Shrine Prostitutes in Leviticus

The Bible has nothing positive to say about shrine prostitutes, also known as cult or temple prostitutes.

Shrine prostitution, in ancient times, was a widespread religious practice, as German psychiatrist and historian Dr. Iwan Bloch points out.

This sexual religious mysticism meets us everywhere—in the religious festivals of antiquity, the festivals of Isis in Egypt, and the festivals of imperial Rome, both alike accompanied by the wildest sexual orgies; in the festivals of Baal Peor, among the Jews, in the Venus and Adonis festivals of the Phoenicians, in Cyprus and Byblos, in the Aphrodisian, the Dionysian, and the Eleusinian festivals of the Hellenes; in the festival of Flora in Rome, in which prostitutes ran about naked; in the Roman Bacchanalia; and in the festival of the bona dea, the wild sexual license of which is only too clearly presented to our eyes in the celebrated account of Juvenal.

The Sexual Life of Our Time in Its Relations to Modern Civilization, Iwan Bloch, 1872–1922, published by Rebman, London, 1909, p. 106, 820 pages.

The Bible is clear on this issue.

“Judah did what was evil in the Lord’s eyes. They provoked Him to jealous anger more than all that their ancestors had done with the sins they committed.

“They also built for themselves high places, sacred pillars, and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every green tree; there were even male shrine prostitutes in the land.

They imitated the abominations of the nations the LORD had dispossessed before the Israelites.” —1 Kings 14:22-24, Holman Christian Standard Bible

“None of the daughters of Israel shall be a cult prostitute, nor shall any of the sons of Israel be a cult prostitute.” —Deu. 23:17 NASV

“No Israelite man or woman is to become a shrine prostitute.” —Deu. 23:17 NIV

“No Israelite, whether man or woman, may become a temple prostitute.” —Deu. 23:17 NLT

“There shall be no whore of the daughters of Israel, nor a sodomite of the sons of Israel.” —Deu. 23:17 KJV

The Apologetics Study Bible note on Deuteronomy 18:9, p. 292, says: “Both the Bible and archaeological evidence attest to the depravity of Canaanite worship, which incorporated temple prostitution, child sacrifice, mutilation and other inhumane features.”

Here is a common argument

If homosexuality is okay as long as it’s not part of idol worship, then incest and bestiality must also be okay, as long as they are not part of idol worship.

We answer that argument by reminding everyone that it is a specious argument. It sounds superficially plausible but is fundamentally wrong on the facts. The Biblical truth is that Moses never mentions gays or lesbians, homosexuals or homosexuality.

Moses is not analogizing homosexuality with incest and bestiality. He is analogizing shrine prostitution and idol worship, with incest and bestiality. He is analogizing illicit sexual worship of false gods with bestiality and incest.

Homosexuality and shrine prostitution are not the same thing. They are not analogs and they are not synonyms. Homosexuality is a natural, normal human sexual orientation, while shrine prostitution is a wicked manifestation of idolatry and rebellion against God.

People who use specious arguments—fake arguments that sound Biblical but which omit or ignore context so as to make their fake argument against gays and lesbians seem Biblical—refuse to acknowledge context. If they do, they know their arguments will not stand up to logic, will not make sense, will be seen as false.

Conservative Calvinist Pastor John MacArthur does precisely that—refuses to acknowledge context—in his comments on Leviticus 18:22, both in his Study Bible and his one-volume Bible commentary. (The one-volume Bible commentary is simply the notes from his study Bible, gathered into book form.)

Why Does MacArthur Hide The Truth?

John MacArthur knows that the context of Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13 is cult or shrine or temple prostitution. Yet he also knows that if he puts that information in his comments on Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13, it will undermine his anti-gay views.

MacArthur and his editors must have struggled mightily with the dishonesty of not putting what he knows to be true in his comments on Leviticus. Instead, in his MacArthur Study Bible note on Leviticus 18:22, he writes:

“This outlaws all homosexuality (cf. 20:13, Rom 1:27, 1 Cor 6:9, 1 Tim 1:10). See notes on Gen 19:1-29.”

That’s it. That is John MacArthur’s comment on Leviticus 18:22 in its entirety. The Grace To You compromise solution to their moral dilemma was to put MacArthur’s true beliefs about the context of Leviticus 18:21–22 and 20:13, not with his Leviticus 18:22 comments on page 180 of The MacArthur Study Bible, but rather to put them 1146 pages away from Leviticus, on page 1326, with his comments on Zephaniah 1:5.

Spinning the Bible to attack gays and lesbians

Isn't that a fascinating insight into the mental and moral prestidigitation of the anti-gay crowd?

Further down this page, I quote MacArthur’s beliefs about Lev. 18:22, found in his notes on Zephaniah 1:5.

In making their specious arguments, they also employ a sneaky debate tactic—defining terms in a way that supports their view, or in plainer words, makes the other side start with a tacit acknowledgment of false definitions, thus shifting the argument away from context and to the false and specious definitions.

In the extensive reading and research I’ve done on Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13, no scholar I have read presents any Biblical, cultural, doctrinal, historical, linguistic or religious proof that 1450 BC Israel had a problem with gay men and lesbians.

As you will see in the quotes from conservative anti-gay scholars on this page, all of the evidence points to the truth that ancient Israel had a problem with shrine prostitution and shrine prostitutes and their pagan sexual worship of false gods.

As you read this shrine prostitutes page, you will notice that scholars admit that the context of Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13 is cult prostitution or shrine prostitution or temple prostitution. Different scholars use different terms for the same thing.

I intentionally quote conservative Christian scholars, some of them with two earned doctorate degrees, because they all tend to be anti-gay. Yet none of them can cite any historical facts to prove that Moses was talking about gays and lesbians.

One of the scholars I quote, famed polyglot Dr. Charles Lee Fineburg (who was John MacArthur,s favorite professor at Talbot Seminary) was conversant in 30 languages and held two earned doctorates.

If anyone had the linguistic and scholarly chops to prove that the context of Leviticus was gays and lesbians, it would be Dr. Fineburg, yet he presents no proof for that.

To sum up Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13

1. Moses is not analogizing incest or bestiality with homosexuality. He is analogizing incest and bestiality with idol worship and shrine prostitution.

2. The context of Leviticus chapters 17 to 26, known as the Holiness Code, is not gays or lesbians. It is idolatry and shrine prostitution (Lev. 17:7).

3. There is not a shred of Biblical, cultural, doctrinal, historical or religious evidence that shrine prostitutes were gays and lesbians.

In the agrarian economy of ancient Israel, almost everyone got married and had children, in order to fulfill the command of God to be fruitful and multiply and replenish the Earth so that Israel would be like the stars of heaven and the dust of the Earth and the sand of the seashore for numbers.

The human authors of the Bible testify to the ongoing presence of cult prostitution, shrine prostitution or temple prostitution in ancient Israel. Various authors identify it by those names. Yet the Bible never links those pagan activities to being gay or lesbian. Therefore it is untrue, unbiblical and dishonest for modern Christians to attack the LGBT community by applying to us these verses that God never applies to us.

When Israel left Egypt and entered Palestine, Jehovah warned them against worshiping Molech (Lev. 18:3, 21–22, 26ff; 20:2, 3, 4, 5, 13, 23) and, by extension, his consort, Ashtoreth, the Canaanite fertility goddess, because God hates the worship of false gods.