And upon her forehead [was] a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
5. upon her forehead was a name written ] Probably not branded on the flesh, but tied on as a label, as Roman harlots actually did Wear their names.
Mystery ] Interpreters compare “the mystery of lawlessness” in 2Th 2:7. The use of the word in Rev 1:20 may illustrate its meaning here: it indicates that “Babylon the Great” is to be understood in a mystical sense.
of harlots ] Rather, of the harlots. She is the chief of these, and the cause of the rest being what they are. Therefore, though the fornications of Babylon are to be understood spiritually, yet her guilt includes the actual licentiousness of the Rome of Nero and Domitian, and in a wider sense “the sin of great cities” generally.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
And upon her forehead – In a circlet around her forehead. That is, it was made prominent and public, as if written on the forehead in blazing capitals. In Rev 13:1 it is said that the name of blasphemy was written on the heads of the beast. The meaning in both places is substantially the same, that it was prominent, and unmistakable. See the notes on that verse. Compare the note on Rev 14:1.
Was a name written – A title, or something that would properly indicate her character.
Mystery – It is proper to remark that there is nothing in the original as written by John, so far as now known, that corresponded with what is implied in placing this inscription in capital letters; and the same remark may be made of the title or inscription that was placed over the head of the Saviour on the cross, Mat 27:37; Mar 15:26; Luk 23:38; Joh 19:19. Our translators have adopted this form, apparently for the sole purpose of denoting that it was an inscription or title. On the meaning of the word mystery, see the notes on 1Co 2:7. Compare the notes on 1Ti 3:16. Here it seems to be used to denote that there was something hidden, obscure, or enigmatical, under the title adopted; that is, the word Babylon, and the word mother, were symbolical. Our translators have printed and pointed the word mystery as if it were part of the inscription. It would probably be better to regard it as referring to the inscription, thus: a name was written – a mysterious name, to wit, Babylon, etc. Or, a name was written mysteriously. According to this, it would mean, not that there was any wonderful mystery about the thing itself, whatever might be true on that point, but that the name was enigmatical or symbolical; or that there was something hidden or concealed under the name. It was not to be literally understood.
Babylon the great – papal Rome, the nominal head of the Christian world, as Babylon had been of the pagan world. See the notes on Rev 14:8.
The mother of harlots –
- Of that spiritual apostasy from God which, in the language of the prophets, might be called adultery. See the notes on Rev 14:8.
- The promoter of lewdness by her institutions. See the notes on Rev 9:21. In both these senses, there never was a more expressive or appropriate title than the one here employed.
And abominations of the earth – Abominable things that prevail on the earth, Rev 17:4. Compare the notes on Rev 9:20-21.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 5. And upon her forehead was a name written, Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots, and Abominations of the Earth.] This inscription being written upon her forehead is intended to show that she is not ashamed of her doctrines, but publicly professes and glories in them before the nations: she has indeed a whore’s forehead, she has refused to be ashamed. The inscription upon her forehead is exactly the portraiture of the Latin Church. This Church is, as Bishop Newton well expresses it, A MYSTERY of iniquity. This woman is also called Babylon the Great; she is the exact antitype of the ancient Babylon in her idolatry and cruelty, but the ancient city called Babylon is only a drawing of her in miniature. This is indeed Babylon THE GREAT. “She affects the style and title of our HOLY MOTHER, the CHURCH; but she is, in truth, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth.”
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
And upon her forehead was a name written; as public harlots were wont to write their names, some upon the fronts of their houses, some upon their foreheads: it denotes the open guilt and impudence of this spiritual harlot.
Mystery; that is, there is a mystery in what follows in her name.
Babylon the great; not to be understood of the Chaldean Babylon, but of a city or polity under the gospel; as, Rev 11:8, she was called spiritually Sodom and Egypt, so also in a spiritual or mystical sense she is called Babylon, because a city like to Babylon for idolatry and persecution of Gods Israel.
The mother of harlots; not it mere harlot but one that bred up harlots, and nursed up idolatry, communicating it to others. This is the true name of Rome instead of “holy mother church.”
