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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comJamieson Fausset Brown Commentary - Revelation 17:12 - 17:12
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ten kings ... received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings ... with the beast - Hence and from Rev 17:14, Rev 17:16, it seems that these ten kings or kingdoms, are to be contemporaries with the beast in its last or eighth form, namely, Antichrist. Compare Dan 2:34, Dan 2:44, “the stone smote the image upon his feet,” that is, upon the ten toes, which are, in Dan 2:41-44, interpreted to be “kings.” The ten kingdoms are not, therefore, ten which arose in the overthrow of Rome (heathen), but are to rise out of the last state of the fourth kingdom under the eighth head. I agree with Alford that the phrase “as kings,” implies that they reserve their kingly rights in their alliance with the beast, wherein “they give their power and strength unto” him (Rev 17:13). They have the name of kings, but not with undivided kingly power [Wordsworth]. See Auberlen’s not so probable view, see on Rev 17:3.
one hour - a definite time of short duration, during which “the devil is come down to the inhabitant of the earth and of the sea, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.” Probably the three and a half years (Rev 11:2, Rev 11:3; Rev 13:5). Antichrist is in existence long before the fall of Babylon; but it is only at its fail he obtains the vassalage of the ten kings. He in the first instance imposes on the Jews as the Messiah, coming in his own name; then persecutes those of them who refuse his blasphemous pretensions. Not until the sixth vial, in the latter part of his reign, does he associate the ten kings with him in war with the Lamb, having gained them over by the aid of the spirits of devils working miracles. His connection with Israel appears from his sitting “in the temple of God” (2Th 2:4), and as the antitypical “abomination of desolation standing in the Holy place” (Dan 9:27; Dan 12:11; Mat 24:15), and “in the city where our Lord was crucified” (Rev 11:8). It is remarkable that Irenaeus [Against Heresies, 5:25] and Cyril of Jerusalem [Rufinus, Historia Monachorum, 10.37] prophesied that Antichrist would have his seat at Jerusalem and would restore the kingdom of the Jews. Julian the apostate, long after, took part with the Jews, and aided in building their temple, herein being Antichrist’s forerunner.