The Prostitute in the Bible: Name, Verses, and The Real Story

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily match my own. - Dr. Bart D. Ehrman

Although many people know there is one prostitute in the Bible, that there are more mentioned is less common knowledge. The portrayal of prostitutes in the Bible often sparks curiosity and debate. Some of these figures are symbolic of faith and redemption, while others are used to convey moral lessons. In the Bible, we encounter women whose roles as sex workers complicate their identities and challenge conventional views of righteousness. Yet when examining these stories, a deeper investigation of cultural contexts and historical interpretations reveals a more complex picture.

In this article, I’ll explore these intriguing stories, examining how the Bible depicts prostitutes, the real historical context of their lives, and how their stories challenge or reinforce ancient social and religious norms

Beyond a Prostitute in the Bible: Prostitution in the Ancient World

When it comes to academic studies of prostitution in the ancient world, there is a fair amount of controversy. In general, academics of the past divided prostitutes into two types. The first of these were cultic or sacred prostitutes. These were thought to be women who engaged in ritual sexual activity in temples dedicated to a deity.

Ancient historian Herodotus, for example, wrote of this practice at the Temple of the goddess Ishtar in Babylon. He mentioned how all women in Babylon were required to sit at least once in Ishtar’s temple and "expose themselves to a stranger" for money. Herodotus found this deplorable. Similarly, the Greek geographer Strabo wrote that in Persia, girls as young as 12 were dedicated to cultic prostitution. But is this accurate?

In their article “With This Body I Thee Worship: Sacred Prostitution in Antiquity,” classicists Mary Beard and J. Henderson are skeptical. They write that it is more likely that accounts like those of Herodotus and Strabo are either misinterpretations of sacred institutions or simply lies meant to defame the respective civilizations. Furthermore, in her book The Myth of Sacred Prostitution in Antiquity, Stephanie Budin writes that the idea of sacred prostitution “has come into being as a result of more than 2,000 years of misinterpretations, false assumptions, and faulty methodology” by scholars.

(Affiliate Disclaimer: We may earn commissions on products you purchase through this page at no additional cost to you. Thank you for supporting our site!)

The second type of ancient prostitution is the kind which, in some ways, still exists today: secular prostitution for money. Rebecca Denova writes that, in ancient Israel, prostitution was not technically considered a sin. The reason for this begins with the fact that in the law of Moses, as in most civilizations of the ancient Near East, women were considered property. They belonged to their fathers until they were given to a husband under a marriage contract. Prostitutes, however, since they were not under any such marriage contract, were not violating any law by having sex, even with married men.

However, Denova is quick to point out that despite this, prostitutes were definitely at the bottom of the social ladder in ancient Israel. Nevertheless, the Bible has several stories about prostitutes who serve God’s purpose despite their profession. Having established some background, I’ll now look into a few of the prominent biblical characters who are prostitutes

Prostitutes in the Bible

Rahab

Rahab is the name of the prostitute in the Bible associated with the Book of Joshua. In chapter 2, the Israelite leader Joshua sends two spies into the city of Jericho to get information on its defenses before the Israelites attack it. Without mentioning how they met her, verse 1 says the two spies “went and entered the house of a prostitute whose name was Rahab and spent the night there.” As you can see, the verse is quite vague, not detailing whether they were Rahab’s clients or merely lodged with her.

However, the king of Jericho finds out that Rahab is harboring foreign spies. The king accordingly sends a message to her, ordering her to send the spies out so that they can be captured. Rahab hides the men, telling the king that they have already gone. She cleverly encourages the king’s men to pursue the spies, sending them in the wrong direction.

When the king’s men are gone, Rahab takes them to the roof, where she hides them again under stalks of flax. She later speaks to them, requesting mercy when the Israelites conquer the city:

The spies are only too happy to comply. They ask her to tie a red thread over her door, a sign which will prevent Israelite conquerors from attacking her and her family, after which Rahab lets them out of her window on a rope since her dwelling is within the closed city walls of Jericho.

Since the Israelites are the heroes of Joshua, it seems Rahab is righteous despite her profession. Note, though, that she (understandably) only protects the spies out of fear for her safety and that of her family. Of course, the Israelites are also brutal conquerors throughout the book of Joshua, so it’s actually hard to find any moral high ground.

