TEMPLE VIRGINS

TEMPLE VIRGINS were a feature of many ancient religious cults. The most famous were the Vestal Virgins of Rome. Also famous were the Sybils of Delphi who were initially temple virgins. That is to say, at first the Sybils were beautiful maidens. But when their charms proved too much for Delphi’s more muscular enquirers, the priests of Apollo recruited older, less attractive women instead. (How can you run a business when you keep losing staff?)

Of course, there were no such devoted virgins in the temple in Jerusalem.

Or were there?

The traditional answer has been “No”. As everyone knows, the Jerusalem priests or kohanim kept women at arm’s-length. After all, the law of Moses said menstruation was defiling. So the presence of women risked profaning the holy sacrifices of the temple.

Yet, when we sit down and look at the evidence—the Bible, the targums, and later literature—we find that there actually was a school of Temple Virgins in Jerusalem. They were young girls from noble families who lived in special cloisters in the temple courts. Since they were of premenstrual age, and since they were supervised by elderly matrons, menstrual defilement was not an issue. These young girls formed a highly-skilled and much-valued part of the temple administration. They did the work of sewing, weaving, and embroidering for all the temple curtains and vestments.

In fact, there was one famous lady who began her young years in the élite Temple Virgins school. They say she entered the temple service at the age of three. And, on that day, she danced on the fifteen semi-circular steps that led up from the Court of Women to the Court of Israel. (You can see the fifteen steps in the picture up top.) Then she ran up the steps into the Court of the Priests, and up to the very portico of the temple itself. That was forbidden, of course. But no one chided her, for she was beloved by all who saw her.

Who was this special young lady? You can read all about her in Chapter 9 of Jesus: The Incarnation of the Word.