Relativizing Paul: Cult Prostitution and Feminist Interpretation of 1 Timothy 2

Though not every first-century boulevard was a Bourbon Street or a Las Vegas strip, various ancient literary and archaeological sources mention prostitution. Encounters with prostitutes (Greek hetairai) at dinner parties or in public brothels were not unusual. Even more common was the sexual exploitation of slave girls in the households by their masters. Prostitution was undeniably a part of ancient life.

Just because this phenomenon existed does not necessarily make it a very edifying subject to study. But as a New Testament professor whose training is in classics and ancient history, particularly in the social history and cultures of the Pauline world, it is part of a larger, specialized discipline in which I continue to read and research.¹ Hence, when I read about an interpreta-tion of a New Testament passage that relies heavily on the historical circumstances of the New Testament author or recipients, it piques my interest. But, un-fortunately, there are times when interpretations are based on a particularly faulty understanding of the historical background. Such is the case with "cult prostitution" and 1 Timothy 2:9-15 in some writers who defend a feminist reading of this text.

This is when arguments over details of history move beyond mere arcane points of fact among ancient historians into issues related to the life of the Church. Feminist interpreters of the Bible take this as a relativized command of Paul's based on the special circumstances of the women of Ephesus-who were supposedly involved in cult prostitution-and hence, no longer applicable in the Church today.

For this reason, I would like to present here a summary of my findings-or, more accurately, the absence of my findings-on cult prostitution in the first-century world of Paul (the original article in which these findings were presented in great detail is "Cult Prostitution in New Testament Ephesus: A Reappraisal," JETS 42/3 (1999):443-60).² If there is no evidence of cult prostitution in Ephesus, then feminist historical analysis is wrong and may not be used to substantiate their analysis of Paul's command to women in 1 Timothy 2:12.

Special Circumstances at Ephesus?

The argument of these writers is quite simple. Paul only forbids Ephesian women from engaging in an ordained teaching and ruling ministry. Paul does this, they say, because of special circumstances at Ephesus where the letter, 1 Timothy, was directed (cf. 1 Tim. 1:3, "remain on at Ephesus"). These special circumstances, it is argued, include the fact that female cult prostitution was present in the service of the chief deity of Ephesus, the goddess Artemis Ephesia.

But was female cult prostitution conducted at Ephesus? By cult prostitution, I mean the practice of prostitution as a cult act sanctioned by some deity; the prostitute would be considered to be a temple functionary. More broadly, we could also consider cult prostitution to be harlotry sponsored by a temple as a source of income. But in either case, whether as a cult or as harlotry, neither is evidenced at all at Ephesus-quite the contrary!

I admit that this opinion swims against the tide of modern notions. Even among people who are not feminists and among New Testament scholars of distinction, there are proponents of this view. However, the evidence suggests that this conclusion is wrong. Cult prostitution was not practiced at Ephesus or in any other Greco-Roman city of the first century. This was never a part of Greco-Roman religious practice and it was not such in Paul's day.

Modern Relavitizers

Again, the issue of cult prostitution is important, because modern writers use it to explain Paul's refusal to allow women into ordained positions. They then conclude that Paul's teaching in 1 Timothy 2:12 in particular is not relevant today. Using only one example, Sharon Hodgin Gritz, in a published version of her doctoral dissertation, writes that "Some form of temple prostitution probably did exist in Ephesus even if with limitations." She then makes a rather firm statement: "[U]ndoubtedly, some of the new Christian converts had once been cultic priestesses." She concludes that these former priestesses in the Christian congregation at Ephesus could not be trusted by Paul as Christian teachers or elders because they would have been burdened with "guilty memories of ‘sacred' sexual misconduct."³

Ergo, because women today do not have this background of "sacred sexual misconduct," Paul's injunction against women's ordination is now obsolete. The supposed existence of cult prostitution is used to relativize Paul's command to women in 1 Timothy 2:12. But there simply is no evidence to substantiate the notion of cult prostitution or sacred sexual misconduct in the first-century Mediterranean world, and the evidence we do have points clearly to the contrary.⁴

Two Thousand Years from Now

Curiously, this lack of evidence for ancient cult prostitution makes it hard to dissuade people who believe that it did exist. They take the lack of evidence to be an unpersuasive argument from silence, or they believe that our sources took cult prostitution for granted and therefore simply did not comment upon the practice.

