“And Cynamome, and odours, and ointments, and frankincense, & wine, and oile, and fine floure, and wheat, and beasts, and sheepe, and horses, and chariots, and slaues, and soules of men.”
1611 King James Version (KJV)
18:13 Amomum - A shrub whose wood is a fine perfume. And beasts - Cows and oxen. And of chariots - a purely Latin word is here inserted in the Greek. This St. John undoubtedly used on purpose, in describing the luxury of Rome. And of bodies - A common term for slaves. And souls of men - For these also are continually bought and sold at Rome. And this of all others is the most gainful merchandise to the Roman traffickers.
Re 18:13 And bodies, and souls of men. The Greek reads, "the bodies and souls of men". The first seems to refer to the traffic in slaves, a common traffic until modern times and sanctioned by the Papacy. The latter expression seems to me to refer to a spiritual traffic. What is the whole system of masses for the dead, paid for out of the money drawn from mourning relatives, but a traffic in the souls of men?