Oddly enough the first mention of prostitution as an industry in the Bible is in Genesis but it concerns a woman who had been wronged – Tamar. When I went through the Bible looking at marriage, I wrote about Judah and Tamar in this post. The issue in bringing up this time is not marriage but temple prostitution. Tamar is refered to by Judah when he goes back to pay her as a ‘temple prostitute’. The reason he thinks so is she had veiled her face. This was actually a common practice among temple prostitutes. A man could have sex with the woman and not know who she was as this protected her identity.
Sacred sex or ritual sex becomes common in pagan worship very early. The beliefs that the world, humanity and many other things were products of the sex acts between gods and goddesses fueled the need for religious rituals that used sex to reenact the stories of the gods, fertility rites and just plain money-making ventures to support the religion involved. Temple prostitutes were used in all of these endeavors. Judah must think that Tamar was a religious prostitute of some type so his motivation for sleeping with her may be different from just entertainment – he may have been looking for favor from the divine for finding a new mate as his wife had just died.
The reason for a prostitute being veiled (although not all temple prostitutes wore veils) is very simple, most of them were something else in society or even married. Temple prostitution was conducted by everyone at times. A wife might use it to help her favorite deity and make some money for her husband on the side. She would veil herself to avoid being labeled or to avoid other societal backlash. In many senses, ritualized sex was a masquerade where everyone could let their hair down and be someone else and have sex with someone else all with the blessing of society.
What needs to be understood when the Law of Moses comes about after the Exodus, is that temple prostitution and pagan worship are so interconnected that one cannot exist without the other. God wants his people to be different and to show genuine faithfulness in their relationships with him and each other. Temple prostitutes are forbidden in the worship the Almighty. In fact, females are forbidden in the tabernacle so that there is no association between sexuality and the worship of Yahweh God. In short, if even looks or hints at temple prostitution, it is forbidden.
The imagery of this is so strong that God in speaking to his people will call idolatry: ‘playing the harlot with other gods’. It is an image that will span the Law of Moses as God forbids certain sexual practices.
Next: The Law of Moses and Forbidden Sexual Practice.
It’s very easy to ramble on with teaching under the assumption that people have been so brain washed with false doctrine they will automatically believe what you are saying. In reality though you have not provided any Biblical reference, you have not provided any Biblical reference in context, and you have not provided any historical or cultural background.
Your argument is lost because it’s based on socially acceptable mistruths.