery of the woman: i.e. what the woman symbolises.

Revelation 17:8. was and is not: like the wounded head in Revelation 13:3, this phrase evidently refers to the legend of Nero redivivus. A widespread rumour was current through the Empire that Nero was not actually dead but in hiding and would soon return. Cf. Tacitus (Hist. ii. 8), About the same time Greece and Asia were greatly alarmed by a false report that Nero was about to reappear. so that many pretended that he was alive and even believed it. For other references to this belief, cf. Cent.B, pp. 56 ff. out of the abyss: this phrase implies that Nero had actually died, though in Revelation 13:3 he seems to have recovered from his wounded head. These contradictory statements represent two different forms of the legend. name. book of life, etc.: Revelation 13:8 *.

Related Commentaries of Revelation 17:1

Revelation 17:1-8

1 And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:

2 With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.

3 So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.

4 And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and deckeda with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:

5 And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.

6 And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.

7 And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns.

8 The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.