naked--stripped of all her gaud ([Re 17:4]). As Jerusalem used the world power to crucify her Saviour, and then was destroyed by that very power, Rome; so the Church, having apostatized to the world, shall have judgment executed on her first by the world power, the beast and his allies; and these afterwards shall have judgment executed on them by Christ Himself in person. So Israel leaning on Egypt, a broken reed, is pierced by it; and then Egypt itself is punished. So Israel's whoredom with Assyria and Babylon was punished by the Assyrian and Babylonian captivities. So the Church when it goes a-whoring after the word as if it were the reality, instead of witnessing against its apostasy from God, is false to its profession. Being no longer a reality itself, but a sham, the Church is rightly judged by that world which for a time had used the Church to further its own ends, while all the while "hating" Christ's unworldly religion, but which now no longer wants the Church's aid.
eat her flesh--Greek plural, "masses of flesh," that is, "carnal possessions"; implying the fulness of carnality into which the Church is sunk. The judgment on the harlot is again and again described ([Re 18:1]; ); first by an "angel having great power" ([Re 18:1]), then by "another voice from heaven" ([Re 18:4-20]), then by "a mighty angel" ([Re 18:21-24]). Compare [Eze 16:37-44], originally said of Israel, but further applicable to the New Testament Church when fallen into spiritual fornication. On the phrase, "eat ... flesh" for prey upon one's property, and injure the character and person, compare [Psa 14:4]; ; [Jr 10:25]; [Mi 3:3]. The First Napoleon's Edict published at Rome in 1809, confiscating the papal dominions and joining them to France, and later the severance of large portions of the Pope's territory from his sway and the union of them to the dominions of the king of Italy, virtually through Louis Napoleon, are a first instalment of the full realization of this prophecy of the whore's destruction. "Her flesh" seems to point to her temporal dignities and resources, as distinguished from "herself" (Greek). How striking a retribution, that having obtained her first temporal dominions, the exarchate of Ravenna, the kingdom of the Lombards, and the state of Rome, by recognizing the usurper Pepin as lawful king of France, she should be stripped of her dominions by another usurper of France, the Napoleonic dynasty!
burn ... with fire--the legal punishment of an abominable fornication.
17. hath put--the prophetical past tense for the future.
fulfil--Greek, "do," or "accomplish." The Greek, "poiesai," is distinct from that which is translated, "fulfilled," Greek, "telesthesontai," below.
his will--Greek, "his mind," or purpose; while they think only of doing their own purpose.
to agree--literally, "to do" (or accomplish) one mind" or "purpose." A and Vulgate omit this clause, but B supports it.
the words of God--foretelling the rise and downfall of the beast; Greek, "hoi logoi," in A, B, and Andreas. English Version reading is Greek, "ta rhemata," which is not well supported. No mere articulate utterances, but the efficient words of Him who is the Word: Greek, "logos."
fulfilled--([Re 10:7]).
18. reigneth--literally, "hath kingship over the kings." The harlot cannot be a mere city literally, but is called so in a spiritual sense ([Re 11:8]). Also the beast cannot represent a spiritual power, but a world power. In this verse the harlot is presented before us ripe for judgment. The eighteenth chapter details that judgment.
Chapter 18
Re 18:1-24. Babylon's Fall: God's People Called Out of Her: The Kings and Merchants of the Earth Mourn, While the Saints Rejoice at Her Fall
1. And--so Vulgate and Andreas. But A, B, Syriac, and Coptic omit "And."
power--Greek, "authority."
lightened--"illumined."
with--Greek, "owing to."
2. mightily ... strong--not supported by manuscripts. But A, B, Vulgate, Syriac, and Coptic read, "with (literally, 'in') a mighty voice."
is fallen, is fallen--so A, Vulgate, Syriac, and Andreas. But B and Coptic omit the second "is fallen" ([Is 21:9]; [Jr 51:8]). This phrase is here prophetical of her fall, still future, as [Re 18:4] proves.
devils--Greek, "demons."
the hold--a keep or prison.
3. drunk--[Re 14:8], from which perhaps "the wine" may have been interpolated. They have drunk of her fornication, the consequence of which will be wrath to themselves. But A, B, and C read, "(owing to the wrath of her fornication all nations) have fallen." Vulgate and most versions read as English Version, which may be the right reading though not supported by the oldest manuscripts. Babylon, the whore, is destroyed before the beast slays the two witnesses ([Re 11:7]), and then the beast himself is destroyed.
the wine--so B, Syriac, and Coptic. But A, C, and Vulgate omit.
abundance--literally, "power."
delicacies--Greek, "luxury." See on [1Ti 5:11], where the Greek verb "wax wanton" is akin to the noun here. Translate, "wanton luxury." The reference is not to earthly merchandise, but to spiritual wares, indulgences, idolatries, superstitions, worldly compromises, wherewith the harlot, that is, the apostate Church, has made merchandise of men. This applies especially to Rome; but the Greek, and even in a less degree Protestant churches, are not guiltless. However, the principle of evangelical Protestantism is pure, but the principle of Rome and the Greek church is not so.
