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The Whore of Babylon or Babylon
the Great is one of several Christian
and Rastafarian
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 Revelation.
She makes her appearance in Revelation chapter 17, in which she is described
as:
"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.
Armageddon refers generally to end
times or giant catastrophes in various religions and cultures. It may also
refer to any great loss of life in battle or use of weapons
of mass destruction. The word armageddon is derived from Mount (Har
in Hebrew) Megiddo,
the site of the Battle
of Megiddo and other battles.
The only mention of the word "Armageddon" in the Bible was in
Revelation 16:16: "And he gathered them together into a place called in the
Hebrew tongue Armageddon" (KJV). The bible includes many passages that
refer to the concept of Armageddon, however. But this specific bible
prophecy reference is ambiguous as to whether any event actually takes place
here or whether the gathering of armies is only to be seen as a sign. In fact, a
gathering of the Roman army occurred at this place as a staging ground for one
of their assaults on Jerusalem in AD 67. This is consistent with the preterist
interpretation that the events of Revelation 16:17-21 refer to events
culminating in the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. However, one indication
that the book predicts a future event is the mention of an army from the east of
two hundred million, a number that would not have been likely in any battle of
that period.
Apocalypse (Greek:
αποκαλυψις, disclosure), is a
term applied to the disclosure to certain privileged persons of something hidden
from the mass of humankind. The Greek root corresponds in the Septuagint
to the Hebrew galah, to reveal. The last book of the New Testament bears
in Greek the title Αποκαλυψις
Ιωαννου, and is frequently referred to as the
Apocalypse of John, but in the English Bible it appears as the Revelation
of St John the Divine, or the Book of Revelation (of Jesus Christ, the Messiah).
Earlier among the hellenistic Jews, the term was used of a number of writings
which depicted in a prophetic and parabolic way, the end or future state of the
world (e.g. Apocalypse of Baruch), the whole class is now commonly known
as 'Apocalyptic
literature'. However, the Apocalypse technically refers to the unveiling of
God, in his guise as the Messiah, and not to all of the destruction of the world
which will accompany God's Revelation of Himself to Humankind.
An Apocalypse in the terminology of early Jewish
and Christian literature,
is a revelation of hidden things given by God
to a chosen prophet; this term is more often used to describe the written
account of such a revelation. Apocalyptic
literature is of considerable importance in the history of the Judeo-Christian-Islamic-Rastafarian
tradition, as beliefs such as the resurrection of the dead, judgment
day, heaven and hell are all made explicit in it. Apocalyptic beliefs
predate Christianity,
appear in other religions, and have merged into contemporary secular society,
especially through popular culture (see Apocalypticism).
Apocalypse-like beliefs also occur in other religious systems; an example is the
Hindu concept of pralay.
From the second century, the term "Apocalypse" was applied to a
number of books, both Jewish and Christian,
which show the same characteristic features. Besides the Apocalypse of John (now
generally called the Book
of Revelation) included in the New
Testament, the Muratorian
fragment, Clement
of Alexandria, and others mention an Apocalypse
of Peter. Apocalypses of Adam
and Abraham (Epiphanius) and of Elias
(Jerome) are also mentioned; see, for
example, the six titles of this kind in the "List of the 60 Canonical
Books".
The use of the Greek noun to designate writings belonging to a certain class
of literary products is thus of Christian
origin, the original norm of the class being the New
Testament Book
of Revelation. In 1832 Gottfried
Christian Friedrich L?ke explored the word "Apocalypse" as a
description of the book of Revelation, a usage obtained from the opening words
of the book which refer to an apocalpyse (prophecy) of Jesus Christ given to
John, who wrote the text. In Greek the opening words are 'Aπōκάλυψις
'Iησōῦ Χριστōῦ.