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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadMatthew Poole Commentary - Revelation 17:5 - 17:5
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
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 God’s 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.