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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadJohn Bengel Commentary - Revelation 17:5 - 17:5
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Rev 17:5. Ἡ μεγάλη, ἡ μήτηρ, κ.τ.λ., 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, παραφράζει and explains this boastful title: Babylon, etc.