And abominations of the earth; a place in which not only idolatry reigneth, but all abominable things committed in the world; carnal whoredom tolerated by them, and sodomy, &c.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
5. upon . . . forehead . . . nameasharlots usually had. What a contrast to “HOLINESSTO THE LORD,”inscribed on the miter on the high priest’s forehead!
mysteryimplying aspiritual fact heretofore hidden, and incapable of discovery by merereason, but now revealed. As the union of Christ and the Church is a”great mystery” (a spiritual truth of momentous interest,once hidden, now revealed, Eph 5:31;Eph 5:32), so the Churchconforming to the world and thereby becoming a harlot is a counter”mystery” (or spiritual truth, symbolically now revealed).As iniquity in the harlot is a leaven working in “mystery,“and therefore called “the mystery of iniquity,” sowhen she is destroyed, the iniquity heretofore working(comparatively) latently in her, shall be revealed in theman of iniquity, the open embodiment of all previous evil.Contrast the “mystery of God” and “godliness,”Rev 10:7; 1Ti 3:16.It was Rome that crucified Christ; that destroyed Jerusalem andscattered the Jews; that persecuted the early Christians in pagantimes, and Protestant Christians in papal times; and probably shallbe again restored to its pristine grandeur, such as it had under theCsars, just before the burning of the harlot and of itself withher. So HIPPOLYTUS [OnAntichrist] (who lived in the second century), thought. Poperycannot be at one and the same time the “mystery ofiniquity,” and the manifested or revealedAntichrist. Probably it will compromise for political power (Re17:3) the portion of Christianity still in its creed, and thusshall prepare the way for Antichrist’s manifestation. The nameBabylon, which in the image, Dan 2:32;Dan 2:38, is given to the head,is here given to the harlot, which marks her as being connected withthe fourth kingdom, Rome, the last part of the image. Benedict XIII,in his indiction for a jubilee, A.D.1725, called Rome “the mother of all believers, and themistress of all churches” (harlots like herself). Thecorrespondence of syllables and accents in Greek is striking;”He porne kai to therion; He numphe kai to arnion.””The whore and the beast; the Bride and the Lamb.”
of harlotsGreek,“of the harlots and of the abominations.” Notmerely Rome, but Christendom as a whole, even as formerly Israel as awhole, has become a harlot. The invisible Church of true believers ishidden and dispersed in the visible Church. The boundary lines whichseparate harlot and woman are not denominational nor drawnexternally, but can only be spiritually discerned. If Rome were theonly seat of Babylon, much of the spiritual profit ofRevelation would be lost to us; but the harlot “sitteth uponmany waters” (Re 17:1),and “ALL nations havedrunk of the wine of her fornication” (Rev 17:2;Rev 18:3; “the earth,”Re 19:2). Externalextensiveness over the whole world and internal conformity to theworldworldliness in extent and contentsis symbolized by thename of the world city, “Babylon.” As the sun shines on allthe earth, thus the woman clothed with the sun is to let her lightpenetrate to the uttermost parts of the earth. But she, in externallyChristianizing the world, permits herself to be seduced by the world;thus her universality or catholicity is not that of the Jerusalemwhich we look for (“the MOTHERof us all,” Rev 21:2;Isa 2:2-4; Gal 4:26),but that of Babylon, the world-wide but harlot city! (AsBabylon was destroyed, and the Jews restored to Jerusalem by Cyrus,so our Cyrusa Persian name meaning the sunthe Sun ofrighteousness, shall bring Israel, literal and spiritual, to the holyJerusalem at His coming. Babylon and Jerusalem are the two oppositepoles of the spiritual world). Still, the Romish Church is not onlyaccidentally and as a matter of fact, but in virtue of its veryPRINCIPLE, a harlot, themetropolis of whoredom, “the mother of harlots”; whereasthe evangelical Protestant Church is, according to her principle andfundamental creed, a chaste woman; the Reformation was a protest ofthe woman against the harlot. The spirit of the heathen world kingdomRome had, before the Reformation, changed the Church in the West intoa Church-State, Rome; and in the East, into a State-Church,fettered by the world power, having its center in Byzantium; theRoman and Greek churches have thus fallen from the invisiblespiritual essence of the Gospel into the elements of the world[AUBERLEN]. Compare withthe “woman” called “Babylon” here, the womannamed “wickedness,” or “lawlessness,” “iniquity”(Zec 5:7; Zec 5:8;Zec 5:11), carried to Babylon:compare “the mystery of iniquity” and “the man ofsin,” “that wicked one,” literally, “thelawless one” (2Th 2:7;2Th 2:8; also Mt24:12).