Verse 12
12. Ten kings That is, kingdoms.
No kingdom as yet They exist, as yet, (that is, in John’s time,) as sections of the empire, and are not developed into nationalized independencies. But (will) receive power Or, become sovereignties.
One hour One season. The Greek word may signify a season of the year; a period of human life, as manhood; and in John 4:23, it covers the whole period of the duration of a spiritual christianity on earth. Alford insists that it shall here mean, literally, an hour; but how absurd to suppose that the concurrence of the nations with Rome should be precisely sixty minutes! The national magnitude of the matter requires a correspondent magnitude of the season.
With the beast For a period the European sovereignties will act in alliance with, and in obedience to, the Romish spiritual empire. The bishop of bishops will be king of kings. Though a large share of these ten kings have, since the Reformation, withdrawn from Romanism, yet Pius IX, in an address to the Italians, once said, “We three millions of subjects have two hundred millions of brethren of every language and of every nation.” Wordsworth.
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