Revelation 17:5

Upon her forehead a name written (epi to metwpon auth onoma gegrammenon). Roman harlots wore a label with their names on their brows (Seneca, Rhet. I. 2. 7; Juvenal VI. 122f.), and so here. In Jeremiah 19:16 Christ has a name on his garments and on his thigh, while in Jeremiah 14:1 ; Jeremiah 22:4 the redeemed have the name of God on their foreheads. There is undoubtedly a contrast between this woman here and the woman in chapter Revelation 12:1 ff. Mystery (musthrion). Either in apposition with onoma or as part of the inscription on her forehead. In either case the meaning is the same, that the name Babylon is to be interpreted mystically or spiritually (cf. pneumatikw Revelation 11:8 ) for Rome. The Mother of the Harlots and of the Abominations of the Earth (Hh Mhthr twn Pornwn kai twn Bdelugmatwn th Gh). The Metropolis of the Empire is the mother of harlotry and of the world's idolatries. Charles quotes Tacitus (Ann. XV. 44) about Rome as the city "quo cuncta undique atrocia aut pudenda confluunt celebranturque_."