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And upon her forehead was a name written,…. As the high priest had on his mitre upon his forehead written, holiness to the Lord, Ex 28:36 only a different inscription from that; the allusion is thought to be to harlots, who not only used to put their names over their doors, but some of them upon their foreheads, that all might know who they were; of which Mr. Daubuz has given proofs out of Seneca, Martial, Juvenal, and Petronius; and such might be said to have an whore’s forehead indeed: and this is expressive of the openness and impudence of the church of Rome, in her idolatrous worship; she openly declares it, and pleads for it, and invites and ensnares persons to join with her in it: the name follows,
mystery, Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth; her name is “mystery”; not the mystery of godliness, that she dislikes and opposes, but the mystery of iniquity; which is the name antichrist went by in the Apostle Paul’s time, when he was but in embryo, 2Th 2:7. Some reference may be had to the mystery of the Mass, in which the Papists pretend are the very body and blood of Christ; to their seven sacraments, for wherever almost they find the word mystery, they make a sacrament of that to which it is applied; and to their unwritten traditions, and the sense of the Scriptures, which are locked up in the pope’s breast: and it is very remarkable what has been observed by some, that the word “mystery” was formerly upon the frontlet of the pope’s mitre, and was removed by Pope Julius the Third, when it was observed that the Protestants made use of this passage of Scripture, and applied it to the Romish antichrist. Joseph Scaliger l affirms, that he saw mitres at Rome with this inscription on them. Though others think that this is not any part of the name, but only signifies that this woman was, in a mysterious or mystical sense, called Babylon, c. just as the great city is spiritually called Sodom and Egypt, Re 11:8 but to me it seems to be a part of the name, as well as what follows, “Babylon the great” that is, the great city, Re 14:8 by which name the church of Rome may well be called, because of the signification of it, confusion, Ge 11:9 its doctrine and worship being a confused mixture of Paganism, Judaism, and Christianity; and because of the pride and haughtiness of it, its tyranny and cruelty, and its sorceries and idolatry; see Isa 14:12.
And the mother of harlots, of all antichristian states and kingdoms; and is different from the heavenly Jerusalem, the Gospel church, which is the mother of true believers, Ga 4:26 or the “mother of fornications”: as some copies read, and the Vulgate Latin and eastern versions render it; that is, the author and encourager of them, as the church of Rome has been; of corporeal fornication, by commanding celibacy, and forbidding marriage to priests, and setting up of brothel houses; and of spiritual fornication or idolatry, everywhere required and encouraged by it: and of “the abominations of the earth”; of abominable doctrines and practices; all manner of wickedness that is to be found in the earth, as murder, adultery, sodomy, perjury, &c. these, with everything that is vile and wicked, are practised and connived at by her.
l In Scaligeran.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Upon her forehead a name written ( ). Roman harlots wore a label with their names on their brows (Seneca, Rhet. I. 2. 7; Juvenal VI. 122f.), and so here. In 19:16 Christ has a name on his garments and on his thigh, while in Rev 14:1; Rev 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 Re 12.
Mystery (). Either in apposition with 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. 11:8) for Rome.
The Mother of the Harlots and of the Abominations of the Earth (H ). 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_.”
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Upon her forehead a name. As was customary with harlots, who had their names inscribed on a ticket. Seneca, addressing a wanton priestess, “Nomen tuum pependit a fronte,” thy name hung from thy forehead. See Juvenal, Satire 6, 123 sqq., of the profligate Messalina, “having falsely assumed the ticket of Lycisca.”
