Revelation 18:21Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Thus John calls Babylon a great millstone, as it were, thrown down, because the course of time grinds all lovers of this world like a millstone and hurls them into its turning. Of them it is written, "The ungodly walk in a circle" (Ps 11:9).

"And the sound of harpists and singers, of flute players and trumpeters, shall be heard in you no more." John says that the merriment of the ungodly will pass away and be no more.

He indicated the reason, saying, "For your merchants were the great men of the earth," that is, in your life they found every possible good.

"And by your sorcery all nations were led astray. And in it was found the blood of prophets and saints, and of all who were slain on the earth."

The city of this age is compared to an unstable millstone because of the weight of its transgressions and errors. For "the ungodly walk everywhere" (Ps 11:9).

Its punishment is just, that it should be swallowed by the waves. For it destroyed the city Jerusalem by the waves of unbelief, when its inhabitants sat by the rivers of Babylon and mourned their exile from the heavenly Zion.

The Lord promised that those who cause someone to stumble will be punished in the same way (cf. Mt 18:6-7).

John also likens the Church to a stone, but to one firm and stable, able to withstand the raging of the elements (cf. Mt 7:24-25).

All this will come upon Babylon because, through idleness, pursuit of life's pleasures, and other temptations, it drew many away from God. Those who reproved it for this it persecuted with savage cruelty and shed their blood.

Some interpreters understand this great harlot, Babylon, spoken of in chapters 17 and 18 of Revelation, as the faithless Church. That is, it is a society of Christians who have lost and abandoned faith in God.

It consists of a mixture, for Babylon means confusion, of earthly and heavenly things. They have trampled the priceless pearl of the grace of the Holy Spirit, received in Baptism, into the mire of their own soul, uncleansed from passions and earthly attachments.

"It shall be found no more." The complete destruction of Rome is presented. Historically, one may point to such devastation in the ravaging by Alaric in 396, by Genseric in 456, and by others, when nothing remained of Rome except one great name.