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Bible Encyclopedias
Harlot, Whore, Etc.
Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
or are terms used somewhat promiscuously in the Auth. Vers. for several Heb. words of widely different import.
1. Properly זוֹנָה (zonah', participle from זָנָה, to play the harlot, Sept. πόρνη,Vulg. meretrix, both these latter terms referring to prostitution for mercenary motives), which occurs frequently, and is often rendered in our version by the first of the above English words, as in Genesis 34:31, etc., and sometimes, without apparent reason for the change, by the second, as in Proverbs 23:27, and elsewhere. In Genesis 38:15, the word is זוֹנָה "harlot," which, however, becomes changed to קְדֵשָׁה, "harlot," in vers. 21, 22, which means, literally, a consecrated woman, a female (perhaps priestess) devoted to prostitution in honor of some heathen idol. The distinction shows that Judah supposed Tamar to be a heathen: the facts, therefore, do not prove that prostitution was then practiced between Hebrews.
That this condition of persons existed in the earliest states of society is clear from Genesis 38:15. From that account it would appear that the "veil" was at that time peculiar to harlots. Judah thought Tamar to be such "because she had covered her face." Mr. Buckingham remarks, in reference to this passage, that the Turcoman women go unveiled to this day"(Travels in Mesopotanmia, 1, 77). It is contended by Jahn and others that in ancient times all females wore the veil (Bibl. Archceö l. p. 127). Possibly some peculiarity in the size of the veil, or the mode of wearing it, may have been (Proverbs 7:10) the distinctive dress of the harlot at that period (see New Translation, by the Rev. A. De Sola, etc., p. 116, 248-9). The priests and the high priest were forbidden to take a wife that was (had been, Leviticus 21:14) a harlot. Josephus extends the law to all the Hebrews, and seems to ground it on the prohibition against oblations arising from prostitution, Deuteronomy 23:18(Ant. 4, 8, 23). The celebrated case of Rahab has been much debated. She is, indeed, called by the word usually signifying harlot (Joshua 2:1; Joshua 6:17; Sept. πόρνη ; Vulg. meretrix; and in Hebrews 11:31; James 2:25); but it has been attempted to show that the word may mean an innkeeper. (See RAHAB).
If, however, there were such persons, considering what we know of Canaanitish morals (Leviticus 18:27), we may conclude that they would, if women, have been of this class. The next instance introduces the epithet of "strange woman." It is the case of Jephthah's mother (Judges 11:2), who is also called a harlot (πόρνη; meretrix); but the epithet אַשָׁה אִחֶרֶת(achereth), "strange woman," merely denotes foreign extraction. Josephus says ξένος περὶ τὴνμντέρα, "a stranger by the mother's side." The masterly description in Proverbs 7:6, etc. may possibly be that of an abandoned married woman (Proverbs 7:19-20), or of the solicitations of a courtesan, "fair speech," under such a pretension. The mixture of religious observances (Proverbs 7:14) seems illustrated by the fact that "the gods are actually worshipped in many Oriental brothels, and fragments of the offerings distributed among the frequenters"(Dr. A. Clarke's Comment. ad loc.). The representation given by Solomon is no doubt bounded upon facts, and therefore shows that in his time prostitutes plied their trade- in the "streets"(Proverbs 7:12; Proverbs 9:14, etc.; Jeremiah 3:2; Ezekiel 16:24-25; Ezekiel 16:31). As regards the fashions involved in the practice, similar outward marks seem to have attended its earliest forms to those which we trace in the classical writers, e.g. a distinctive dress and a seat by the way- side (Genesis 38:14; compare Ezekiel 16:16; Ezekiel 16:25; Baruch 6:43; Petron. Arb. Sat. 16; Juv. 6:118 foll.; Dougtaei Analect. Sacr. Exc. 24). Public singing in the streets occurs also (Isaiah 23:16; Sirach 9:4). Those who thus published their infamy were of the worst repute; others had houses of resort, and both classes seem to have been known among the Jews (Proverbs 7:8-12; Proverbs 23:28; Sirach 9:7-8); the two women, 1 Kings 3:16, lived as Greek hetaerae sometimes did, in a house together (Smith, Dict. Gr. and Roman Ant. s.v. Hetaera).