Mystery. Some understand this as a part of the name, others as implying that the name is to be interpreted symbolically.
Babylon. See on 1Pe 5:13. Tertullian, Irenaeus, and Jerome use Babylon as representing the Roman Empire. In the Middle Ages Rome is frequently styled the Western Babylon. The sect of the Fraticelli, an eremitical organization from the Franciscans in the fourteenth century, who carried the vow of poverty to the extreme and taught that they were possessed of the Holy Spirit and exempt from sin – first familiarized the common mind with the notion that Rome was the Babylon, the great harlot of the Apocalypse (see Milligan, “Latin Christianity,” Book 12, ch. 6). On the passage cited from Dante (ver. 1), Dean Plumptre remarks : “The words have the interest of being a medieval interpretation of Revelations 17 1 – 15, in which, however, the harlot and the beast seem somewhat strangely blended. The harlot is the corrupted Church of Rome; the seven heads are the seven hills on which the city is built; or perhaps, with an entirely different exegesis, the seven gifts of the Spirit, or the seven sacraments With which that Church had, in its outset, been endowed : the ten horns are the ten commandments. As long as the Church was faithful to her spouse, she had the moral strength which came from those gifts, and the divine law which she represented. When that failed, she became as a harlot, and her whoredom with kings was the symbol of her alliance with secular powers for the oppression of the nations” (On “Inferno,” 19, 110).
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “And upon her forehead,” (kai epi to metopon autes) and on (upon) her forehead,” identifying her to me and before all as a harlot and the mother, progenitor of harlots. “Like mother – like daughter,” was indication of her allegiance.
2) “Was a name written,” (onoma gegrammenon) “a name was written,” having been inscribed to identify her for pending judgment, for who she was, so that John could recognize and identify her – public laws and customs then demanded that harlots wear a visible mark of identity.
3) “Mystery, Babylon the Great,” (musterion, Babulon he megale) “mystery (which is, exists as) Babylon the Great One,” an object of sarcasm in her mighty fall, 2Th 2:7. The mystery of Iniquity is disclosed as a revelation or unveiling of hidden iniquity, in this passage.
4) “The Mother of harlots,” (he meter ton pornon) “the natal mother of the (mass of) harlots; is disclosed or revealed for what she has long been, as her judgment doom is about to fall; She is the chief or leader of all harlots. The “She” of this and Gentile age seems to be Romanism and her daughters, as Israel corrupted her worship, Eze 16:44-45.
5) “And abominations of the earth,” (kai ton bdedlugmaton tes ges) “and the (natal mother) of the abominations (pollutions), moral and spiritual degeneracy, of the earth,” Rev 18:9; Rev 19:2.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
(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. 2Th. 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 (Rev. 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 mens 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. Isa. 1:21; Jer. 2:20; Eze. 16:15; Hos. 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.
(7) And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel?Better, Wherefore didst thou wonder? The angel explains the mystery or hidden meaning. In doing so he identifies the wild beast which carries the woman with the wild beast of Revelation 13. In that chapter the wild beast was seen wounded to death; the same thought is expressed in this chapter. The wild beast was and is not It has received its death wound: the dying and risen Lord has given the death-blow to the world-power, as He has cast down Satan (Rev. 12:9), put limits to his power (Rev. 20:2), and destroyed him that had the power of death (Heb. 2:14). In the victory of Christ the wild beast that was (i.e., that had in successive ages been seen in the great world-powers) is slain, or, as the angel expresses it, is not. But though he is not, though he is to be reckoned as doomed, yet he will show signs of vitality: he will rise into temporary power. He shall come up out of the abyss. But the march of his power is only a march to the grave. He goes to destruction. Yet this transient revival and apparent recovery from its death-wound will be viewed (as was said in Rev. 13:3 : all the earth wondered after the wild beast) as a marvel by those whose [??] are not heaven-taught, and whose minds are set upon earthly things. They that dwell upon the earth shall wonder, whose name is not written on the book of life from the foundation of the world, seeing the wild beast that he was, and is not, and shall be present (i.e., shall come again).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
5. Upon her forehead written By Roman custom professional harlots presented themselves to view with their names inscribed upon their persons. This harlot has a full and most significant inscription.
