Revelation Chapter 17 Verses 6b-7

6b When I saw her I marveled greatly. 7 But the angel said to me, “Why marvel? I will tell you the mystery of the woman, and of the beast with seven heads and ten horns that carries her.

The mystery of these symbols was something that was previously not understood but that will now be revealed.

Throughout this explanation we should reverse the rule that we have been using throughout our study of this book; that is, we should accept the explanation as literal unless there is an overriding reason to treat it otherwise. Why? Because the angel is explaining the apocalyptic language we have seen rather than giving us additional apocalyptic language. Many commentators have trouble with these verses because the angel’s interpretation does not match their own. Their response often involves figurizing all or part of the angel’s interpretation. In fact, some commentators have things so backwards that they treat the image as a literal description and the explanation of the image as a figurative description!

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