Revelation 17:5

"And on her forehead a name written, Mystery, Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth." We have had the name Babylon. We were told: "Babylon is fallen." It is one of the problems of this book to determine what is meant by Babylon. Now this woman is labeled Babylon. That name is written on her; and if we find out what the woman is, we have found out what Babylon is. Now in the last verse of the chapter we are told: "And the woman is that great city that reigneth over the kings of the earth." And when you ask, what great city was it that, in John's day, ruled over the kings of the earth, you have only one answer, and that is, Rome. So it is that this seventeenth chapter serves as an interpreter of symbols.