Mystery This word is at once a reminder of St. Paul’s “mystery of iniquity,” 2Th 2:7. He mentions, indeed, a “mystery of godliness,” 1Ti 3:16. But, in contrast, here is a “mystery” of profound “iniquity,” of harlotry, spiritual and real; and of stupendous abominations. Of this mystery the present woman is the impersonation; it is her name; she is that Mystery. And, therefore, in unfolding her mystery, our interpreting angel must unfold her true character.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘And on her forehead a name written, a mystery, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF PROSTITUTES AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.’
Again we have confirmation that this is Babylon, but it is more than Babylon, it is Babylon as a symbol, as the mother of all idolatry and sexual perversion and of all spiritualism and witchcraft. It is a ‘mystery’, something once hidden now revealed. That Babylon was now (in John’s time) represented by Rome was part of that ‘mystery’, but only as symbolic of what Rome and Babylon stood for, greatness, supremacy, commercialism, pernicious influence and opposition to the living God. Wherever great cities control men’s minds, there is Babylon the Great. It is a symbol of man’s enmity against God.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
5 And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
Ver. 5. Mystery ] This word mystery is in the pope’s mitre, saith Brocard the Venetian, and many more who have been at Rome, and profess to have seen it. (Dr James of the Corr. of Script. Preface.) The whole antichristian state is a mystery of iniquity, 2Th 2:7 , and is much conversant about mysteries, sacraments, ceremonies, pompous rites, &c.: murders, treasons, thefts, &c., they easily dispense with, but none of their ceremonies. Let God, say they, see to the breach of his own law; we will look to ours. Rome was raised in a mystery: she grew to her greatness insensibly and cunningly. Her bishop is both an Aemulus and an opposite to Christ; one that would seem like him, a vice-Christ, , and yet is his chiefest adversary; this is the mystery of iniquity. See 2Th 2:7 , See Trapp on “ 2Th 2:7 “
Babylon the great ] Rome, resembling the Assyrian Babylon in pride, idolatry, filthiness, but especially in cruelty toward the Church. See the Babylonian cruelty graphically described, Jer 51:34 , and make the comparison.
The mother of harlots ] The Church of Rome to this day delights to be styled Holy Mother Church. Holy she is in the sense that the Hebrews call harlots. And such a mother, as bastards have for their mother, by whose name they are called; the father is seldom mentioned by them.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Rev 17:5 . Roman filles de joie wore a label with their names thus (Juv. vi. 123). (which hardly belongs to the title itself) indicates that the name is to be taken (Rev 11:8 ), not literally; “a name written which is a symbol,” or a mysteriously significant title. . . ., Rome, the natural focus of Oriental cults in general, is charged with fostering all the superstitious and vicious practices of her subjects. . (partly justified by a perusal of Petronius and Apuleius) is an apt rebuke if it comes from the prophet of a religion which one Roman historian classed among the atrocia aut pudenda which disgraced the capital (Tacit. Ann. xv. 44).
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
MYSTERY. See App-193and App-1:20. The verse should be read, “And upon her forehead (she had) a name written, a secret symbol (musterion), BABYLON THE GREAT, the mother of the harlots and of the abominations of the earth”. The name of the woman is therefore a secret sign or symbol of “that great city” which she personifies (Rev 17:18).
HARLOTS = the harlots.
