📖 Biblical Definition
The harlot is one of Scripture’s most charged figures, used to expose covenant infidelity. In the prophets she is unfaithful Israel — Hosea’s Gomer, Ezekiel’s Oholah and Oholibah (Ezekiel 23), Jeremiah’s adulterous bride (Jeremiah 3). In Revelation she becomes the great whore: "that great city... arrayed in purple and scarlet... drunken with the blood of the saints" (Revelation 17:1-6; 18:2-3), the persecuting world-system and apostate religion fused. The harlot is the dark mirror of the Bride: both ride a beast, both are dressed in finery, both claim the world — but one ends in fire, the other in wedding. The choice between Whore and Bride is the choice the church must make every generation.
📜 Webster 1828 Definition
The unfaithful covenant-bride; the world-system's seduction.
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A repeated biblical figure for unfaithfulness to the covenant — used by the prophets (Hosea, Jeremiah, Ezekiel) for Israel, and in Revelation for the apocalyptic Babylon arrayed in luxury and drunken with the blood of saints, contrasted with the bride of the Lamb.
📖 Key Scripture
Hosea 1:2 — "Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms: for the land hath committed great whoredom, departing from the LORD."
Ezekiel 16:32 — "But as a wife that committeth adultery, which taketh strangers instead of her husband!"
Revelation 17:1-2 — "Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters: with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication."
⚠️ Modern Corruption
Reduced to a misogynist trope rather than understood as the prophets' device for spiritual unfaithfulness.
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The harlot is not about women — it is the prophets' image for spiritual unfaithfulness. Israel as bride goes whoring; the world-system as Babylon plays the harlot. The bride of the Lamb stands as the redeemed answer. The figure preaches faithfulness.
🔗 Greek & Hebrew Roots
Greek pornē — prostitute.
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['Greek', 'G4204', 'pornē', 'harlot, prostitute']
['Hebrew', 'H2181', 'zanah', 'to commit fornication']
Usage
"The harlot is unfaithfulness embodied."
"The bride of the Lamb is its redeemed answer."