Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

CULTIC PROSTITUTION

Ritual behavior, in which certain cult functionaries participated in sacred sexual acts in order to ensure fertility in the land. Biblical scholars have often suggested that although cultic prostitution was considered inappropriate by the biblical writers in the worship of Yahweh, some ancient Israelites, influenced by the religious practices of their Canaanite ancestors and also by their Babylonian contemporaries, engaged in this type activity. Recently, however, several commentators have argued that there is no clear evidence for any ancient Near Eastern or biblical ritual of cultic prostitution.

The Hebrew terms commonly translated as “cult prostitute,” “sacred prostitute,” or “temple prostitute” are qāḏēš (masc.; Deut. 23:17; 1 Kgs. 14:24; 15:12; 22:46; 2 Kgs. 23:7; Job 36:14) and qĕḏēšâ (fem.; Gen. 38:21, 22; Deut. 23:17; Hos. 4:14). Both stem from the root qdš, “to be set apart, consecrated, holy,” meaning that neither has any explicit sexual connotation. But because female qĕḏēšôṯ (pl.) do show up in conjunction with prostitutes (zōnôṯ) in Hos. 4:14, biblical scholars have long argued that the “holiness” of at least the female qĕḏēšâ must involve ritual sexual acts. The fact that the Mesopotamian equivalent to the Israelite qĕḏēšâ, the qadištu, has commonly been understood as a functionary of Ishtar, the Mesopotamian goddess of love and fertility, further suggests a connection between the cultic office of the qĕḏēšâ and ritualized sexual behaviors. Indeed, whether ritualized or not, it is clear that the Mesopotamian qadištu, who could bear children and serve as a wet nurse, engaged in sexual activities of some sort. Herodotus, moreover, reports that in the Babylonian temples of Aphrodite (the Greek equivalent of Ishtar) ritualized sexual intercourse was a regular practice.

Yet Herodotus as a source is both late (5th century b.c.e.) and tendentious. As for the Mesopotamian qadištu, while it is clear she could engage in sexual behaviors, there is no evidence those behaviors were necessarily ritual in nature. Indeed, the assumption that the qadištu was a particular functionary of the cult of Ishtar has been questioned. Students of Mesopotamian religion have also questioned whether other Mesopotamian cultic functionaries sometimes described as “sacred prostitutes” — the ēntu priestess, the nadītu, the ištarītu, and the kezertu — in fact performed such a role. Finally, some scholars argue that the term zōnôṯ, “prostitutes,” is used metaphorically in Hos. 4:14, as the prophet condemns those who commit apostasy in his eyes by accusing them of going “whoring” after other gods. All that is revealed in the juxtaposition of zōnôṯ and qĕḏēšôṯ, according to this interpretation, is that the cultic activities of the latter are viewed by Hosea as religiously inappropriate; that the nature of the inappropriateness is sexual misconduct remains unclear.

Bibliography. P. A. Bird, “ ‘To Play the Harlot’: An Inquiry into an Old Testament Metaphor,” in Gender and Difference in Ancient Israel, ed. P. L. Day (Minneapolis, 1989), 75-94; E. J. Fisher, “Cultic Prostitution in the Ancient Near East? A Reassessment,” BTB 6 (1976): 225-36; M. Gruber, “Hebrew qĕdēšāh and Her Canaanite and Akkadian Cognates,” UF 18 (1986): 133-48; R. A. Oden, Jr., “Religious Identity and the Sacred Prostitution Accusation,” in The Bible Without Theology (San Francisco, 1987), 131-53; J. G. Westenholz, “Tamar, Qĕdēšā, Qadištu, and Sacred Prostitution in Mesopotamia,” HTR 82 (1989): 245-65.

Susan Ackerman

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

CULTIC PROSTITUTION

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)