Commentaries:
Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown
the wilderness--Contrast her in Revelation 12:6, Revelation 12:14, having a place in the wilderness-world, but not a home; a sojourner here, looking for the city to come. Now, on the contrary, she is contented to have her portion in this moral wilderness.
upon a scarlet . . . beast--The same as in Revelation 13:1, who there is described as here, "having seven heads and ten horns (therein betraying that he is representative of the dragon, Revelation 12:3), and upon his heads names (so the oldest manuscripts read) of blasphemy"; compare also Revelation 17:12-14, below, with Revelation 19:19-20, and Revelation 17:13-14, Revelation 17:16. Rome, resting on the world power and ruling it by the claim of supremacy, is the chief, though not the exclusive, representative of this symbol. As the dragon is fiery-red, so the beast is blood-red in color; implying its blood-guiltiness, and also deep-dyed sin. The scarlet is also the symbol of kingly authority.
full--all over; not merely "on his heads," as in Revelation 13:1, for its opposition to God is now about to develop itself in all its intensity. Under the harlot's superintendence, the world power puts forth blasphemous pretensions worse than in pagan days. So the Pope is placed by the cardinals in God's temple on the altar to sit there, and the cardinals kiss the feet of the Pope. This ceremony is called in Romish writers "the adoration." [Historie de Clerge, Amsterd., 1716; and LETTENBURGH'S Notitia Curiæ Romanæ, 1683, p. 125; HEIDEGGER, Myst. Bab., 1, 511, 514, 537]; a papal coin [Numismata Pontificum, Paris, 1679, p. 5] has the blasphemous legend, "Quem creant, adorant." Kneeling and kissing are the worship meant by John's word nine times used in respect to the rival of God (Greek, "proskunein"). Abomination, too, is the scriptural term for an idol, or any creature worshipped with the homage due to the Creator. Still, there is some check on the God-opposed world power while ridden by the harlot; the consummated Antichrist will be when, having destroyed her, the beast shall be revealed as the concentration and incarnation of all the self-deifying God-opposed principles which have appeared in various forms and degrees heretofore. "The Church has gained outward recognition by leaning on the world power which in its turn uses the Church for its own objects; such is the picture here of Christendom ripe for judgment" [AUBERLEN]. The seven heads in the view of many are the seven successive forms of government of Rome: kings, consuls, dictators, decemvirs, military tribunes, emperors, the German emperors [WORDSWORTH], of whom Napoleon is the successor (Revelation 17:11). But see the view given, see on Revelation 17:9-10, which I prefer. The crowns formerly on the ten horns (Revelation 13:1) have now disappeared, perhaps an indication that the ten kingdoms into which the Germanic-Slavonic world [the old Roman empire, including the East as well as the West, the two legs of the image with five toes on each, that is, ten in all] is to be divided, will lose their monarchical form in the end [AUBERLEN]; but see Revelation 17:12, which seems to imply crowned kings.
Other commentary entries containing this verse:
Isaiah 13:9
Zechariah 1:18
Zechariah 5:9
2 Thessalonians 2:6
1 Timothy 4:3
2 Timothy 3:2
Revelation 5:6
Revelation 13:1
Revelation 14:4
Revelation 16:13
Revelation 17:5
Revelation 17:6
Revelation 17:12
Revelation 17:16
Revelation 19:8
Revelation 21:9
Revelation 21:10
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