REVELATION OF ST. JOHN THE DIVINE - Chapter 17 - Verse 18

Verse 18. And the woman which thou sawest. Re 17:3.

Is that great city. Represents that great city.

Which reigneth over the kings of the earth. Rome would of course be understood by this language in the time of John, and all the circumstances, as we have seen, combine to show that Rome, in some form of its dominion, is intended. Even the name could hardly have designated it more clearly, and all expositors agree in supposing that Rome, either as Pagan or as Christian, is referred to. The chapter shows that its power is limited; and that although, for purposes which he saw to be wise, God allows it to have a wide influence over the nations of the earth, yet in his own appointed time the very powers that have sustained it will become its foes, and combine for its overthrow. Europe needs but little farther provocation, and the fires of liberty, which have been so long pent up, will break forth, and that storm of indignation which has expelled the Jesuits from all the courts of Europe; which has abolished the Inquisition; which has more than once led hostile armies to the very gates of Papal Rome, will again be aroused in a manner which cannot be allayed, and that mighty power which has controlled so large a part of the nations of Europe for more than a thousand years of the world's history, will come to an end.

{o} "that great city" Re 16:19