Revelation 17:1

SECOND OVERTHROW OF ANTICHRIST’S HARLOT.

1. Picture of the harlot mounted on the beast, Revelation 17:1-6.

1. And Antichrist’s capital has fallen; but antichrist himself is not dead nor imprisoned until Revelation 19:20; and his harlot still lives, and her destiny is not revealed until Revelation 17:16.

One of the seven angels For, doubtless, one of the destroyers is one of the best expounders of the destruction. Which of the seven is not clear, but perhaps the seventh, as the last and greatest.

The judgment John first shows the character and the sentence of judgment in Revelation 17:15-16.

Great whore On the question whether the harlot represents pagan Rome or the papal Church, Alford forcibly says: “The figure here used, of a harlot who has committed fornication with secular kings and peoples, is frequent in the prophets, and has one principal meaning and application, namely, to God’s Church and people, that had forsaken him, and had attached herself to others. In eighteen places out of twenty-one, where the figure occurs, such is its import, namely, in Isaiah 1:21; Jeremiah 2:20; Jeremiah 3:1; Jeremiah 3:6; Jeremiah 3:8; Ezekiel 16:15-16; Ezekiel 16:28; Ezekiel 16:31; Ezekiel 16:35; Ezekiel 16:41; Ezekiel 23:5; Ezekiel 23:19; Ezekiel 23:44; Hosea 2:5; Hosea 3:3-4, [Micah 1:7.] In three places only is the word applied to heathen cities, namely, in Isaiah 23:15-16, to Tyre, where, Revelation 17:17, it is also said, ‘She shall commit fornication with all the kingdoms of the world upon the face of the earth;’ and in Nahum 3:4, to Nineveh, which is called the ‘well favoured harlot, the mistress of witchcrafts, that selleth nations through her whoredoms, and families through her witchcrafts.’”

And here, we note, it appears that Israel, though a corrupt Church, was still a true Church, and the truly pious within her limits were heirs of salvation. She was, at her worst, better than heathendom. And so of Rome. And in regard to the better side of Rome, see our note 2 Thessalonians 2:9. There is no fair doubt that the Christian Church appears as a woman in Revelation 12:1. And the antithesis between the harlot of antichrist and the bride of Christ is very decisive. Note on Revelation 11:1.

Sitteth upon many waters Rome on the Tiber was not seated on many waters. It was more true of Babylon on the Euphrates. But Rome as a commercial power, especially with those nations subject to her power, was based upon many waters.

Fornication, the latter more deeply have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. Such was not a true picture of the relation of Rome to the kings and peoples of the world. She conquered them by force, and ruled them by equitable civilizing force, save when her own domination required injustice. In religious matters she stood aloof, and allowed each nation its own national superstition. She was no seducer or fornicator. These qualities belong to a later than pagan Rome.