The baneful fascination ascribed to them in Proverbs 7:21-23, may be compared with what Chardin says of similar effects among the young nobility of Persia (Voyages en Perse, 1, 163, ed. 1711), as also may Luke 15:30, for the sums lavished on them (ib. 162). In earlier times the price of a kid is mentioned (Genesis 38), and great wealth doubtless sometimes accrued to them (Ezekiel 16:33; Ezekiel 16:39; Ezekiel 23:26). But lust, as distinct from gain, appears as the inducement in Proverbs 7:14-15 (see Dougtaei Anal. Sacr. ad loc.), where the victim is further allured by a promised sacrificial banquet (comp. Ter. Eun. 3:3). The "harlots" are classed with "publicans," as those who lay under the ban of society in the N.T. (Matthew 21:32). No doubt they multiplied with the increase of polygamy, and consequently lowered the estimate of marriage. The corrupt practices imported by Gentile converts into the Church occasion most of the other passages in which allusions to the subject there occur, 1 Corinthians 1, 9, 11; 2 Corinthians 12:21; 1 Thessalonians 4:3; 1 Timothy 1:10. The decree, Acts 15:29, has occasioned doubts as to the meaning of 7opveia there, chiefly from its context, which may be seen discussed at length in Deyling's Observ. Sacr. 2, 470, sq.; Schö ttgen, Hor. Hebr. 1, 468; Spencer and Hammond, ad loc. The simplest sense, however, seems the most probable. The children of such persons were held in contempt, and could not exercise privileges nor inherit (John 8:41; Deuteronomy 23:2; Judges 11:1-2). The term "bastard" is not, however, applied to any illegitimate offspring born out of wedlock, but is restricted by the Rabbins to the issue of any connection within the degrees prohibited by the law. A manner, according to the Mishna (Yebamoth, 4:13), is one, says R. Akiba, who is born of relations between whom marriage is forbidden. Simeon the Temanite says it is every one whose parents are liable to the punishment of "cutting off" by the hands of Heaven; R. Joshua, every one whose parents are liable to death by the house of judgment, as, for instance, the offspring of adultery. On the general subject, Michaelis's Laws of Moses, bk. 5, art. 268; Selden, De Ux. Hebr. 1, 16; 3. 12; and De Jur. Natur. 5, 4, together with Schottgen, and the authorities there quoted, may be consulted.
The words וְהֲזֹּנוֹת רָחָצוּ, A.V. "and they washed his armor"(1 Kings 22:38), should be, "and the harlots washed," which is not only the natural rendering, but in accordance with the Sept. and Josephus.
Since the Hebrews regarded Jehovah as the husband of his people, by virtue of the covenant he had made with them (Jeremiah 3:1), therefore to commit fornication is a very common metaphor in the Scriptures to denote defection on their part from that covenant, and especially by the practice of idolatry. (See FORNICATION). Hence the degeneracy of Jerusalem is illustrated by the symbol of a harlot (Isaiah 1:21), and even that of heathen cities, as of Nineveh (Nahum 3:4). Under this figure the prophet Ezekiel delivers the tremendous invectives contained in Ezekiel 16:23. In the prophecy of Hosea the illustration is carried to a start-ling extent. The prophet seems commanded by the Lord to take "a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms"(Hosea 1:2), and "to love an adulteress"(Hosea 3:1). It has, indeed, been much disputed whether these transactions were real, or passed in vision only; but the idea itself, and the diversified applications of it throughout the prophecy, render it one of the most effective portions of Scripture. (See HOSEA).
