The qdesha in Hosea 4:14: Putting the (Myth of the) Sacred Prostitute to Bed
Despite a lack of evidence for the practice of sacred prostitution in the ancient Middle East, scholars have continued to understand the word qdešɔ in Hosea 4:14 to denote a female officiant who performed sexual acts in a cultic setting. This article argues that the understanding of the qdešɔ as a c...
Publié dans: | Vetus Testamentum |
---|---|
Auteur principal: | |
Type de support: | Électronique Article |
Langue: | Anglais |
Vérifier la disponibilité: | HBZ Gateway |
Journals Online & Print: | |
Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
Publié: |
Brill
2018
|
Dans: |
Vetus Testamentum
|
Sujets / Chaînes de mots-clés standardisés: | B
Bibel. Hosea 4,14
/ Hébreu
/ Substantif
/ ḳedeshah
/ Prostituée
|
Classifications IxTheo: | HB Ancien Testament NCF Éthique sexuelle |
Sujets non-standardisés: | B
Hebrew Bible
Hosea
prostitution
qdšh
qadištu
diachronic semantics
Hebrew lexicography
|
Accès en ligne: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
Édition parallèle: | Non-électronique
|
Résumé: | Despite a lack of evidence for the practice of sacred prostitution in the ancient Middle East, scholars have continued to understand the word qdešɔ in Hosea 4:14 to denote a female officiant who performed sexual acts in a cultic setting. This article argues that the understanding of the qdešɔ as a cultic prostitute has appealed to interpreters for over two millennia because the Hebrew word has a semantic range that includes both female cultic functionaries and prostitutes. The lexeme denotes a class of women who are employed outside of the patrimonial estate, including priestesses or prostitutes (but never both at the same time). When the prophet indicts the Israelites for sacrificing with qdešot, he deploys a pun that strengthens his metaphor of Israel as a wayward woman. |
---|---|
ISSN: | 1568-5330 |
Contient: | In: Vetus Testamentum
|
Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1163/15685330-12341300 |