Credit: Daderot , Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? In 1 Corinthians —17, Paul admonishes the Corinthian Christians for their casual attitude toward sexual sin, specifically calling out those who solicit prostitutes.
Is there any merit to these claims? Was sacred prostitution commonly practiced in the temples of Aphrodite and Venus, her Roman equivalent? While archaeological excavations have revealed several of these temples, we also have textual evidence, such as the writings of the Greek traveler Pausanias, who informs us about religious life in Corinth.
Even though Pausanias is writing roughly a century after the time of Paul, his writings offer a valuable glimpse into the daily life of the city. Stanley Spaeth also critically examines the historical evidence for cultic prostitution in Corinth. However, the actual function of these women and what duties they performed is not given. They could have simply been temple servants who performed a wide variety of non-sexual services. Sacred Prostitution in the Story of Judah and Tamar. Greek Art of Byzantium.
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