Verse 7
And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou wonder? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and the ten horns.
Wherefore didst thou wonder ... The terrible thing that astounded John was "that a portion of the church is one with the hostile world."[31] The angel seems to have wondered at John's wonderment, because "there were sufficient marks to identify the harlot,"[32] Very similar descriptions of Judah, a type of the church, in Jeremiah 2 and Jeremiah 3 should have made it plain to John. He should have been able to read in the vision the truth that just as the old Israel had apostatized and crucified the Christ, the church of Christ also, in the lapse of years, would fall from her high calling and become an ally of Satan. "The hint of this slumbered in the vision."[33]
I will tell thee the mystery of the woman ... and of the beast ... In revealing this, the angel would unveil the woman's true identity with the land-beast and the sea-beast both! Particularly, however, she must be tied more conspicuously to the land-beast. She rides the sea-beast; she is the land-beast!
[31] A. Plummer, op. cit., p. 416.
[32] Ibid.
[33] ?
Be the first to react on this!
