Revelation 17:9Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

This we hand on to you, beloved, with fear, yet graciously, according to the overflowing love of Christ. For if the blessed prophets before us saw this and did not wish to preach it openly, lest they trouble human souls, but set it forth mystically in parables and riddles, saying, "Here is the mind that has wisdom," how much more danger do we face, daring to speak plainly of what they said in secret? Let us now consider what, finally, is to befall this unclean Roman harlot, and what kind and how great a particular torment she will suffer by God's wrath before the universal judgment.

Spiritual wisdom is needed in order to understand what is spoken spiritually. We think that the seven heads and seven mountains indicate seven places surpassing the rest in dominion and strength, in which world kingdoms were founded at different times.

The first of these is the Assyrian kingdom. The second is the dominion of the Medes in Ecbatana, whose king Arbaces, according to history, killed the Assyrian king Sardanapalus.

Then Nebuchadnezzar established the Chaldean kingdom in Babylon. Cyrus, after defeating this kingdom, restored the Persian kingdom in Susa. Alexander of Macedon destroyed it and founded the Macedonian kingdom.

The point is that a skilled mind is needed here. The riddle must be solved: he "was, and is not, and will ascend out of the abyss." Since he passes from being into non-being, his new ascent from the abyss might seem to contradict this.

This is so unless it is understood as was said before. It is said: "The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits." From this it is especially clear that the discourse concerns Rome. For Rome alone, and no other city, is said to be set on seven hills.

According to the interpretation of St Andrew, "the seven heads and seven mountains signify seven places especially remarkable for the scale of their dominion at different times. The first is the kingdom of the Assyrians in Nineveh, the second of the Medes, the third of the Chaldeans in Babylon, the fourth of the Persians, the fifth of the Macedonians, and the sixth of the Romans."

This last kingdom, after its former kings and consuls, attained autocracy under Caesar Augustus. It endured until the fall of Constantinople in 1453, and Russia, the third Rome, became the successor of this kingdom.

After the fall of the monarchy in 1917, terrible persecutions of the Church immediately began. God permitted them because of the lack of watchfulness in the church of Sardis (cf. Rev 3:2-3).