Prostitution and Other Misunderstandings - Sexual Immorality, Part II

The term ZNH is used 93 times in the OT. Of these, not all of them had to do with sex, but with idolatry. Some of these are:

Exo 34:15 - “...otherwise you might make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land and they would play the harlot with their gods and sacrifice to their gods, and someone might invite you to eat of his sacrifice, 16 and you might take some of his daughters for your sons, and his daughters might play the harlot with their gods and cause your sons also to play the harlot with their gods…” (NASB).

Lev 17:7 - “They shall no longer sacrifice their sacrifices to the goat demons with which they play the harlot. This shall be a permanent statute to them throughout their generations” (NASB).

Lev 20:5 - “...then I Myself will set My face against that man and against his family, and I will cut off from among their people both him and all those who play the harlot after him, by playing the harlot after Molech. 6 ‘As for the person who turns to mediums and to spiritists, to play the harlot after them, I will also set My face against that person and will cut him off from among his people...” (NASB).

Lev 21:7 - “They shall not take a woman who is profaned by harlotry” (NASB).

Num 15:39 - “It shall be a tassel for you to look at and remember all the commandments of the Lord, so as to do them and not follow after your own heart and your own eyes, after which you played the harlot” (NASB).

Deut 31:16 - “The Lord said to Moses, “Behold, you are about to lie down with your fathers; and this people will arise and play the harlot with the strange gods of the land, into the midst of which they are going, and will forsake Me and break My covenant which I have made with them” (NASB).

Judg 2:17 - “Yet they did not listen to their judges, for they played the harlot after other gods and bowed themselves down to them. They turned aside quickly from the way in which their fathers had walked in obeying the commandments of the Lord; they did not do as their fathers…” (NASB).

So, this is likely referring to prostitution, than anything else. Wait...why is prostitution not in the list in Lev 18? I believe it’s because it’s not really sinful, either. What the NT writers may have been concerned with was not prostitution as we know it. Back then, sex was also used to commune with a false god. It was used as a form of idolatry. The temple prostitute would take on the “role” of the god. Sex was used as the vessel. This was likely what Paul the Apostle meant when he mentioned prostitution. He reminded the Corinthians that they themselves were members of Christ’s body (1Cor 6:15). He asked them if it was right to take those parts and make them “one flesh” with a temple prostitute.

Take a look at this picture (censored):

 

Now tell me, which one of these people do you think is actually doing “porneia?” We know that all of them are because they are in some kind of temple. However, without that context, who of these for sure is doing it? If you guessed the woman doing it with the statue, you’d be right! Why? Because she is having sex “unto a false god.” It was an act of idolatry.

Oh, and early Church fathers, such as Tertullian, said that sex even between married couples was wrong. They said it was “marital fornication,” a phrase that really makes no sense whatsoever. He cursed all women for their enticing nature, and had the audacity to say that they were a source of temptation. Well, of course, they are! To a man, nothing is more beautiful than the female figure. As a result of this attitude, he went so far as to keep women’s heads and faces covered with veils and also ordered them to bathe very infrequently, as their stench would be a deterrent to sex. Jerome said that “corruption attaches itself to all intercourse, and incorruption is characteristic of chastity, the rewards to chastity cannot belong to marriage” (Against Jovininius, Book 1). For this reason, he advocated sexual abstinence even for married couples. He thought that remarrying a widow was prostitution! Origen thought that, during sex, the Holy Spirit leaves the bodies for that period of time!

A lot of this fallacy concerning sex came from the Manichean Gnostics. They believed that everything spiritual was good, and everything physical was evil. Mani, who was a Persian from Baghdad, had a following even within Christendom, and he was responsible for the Manichean heresy, which stated that Satan was a type of “competing god” with God the Father, and that, while God made the soul, the devil made the body.

All of this anti-sex lunacy led to a series of unscriptural “edicts” or rules forbidding married priests from having sex (Synod of Elvira, 306 AD), to forbidding church elders from having sex with their own wives (edict of Pope Siricius, 386), to finally, marriage being outlawed to all Catholic priests in the year 1123 AD. Not only that, but did you know that Catholic priests up to that time were polygamous? Read this website:

Due to the widespread illiteracy of the scriptures, especially that of the Gentile believers who were totally ignorant of the Torah, whatever the Catholic priests said were considered as God’s Law and divine truths. One area of total distortion was that of marital relationship. Surprising to almost all of us, it was common for Catholic priests to have multiple wives and mistresses. In 726AD, it was acceptable for a man with a sick wife to take a second wife so long as he looked after the first one. With concerns for protecting Church property from inheritance however, offspring could not inherit church property and it was later declared that all sons of priests were illegitimate. In 1022, Pope Benedict VIII banned marriages for priests (monogamous or polygamous). Finally in 1139, Pope Innocent II voided all marriages of priests and all new priests had to divorce their wives. All these were done to possess and protect money and church property. Making polygamy a sin and marriage unacceptable for a priest was a slow and purposeful process.

