| I Peter 5:13
| The church, which is in Babylon, co-elected, saluteth you: and my son, Mark.
| The church, which is in Babylon, (at Rome, say Eusebius, St. Jerome, etc.) so called not only on account of the extent of its empire, but also for its idolatry and vices. --- Mark, my son: generally thought to have been St. Mark, the evangelist. (Witham) --- See the unjust prepossession of certain seceders. In this text, where all the lights of antiquity understand Rome by Babylon, they deny it; and in the book of Revelation, where all evil spoken of Babylon, there they will have it signify nothing else but Rome: yes, and the Church of Rome, not (as the holy Fathers interpret it) the temporal state of the heathen empire.
|