Babylon

In chapter eight, Governor Bellingham says of Pearl, “…we might have judged that such a child’s mother must needs be a scarlet woman, and a worthy type of her of Babylon!” Those are hardly flattering words, but they are an allusion to one of the most stunning visuals offered in the last book of the Bible. “Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and talked with me [the Apostle John as identified in REVELATION 1:1], saying to me, ‘Come, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication.’ So he carried me away in the Spirit into the wilderness. And I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast which was full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the filthiness of her fornication. And on her forehead a name was written: MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH” (REVELATION 17:1-5).