No Prostitute Has Been Here: A Reevaluation of Hosea 4: 1 3 - 14 BY Karin R. Shrofel A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS Department of Religious Studies University of Winnipeg Winnipeg, Manitoba December, 1999 National Library Bibliothèque nationale 1*1 of Canada du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographie Services services bibliographiques 395 Wellington Street 395. rue Wellingtm OnawaON KlAW OnawaON K1A OW Canada Canada The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accordé une Licence non exclusive licence allowing the exclusive permettant à la National Library of Canada to Bibliothèque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, dismbute or seii reproduire, prêter, distribuer ou copies of this thesis in microform, vendre des copies de cette thèse sous paper or electronic formats. la forme de microfichelnlm, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format électronique. 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THE UNIVERSITY OF MANITOBA FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES ***** COPYRIGHT PERMISSION PAGE No Prostitute Has Been EIere: A Reevaiuation of Hosea 4: 13-14 A Thesis/Practicum submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies of The University of Manitoba in partial hilflllment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Arts Permission bas been granted to the Library of The University of Manitoba to lend or sell copies of this thesidpncticum, to the National Library of Canada to microfilm this thesis/practicum and to lend or sell copies of the Nm, and to Dissertations Abstracts International ta publish an abstrrct of this thesis/practicum. The author reserves other publication rights, and neither this thesis/practicum nor esteusive extracts from it may be printed or otherwise reproduced without the author's wr9ten permission. I TABLE OF CONTENTS 1n:roduction ......................................... 1 Chapter 1. TRADITIONAL SCHOLARSHIP ON HOSEA 3:13-14 . .9 The Marriage Metaphor Gomer bat-Diblairn Modem Sc hoiarship on Hosea 4: 1 3 - 1 3 Conc Iusion v 2. THE ROOT QDS .............................. -39 The Root qds @des and Qëdsirn in 1 and 2 Kings Qëdë~trnin Job 36:14 @des and Qëdë~âin Deuteronomy 23: 17 QëdZsâ in Genesis 38:21-22 Conclusion 3. "CULT PROSTITUTES" IN EXTRA SIBLICAL AND CLASSICAL SOURCES .......................... 70 Qëdë~ôt'sExtra Biblical Cognates 11 The Ugaritic Evidence The Mesopotamian Evidence Ancient Greek Sources Conclusion 3. ISRAEL VERSUS CANAAN: A RHETORIC OF OTHERNESS . 105 The Pro-Israelite/Anti-CanaaniteStance of Modem Biblical Scholars The HistoryNature Dichotomy The HistoryNature Dichotomy as a Western Construct Conclusion 5. THE RHETORiC OF THE MARNAGE 1METAPHOR. 141 Covenants and Marriages Analyzing the Mamage Metaphor Feminist Biblical Scholars and the Rhetoric of Hosea's Marriage Metaphor Zuh and n p from the Wronged Husband Perspective Conclusion 6. NO PROSTITUTE HAS BEEN HERE: RECONSTRUCTING THE ROLE OF THE QPDE~ÔT. -167 Recent Reconstructions of the Roles of the Qëdës6t: A Critique A Reevaluation of the Role of the Qëdë~Ôt 7. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS . .18 1 Bibliography ....................................... 186 iv Abstract In this thesis, 1 present the major points of contention with traditional biblical scholars' assumption that the Hebrew qiidëi% (Hosea 4:13-14) were cult prostitutes. First. in a word study of the Hebrew root q& 1 demonstrate that its range of meanings in no rvay includes sexual activity. Second, by reviewing extra biblical ANE texts in which cognate terms for qédèSôt occur, I dem~nstratethat there is no unarnbiguous evidence supporting the notion of institutionalized sex cults. Third, 1 argue that ancient Greek sources. which purport to describe sexual rites among ANE peoples. are too rhetorical to be regarded as historically accurate accounts. The mistaken notion of ANE cult prostitution arises out of scholars' failure to recognize texts such as Hosea 4: 13- 14 as primarily polemical in intent. Such rhetorical texts were designed to denigrate Israel's rivals, and not to offer an accurate portrayai of Canaanite religious activity. Furthemore, traditional scholars. and even certain critics of the cult prostitution hypothesis, have not understood Hosea's sexual language of rnh and n 'p as exclusively metaphorical. Hosea adopted the metaphor COVENANT IS MARNAGE, casting Yahweh as a husband and Israel as an adulterous wife. to efTectively convey 19 his male audience the gravity of breach of covenant, and mr because the sexual language identified the nature of the apostate religious activity. Reading the sexual language of Hosea 4:13-14 as an exclusively metaphorical description of apostate religious activity, 1 maintain that the qédë?