Given this problem of lack of evidence, how would you show that cult prostitution did not exist? Let your imagination run a little bit here. Let's say that two thousand years from now, some future historian of antiquity must show that cult prostitution did not take place as part of the worship practice in, say, my church, the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC). Suppose that the hypothetical future historian will have very little literary remains about the OPC. How would he go about showing that cult prostitution did not exist in OPC worship practices?

Now I hope you think that cult prostitution in the OPC is absurd. (It certainly is!) But why? Because, hopefully, you know OPC people and, despite any faults they may have, they are not that sort of folk to practice cult prostitution. Not only is it not practiced in the OPC particularly, it is not found in North American religious practices in general. Besides, the God we worship has no truck with "sacred" sexual acts.

Artemis Ephesia, the Virgin Goddess

Well, now you know how I try to show that cult prostitution in the service of Artemis of Ephesus is likewise absurd. First, as noted already, the religious cultures surrounding Ephesus did not practice cult prostitution. In the second place, Artemis Ephesia (Diana to the Romans) was a virgin goddess who was renowned throughout the ancient world for recoiling from any contact with sex. She roamed the wild woods with her hunting dogs in pursuit of the stag, shunning any male contact whatsoever. The main mythologies about her-including those evidenced at Ephesus-reiterate the fact that, like Artemis, her devotees, too, must shun any sexual contact. The "pure" virgin goddess even cursed one of her nymphs (a woodland fairy) after she had been raped by Zeus (Ovid, Metamorphosis 3:140ff). This is not the sort of deity to countenance cult prostitution! Third, when one gets to know actual Ephesians as people-including those who served as priestesses of Artemis-it becomes impossible to believe that they promoted or participated in cult prostitution.

The Ancient Evidence

The problem is that to get to know what the ancient Ephesians were like requires that one read extensively in ancient sources. Unfortunately, the bulk of these ancient sources-epithets or stone tablet inscriptions-are not translated. It is for that reason that I provided translations of all of the major epithets of the Ephesian priestesses of Artemis in my JETS article. These epithets on stone inscriptions were recovered in archaeological digs at Ephesus conducted under Austrian supervision over the past century and published from 1979 to 1985 in a major collection, Die Inschriften von Ephesos (IvE) ("The Inscriptions from Ephesus"), as well as in a continuing journal series.⁵

Let us examine just one of these inscriptions to see what it yields about the priestesses of Artemis and whether they substantiate the practice of cult prostitution. There is much more positive evidence in existence but this one bit will suffice here.

Ulpia Euodia Mudiane the Priestess of Artemis, daughter of Mudianus and of Euodia the descendant of (Upius) Strato and (daughter) of Dionisius, whose family often held the office of priestess and kosmeteira,⁶ sister of Ulpia Strato the kosmeteira, performed the rites and made all the expenses through her parents (IvE 989; I-II cent. A.D.).

Wealthy Roman Aristocrats

First, we should note that Ulpia Euodia Mudiane has a name which is both Roman (Ulpia) and Greek (Euodia Mudiane). This phenomenon is found in increasing proportions from the mid-first century until the third, when all free-born people were declared to be Roman citizens. Though it is not infallible proof, the Roman and Greek names of Ulpia Euodia and her family show her to be among the upper class of Ephesus. Ulpia Euodia notes her parents' names and that of Strato, a prominent citizen of earlier generations. Her eminent lineage is further indicated by the notation that many of her family held sacred office as priestesses and "adorners" (kosmeteirai), including her sister, Ulpia Strato.

