# temple prostitutes/sodomites
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/temple-prostitutes-sodomites/139459
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [November 29, 2002, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/temple-prostitutes-sodomites/139459 "2002-11-29T05:40:57Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)
#### Post date: [November 29, 2002, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/temple-prostitutes-sodomites/139459/21 "2002-11-29T17:02:58Z")
I hate to paint a negative picture, **dylan** , but, um…, it seems that many ancient cults used sexual acts in their religious rites. I guess that would be like watching porn at Sunday school.
**mrcrow** , English has changed in the 400 yrs from King James, some words even reversing meaning. “To let” used to mean ‘to hinder,’ now it means ‘to allow.’ “Shambles” means ’ a meat market.’ "You must not suffer a witch to live, " = “Niether should there be found in you a practicer of magic.”
So, Hebrew and Aramaic from 2500 to 3500 yrs ago has probably changed, too.
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### Author:  [@mrcrow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mrcrow)
#### Post date: [November 29, 2002, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/temple-prostitutes-sodomites/139459/22 "2002-11-29T17:08:48Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by NoClueBoy \*
> \*\ ***mrcrow** , English has changed in the 400 yrs from King James, some words even reversing meaning. “To let” used to mean ‘to hinder,’ now it means ‘to allow.’ “Shambles” means ’ a meat market.’ "You must not suffer a witch to live, " = “Niether should there be found in you a practicer of magic.”
> So, Hebrew and Aramaic from 2500 to 3500 yrs ago has probably changed, too. \*\*
thank you
i can see this in a lot of the amplified bible translations which although are paraphrased dont seem to keep the translations of teh KJ especially in psalms.🙂
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### Author:  [@dylan\_73](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dylan_73)
#### Post date: [November 29, 2002, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/temple-prostitutes-sodomites/139459/23 "2002-11-29T17:16:08Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by NoClueBoy \*
> \*\*I hate to paint a negative picture, **dylan** , but, um…, it seems that many ancient cults used sexual acts in their religious rites. I guess that would be like watching porn at Sunday school.
> \*\*
To think that churches are worried about falling attendances when the answer was there in the Bible all along… 🙂
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### Author:  [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)
#### Post date: [November 29, 2002, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/temple-prostitutes-sodomites/139459/24 "2002-11-29T17:20:47Z")
Some of the most beautiful passages ever written in English are from the Psalms of the King James Version. Psalms 7, 23, & 63 for example. Though new translations may be inherently more accurate, there is still something about that AV [sigh]. (not for teaching or research, tho. just for pleasure)
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### Author:  [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)
#### Post date: [November 29, 2002, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/temple-prostitutes-sodomites/139459/25 "2002-11-29T17:22:51Z")
Well, **dylan** , that does bring up the point of pedophile priests…
Ok, I won’t go there. Not in GQ anyways.
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### Author:  [@Helen\_s\_Eidolon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helen_s_Eidolon)
#### Post date: [November 29, 2002, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/temple-prostitutes-sodomites/139459/26 "2002-11-29T19:32:55Z")
Hmm, this was discussed in a class of mine this semester.
It seems that many people who study the ancient near east think the best term is “temple employee”, as it is very unclear as to what their function is. Elaborate laws governing the marriage and child-bearing rules of temple employees, or priestesses, or prostitutes can be found in the Code of Hammurabi.
My teacher suggested that the transition from temple employee to prostitute came from the fact that one of the possible duties for these women was midwifery. This became associated (rightly) with fertility, which, in the process of the villification of Canaanite religion, prostitution.
Also, I haven’t, as of yet, seen any solid evidence to **NoClueBoy** ’s claim that sex was used in the religious practices in the ancient near east, although I’d love to see a cite.
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### Author:  [@mrcrow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mrcrow)
#### Post date: [November 29, 2002, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/temple-prostitutes-sodomites/139459/27 "2002-11-29T20:17:55Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by dylan\_73 \*
> \*\*To think that churches are worried about falling attendances when the answer was there in the Bible all along… 🙂 \*\*
you mean where two or three of you are gathered…🙂
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### Author:  [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)
#### Post date: [November 29, 2002, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/temple-prostitutes-sodomites/139459/28 "2002-11-29T20:29:53Z")
OK, **LaurAnge** , it most definitely is a debatable subject, not set in stone. But, I am not the one who first offered this explanation. I simply read alot. I mean alot.
[Lookie!](http://www.bible.org/docs/ot/topics/baal.htm)
> [@](#):
>
> In Numbers 25:1-3 Moses records for posterity a grievous sin of Israel against Yahweh. Apparently there was a site for Baal (of Peor) worship at Shittim and when Israel was there her men began to engage themselves in sexual immorality with Canaanite women, and along with that (probably as a part of the worshipping cult), bowed the knee to Baal. This description of the sexual immorality of the Baal worshipping women is consistent with what we know from Ugarit about the nature of the pantheon, as outlined above. While our evidence from artifacts and the Ras Shamra texts is not explicit about immorality in the cult, it is certainly overt in the mythical texts. It would appear, then, that the Canaanite worshippers sunk to the moral levels of the deities they worshipped. Is not the testimony of history that one becomes what one worships? One need only think for a moment of later Greco-Roman religion and the activities of the mystery religions. The information in the Ugaritic materials, then, corroborates well the remarks of Scripture.
