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Revelation 17:5
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3 So he carried me away in the Spirit ainto the wilderness. And I saw a woman sitting bon a scarlet beast which was full of cnames of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.  
4 The woman awas arrayed in purple and scarlet, band adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, chaving in her hand a golden cup dfull of abominations and the filthiness of1 her fornication.  
5 And on her forehead a name was written: aMYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.  
6 I saw athe woman, drunk bwith the blood of the saints and with the blood of cthe martyrs of Jesus. And when I saw her, I marveled with great amazement.  

The Meaning of the Woman and the Beast

7 But the angel said to me, “Why did you marvel? I will tell you the1 mystery of the woman and of the beast that carries her, which has the seven heads and the ten horns.  
8 The beast that you saw was, and is not, and awill ascend out of the bottomless pit and bgo to perdition. And those who cdwell on the earth dwill marvel, ewhose names are not written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world, when they see the beast that was, and is not, and2 yet is.  
Commentaries:
Robertson's Word Pictures (NT)
<< Revelation 17:4   Revelation 17:6 >>


Revelation 17:5

Upon her forehead a name written (epi to metwpon authv onoma gegrammenon). Roman harlots wore a label with their names on their brows (Seneca, Rhet. I. 2. 7; Juvenal VI. 122f.), and so here. In Revelation 19:16 Christ has a name on his garments and on his thigh, while in Revelation 14:1; Revelation 22:4 the redeemed have the name of God on their foreheads. There is undoubtedly a contrast between this woman here and the woman in chapter Rev. 12.

Mystery (musthrion). Either in apposition with onoma or as part of the inscription on her forehead. In either case the meaning is the same, that the name Babylon is to be interpreted mystically or spiritually (cf. pneumatikwv Revelation 11:8) for Rome.

The Mother of the Harlots and of the Abominations of the Earth (h Mhthr twn Pornwn kai twn Bdelugmatwn thv Ghv). The Metropolis of the Empire is the mother of harlotry and of the world's idolatries. Charles quotes Tacitus (Ann. XV. 44) about Rome as the city "quo cuncta undique atrocia aut pudenda confluunt celebranturque}."




Other Robertson's Word Pictures (NT) entries containing Revelation 17:5:

Revelation 3:12
Revelation 7:3
Revelation 11:8
Revelation 14:8
Revelation 19:12

 

<< Revelation 17:4   Revelation 17:6 >>

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