Harlot
Word history
The word harlot nowadays refers to a particular kind of woman, but interestingly it used to refer to a particular kind of man. The word is first recorded in English in a work written around the beginning of the 13th century, meaning “a man of no fixed occupation, vagabond, beggar,” and soon afterwards meant “male lecher.” Already in the 14th century it appears as a deprecatory word for a woman, though exactly how this meaning developed from the male sense is not clear. For a time the word could also refer to a juggler or jester of either sex, but by the close of the 17th century its usage referring to males had disappeared. --AHD
Book of the Apocalypse, also known as the Revelation to John
This extraordinary text is well-known for its unrelenting torrent of strange, often frightful imagery. In chapter 12, midway through the deluge of fire, horsemen, falling stars, and cosmic devastation, the following narrative sequence emerges:
From chapter 17:
[A]nd I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness in her fornication: And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration. And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns. , . . And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and shall burn her with fire.
In [this] passage, the woman is overtly sexual--a harlot, dressed and jewelled like a harlot. In her drunkenness on human blood, she is cruel, violent, vampiric. The divan on which she reclines is the grotesquely phallic dragon with seven serpentine heads and ten horns. His relationship to the woman seems eroticized here, perhaps sadomasochistic. When he turns on her, his attacks are unimpeded and successful. His ghastly, sexualized violence against her culminates in a stunning spectacle of nakedness, fire, flesh-eating, and death. --via http://groovyageofhorror.blogspot.com/ [May 2005]
The Book of Revelation or The Apocalypse of John (apokalypsis is the Greek for "revelation"), is the last book and the only prophetical book of the New Testament in the Bible. Some Protestant evangelicals refer to the book as The Revelation of Jesus Christ (as the first verse states verbatim), arguing John may have recorded the revelation, but was not the originator. A colloquial form refers to the book simply as Revelations. However the most accepted title of this book of the Bible is the Book of Revelation (not Revelations).
Book of revelation
It is definitely one of the most controversial, and hardest to understand books of the Bible, with many ranging interpretations of the meanings of the various names and events in the account. The identity of the author John is not completely clear. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Revelation [May 2005]
The Whore of Babylon
The Whore of Babylon or Babylon the Great is one of several Christian allegorical figures of supreme evil, who is mentioned in the Book of Revelation in the Bible. She is associated with the figures of the Antichrist and the Beast of Revelations.
She makes her appearance in Revelations 17, in which she is described:
"the great whore that sitteth upon many waters: with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication." (Rev. 17:1-2 KJV)
She moreover bears the title, "Mystery, Babylon the Great, The Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth." She is furthermore described as being "drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus." (Rev. 17:5-6) Her apocalyptic downfall is prophesied in Chapter 18. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whore_of_Babylon [Jan 2005]
see also: prostitute - Babylon - bible