In Revelation 17:7, Who is the woman riding the Beast?

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But the angel said to me, “Why are you so amazed? I will tell you the mystery of the woman, and of the beast with seven heads and ten horns that carries her.
— Revelations 17:7 (NRS)

Dave Hunt, who is an apologist and author, wrote a book called A Woman Rides the Beast. The woman who rides the beast, in his beliefs on scripture, refers mostly to Rome and the revived Roman Empire. But in each chapter, Dave continues to talk about other factors that play into this mysterious woman, including the false perception of Mary, the Vatican’s connection to the holocaust, and “the failure of the first pope.” The first pope, of course, was Peter but how did he fail as pope? He also wrote that “the gospel was being spread before any church was ever established”, an excellent point made against Roman Catholicism.