OF THE EARTH. Babylon is the fountain-head of all idolatry and systems of false worship. This is the “mystery of iniquity” (2Th 2:7) seen in all the great “religions” of the world. All alike substitute another god for the God of the Bible; a god made either with the hands or with the imagination, but equally made; a religion consisting of human merit and endeavor. The “Reunion of the Churches” of Christendom and the “League of Nations” are two of the most arresting signs of the times.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Rev 17:5. , , …, the great, the mother, etc.) Benedict XIII., above others, magnificently embellished the boastful name of Rome, in his Indiction for a universal jubilee, A. 1725. To this holy city, illustrious with the memory of so many holy martyrs, and especially instructed in the doctrine of the blessed apostles, the princes of the Church, and hallowed with their glorious blood, flock together with religious eagerness of mind. Hasten to the place which the Lord hath chosen; ascend to this New Jerusalem, whence from the very beginning of the infant Church the law of the Lord and the light of evangelical truth has flowed forth to all nations. [Hasten to] a city honoured with so many and so great benefits, loaded with so many gifts, that it is most deservedly called the city of priests and kings, built for the pride of ages, the city of the Lord, the Sion of the Holy One of Israel. Here in truth make confession unto God in the great assembly, praise Him among much people. Inasmuch as this very Catholic and Apostolic Roman Church, constituted the head of the world by the sacred seat of the blessed Peter, is the mother of all believers, the faithful interpreter of the Divinity, and the mistress of all churches. Here the unsullied deposit of the faith, here the fountain of sacerdotal unity, here the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and the supreme power of binding and loosing, here, finally, that inexhaustible treasure of the sacred indulgences of the Church, of which the Roman Pontiff is the dispenser, is guarded. But John, in accordance with truth, and explains this boastful title: Babylon, etc.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
mystery (See Scofield “Mat 13:11”)
Babylon See note 2, Isa 13:1 (See Scofield “Isa 13:1”)
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
upon: Rev 7:3, Isa 3:9, Phi 3:19
mystery: 2Th 2:7, 2Ti 3:1-5
Babylon: Rev 11:8, Rev 14:8, Rev 16:19, Rev 18:2, Rev 18:10, Rev 18:21, Jer 51:47, Jer 51:48
the Mother: Rev 18:9, Rev 19:2
harlots: or, fornications
Reciprocal: Deu 7:25 – an abomination Deu 27:15 – an abomination 1Ki 11:7 – abomination 2Ki 9:22 – the whoredoms 1Ch 5:25 – and went 2Ch 15:8 – abominable idols 2Ch 21:11 – compelled Psa 87:4 – Babylon Psa 137:8 – happy Son 5:7 – they smote Isa 24:10 – of confusion Isa 41:24 – an abomination Jer 44:4 – this Jer 50:12 – mother Jer 50:14 – for she Jer 50:38 – the land Eze 16:15 – and playedst Eze 16:35 – O harlot Eze 34:4 – but with Dan 4:30 – great Hos 1:2 – for Luk 12:45 – to beat Act 5:36 – boasting Gal 4:26 – mother 1Ti 3:16 – the mystery 1Pe 4:3 – and 1Pe 5:13 – at Rev 9:21 – nor of their fornication Rev 13:1 – blasphemy Rev 13:17 – name Rev 17:1 – the great Rev 18:23 – for Rev 21:27 – worketh
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Rev 17:5. The name that John saw written on the forehead of this woman was put there by the Lord to designate to the apostate her true character, not that she had taken to herself such an inscription. In truth the leaders of the church of Rome of today deny that this applies to their “holy mother church.” Mystery is a part of her characteristics; Thayer’s definition of the word at this place is, “The mystic or hidden sense.” The apostate church has always thrived most when she could keep her people in ignorance of what was going on. Babylon the great. There are many ways in which anything can be great both good and bad. Babylon was great in a bad sense and that is because she was the most extensive and powerful influence for evil that Satan ever devised. Mother of harlots. A bad woman can be the mother of pure daughters and they would not need to participate in the wickedness of their mother; but this woman’s daughters also are harlots. Of course as we have previously learned, harlotry in figurative Ianguage means any false religion or unscriptural organization. The conclusion is that the religious denominations in the world are the harlot daughters of Rome, because they obtained the principal tenets that make up their creeds from the doctrines put out by that apostate church. Abominations of the earth is a general summing up of the evil doctrines and practices of the church of Rome throughout the world.
Comments by Foy E. Wallace
Verse 5.
The name written on the woman’s head, in verse five, was the inscription: Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth. The spiritual evils of the land of Judea with all the national apostasies of Judaism were her offspring.