4. Come out of her, my people--quoted from [Jr 50:8]; , . Even in the Romish Church God has a people: but they are in great danger; their only safety is in coming out of her at once. So also in every apostate or world-conforming church there are some of God's invisible and true Church, who, if they would be safe, must come out. Especially at the eve of God's judgment on apostate Christendom: as Lot was warned to come out of Sodom just before its destruction, and Israel to come from about the tents of Dathan and Abiram. So the first Christians came out of Jerusalem when the apostate Jewish Church was judged. "State and Church are precious gifts of God. But the State being desecrated to a different end from what God designed it, namely. to govern for, and as under, God, becomes beast-like; the Church apostatizing becomes the harlot. The true woman is the kernel: beast and harlot are the shell: whenever the kernel is mature, the shell is thrown away" [Auberlen]. "The harlot is not Rome alone (though she is pre-eminently so), but every Church that has not Christ's mind and spirit. False Christendom, divided into very many sects, is truly Babylon, that is, confusion. However, in all Christendom the true Jesus-congregation, the woman clothed with the sun, lives and is hidden. Corrupt, lifeless Christendom is the harlot, whose great aim is the pleasure of the flesh, and which is governed by the spirit of nature and the world" [Hahn in Auberlen]. The first justification of the woman is in her being called out of Babylon the harlot, as the culminating stage of the latter's sin, when judgment is about to fall: for apostate Christendom, Babylon, is not to be converted, but to be destroyed. Secondly, she has to pass through an ordeal of persecution from the beast, which purifies and prepares her for the transfiguration glory at Christ's coming ([Re 20:4]; [Lu 21:28]).
be not partakers--Greek, "have no fellowship with her sins."
that ye receive not of her plagues--as Lot's wife, by lingering too near the polluted and doomed city.
5. her sins--as a great heap.
reached--Greek, "reached so far as to come into close contact with, and to cleave unto."
6. Addressed to the executioners of God's wrath.
Reward--Greek, "repay."
she rewarded--English Version reading adds "you" with none of the oldest manuscripts. But A, B, C, Vulgate, Syriac, and Coptic omit it. She had not rewarded or repaid the world power for some injury which the world power had inflicted on her; but she had given the world power that which was its due, namely, spiritual delusions, because it did not like to retain God in its knowledge; the unfaithful Church's principle was, "Populus vult decipi, et decipiatur." "The people like to be deceived, and let them be deceived."
double--of sorrow. Contrast with this the double of joy which Jerusalem shall receive for her past suffering ([Is 61:7]; [Zec 9:12]); even as she has received double punishment for her sins ([Is 40:2]).
unto her--So Syriac, Coptic, and Andreas. A, B, and C omit it.
in the cup--([Re 18:3]; [Re 14:8]; ).
filled--literally "mixed."
fill to her double--of the Lord's cup of wrath.
7. How much--that is in proportion as.
lived deliciously--luxuriously: see on [Re 18:3], where the Greek is akin.
sorrow--Greek, "mourning," as for a dead husband.
I sit--so Vulgate. But A, B, and C prefix "that."
I ... am no widow--for the world power is my husband and my supporter.
shall see no sorrow--Greek, "mourning." "I am seated (this long time) ... I am no widow ... I shall see no sorrow," marks her complete unconcerned security as to the past, present, and future [Bengel]. I shall never have to mourn as one bereft of her husband. As Babylon was queen of the East, so Rome has been queen of the West, and is called on Imperial coins "the eternal city." So Papal Rome is called by Ammian Marcellin [15.7]. "Babylon is a former Rome, and Rome a latter Babylon. Rome is a daughter of Babylon, and by her, as by her mother, God has been pleased to subdue the world under one sway" [Augustine]. As the Jew's restoration did not take place till Babylon's fall, so R. Kimchi on Obadiah, writes, "When Rome (Edom) shall be devastated, there shall be redemption to Israel." Romish idolatries have been the great stumbling-blocks to the Jews' acceptance of Christianity.
8. death--on herself, though she thought herself secure even from the death of her husband.
mourning--instead of her feasting.