ACC ~ Revelation 17 v1 - 2

ROME HAS GIVEN LAWS FOR PERSECUTING THE FAITH. VICTORINUS OF PETOVIUM: He says, “Come, I will show you the damnation of the harlot who is seated upon many waters.” And I saw, it says, “a woman drunk from the blood of the saints and from the blood of the witnesses of Jesus Christ.”For all the saints have suffered martyrdom because of a decree of the Senate of this city, and although tolerance is proclaimed, it is she who has given to all nations every law against the preaching of the faith. COMMENTARY ON THE APOCALYPSE 17.2.

ROME SOMETIMES COMPELLED APOSTASY FROM GOD. OECUMENIUS: Having completed its discourse about the consummation of the present age and what will happen at that time, the vision now reveals to the Evangelist what will befall Rome. He said to me, it says, “Come, I will show you the judgment of the harlot who is seated upon many waters.” By judgment he means that way of life and conduct in which, he has judged, she lived and which she pursued. He calls [Rome] a “harlot” because she had fornicated, that is, apostatized from God. For this is called “fornication” by the divine Scriptures, as in the saying by the prophet to the God of all things: “You have destroyed every one who fornicates from you.” By many waters he refers to the nations that [Rome] rules and governs, as he says later on. “With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication,” it says. These are those who ruled among them [the nations]. For these kings of the earth are those who participated in her fornication and the madness of her idolatry. “Those who dwell on the earth have become drunk with the wine of her fornication,” it says. For indeed also the rest [of humankind], over whom she was ruling, apostatized from God along with her. She was sometimes compelling the rest and sometimes leading the way. COMMENTARY ON THE APOCALYPSE 17.1-5.

PROSTITUTION WITH THE DEMONS. PRIMASIUS: 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. “How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, who has risen in the morning.” Speaking of the body of all the lost, which he often calls by various yet suitable names, the Holy Spirit considers that it always moves to a greater variety of excesses and is corrupted by its wickedness and is hooked on its errors and is made mad by such a level of impiety that it is opposed by the gentle. And so [the Holy Spirit] depicts this body which is perishing with a suitable description, calling it a “harlot.” For being forsaken by the Creator, she has given herself over to prostitution, allowing herself to be ravished by demons. She is called “great” because of the enormity of her transgressions through which she has offended the saints for a long time. She sits upon many waters, that is, upon many nations. COMMENTARY ON THE APOCALYPSE 17.1.

IDENTIFICATION OF THE HARLOT. ANDREW OF CAESAREA: Some consider this harlot to be old Rome, since she sits on seven hills, and the seven heads of the beast that carries [the harlot] to be the more ungodly kings from Domitian to Diocletian who persecuted the church. However, we are guided as much as possible by the sequence of events and think that she is either the earthly kingdom generally, depicted as in one body, or that city that is ruled until the arrival of the antichrist. For old Rome lost the power of dominion a long time ago, and we do not suppose that the ancient status will again return to it. But should we grant this, the power that governs today will have been destroyed beforehand. For the Revelation says, “The woman that you saw is the great city that has dominion over the kings of the earth.” COMMENTARY ON THE APOCALYPSE 17.1-3.

THE SAINTS ARE BETROTHED TO ONE HUSBAND. BEDE: The multitude of the lost, who, abandoned by the Creator, gave themselves over to the corruption of demons are said to sit upon the waves, that is, upon the seditious discord of the nations. “The company of those who believed were of one heart and soul,” whom the apostle betrothed “to one husband, to present her as a pure bride to Christ.” “The kings of the earth have committed fornication [with the harlot], and with the wine of her fornication the dwellers on earth have become drunk.” The whole is greater than the parts. For the kings and the inhabitants of the earth each seek arrogantly after the things of the earth, and through the lust of vice they are corrupted by the allurements of the world and are made drunk by the madness of their minds. EXPLANATION OF THE APOCALYPSE 17.1-2.

Rev