(Source: http://www.patriarchywebsite.com/monogamy/mono-history.htm, italics and underline mine)¹

So, the reasons for priests to remain celibate isn’t even about morality at all! It was and is about money! Just like the Pharisees of Jesus’ day were lovers of money (Lk 16:14), I believe these people are modern-day Pharisees. Fornication may also include adultery, idolatry to pagan religious cults (as previously mentioned), apostasy, incest, homosexuality, having sex while menstruating, bestiality, a girl still living with her father sneaking out to have sex without his consent, rape and orgies (including, having sex with many people at the same time, usually as part of cultic rituals – however, this was only around ¼ of the time – the term “orgy” actually means to eat and drink unto a false god).

I will say this. I believe that sex in marriage would be ideal – if you can manage it. However, just because it is “ideal,” is it sinful to experience sex before a certain date and before you have a certain piece of jewelry on? I would say no. I think it’s sad every time a person dies a virgin, having never experienced the wonderful thing that is sex. Even sadder is when that person does it because they think they are going to go to hell if they do, and so they remain celibate, which is another problem altogether. By the way, being celibate in ancient Israel was not common at all, as every Israelite was expected to get married and have lots of children, so that they could fulfill the command to “be fruitful and multiply.” They considered it “unnatural.” Unnatural…wasn’t that one of the arguments Christians bring up against things like homosexuality? Anyway, taken from a Jewish website:

The norm of Jewish law, thought, and life is represented rather by the opening clause in the matrimonial code of the Shulḥan Arukh: "Every man is obliged to marry in order to fulfill the duty of procreation, and whoever is not engaged in propagating the race is as if he shed blood, diminishing the Divine image and causing His Presence to depart from Israel" (Sh. Ar., EH 1:1). The law even provides for the courts to compel a man to marry if he is still single after passing the age of 20 (ibid., 1:3). Since the late Middle Ages, however, such authority has not been exercised (Isserles, ad loc.). Only if a person "cleaves to the study of the Torah like Simeon b. Azzai" can his refusal to marry be condoned, provided he can control his sexual lust (ibid. 4).

The Jewish opposition to celibacy is founded first on the positive precept to "be fruitful and multiply" as a cardinal duty to perpetuate life, a duty which also underlies the attitude of Judaism toward *birth control. Second, celibacy is incompatible with the Jewish scheme of creation in which a man is regarded as half a human being unless he be married, and in which "he who is without a wife lives without joy, without blessing,… without peace" (Yev. 62b, based on Gen. 5:2). Third, far from regarding celibacy as a means to the attainment of holiness, Judaism views it as an impediment to personal sanctification. This is strikingly illustrated by the rabbinic use of the term kiddushin ("sanctification") for marriage and by the insistence that the high priest be married (Lev. 21:13), especially at the time when he officiates in the Holy of Holies on the holiest day of the year (Yoma 1:1, based on Lev. 16:6, 11, and 17). For similar reasons, unmarried people are also debarred from holding certain public and religious offices, notably as judges in capital cases (Sanh. 36b) and as synagogue readers (Sof. 14:17; cf. OḤ 53:9). Jewish moralists in all ages have advocated severe self-control and occasionally even a measure of asceticism, but they did not encourage celibacy or any form of monasticism (although exceptionally there was a note of sympathy, cf. Baḥya's Ḥovot ha-Levavot 193, Abraham b. Ḥiyya's Meditation of the Sad Soul 133, and Abraham Maimonides' Highways of Perfection 249, 265, 279). Their writings and teachings reveal no trace of the condemnation of marriage as a compromise with evil, a concept already found in the New Testament (Mat. 19:12; I Cor. 7:9; Luke 20:27–36). The notion that there was something immoral in marriage was refuted in a special tract by *Naḥmanides as early as the 13^th century (Graetz, Gesch, 7 (1908³), 41).

(Source: https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/celibacy)

Taken from another website:

“Celibacy is simply not natural for us, and rules which demand it are bound to be broken. And when that does happen, the outcome is predictable: a sexuality that’s denied healthy outlets will find unhealthy ones.”

(Source: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/daylightatheism/2009/10/celibacy-is-unnatural)

And another:

“For too many Celibacy is based on guilt founded in false religious teachings that were developed to control people such as with Catholics.

Clearly there is no biblical basis for celibacy whether married or single. And too often someone who seeks celibacy is hiding deeper fears of intimacy.