Ôf were not cult prostitutes. Rather. on the bais of both the co~ectionmade between sacrifice and the qedé&i? in Hosea 4: 13-14 and the pairing of q~dës'Ôt.scognates with sacrificial activity in the extra biblical material, I propose that the qeaë~z~were officia1 assistants to pfiests in Canaanite-styled sacrificial rites. These rites were condemned by conservative Yahwists such as Hosea. but were not necessarily, nor even likely, sexual in nature. HOSEA 3: 13-14 AND THE CULT PROSTITUTION HYPOTHESIS I have a rîb with modem biblical scholars in their treatment of the Hebrew qëdëSÔt. There is a long tradition of rendering qëdë~ôt,found in this form in Hosea 4: 14 alone, as "cult prostitutes." It is further assumed on the basis of both this passage and on the sexual language eniployed in the book of Hosea, particularly in the first four chapters, that a "Canaanite-styled" fertiiity cult is the prirnary tarzet of Hosea's invective. The related terms qëdësâ (ferninine singular form - Gen 3821; Deut 23:17), qiides (masculine singuIar fom - 1 Kings 1424; Deut 23:18), and qëdë~irn(masculine plural fonn - 1 Kings 15: 12; 2 Kings 23:7; Job 36: 14) are also transIated as fernale and male cult prostitute(s). However, the particular occurrence of qëdë~ôt in Hosea 4: 13- 14, surrounded as it is by sexual imagery and cultic language of sacrificing. offerings, and priests. is perhaps the greatest contributor to the notion that the terni designates women whose activity was both sesual and cultic. It is for this reason that I focus upon Hosea 3:13-14 in uiiraveling the case of the cuit prostitutes. The tradition that the qëdesôt were cult prostitutes is certainly alive and well arnong an ovenvl~elmingmajority of modem Hosea scholars. These scholars continue to translate qëdë~ôtas "cult prostitutes," "temple prostitutes," "sacral prostitutes," "ritual harlots," or "sacred prostitutes," and assume that ritual sex was carried out in the eighth century B.C.E. at sacred sites in Hosea's native land of Israel.' Qëdë~ôtliterally means "holy 'F.W. Farrar. The ,Minor Pronhets (London: Nisbet and Co.. n.d.) 86: W.E. Crane. "The Prophecy of Hosea," Bibliotheca Sacra 89 (1932) 437; Elrner .4. LesIic. Old Testament Relinion in the Licht of its Canaanite Background (New York: Abincedon, 1936) 174-175: Rolland Emerson Wolfe, .Meet Amos and Hosea (Xew York: Harper and Brothers, 1945) 94; Abraham J. Heschel. The Pro~hets(New York: Harper and Row, 1962) 45; J.B. Phillips. Four Pro~hets:Amos. Hosea. The First Isaiah, iMicah (London: Geoffrey m-omen." However, traditional scholars' notion of an alleged Canaanite sex-cult that beguiled Israel away from acceptable forrns of Yahweh worship is finnly entrenched. According to these scholars, the "holy women" who are named in Hosea's scathing invective against Canaanite religion and its hold upon the imagination of Israel, must indeed have been holy harlots. In recent years, some biblical scholars have begun to question the daims of traditionai scholarship about the qëdë~ôt and the cultic activity in which they alle_eedly participated.' These cntics of the traditional school have identified several crucial points Blrs. 1963) 35; Jared J. Jackson. "Yahweh v. Cohen et al.: God's Lawsuit with Priest and People - Hosea 4." Pittsbureh Perspective 7 (1966) 3 1: James .M. Ward. Hosea: A TheoIocical Comrnentarv (Neri* York: Hxper and Row. 1966) 76: Walter Brueggemann. Tradition For Crisis: A Srudv in Hosea (Richmond: John Knox. 1968) 49: James Luther iMays, Hosea: A Comrnentarv (OTL; Philadelphia: Westminster. 1969) 72; J.F.Craghan. "The Book of Hosea: .4 Sunsy of Recent Literature on rhs First of the mino or Prophets." Biblical TheoIorrv Bulletin 1 (1971) 83-84: Henry McKeating. The Books of Amos. Hosea. and Micah (Cambridge: Cambrid~eUniversity Press. 1971) 99: Edwin .M. Yamauchi, "Cultic Prostitution: A Case Study in Cultural Diffusion." in Hany -4. Hoffner, Jr. (ed.). Orient And Occident (Xeukirchener : Verlag Butzon 6C Bercekr Kevelaer. 1973) 215: Hans Walter Woiff. Hosea (Hem; Philadelphia: Fortress. 1974) 72; G.W. Anderson, "Hosea and Yahweh: God's Love Story." Revienr and Ex~ositor72 (1975) 430: John Olen Strange. "The Broken Covenant: Bankrupt Relision (Hosea 4-6):' Revient and Espositor 72 ( 1975) 441: Francis 1. Andersen and David Noel Frsedman. Hosea: A New Translation with introduction and Commentarv (-413 24; Garden City: Doubleday and Co.. 1980) 343: Karl A. Plank. "The Scarred Counrenance: Inconstancy in the Book of Hosea." Judaism 32 (1983) 346: Harold Fisch. "Hosea: A Poetics of Violence." Poe- With a Pumose (Bloornington: Indiana University Press, 1988) 1JS; James Lirnburg. Hosea-Micah (Atlanta: John Knox. 1988) 23: H.D.Beeby. Grace Aboundinn: A Commentarv on the Book of Hosea (Grand Rapids: WilIiam B. Eerdmans Pub!ishing Co., 1989) 2: .Michael Lee Catlett. Reversal in the Book of Hosea: A Literan: Analvsis (Unpublished Ph.D dissertation.