The language in which the harlot's doom is described by the seer has been criticized as un- christian. ' He that takes delight in such fancies is no whit better than he that first invented them ' (P. Wernle, The Beginnings of Christianity, Eng. tr., L [1903] 370). But the downfall of ii/3/)is in a State or individual eased the conscience in the ancient world, and here it vindicated the existence of a righteous God who avenged the slaugiiter of His saints. The language must not be interpreted apart from the situation.
LiTEEATtJRE. — For Comtnenlaries on the Apocalypse see J. Moffatt in EGT, ' Revelation,' 1910 ; A. B. Swete (21907) ; H. J. Holtzmann (in Hand-Commentar, Tiibingen, 190S); W. Bousset ("Gottingen, 1900). For Raliab see J. B. Mayor, Epistle of James^, 1910 ; A. Martin, Winning the Smil, 1897,
p- 47. DoxALD Mackenzie.
HAR-MAGEDON (RV ; Armageddon AV).— Ac- cording to Rev 16'® this is the name in Heb. of the scene of 'the war of the great day of God, the Almighty ' (v. 1*), against whom the three unclean spirits (v.'*) have gathered together 'the kings of the whole world' (v.'^). There are variations in the form of the name in the Gr. texts and very different interpretations of its meaning, but if *A/5 Ma7e5«ii' is accepted as the correct form, the most satisfactory explanation is that which takes it to
mean 'the mount of Megiddo' ("Ap=Heb. in 'a mountain '). By its geographical conformation and strategical situation the plain of 3Iegiddo was better suited than any other place in the Holy Land to be the arena of a great battle, and the historical memories that gathered round it would fill the name with suggestion for the readers of the Apocalypse. The primary reference, no doubt, would be to Israel's victory ' by the waters of ^legiddo ' over the kings of Canaan ( Jg 5'^), which might be taken as typical of the triumph of God and His Kingdom over the hostile world-powers ; but the defeat and death of Saul and Jonatlian at theeastern extremity of the plain (1 S 31'), the disastrous struggle of Josiah on the same field against Pharaoh- necoh (2 K 23-^ 2 Ch 35'^-^), and Zechariah's reference to ' the moui'ning of Hadadrimraon in the valley of Megiddon' (Zee 12^'), would heighten the suggestion of a great day of overthrow and destruction. The chief objections offered to this interpretation are that a mountain is an unsuitable battlefield, and that the historical battles are described as taking place ' by the waters of Megiddo' (Jg S^") or 'in the valley of Megiddo' (2 Ch 35-2). Against this, however, must be set the statements that Barak with his 10,000 men ' went down from mount Tabor ' to meet Sisera (Jg 4'"*), that Zebulun and Naphtali 'jeoparded their lives unto the death in the high places of the field ' (5'*), and that Saul and Jonathan fell ' in mount Gilboa' (1 S 31i-8; cf. 2 S pi). And the place given to ' the mountains of Israel ' in Ezekiel'a prophecy of the destruction of Gog and Magog (Ezk 38«- 21 39'- *• "), to which the Apocalyptist subsequently refers in liis description of the final overthrow of Satan and his hosts (Rev 20^), may have served to confirm the idea that a mountain would be the scene of ' the war of the great day of God, the Almighty.'
Of recent years considerable support has been given to the view, first propounded by Gunkel (Schbpfung und Chaos, 268), that ' Har-Magedon ' preserves the name of the place where in the Baby- lonian creation-myth the dragon Tiamat Avas over- throAvn by Marduk, the passage Rev 16^^-^^ being presumably a fragment from some Jewish apoca- lypse in which the Babylonian mythology had been adapted to an eschatological interest. This theory, however, rests upon grounds that are very speculative, and even its supporters admit that the author of the Apocalypse would be ignorant of the mythological origin of the name, and would probably understand it to mean ' the mountain of Megiddo.'
LrrERATURB. — The artt. ' Har-Magredon ' in HDB and ' Arma- geddon' in EBi; J. Moffatt, EGT, 'Revelation,' 1910; H. Gunkel, Schop/ung und Chaos, 1895. J. C. LAMBERT.
HARP (Kiddpa, also KiOapl^etv, ' to harp,' and KiOap- (jiSds [KiOap + doiods] ' a harper'). — The word and its two derivatives occur only in 1 Corinthians and Revelation. In 1 Co 14'' : ' Even things without life, giving a voice, whether pipe or harp, if they give not a distinction in the sounds, how shall it be known what is piped or harped ? ' St. Paul by this musical illustration criticizes a prevalent and unedifying speaking with tongues, though, in tlie light of the phrase eandem cantilenarn recinere, his figure of 'harping' has come in col- loquial use to represent rather monotonous per- sistency. In Rev 5* the four living creatures and the four and twenty elders who abased themselves before the Lamb have each of them a harp ; and the voice which was heard, as the Lamb and the hundred and forty and four thousand stood on Mount Zion, is described as that of ' harpers harping with their harps' (14-). The victors over tiie beast, his image, and his mark, who stand by