2. קְדֵשָׁה (kedeshah', from קָדִשׁ, to consecrate, occurs Genesis 38:15; Genesis 38:21-22; Deuteronomy 23:17; Hosea 4:14). It has already been observed that the proper meaning of the word is consecrated prostitute. The very early allusion to such persons, in the first of these passages, agrees with the accounts of them in ancient heathen writers. Herodotus refers to the "abominable custom of the Babylonians, who compelled every native female to attend the temple of Venus once in her life, and to prostitute herself in honor of the goddess"(i, 199; Baruch 6:43). Strabo calls prostitutes, who, it is well known, were at Athens dedicated to Venus, ἱερόδουλοι γυνἃ ικες, "consecrated servants," "votaries"(Geog. 8:378; Grotius, Annotat. on Baruch; Beloe's Herodotus, Notes, 1, 272, Lond. 1806). The transaction related in Numbers 15:1-15 (compare Psalms 106:28) seems connected with idolatry. The prohibition in Deuteronomy 23:17, "there shall be no קְדֵשָׁה, ‘ whore,' of the daughters of Israel," is intended to exclude such devotees from the worship of Jehovah (see other allusions, Job 36:14; 1 Kings 14:24; 1 Kings 15:12). The law forbids (Leviticus 19:29) the father's compelling his daughter to sin, but does not mention it as a voluntary mode of life on her part without his complicity. It could, indeed, hardly be so. The provision of Leviticus 21:9, regarding the priest's daughter, may have arisen from the fact of his home being less guarded, owing to his absence when ministering, as well as from the scandal to sanctity so involved. Perhaps such abominations might, if not thus severely marked, lead the way to the excesses of Gentile ritualistic fornication, to which, indeed, when so near the sanctuary, they might be viewed as approximating (Michaelis, Laws of Moses, art. 268). Yet it seems to be assumed that the harlot class would exist, and the prohibition of Deuteronomy 23:18, forbidding offerings from the wages of such sin, is perhaps due to the contagion of heathen example, in whose worship practices abounded which the Israelites were taught to abhor. The term there especially refers to the impure worship of the Syrian Astarte (Numbers 25:1; comp. Herod. 1, 199; Justin, 18:5; Strabo, 8, 378; 12, 559; Val. Max. 2, 6, 15; August. De Civ. Dei, 4, 4), whose votaries, as idolatry progressed, would be recruited from the daughters of Israel; hence the common mention of both these sins in the Prophets, the one, indeed, being a metaphor of the other (Isaiah 1:21; Isaiah 57:8; Jeremiah 2:20; comp. Exodus 34:15-16; Jeremiah 3:1-2; Jeremiah 3:6; Ezekiel 16, 23; Hosea 1:2; Hosea 2:4-5; Hosea 4:11; Hosea 4:13-15; Hosea 5:3). The latter class would grow up with the growth of great cities and of foreign intercourse, and hardly could enter into the-view of the Mosaic institutes.
3. נָכְרְיָּה (nokriyah', from נָכִי, to ignore), the strange woman" (1 Kings 11:1; Proverbs 5:20; Proverbs 6:24; Proverbs 7:5; Proverbs 23:7; Sept. ἀλλοτρία; Vulg. aliena, extranea). It seems probable that some of the Hebrews in later times interpreted the prohibition against fornication (Deuteronomy 22:41) as limited to females of their own nation, and that the "strange women"in question were Canaanites and other Gentiles (Joshua 23:13). In the case of Solomon they are specified as Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites. The passages referred to discover the character of these females. To the same class belongs זָרָה(zarah', from זוּר,to turn in as a visitor), "the strange woman"(Proverbs 5:3; Proverbs 5:20; Proverbs 22:14; Proverbs 23:33; γύνη πόρνη ἀλλοτπία; meretrix, aliena, extranea): it is sometimes found in full, אַשָּׁה זָרָה (Proverbs 2:16; Proverbs 7:5). To the same class of females likewise belongs אֶשְׁת כְּסַילוּת (kesiluth', folly), "the foolish woman," i.e. by a common association of ideas in the Shemitic dialects, sinful (Psalms 14:1). The description in Proverbs 9:14, etc. illustrates the character of the female so designated. To this may be added אֶשֶׁת רִע(ra, wrong), "the evil woman"(Proverbs 5, 24).
In the New Testament πόρνη occurs in Matthew 21:31-32; Luke 15:30; 1 Corinthians 6:15-16; Hebrews 11:31; James 2:25. In none of these passages does it necessarily imply prostitution for gain. The likeliest is Luke 15:30. It is used symbolically for a city in Revelation 17:1; 5:15, 16; 19:2. where the term and all the attendant imagery are derived from the Old Testament. It may be observed in regard to Tyre, which (Isaiah 23:15-17) is represented as "committing fornication with all the kingdoms of the world upon the face of the earth," that these. words, as indeed seems likely from those which follow, may relate to the various arts which she had employed to induce merchants to trade with her (Patrick, ad loc.). So the Sept. understood it, ἔσται ἑμπόριον πάσαις πά῝ ις βασιλείαις τῆς οἰκουμένης ἐπὶ πρόσωπον τῆς γῆς .Schleusner observes that the same words in Revelation 18:3may also relate to commercial dealings. (Fesselii Adversar. Sacr. 2, 27, 1, 2 [Wittenb. 1650]; Frisch, De muliere pere niud ap. Hebr. [Lips. 1744J). Cuillpare PROSTITUTE.
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McClintock, John. Strong, James. Entry for 'Harlot, Whore, Etc.'. Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/tce/h/harlot-whore-etc.html. Harper & Brothers. New York. 1870.
