Chapter 17
[Revelation 17:1] -- Come, I will show you the condemnation of the great harlot, etc. The multitude of the lost, who, forsaking the Creator, surrendered themselves to demons to be defiled, is remembered as sitting on the waters, that is, in the discord of the peoples. Conversely, the multitude of believers was of one heart and one soul. Whom the Apostle betrothed to one man to present a chaste virgin to Christ.
[Revelation 17:2] -- With whom the kings of the earth committed fornication, etc. The universality prevails over the parts. For the kings and inhabitants of the earth are each individually those arrogantly seeking earthly things, whom the allurements of the world, with the lust of vices, defile and intoxicate with the madness of mind.
[Revelation 17:3] -- And he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness. The wilderness represents the absence of divinity, whose presence is paradise.
[Revelation 17:3] -- And I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast, etc. The devil, bloody with impiety, blasphemous, inflated, exalts the corruption of the wicked with the pride of presumption.
[Revelation 17:3] -- Having seven heads and ten horns. That is, having the kings of the world and kingdoms, whose glory he also showed to the Lord on the mountain. And as we have said above, the number seven and ten often indicate universality.
[Revelation 17:4] -- And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet. In purple is shown the pretense of feigned rule, in scarlet the bloody habit of impiety is demonstrated.
[Revelation 17:4] -- And adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls. That is, with all the allurements of simulated truth. What is, in fact, within this beauty, he explains, saying:
[Revelation 17:4] -- Having a golden cup, etc. A golden cup full of impurities is hypocrisy, because hypocrites outwardly appear to people as just, but inside they are full of all filth. For what poison is in gold, this is the beast hidden under the guise of the harlot.
[Revelation 17:5] -- And on her forehead was a name written, Mystery, etc. This corruption is immediately shown on the very face to be the nurse of vices, but because it is discerned only by prudent reasoning, being most ornately adorned, it is indicated to be a mystical name.
[Revelation 17:6] -- And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints, etc. It is one body, opposing within and without: although it seems separated by place, it nevertheless operates in common by the unity of the spirit. Thus, the descendants of the wicked are accused of stoning Zechariah by the same spirit, although they themselves did not do it.
[Revelation 17:6-7] -- And I wondered when I saw her, with great admiration. And the angel said to me: Why do you marvel? etc. That is, the devil once ruled in the world, who, after the Lord was crucified, was cast out; but at the end of the world, he is released from the prison of his confinement and will perish forever by the spirit of the Lord's mouth (2 Thess. 2). Tyconius refers the beast to the entire body of the devil, which is replenished by the succession of departing and following generations. Especially, because he promised to show the woman sitting upon many waters, that is, peoples, he shows her sitting upon the beast.
[Revelation 17:9] -- The seven heads are seven mountains, etc. The heads of the beast, he says, are the kings of the world, equated to lofty mountains because of their pride. In these impiety wantonly rests, to oppress with force and to deceive with fraud.
[Revelation 17:10] -- Five have fallen, one is, and the other has not yet come. When he described the fullness of worldly power in the number seven, whose final part, that is, the kingdom of the Antichrist, had not yet come, he consequently testifies that five kings have passed, the sixth is present, and the seventh is to come.
[Revelation 17:10] -- And when he comes, he must remain for a short time. Because the Lord looks upon both the proud and the weak, he mercifully says that the days which are particularly evil are shortened. Surely to both terrify the proud with the adversity of time, and to comfort the weak with its brevity.
[Revelation 17:11] -- And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, etc. The Antichrist, who is to rule at the end of the world, because of the unity of the same body of the wicked, of which he is the head, belongs to the number of the kingdoms of the world; but because of the singular power of his wickedness, he is also contained in the order of his own proper place.
[Revelation 17:12] -- And the ten horns which you saw are ten kings, etc. The kingdoms of the world have not yet fully demonstrated their power in persecuting the Church; although they now dominate many, the power of insane glory was fiercer when they deceived many with signs. Some interpret that, with the final persecution approaching, there will be ten kings who will divide the world among themselves, according to the prophecy of Daniel, who said of the fourth beast: And it had ten horns; and behold, another little horn came up among them; and three of the first horns were plucked up by the roots before it (Dan. 7); and that the Antichrist, born from Babylon, will overcome the king of Egypt and of Africa and Ethiopia, and after killing them, the other seven kings will also submit to the victor. Others, however, say that the Antichrist is placed in the number eleven to signify transgression. For eleven denotes the transgression of the denary perfection.
[Revelation 17:12] -- But they will receive power as kings for one hour with the beast. He said, as kings, because they reign as in dreams, who oppose the kingdom of Christ.
[Revelation 17:13] -- These have one mind, etc. That is, with equal consent, they fully intend to fight for the devil, which is what it means to receive the kingdom after the beast, by imitating the devil and opposing Christ.
[Revelation 17:14] -- These will make war with the Lamb, etc. So that human weakness would not fear the cruelty of the ancient enemy, he describes the beast with seven heads armed with the horns of secular power, defeated by Christ's triumph, and added, indicating that he triumphs in his own:
[Revelation 17:14] -- And those who are with him are called, chosen, and faithful. He rightly prefixed chosen, for many are called, but few are chosen.
[Revelation 17:16] -- And the ten horns which you saw, etc. The glory of the world, which they now embrace with wanton love, they will begin to detest with great hatred when they see themselves condemned at the end by the Lamb's victory. It can also be understood in another way, whether it is that there are always quarrels among the proud, or that everyone who loves iniquity hates his own soul (Psalm 10).
[Revelation 17:16] -- And they will make her desolate and naked. For they themselves make the world desolate through the wrath of God, while they are devoted to it and use it unjustly.
[Revelation 17:16] -- And they will eat her flesh, etc. They will burn her, deprived of her usual luxuries, with the fires of hell.
[Revelation 17:17] -- For God has put it into their hearts, etc. God, he says, the just and mighty judge, who is always pleased with righteousness, has permitted the impious to act in such a manner as a punishment for their previous sins, for which he deservedly imposes the end of the entire world, as the Gospels testify happened with Sodom and the flood.
[Revelation 17:17] -- That they may give their kingdom to the beast, etc. That is, they obey the devil until the Scriptures are fulfilled, in which God said that the fourth kingdom would consume the earth, as we read in Daniel: The fourth kingdom shall be on the earth, which shall surpass all these kingdoms. And it shall devour the whole earth, and shall trample it down, and break it to pieces (Dan. 7).
[Revelation 17:18] -- And the woman whom you saw is the great city, etc. Likewise, later he is commanded to behold the bride of the Lamb, and he saw the holy city descending from heaven. As he describes it: And the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it (Rev. 21). For there are two cities in the world: one arising from the abyss, the other from the heavens. Hence, the same impiety, which he had described under the guise of the harlot, now compared to the ruins of a deserted city.