SEV Biblia, Chapter 17:5
y en su frente un nombre escrito: MISTERIO, BABILONIA LA GRANDE, MADRE DE LAS RAMERAS Y DE LAS ABOMINACIONES DE LA TIERRA.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Revelation 17:5
Verse 5. And upon her forehead was a name written, Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots, and Abominations of the Earth.] This inscription being written upon her forehead is intended to show that she is not ashamed of her doctrines, but publicly professes and glories in them before the nations: she has indeed a whore's forehead, she has refused to be ashamed. The inscription upon her forehead is exactly the portraiture of the Latin Church. This Church is, as Bishop Newton well expresses it, A MYSTERY of iniquity. This woman is also called Babylon the Great; she is the exact antitype of the ancient Babylon in her idolatry and cruelty, but the ancient city called Babylon is only a drawing of her in miniature. This is indeed Babylon THE GREAT. "She affects the style and title of our HOLY MOTHER, the CHURCH; but she is, in truth, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth."
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 5. And upon her forehead was a name written , etc.] As the high priest had on his mitre upon his forehead written, holiness to the Lord, ( Exodus 28:36) only a different inscription from that; the allusion is thought to be to harlots, who not only used to put their names over their doors, but some of them upon their foreheads, that all might know who they were; of which Mr. Daubuz has given proofs out of Seneca, Martial, Juvenal, and Petronius; and such might be said to have an whore's forehead indeed: and this is expressive of the openness and impudence of the church of Rome, in her idolatrous worship; she openly declares it, and pleads for it, and invites and ensnares persons to join with her in it: the name follows, mystery, Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth ; her name is mystery; not the mystery of godliness, that she dislikes and opposes, but the mystery of iniquity; which is the name antichrist went by in the Apostle Paul's time, when he was but in embryo, ( Thessalonians 2:7). Some reference may be had to the mystery of the Mass, in which the Papists pretend are the very body and blood of Christ; to their seven sacraments, for wherever almost they find the word mystery, they make a sacrament of that to which it is applied; and to their unwritten traditions, and the sense of the Scriptures, which are locked up in the pope's breast: and it is very remarkable what has been observed by some, that the word mystery was formerly upon the frontlet of the pope's mitre, and was removed by Pope Julius the Third, when it was observed that the Protestants made use of this passage of Scripture, and applied it to the Romish antichrist. Joseph Scaliger affirms, that he saw mitres at Rome with this inscription on them. Though others think that this is not any part of the name, but only signifies that this woman was, in a mysterious or mystical sense, called Babylon, etc. just as the great city is spiritually called Sodom and Egypt, ( Revelation 11:8) but to me it seems to be a part of the name, as well as what follows, Babylon the great; that is, the great city, ( Revelation 14:8) by which name the church of Rome may well be called, because of the signification of it, confusion, ( Genesis 11:9) its doctrine and worship being a confused mixture of Paganism, Judaism, and Christianity; and because of the pride and haughtiness of it, its tyranny and cruelty, and its sorceries and idolatry; (see Isaiah 14:12-14 47:6,7,12,13 Jeremiah 50:38). And the mother of harlots , of all antichristian states and kingdoms; and is different from the heavenly Jerusalem, the Gospel church, which is the mother of true believers, ( Galatians 4:26) or the mother of fornications: as some copies read, and the Vulgate Latin and eastern versions render it; that is, the author and encourager of them, as the church of Rome has been; of corporeal fornication, by commanding celibacy, and forbidding marriage to priests, and setting up of brothel houses; and of spiritual fornication or idolatry, everywhere required and encouraged by it: and of the abominations of the earth; of abominable doctrines and practices; all manner of wickedness that is to be found in the earth, as murder, adultery, sodomy, perjury, etc. these, with everything that is vile and wicked, are practised and connived at by her.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 1-6 - Rome clearly appears to be meant in this chapter. Pagan Rome subdue and ruled with military power, not by art and flatteries. She left the nations in general to their ancient usages and worship. But it is wel known that by crafty and politic management, with all kinds of decei of unrighteousness, papal Rome has obtained and kept her rule ove kings and nations. Here were allurements of worldly honour and riches pomp and pride, suited to sensual and worldly minds. Prosperity, pomp and splendour, feed the pride and lusts of the human heart, but are n security against the Divine vengeance. The golden cup represents the allurements, and delusions, by which this mystical Babylon has obtaine and kept her influence, and seduced others to join her abominations She is named, from her infamous practices, a mother of harlots training them up to idolatry and all sorts of wickedness. She fille herself with the blood of the saints and martyrs of Jesus. Sh intoxicated herself with it; and it was so pleasant to her, that sh never was satisfied. We cannot but wonder at the oceans of Christia blood shed by men called Christians; yet when we consider thes prophecies, these awful deeds testify to the truth of the gospel. An let all beware of a splendid, gainful, or fashionable religion. Let u avoid the mysteries of iniquity, and study diligently the great myster of godliness, that we may learn humility and gratitude from the exampl of Christ. The more we seek to resemble him, the less we shall be liable to be deceived by antichrist.
Greek Textus Receptus
και 2532 επι 1909 το 3588 μετωπον 3359 αυτης 846 ονομα 3686 γεγραμμενον 1125 5772 μυστηριον 3466 βαβυλων 897 η 3588 μεγαλη 3173 η 3588 μητηρ 3384 των 3588 πορνων 4204 και 2532 των 3588 βδελυγματων 946 της 3588 γης 1093
Vincent's NT Word Studies
5. Upon her forehead a name. As was customary with harlots, who had their names inscribed on a ticket. Seneca, addressing a wanton priestess, "Nomen tuum pependit a fronte," thy name hung from thy forehead. See Juvenal, Satire vi., 123 sqq., of the profligate Messalina, "having falsely assumed the ticket of Lycisca."
Mystery. Some understand this as a part of the name, others as implying that the name is to be interpreted symbolically.
Babylon. See on 1 Pet. v. 13. Tertullian, Irenaeus, and Jerome use Babylon as representing the Roman Empire. In the Middle Ages Rome is frequently styled the Western Babylon. The sect of the Fraticelli, an eremitical organization from the Franciscans in the fourteenth century, who carried the vow of poverty to the extreme and taught that they were possessed of the Holy Spirit and exempt from sin - first familiarized the common mind with the notion that Rome was the Babylon, the great harlot of the Apocalypse (see Milligan, "Latin Christianity," Book xii., ch. vi.). On the passage cited from Dante (ver. i.), Dean Plumptre remarks: "The words have the interest of being a medieval interpretation of Revelations xvii. 1-15, in which, however, the harlot and the beast seem somewhat strangely blended. The harlot is the corrupted Church of Rome; the seven heads are the seven hills on which the city is built; or perhaps, with an entirely different exegesis, the seven gifts of the Spirit, or the seven sacraments With which that Church had, in its outset, been endowed: the ten horns are the ten commandments. As long as the Church was faithful to her spouse, she had the moral strength which came from those gifts, and the divine law which she represented. When that failed, she became as a harlot, and her whoredom with kings was the symbol of her alliance with secular powers for the oppression of the nations" (On "Inferno," xix., 110).
