Revelation Chapter 17 verse 5 Holy Bible

Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerse 5. - And upon her forehead was a name written. Omit "was." Ὄνομα, "name," is dependent upon ἔχουσα, "having," in ver. 4. This practice was customary with harlots (Juv., 'Sat.,' 6:123; Seneca, 'Controv.,' 1:2). In Revelation 14:1 and Revelation 7:3 the faithful members of God's Church have his Name in their foreheads; here the faithless ones, represented by the harlot, exhibit a spurious imitation. As God's Name marked the former as his, so the name Babylon, etc., marks the latter as belonging to the world (see on Revelation 16:19; 17:5; 18:2). The name consists of the words following, to the end of the verse. MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. The word "MYSTERY" may be (1) part of the name, standing coordinately with "BABYLON" (Alford, Bleek, Hengstenberg, Vitringa, Wordsworth); (2) a description of the following title, being thus in apposition with ὅνομα, "name" (Auberlin, De Wette, Dusterdieck, Ebrard); (3) an adverb used in the same sense as in the last case (Stuart). Whichever view be taken, there can be no doubt that the purpose is to draw attention to the fact which is contained in the following words - a fact which might otherwise be exceedingly difficult to receive. For the rest of the verso asserts that the harlot is Babylon; that is, that the worldly portion of the Church, though nominally Christian, is in reality identical with the world, which is openly antagonistic to God. Indeed, the latter portion of the verse goes even further than this. This faithless (though outwardly Christian) portion of Christ's Church is the mother, that is, the cause of the existence of unfaithfulness to God. So true is it that the professing Christian who is worldly minded does more to cause in others disobedience and unfaithfulness to God, than he who openly declares himself in opposition to God, and even persecutes the faithful; cf. the words to the Church in Laodicea, "I would thou went cold or hot" (Revelation 3:15). (On "ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH," see on ver. 4.)

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(5) And upon her forehead . . .--It was usual with harlots to wear their name on the forehead; but the name here is more than a name. Like the name impressed upon the foreheads of the saints, it is "the expression of her nature"--"MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF THE HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH."The word "mystery" is, perhaps, part of the name; it is, at any rate, a prefix which tells us that the name is not literal, but symbolical. Something lies behind, which will be made manifest in due time. (Comp. 2Thessalonians 2:7.) She is mother of harlots. Others, in smaller spheres, will follow her example; but she is the origin and type of all.(6) And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints.--It is said later (Revelation 18:24) that in her was found the blood of prophets, and saints, and of all that have been slain upon the earth. The cruel spirit of persecution marked old Pagan Rome. She was drunk with their blood. It is not literally true that "all the blood shed on the earth" would be found in Rome, either Pagan or Papal; but it is spiritually true. Just as all the blood from righteous Abel to Zacharias was required of Jerusalem, so also of Babylon; for the spirit is the same spirit of hatred of holiness and love of worldliness. To slay one is to slay all, as to be guilty in one point of the Law is to be guilty of all; for it is not to mere acts, but also to the spirit and drift of men's conduct, that the Scriptures look. It is the Babylon spirit, whether dominant in Rome or in London, that kills the good. Wherever the spirit of worldliness (in its widest sense) is to be found, there is the spirit at enmity with God and good, and there is the Babylon which has slain the saints.And when I saw her, I wondered . . .--Rather, And I wondered when I saw her with great wonder (not "admiration" in our modern sense). Why did St. John wonder? Was it at the splendour or the blasphemous names? Hardly these; for he was familiar with the former in descriptions of Babylon given by the prophets, and with the latter from his own vision in Revelation 13. The wonder probably rose from the strange alliance of the woman with the wild beast. It was not wonderful to see the vision of a wild beast or monster dealing out death and slaughter, but to see a woman allied with the monster and drunken with the blood of the holy provoked astonishment. The woman, too, was a harlot. The prophets had spoken of Israel and Judah as harlots, where they had allied themselves with the world and its dark idolatries (comp. Isaiah 1:21; Jeremiah 2:20; Ezekiel 16:15; Hosea 2:5). Did he read in the form of the vision the hint that in the lapse of years the Church of Christ, like Israel of old, might fall from her high calling and become the ally of the world-power? The hint of it slumbered in the vision. . . .