Also, see _M’Clintock and Strong’s “Cyclopædia”_ and the _New Catholic Encyclopeadia_ under those scriptures or the topics “Canaanites” “Babylon” “Egyptian Dieties” “Baal” and others. If you want to get a deeply religious view, look in _Insight on the Scriptures_ by the WBTS. (You don’t have to be a [JW](http://www.watchtower.org) to get one, but you will have to talk to one…)
_Unger’s Bible Dictionary_, page 912, observes: “Canaanite religion with its orgiastic nature worship, the cult of fertility in the form of serpent symbols, sensuous nudity and gross mythology are revealed in their stark reality in these texts [the ones discovered at Ras Shamra discussed in the thesis cited above]. No longer can critics accuse the God of Israel of injustice in ordering the extermination of these debilitating cults.”
Sure, it’s VERY open for debate, and I did not mean to dogmatically state any of this. I realise that in religous studies, anybody with an axe to grind can find many things that seem to support them. But, I don’t think this is an issue that has been settled yet, and so it does stand as one _possible_ answer to the OP.
Sorry if I misled anyone, I usually save that for GD threads. 😃
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### Author:  [@mrcrow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mrcrow)
#### Post date: [November 29, 2002, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/temple-prostitutes-sodomites/139459/29 "2002-11-29T20:50:41Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by NoClueBoy \*
> \*\*Anyone got a specific translation of “qadhesh” that could shed some more light on this? \*\*
[still looking](http://www.tolerantescholen.net/toothman.htm) 🙂
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### Author:  [@mrcrow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mrcrow)
#### Post date: [November 29, 2002, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/temple-prostitutes-sodomites/139459/30 "2002-11-29T20:53:09Z")
[a psalm with qadhesh in the hebrew](http://www.hebrewsongs.com/psalm29.htm) 🙂
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### Author:  [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)
#### Post date: [November 29, 2002, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/temple-prostitutes-sodomites/139459/31 "2002-11-29T20:58:30Z")
hmmm… used there as a place name… interesting…
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### Author:  [@Helen\_s\_Eidolon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helen_s_Eidolon)
#### Post date: [November 29, 2002, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/temple-prostitutes-sodomites/139459/32 "2002-11-29T21:00:39Z")
Whoa whoa whoa… I’ll agree with you, **NoClueBoy** , that it is possible such practices occurred in Mesopotamia or Canaan and it was just the definitive statement that you made that I had objections to. I personally believe that much of the “sexual immorality” involved in these religions comes from the purposely negative spin they were given in the monotheistic tradition.
But sexual practices in **Egyptian** worship? Nuh uh. Don’t think so.
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### Author:  [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)
#### Post date: [November 29, 2002, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/temple-prostitutes-sodomites/139459/33 "2002-11-29T21:09:34Z")
Point well taken, **LaurAnge**. But, I looked back at my post and I did say “seems to.” FTR 😃
You would be surprised what some people (ok, mostly fundies) think about ancient Egypt. But, iirc, it stems from cross origin research (as a phallic symbol?) and not sex worship per se.
Just another of my endless threads of reading anything put before me. Oh, the humanity!
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### Author:  [@mrcrow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mrcrow)
#### Post date: [November 29, 2002, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/temple-prostitutes-sodomites/139459/34 "2002-11-29T21:16:00Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by NoClueBoy \*
> \*\*hmmm… used there as a place name… interesting… \*\*
i thought so as well, we may be getting close to the word for holy dedicated or corban set aside for a god or gods?🆒
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### Author:  [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)
#### Post date: [November 29, 2002, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/temple-prostitutes-sodomites/139459/35 "2002-11-29T21:19:14Z")
Just wondering… **L.A.**
got anything from class on cross origin? Cross, crus, crux, stauros, yada yada yada…?
I’ve come across a few things before, referencing crus ansada (sp?), Nimrod, etc… Are any of the textbooks you all used online anywhere?
(See? It’s a sickness!)
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### Author:  [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)
#### Post date: [November 29, 2002, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/temple-prostitutes-sodomites/139459/36 "2002-11-29T21:21:12Z")
well, **mrcrow** , I’m just about ready to ask Catherine Zeta Jones to call an ancient studies Rabbi. That word is giving me fits!
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### Author:  [@mrcrow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mrcrow)
#### Post date: [November 29, 2002, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/temple-prostitutes-sodomites/139459/37 "2002-11-29T21:28:16Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by NoClueBoy \*
> \*\*well, **mrcrow** , I’m just about ready to ask Catherine Zeta Jones to call an ancient studies Rabbi. That word is giving me fits! \*\*
i think you should…🙂
i would be interested to see what other connotations qahdesh, qadesh, kadesh, kudos, and kudus have and the urdu roots?
have you read test of time and legend by david rohl?
🙂
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### Author:  [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)
#### Post date: [November 29, 2002, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/temple-prostitutes-sodomites/139459/38 "2002-11-29T21:39:01Z")
no. what category would I find it?
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### Author:  [@mrcrow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mrcrow)
#### Post date: [November 29, 2002, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/temple-prostitutes-sodomites/139459/39 "2002-11-29T22:04:45Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by NoClueBoy \*
> \*\*no. what category would I find it? \*\*
both books are archaeological alignments to biblical narrative
a test of time re sets the egyptian chronology and synchronises events between egypt the levant and syria
legend covers the garden of eden and the flood stories and establishes the ancient stories of mesopotamia, the migration of the boat people, and the nimrod saga.
there is a lot more than that…they are by david rohl and are fairly well contested by the egyptian scholars of the old school.
[david rohl](http://www.nunki.net/)
there are other sites
i dont think the books are not available in the usa
🙂
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### Author:  [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)
#### Post date: [November 29, 2002, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/temple-prostitutes-sodomites/139459/40 "2002-11-29T22:12:24Z")
will look for them
gonna interface in person with nearby humans now, will be back
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