Gomer

An arguably much stranger story is told of a prostitute in the Bible that appears in the  prophetic book of Hosea. In Hosea 1:2-3, we see this about the beginning of Hosea’s prophetic calling:

It's clear from this passage that God is using this marriage and the resulting family merely to symbolize for the Israelites how unfaithful they have been to him by worshipping other gods. In other words, in this analogy, Israel is the prostitute and God the husband. In addition, Hosea and Gomer go on to produce children with ominous names: Jezreel (God sows) to indicate that God will cut down Israel as one cuts down the crops in the field, Lo-ruhamah (not pitied) to indicate the lack of pity God will have for them when he tears them down, and Lo-ammi (not my son), to indicate how he has cut Israel off from his affections.

Hosea then divorces Gomer for infidelity, using this at God’s behest to symbolize God’s “divorce” from Israel. Later, however, Hosea seeks Gomer out again. This time, she is enslaved to someone, and Hosea is forced to buy her back. He does so, but then refrains from sex with her for a long time, symbolizing that Israel will have no king for a prolonged period.

What is most disturbing about this story is the cavalier attitude with which God — and Hosea at God’s request — treats Gomer. Because of her profession and lowly social status, it is clear that her life means nothing more than a symbol of unfaithfulness and degradation. She has no personal agency, a condition which likely mirrors that of most prostitutes in the ancient world.

Mary Magdalene

While prostitution is referred to generally in the New Testament (see Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 6:15-20, for example), only one character is later called a prostitute. Mary Magdalene, while only appearing in a few verses in the Gospels, is clearly a key figure in the early church. This is a description of her in one of the Gospels.

In addition, both Matthew and John say that Mary was present at Jesus’ crucifixion and all four Gospels say she was at Jesus’ empty tomb, an early witness to his resurrection. She was probably a real person and was certainly highly-regarded by early Christians. So why is it that she is often considered most famous for being a prostitute in the Bible, despite no NT book actually saying that?

In Women in Scripture: A Dictionary of Named and Unnamed Women in the Hebrew Bible, the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books, and the New Testament, Carol Meyers writes that this myth has its origins in a sermon given in 591 CE by Pope Gregory I. In this sermon, the Pope mistakenly conflated three distinct biblical characters: Mary Magdalene, Mary of Bethany, and the unnamed sinful woman in Luke 7:36-50 who anoints Jesus’ feet.

Ever after, stories about Mary’s life as a sex worker circulated throughout Christendom, seeming all the more powerful since Jesus allowed her to be part of his inner circle. While we don’t know a lot about Mary’s background, there is absolutely nothing in our sources to indicate that she was ever a prostitute.

Conclusion

In the ancient Near East, prostitution was a common, albeit low-status profession. While there was a long-standing myth of temple prostitution in which women served a deity by performing ritual sex acts in that deity’s temple, most scholars today doubt the meaning, if not the sheer veracity, of ancient accounts of these practices.

In ancient Israel, since women were considered property, first of their fathers and then of their husbands, prostitutes did not technically violate any social codes by having sex with married men since they were under no such social contracts. However, it is clear that they were considered the lowest of the low in society and that they had little to no power or individual agency over their lives.

The Hebrew Bible contains a couple of prominent stories involving prostitutes. Rahab, in the book of Joshua, is a prostitute in Jericho who takes in Israelite spies and helps them escape from the king. While she is often presented as a righteous woman for helping the Israelites, it is clear from the biblical text that her help was an act of self-preservation. By helping the coming conquerors, she was able to secure the lives of herself and her family when Israel razed the city.

Gomer, on the other hand, was a hapless prostitute in the Bible from the book of Hosea.  God uses her as a symbol of degradation and corruption in order to send a message to Israel. God makes Hosea marry and father children with her, explaining that in this analogy, Gomer is Israel. Like a prostitute, Israel is unfaithful to her “husband.” The story is troubling in that Gomer’s own life and welfare are treated as expendable and valueless.

Finally, we have the story of Mary Magdalene in the Gospels. Although one passage in Luke says Jesus had removed “seven devils” from her, it says nothing about her being a sex worker. However, a mistaken sermon in the 6th century CE mixed up Mary Magdalene with Mary of Bethany and a sinful woman who anoints Jesus’ feet. Afterwards, stories circulated about Mary’s life of prostitution before she met Jesus. However, there is no evidence in our sources that this ever happened.