- Dec 20, 2003
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Reading the bible recently with a focus on Ephesus in Ephesians and the letters to Timothy the significance of Artemis worship as a challenge to Christianity seemed quite apparent. There are some verses in these Pauline texts that also get him in trouble with modern feminists saying that a,woman should submit to her husband and shut up and listen rather than assume to teach in a church. This got me thinking about the character of Ephesian females and why Paul felt it necessary to put them down like that. At the heart of the old religious influence on female identity would have been the priestesses of Artemis.
Until recently there was talk of cult prostitution in association with Artemis and her temple, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.
But recent commentators have suggested that the chaste goddess of the hunt always felt herself too good for a man and may have required virginal priestesses also. That these priestesses were probably drawn from rich aristocratic Ephesian families who paid for the privilege of having their daughters serve in this way as a sort of rite of passage. Since the mythology of Ephesus included the notion that the fierce female dominated tribe of the Amazonians may have founded the city this female dominance may have been deeply entrenched in its culture. So rich , entitled females may have been quite bossy in this context but lacking all Christian substance had no intrinsic right to be. So the priestess by this reading was more like a highly esteemed and desired prom queen who could pick and choose her man rather than a cultic prostitute who would be used by men to commune with the goddess on their own terms. Both would be decorated to entice men but one
In a sensual way and the other in a way that demanded a kind of adoration. Either way it was an unhealthy focus in a church.
Which kind of female identity was Paul challenging in Ephesus?
Until recently there was talk of cult prostitution in association with Artemis and her temple, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.
But recent commentators have suggested that the chaste goddess of the hunt always felt herself too good for a man and may have required virginal priestesses also. That these priestesses were probably drawn from rich aristocratic Ephesian families who paid for the privilege of having their daughters serve in this way as a sort of rite of passage. Since the mythology of Ephesus included the notion that the fierce female dominated tribe of the Amazonians may have founded the city this female dominance may have been deeply entrenched in its culture. So rich , entitled females may have been quite bossy in this context but lacking all Christian substance had no intrinsic right to be. So the priestess by this reading was more like a highly esteemed and desired prom queen who could pick and choose her man rather than a cultic prostitute who would be used by men to commune with the goddess on their own terms. Both would be decorated to entice men but one
In a sensual way and the other in a way that demanded a kind of adoration. Either way it was an unhealthy focus in a church.
Which kind of female identity was Paul challenging in Ephesus?