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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comRobertson Word Pictures - Revelation 17:5 - 17:5
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Upon her forehead a name written (epi to metōpon autēs onoma gegrammenon). Roman harlots wore a label with their names on their brows (Seneca, Rhet. I. 2. 7; Juvenal VI. 122f.), and so here. In Rev 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 Rev 12.
Mystery (mustērion). Either in apposition with onoma 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. pneumatikōs Rev 11:8) for Rome.
The Mother of the Harlots and of the Abominations of the Earth (Hē Mētēr tōn Pornōn kai tōn Bdelugmatōn tēs Gēs). 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.”