Celibacy is physically unnatural and can result in physical problems, especially in men unless they masturbate so the body is used as it was intended. Prostate blockage and painful wet dreams are often the bodies reaction to the unnatural act of celibacy. This is what I experienced as a teen and young adult, believing the lies of the fundamentalists that totally twisted the bible to make me feel sex was somehow wrong before marriage.

Likewise in women, there are healthy benefits of sexual release- physical as well as emotional.”

(Source: https://www.libchrist.com/bible/celibacy.html)

I know what century it is, and we no longer live in Victorian times where people were expected to stay ‘pure’ (and even then, I don’t think those times were as “pure” as we were led to believe, either). Which leads me to the following serious question: isn’t it about time that prostitution be legalized? No, I mean, seriously, isn’t it about time we legalized it? I don’t understand why it was illegal in the first place. It’s like the late George Carlin said, “Selling is legal. F*-ing is legal. Why isn’t selling f*-ing legal??” We’ve already legalized marijuana, why not this?? Don’t you think it’s time? When legalized and regulated, sex workers are treated fairly, the stigma regarding them disappears since it’s normalized, they will be required by law to get regular health checkups with, of course, mandatory STD testing, plus they won’t be brutalized by pimps or “John’s,” and will help curb human trafficking.

When the Bible mentions "prostitution," it's not how we define it today. The term was in context to religious temple worship (i.e., idolatry). Deut 23:17 says, "There shall be no harlot of the daughters of Israel, nor a sodomite of the sons of Israel" (KJV 2000). That's what the King James Bible says. What comes to mind when reading that? You might say, "Oh, simple! It means just what it says. Don't let your daughters become 'sluts' and don't let you sons become 'fags'. The Bible said it, I believe it, that settles it!" Not so fast, there. Do you know what other translations more accurately say? Some say it more like this, "No Israelite man or woman is to become a shrine prostitute" in the NIV. The same verse is rendered, “None of the daughters of Israel shall be a cult prostitute, nor shall any of the sons of Israel be a cult prostitute” in the NASB, and “There shall come to be neither a cult-prostitute from the daughters of Israel, nor shall there come to be a cult-prostitute from the sons of Israel” in the CLOT. So the terms actually refers to religious prostitutes, not gays and what we would consider to be prostitutes. It was about idol worship. Same thing with orgies by the way. Only about a quarter of all orgies had anything to do with sex. It was eating and getting drunk to a false god.

There are things worse than prostitution. Take, for example, today’s dating/Tinder scene. At least with a professional sex worker, you know her price up front. Kirby R. Cundiff, Associate Professor of Finance at Northeastern State University, stated in a poll that if it were legalized that "the rape rate would decrease by roughly 25% for a decrease of approximately 25,000 rapes per year." In her blog, Sadaf Khan writes about how the neighborhood that she grew up in has become the stalking grounds for a kidnapper. That person found his target - an eight-year-old girl whom he soon killed after he had violated her innocence. She states that understanding pedophiles, as well as other criminals, is futile. Yet, while we can't understand them, "maybe [we] should just legalize prostitution. With sex within easy reach, maybe some of the frustrated monsters would find another outlet." Linda M. Rio Reichmann in her article, Psychological and Sociological Research and the Decriminalization or Legalization of Prostitution, mentioned that a “A study conducted in Queensland showed a 149% increase in the rate of rape when legal brothels were closed in 1959, while other offenses against the person by males increased only 49%.”

I wonder how many assaults happen by horny, desperate guys that just want to screw someone. My personal viewpoint is that prostitution should be legalized, unless the participant has been forced into doing it, or is getting unfair wages for "services" rendered. It should be socially-accepted (much harder to do than just legalizing it) so that people will not be ashamed to go into a brothel or to call-up a call-girl. Everyone needs sex, but sex may not be readily available to everyone at all times. And look at all of those places were prostitution is legalized, like Australia, Mexico (some parts), Amsterdam, and even Tel Aviv, Israel! Yes, there is a red-light district in the Holy Land!! That’s my point – how can prostitution be this most sinful practice if it is accepted and regulated by the Jewish state? The answer is that it was never this very sinful thing as we have been taught (although, I think it’s always been frowned upon). Let’s face it, some guys lack any type of “game.” For those, prostitution may be an outlet for them. It will give them confidence since they will be talking to a girl that isn’t likely to reject them and they will no longer be virgins. That will give them a huge boost of confidence to talk to other girls. As long as the places are clean, the workers are not being abused, and health screenings and protection from STDs is mandated and done, I think it would work, and we would see a decline in sexual violence.

1Even the official Catholic website corroborates these figures: https://www.catholic.org/news/hf/faith/story.php?id=70507