Revelation of John 17 · The Lantern

And there cam one of the seven angels which had the seven vialles and talked with me sayinge vnto me: come I will shewe the the iudgment of the grett whore that sytteth apon many waters

That a woman ought not to be adorned in a worldly fashion. In the Apocalypse: "And there came one of the seven angels having vials, and approached me, saying, Come, I will show thee the condemnation of the great whore, who sitteth upon many waters, with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication. And I saw a woman who sate upon a beast.

Isaiah speaks of the devil in a similar manner when he foretells the fall [of the devil] under the figure of the leader of Babylon.

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.

with whome have commytted fornicacion the kynges of the erth so that the inhabiters of the erth are droken with the wyne of her fornicacion.

And he caryed me a waye into the wildernes in the sprete. And I sawe a woman sytt apon a rose colored best full of names of blaphemie which had ten hornes.

And the woman was arayed in purple and rose color and decked with golde precious stone and pearles and had a cup of golde in her honde full of a hominacions and fylthynes of her fornycacion.

And in her forhed was a name wrytten a mistery gret Babylon the mother of whordome and abominacions of the erth.

Nor does he want to openly say that the Roman empire must be destroyed, which those who rule it regard as eternal. Therefore, according to the Apocalypse of John, on the forehead of the purple-clad prostitute, the name of blasphemy is written, that is, the eternal Rome.

The writing on the forehead indicates the shamelessness of the fullness of sins and of the confusion of the heart. She is mother because for those cities ruled by her she is the teacher of their spiritual fornication, giving birth to transgressions that are loathsome to God.

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.

And I sawe the wyfe dronke with the bloud of saynctes and with the bloud of the witnesses of Iesu. And when I sawe her I wondred with grett mervayle.

And the angell sayde vnto me: wherfore mervayllyst thou? I wyll shewe the ye mistery of the woman and of the best that berith her which hath seven heddes and ten hornes.

The best that thou seest was and is not and shall ascende out of the bottomlesse pytt and shall goo into perdicion and they that dwell on the erth shall wondre (whose names are not wrytten in the boke of lyfe from ye begynnynge of the worlde) when they beholde the best that was and ys nott.

We understand this to mean that an evil people is born out of an evil people. And so we can say the beast comes out of the beast and the abyss out of the abyss. And what does it mean that the beast comes out of the beast, unless an evil people is born out of an evil people?

The holy Scriptures teach that from the beginning of the world there has been the rise and the advance to the present time of two cities. Of these, one is of God and the other is of the devil, and in this passage [the city of the devil] is indicated by the beast as [representing] altogether the whole body of the wicked.

The beast is the devil who is always seeking someone to devour. He was killed by the cross of Christ, but, it is said, he will live again at the end, effecting the denial of salvation through the deceit of the antichrist in signs and wonders.

And here ys a mynde that hath wisdome. The seven heddes are seven mountaynes on which the woman sytteth:

they are also seven kynges. Fyve are fallen and on ys and onother is not yet come. Whe he cometh he muste contynew a space.

For as the times are noted from the foundation of the world, and reckoned from Adam, they set clearly before us the matter with which our inquiry deals. For the first appearance of our Lord in the flesh took place in Bethlehem, under Augustus, in the year 5500; and He suffered in the thirty-third year.

As we have said frequently, in each member of a species the whole genus is indicated. Hence when we indicate what the whole beast is, there are the seven heads, and again the heads are called seven mountains and seven kings. That is to say, they are the entire reality of wicked people, which consists in the leaders as well as in kings and their subjects.

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.

And the beste that was and ys not is even the ayght and ys one of the seven and shall goo into destruccion.

"And the beast which thou sawest is of the seven." Since before those kings Nero reigned. "And he is the eighth." He says only when this beast shall come, reckon it the eighth place, since in that is the completion. He added:- "And shall go into perdition." For that ten kings received royal power when he shall move from the east, he says.

Lest we should think him of a different kind, it adds that the one whom it calls the eighth is from the seven and goes to perdition. In this way it shows that he is of the same evil genus, and by going beyond the number seven, it indicates that he is even a worse hypocrite.

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.

And the ten hornes which thou seist are ten kynges which have receaved no kyngdome but shall receave power as kynges at one houre with the beest.

In a still clearer light has John, in the Apocalypse, indicated to the Lord's disciples what shall happen in the last times, and concerning the ten kings who shall then arise, among whom the empire which now rules [the earth] shall be partitioned.

He is speaking again of every kingdom of the world, which just above he indicated in the kings and their subjects. "The kings receive power with the beast for one hour." Here the hour is to be interpreted as referring to the time from the passion of the Lord, as the apostolic voice says, "It is the last hour." Therefore, until all the future is fulfilled, it says that they have…

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.

These have one mynde and shall geve their power and strenghte vnto ye beste.

He says that "they have one mind, and give their power and authority to the beast." For though the ten kings will be opposed to one another in their opinions, yet in this they will have "one mind": in giving "their power and authority to the beast", that is, to the Antichrist. For they will be defeated by him, and he alone of all will rule over the rest.

Indeed! For "no one can serve two masters." And so those who conspire together with an evil agreement and ally themselves with the antichrist will oppose themselves to Christ. However, the Lamb of God who was slain for us will conquer them.

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.

These shall fyght with the lambe and the lambe shall overcome them: For he is lorde of lordes and kynge of kynges: and they that are on hys syde are called and chosen and faythfull.

We have indeed, likewise, a second font, (itself withal one with the former, ) of blood, to wit; concerning which the Lord said, "I have to be baptized with a baptism," when He had been baptized already.

He says these "will make war with the Lamb." For before they are completely overthrown by the Antichrist, these will persecute the church about which the book speaks. But Christ will prevail; for though they are evil, he will deliver them over to the worse Antichrist unto death.

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:

And he sayde vnto me: the waters which thou sawest where the whore syttith are people and folke and nacions and tonges.

And the ten hornes which thou sawest apon the best are they that shall hate the whore and shall make her desolate and naked and shall eate their flesshe and burne her with fyre.

For God hathe put in their hertes to fulfyll hys wyll and to do with one consent for to geve hir kyngdom vnto the beast vntill the wordes of God be fulfylled.

"For God", he says, "has put into their hearts to do his purpose." He says that God, granting forgiveness, will persuade those who oppose it and those willing to take it.

What the apostle said, "God gave them up to a base mind to do what they ought not," that is also now said. For God has placed in their hearts to do that which is pleasing to him. Righteousness is pleasing to God, through which we know that retribution is visited upon the impious.

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.

And the woman which thou sawest ys that gret cyte which raigneth over the kynges of the erth.

More clearly, concerning the city about which the passage intends to signify, he brings forward that "the woman" "is the great city which has the dominion" over all.

That which continues makes very clear that the woman who was seen is the great city that exercises power over the kings of the earth, and the sufferings of that power that is ruling during those times is prophesied. From these trials the beneficent God will redeem us and enlist us in the heavenly city, namely, in the Jerusalem above.

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.

Revelation of John17