from the bottomless pit. That beast has very much to do with the woman, who is Babylon, Rome. Sometimes it carries the woman, at length it destroys her with the assistance of the ten horns [Rev. xvii. 16]. The beast out of the sea is the papacy of Hildebrand ; but the beast from the bottomless pit, excepting the succession in the papacy (which does not take away the ancient tradition concerning the rise of Antichrist from the Jews, but leaves it in its own place [just as it finds it]), will have a quite new and singular character of wickedness, on account of which he is called the Man of Sin, etc. All these observations are demonstrated in my German and Latin interpretation of the Apocalypse. Antichrist, or the Man of Sin, as being about to come in the nineteenth century, could not be retarded by the Roman power of the first and following centuries, on which comp. Rev. viii. ix. Therefore the Roman Emperor will be among the ten kings ; and when he, with the nine others, shall give his power to the beast, he wrill be taken out of the way, and will give place to the Man of Sin. The Roman power is the check even up to the time of the rising of the Iniquitous one [c Wicked'], who, after he has arisen, makes the whore deso late, with the assistance of the ten horns.
XVII. Rome is, notwithstanding, the channel in which the apostasy and the mystery of iniquity have flowed for many ages. — Claudius did not long exclude the Jews, and along with them the Christians, from Rome ; a short time after, they returned, and with the good the evil also obtained abundant opportunity of being increased. The two parts of the evil are, the apostasy ["falling away"], and the mystery of iniquity. Apostasy from the faith, and ^r^ocraGiai or divisions, which lead men to for sake the doctrine of the apostles, are very closely connected ; and the latter already at that time were arising at Rome on the part of some, who were under the influence of Satan ; Rom. xvi. 17, with which comp. ver. 20. Moreover, apostasy from the faith, bringing in doctrines concerning the worship of inter mediate divinities (intercessors),1 concerning the avoiding of marriage under pretence of spiritual perfection, and abstinence from meats, only indeed some kinds of meat, 1 Tim. iv. 1, 3,
1 Alluding to the "doctrines of oxipoysg" 1 Tirn. iv. 1, not 'devils/ as Engl. Vers. ; but inferior divinities, genii, etc. — ED.