Harlot or Holy Woman?: A Study of Hebrew Qedešah

Phyllis A. Bird

Published by Penn State University Press 2019

Harlot or Holy Woman?

A Study of Hebrew Qedešah

Phyllis A. Bird

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781646020201

Overview
Contents

About this book

Harlot or Holy Woman? presents an exhaustive study of qedešah, a Hebrew word meaning “consecrated woman” but rendered “prostitute” or “sacred prostitute” in Bible translations. Reexamining biblical and extrabiblical texts, Phyllis A. Bird questions how qedešah came to be associated with prostitution and offers an alternative explanation of the term, one that suggests a wider participation for women as religious specialists in Israel’s early cultic practice.

Bird’s study reviews all the texts from classical antiquity cited as sources for an institution of “sacred prostitution,” alongside a comprehensive analysis of the cuneiform texts from Mesopotamia containing the cognate qadištu and Ugaritic texts containing the masculine cognate qdš. Through these texts, Bird presents a portrait of women dedicated to a deity, engaged in a variety of activities from cultic ritual to wet-nursing, and sharing a common generic name with the qedešah of ancient Israel. In the final chapter she returns to biblical texts, reexamining them in light of the new evidence from the ancient Near East.

Considering alternative models for constructing women’s religious roles in ancient Israel, this wholly original study offers new interpretations of key texts and raises questions about the nature of Israelite religion as practiced outside the royal cult and central sanctuary.

Author / Editor information

Bird Phyllis A. :

Phyllis A. Bird is Professor Emerita of Old Testament Interpretation at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary. She is the author of Missing Persons and Mistaken Identities: Women and Gender in Ancient Israel; Faith, Feminism, and the Forum of Scripture; Feminism and the Bible; and The Bible as the Church’s Book.

Reviews

“Phyllis Bird deserves praise for amassing all this material into one volume and for her careful and insightful analysis of both biblical and extrabiblical texts.”
—Elaine Adler Goodfriend, Review of Biblical Literature

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Preface and Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
List of Abbreviations Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
Chapter 1. Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Chapter 2. Sacred Prostitution as Interpretive Construct Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	33
Chapter 3. Sir James George Frazer and the Concept of Sacred Prostitution Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	69
Chapter 4. Classical Sources in Constructions of Sacred Prostitution Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	105
Chapter 5. New Sources from the Ancient Near East Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	209
Chapter 6. Qedešah in the Hebrew Bible Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	359
Appendix A. Synopsis of Classical Sources in Constructions of Sacred Prostitution Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	413
Appendix B. Synopsis of qadištu /nu.gig Texts Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	421
Appendix C. Nu- gig in Early Sumerian Texts Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	433
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	455
Index of Sources Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	481

Language: English
Publisher: Penn State University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 512

eBook

Published: January 16, 2020
ISBN: 9781646020201