Revelation 17:18 - Exposition

And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth. A repetition of the assertion made in Revelation 17:5 , viz. that the harlot and Babylon are identical (see on Revelation 17:5 ). Many writers have been led by this verse to believe that Rome, either pagan or papal, is thus pointed out as the antitype of the harlot. That this is one fulfilment of the vision need hardly be doubted. Rome was in St. John's time the foremost embodiment of the hostile forces of the world. But this is not the whole fulfilment, which is in all time (see above, especially on verse 1 of this chapter).