{"id":1032,"date":"2016-08-02T22:12:16","date_gmt":"2016-08-03T02:12:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/revelationrevealed.online\/extras\/?p=1032"},"modified":"2016-08-02T22:12:16","modified_gmt":"2016-08-03T02:12:16","slug":"immorality-sacrifices-integral-to-pagan-idolatry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/revelationrevealed.online\/extras\/immorality-sacrifices-integral-to-pagan-idolatry\/","title":{"rendered":"Immorality &#038; Sacrifices Integral to Pagan Idolatry"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Sexual immorality and eating things sacrificed to idols were part and parcel of pagan idolatry.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cThe special enticements to idolatry as offered by these various cults were found in their deification of natural forces and their appeal to primitive human desires, especially the sexual \u2026 Baal and Astarte worship, which was especially attractive, was closely associated with fornication and drunkenness (Amos 2:7 , Amos 2:8; compare 1 Kings 14:23 f), and also appealed greatly to magic and soothsaying (e.g. Isaiah 2:6; Isaiah 3:2; Isaiah 8:19 ).\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">\u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.internationalstandardbible.com\/I\/idolatry.html\" target=\"_blank\">Idolatry<\/a>,\u201d <em>International Standard Bible Encyclopedia<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt seems strange to a modern reader that with these ceremonial prohibitions [against idolatry] should be connected the strictly moral prohibition of fornication. &#8230; no heathen moralist, not even Socrates, or Plato, or Cicero, condemned fornication absolutely. It was sanctioned by the worship of Aphrodite at Corinth and Paphos, and practiced to her honor by a host of harlot-priestesses! &#8230; Hence the author of the Apocalypse also closely connects the eating of meat offered to idols with fornication, and denounces them together.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">Philip Schaff, <em>History of the Christian Church<\/em>, Vol. 1, pp. 294.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAncient Near Eastern\u00a0societies \u2026 featured many shrines and temples or \u2018houses of heaven\u2019 dedicated to various deities. According to the 5th-century BC historian\u00a0Herodotus, the rites performed at these temples included \u2026 what scholars later called sacred prostitution. \u2026 The\u00a0Hebrew Bible\u00a0uses two different words for prostitute, <em>zonah<\/em> (\u05d6\u05e0\u05d4)\u200e and\u00a0<em>kedeshah<\/em>\u00a0(or\u00a0<em>qedesha<\/em>) (\u05e7\u05d3\u05e9\u05d4)\u200e.\u00a0The word\u00a0<em>zonah<\/em> simply meant an ordinary prostitute or \u2018loose woman\u2019.\u00a0But the word\u00a0<em>kedeshah<\/em>\u00a0literally means \u2018consecrated\u2019 (feminine form), from the Semitic root\u00a0q-d-sh\u00a0(\u05e7\u05d3\u05e9)\u200e meaning \u2018holy\u2019 or \u2018set apart\u2019. Whatever the cultic significance of a\u00a0<em>kedeshah<\/em>\u00a0to a follower of the\u00a0Canaanite religion, the Hebrew Bible makes it clear that cultic prostitution had no place in Judaism. Thus the Hebrew version of\u00a0Deuteronomy 23:17-18 tells followers: \u2018None of the daughters of Israel shall be a\u00a0<em>kedeshah<\/em>, nor shall any of the sons of Israel be a <em>kadesh<\/em>. You shall not bring the hire of a prostitute (<em>zonah<\/em>) or the wages of a dog (<em>kelev<\/em>) into the house of the Lord your God to pay a vow, for both of these are an abomination to the Lord your God.\u2019 Stephen O. Murray\u00a0writes that biblical passages ban\u00a0<em>qdeshim<\/em>\u00a0and link them with gods and \u2018forms of worship detested by orthodox followers of Yahweh\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">\u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Sacred_prostitution\" target=\"_blank\">Sacred Prostitution<\/a>,\u201d <em>Wikipedia<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sexual immorality and eating things sacrificed to idols were part and parcel of pagan idolatry. \u201cThe special enticements to idolatry as offered by these various cults were found in their deification of natural forces and their appeal to primitive human desires, especially the sexual \u2026 Baal and Astarte worship, which was especially attractive, was closely [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13,18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1032","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-revelation-2-3","7":"category-the-things-which-are","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/revelationrevealed.online\/extras\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/revelationrevealed.online\/extras\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/revelationrevealed.online\/extras\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revelationrevealed.online\/extras\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revelationrevealed.online\/extras\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1032"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/revelationrevealed.online\/extras\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1032\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1033,"href":"https:\/\/revelationrevealed.online\/extras\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1032\/revisions\/1033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/revelationrevealed.online\/extras\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revelationrevealed.online\/extras\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revelationrevealed.online\/extras\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}