Help searching for Canaanite rape - Hermeneia Hosea

this is as close as I could find on page 14.

    The Sex Cult

    Cf. C. Clemen, “Miszellen zu Lukians Schrift über die syrische Göttin,” BZAW 33 (Berlin, 1918): 89ff and W. Baumgartner, “Herodots babylonische und assyrische Nachrichten,” ArOr 18 (1950): 69–109, also in his Zum Alten Testament und seiner Umwelt (Leiden, 1959), 282–331. G. Boström demonstrated the existence of such a sex cult in Canaan. This was a fertility rite in which the women had sexual relations with strangers to bring new vitality to the clan.61 Although occurring only once in a person’s lifetime, the rite was occasionally repeated because of a vow that had been made. But this must be carefully distinguished from the institution of permanent prostitutes hired for the cult.62
    The evidence for such a rite in Babylon is found in Herodotus I, 199.63 For Byblos, see Lucian, De Syria dea § 6. Concerning the goddess Venus, Augustine gives this account: “…to whom the Phoenicians offered the gift of prostituting their daughters, before they married them to husbands” [trans. by ed.] (cui etiam Phoenices donum dabant de prostitutione filiarum, antequam eas iungerent viris. De Civitate Dei IV, 10). Also, cf. Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs, Judah 12:2*: “It is the custom of the Amorites that those who want to be married must sit in the gate for seven days and engage in prostitution.” Within the Old Testament this sex cult perhaps is presupposed in Lev 19:29* and Prv 7:13ff* (in view of the repetition of vows in marriage); in Dtn 23:18*, 19* (here professional prostitution and the one-time occurrence of a sex rite stand side by side); and in the mythological background of Ju 11:33*, 37ff* (originally Jephtha’s vow probably referred to the sacrifice of the virgins. The most important evidence for this is the emphasis placed on “mourning of their virginity”; Cf. Boström, Proverbiastudien, 117ff). Frequent references to this cult stand in the background of Hosea’s sayings.64 Although Rudolph65 thinks it possible “that occasionally there were such practices in the Baal-infested Yahweh religion of Hosea’s time as well,” he nevertheless cautions against the view that the rites of initiation for the bride were “generally practiced” at that time.

Wolff, H. W. (1974). Hosea: a commentary on the book of the Prophet Hosea (p. 14). Philadelphia: Fortress Press.

Hi Matillo,

I might of misunderstood your search string above, but just in case I wanted to point out that your search string won't work with the word NEAR appearing twice. A better string might be Canaan* NEAR (priest, marriage). I recall reading somewhere that the comma and parenthesis were necessary if looking up multiple words. If you try that string do you get better results? I got over a thousand results with that string.