The prophet Hosea employed the same figure of whoredom, or harlotry, in his descriptions of Israel in Hos 1:2 Hos 2:1-5 of his book of prophecy. Stronger terms defining spiritual adulteries, fornications and harlotry, could not have been employed to set forth the spiritual luridness of Israel which brought on her exile–and the same extreme analogies apply to the spiritual decadence of Jerusalem which culminated in destruction, devastation downfall and termination.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Rev 17:5. And upon her forehead a name written, Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of the Harlots and of the abominations of the earth. The word mystery may be understood either as a part of the name, or as an intimation of the writer that the name is to be understood symbolically. The latter interpretation is to be preferred. It is hardly likely that the name should openly declare itself to be unreal. For such a use of the word mystery, comp. the use of spiritually in chap. Rev 11:8. It is worthy of notice that the word mystery occurs only four times in the Apocalypse, three times in connection with the nature or the fate of Babylon (chaps. Rev 10:7, Rev 17:5; Rev 17:7), and once with the seven churches which represent the Church universal (chap. Rev 1:20). The name of the harlot is thus limited to what follows. Some would even restrict it still further. According to their view, Babylon the Great was alone written upon the harlots forehead, and the subsequent description is an explanation of the writer. The name has already met us in its shorter form in chaps. Rev 14:8, Rev 16:19.
It is unnecessary, in illustration of this verse to refer to the fact that in the pagan world harlots had their names attached to their foreheads. The usage of the Apocalypse is to speak thus of the adherents both of God and of Satanof God, see chaps. Rev 2:17, Rev 7:3, Rev 14:1; of Satan, chaps. Rev 13:1; Rev 13:16, Rev 19:20, etc. More particularly the name thus borne upon the forehead is a parody of the name borne upon the forehead of the high priest (comp. chap. Rev 2:17; Exo 28:36). It declares the person.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Verse 5
Names and designations of rank and office were often attached to the in ancient times.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
17:5 {7} And upon her forehead [was] a name written, MYSTERY, {8} BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
(7) Deceiving with the title of religion, and public inscription of mystery: which the beast in times past did not bear.
(8) An exposition: in which John declares what manner of woman this is.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
It was customary in John’s day for Roman prostitutes to wear their names on their headbands. [Note: Swete, p. 214.] However, it is not clear whether this woman’s name was on a headband or on her forehead (cf. Rev 7:3; Rev 9:4; Rev 13:16-18; Rev 14:1; Jer 3:3). Her name was a "mystery," namely, something not previously revealed but now made clear. A name in Scripture represents everything about the person who bears it, often the person’s reputation. The content of the mystery about this Babylonian system is what John revealed here, especially the new revelation about its evil character and judgment (Rev 17:17-18). [Note: Lenski, p. 496.] The harlot represents Babylon that is a "mother of harlots," not just one herself, but the fountainhead of many other evil religious systems and everything anti-Christian (cf. Gen 10:9-10; Gen 11:1-9). [Note: Alford, 4:707; Scott, p. 342.] God attributed all kinds of abominations to her.
"In our day the ecumenical church has faced a lot of problems. It seems that they have recognized psychological differences in people and that it is impossible to water down theologies and practices to suit everyone. So each group will come into this great world ecumenical system but retain some of its peculiarities. For example, those who want to immerse will immerse. Those who want to sprinkle will sprinkle. Those who want elaborate ritual will have it, and those who want no ritual will have that. You see, there is going to be more than the mother harlot-there will be a whole lot of harlots, a regular brothel." [Note: McGee, 5:1033.]
Many writers have traced the religiously apostate system of worship begun in Babylon and carried on through history through Roman Catholicism and the modern Christian ecumenical movement. [Note: See Alexander Hislop, The Two Babylons, for an extended treatment, or Walvoord, "Revelation," pp. 970-71, for a brief one. Ironside, pp. 287-95, is also helpful.] However, this description of Babylonianism encompasses all forms of paganism including perversions of Christianity and non-Christian religions.