Second, note from the sample inscription above that Ulpia Euodia was expected to subsidize certain sacrifices and other cult expenses, which she did "through her parents." This subsidy was normally set at the high figure of 5,000 denarii (as witnessed on other inscriptions), and further attests that priestesses of Artemis could come only from the wealthiest aristocratic families of Ephesus. Needless to say, this is not the class of people who prostituted their daughters in the Greco-Roman world! In fact, a senatorial law made prostitution illegal for Roman citizens such as Ulpia Euodia Mudiane.

Young, Unmarried Girls

What we also learn about Ulpia Euodia Mudiane is that she was unmarried during the term of her annual priesthood. It was the standard convention for unmarried children to identify themselves as "the son [or daughter] of So and So." Similarly, a married woman invariably identified herself as "wife of So and So," even if her parents were mentioned for some reason (e.g. if they were famous). It is inconceivable for Ulpia Euodia's husband's name to have been omitted from this honorary inscription if she had in fact been married, particularly when her grandfather (Dionisius) and sister (Ulpia Strato) are mentioned. Notice also that Ulpia Euodia's parents, not her husband, paid the requisite expenses of her priesthood. From all this we must conclude that she was unmarried.

Given that the priestess Ulpia Euodia was not married-just as were the other priestesses of Artemis known from inscriptions-we can conclude that Ulpia was probably a young girl approximately 12 to 14 years old. This conclusion is derived from the fact that the average age of marriage for girls in the Greco-Roman world was 14 or 15 years old (with an average life expectancy to age 36).

Another reason to believe she was a young girl is because of the well-founded assumption that priestesses of Artemis would have been chosen for their resem-blance to the goddess in unmarried maidenhood. A central pageant celebrated on the birthday of Artemis each year involved a parade through Ephesus to the great temple of Artemis about a mile outside the city limits. As priestess, Ulpia Euodia would have led this parade at the head of the corps of young Ephesian girls. This occasion allowed the girls to be viewed by prospective husbands and parents of prospective husbands, since girls in the Greco-Roman world were otherwise sequestered in their homes.⁷ Again, it is obvious that these are not the kinds of women who would be used in ancient Ephesus as cult prostitutes. They were young unmarried girls being prepared for and seeking prospective husbands. Were they serving as temporary cult prostitutes, in that culture, they would have been unmarriageable!⁸

Unfounded Interpretation

Given the accumulation of all the extant historical information we possess about the priestesses of Artemis in Ephesus, some of which has been presented here, we cannot accept the modern notion that cult prostitution was practiced in ancient Ephesus in the service of Artemis Ephesia (or of any other deity there). Not only that, but to relativize the commands of Paul on the basis of faulty historical data merely to the city of Ephesus is doubly wrong. The pagan cults of Ephesus were no different from those found throughout the ancient world-no better, but no worse. Paul could just as well have written 1 Timothy 2:9-15 to a Roman, to an Alexandrian, or to a Damascene audience. Indeed, this was teaching he explicitly regarded relevant "in every place" arising out of his unique authority as the apostle and teacher of the church throughout the Gentile region (1 Tim. 2:7-8). Hence, to interpret Paul's teaching in 1 Timothy 2:9-15 as bearing only on a peculiar historical circumstance and not germane today is unfounded.

If you read enough modern literature on the well-examined 1 Timothy 2:9-15 passage, you will find other notions invoked by feminist interpreters in order to arrive at this same, relativized conclusion. One thing that this interpretation has in common with most other feminist interpreters of this passage is that it tries to limit its significance to the first century.

Conclusion

In the end, the feminist Ephesus construct related to cult prostitution and the "problem of the Ephesian women" is simply not plausible. Paul's injunctions in 1 Timothy 2:12 are not temporary measures in a unique social setting of cult prostitution. This points to a larger issue, namely, that the Word of God may not be used to serve ideological agendas. It stands over us and judges "the thoughts and intentions of the heart"; we are not to conform it to our lives, but conform our lives to it. While we may not like what Paul teaches in the Bible, we may not take what are at best unsubstantiated historical hypotheses and use them to justify our own ideas.