Character Profile: Prostitutes in the Gospels

Was first-century Jerusalem really crawling with prostitutes, as Jesus' saying about tax collectors and harlots entering the Kingdom of God seems to suggest?

How to cite this article: JP Staff Writer, “Character Profile: Prostitutes in the Gospels,” Jerusalem Perspective (2025)
[https://www.jerusalemperspective.com/30558/].

Although Jesus’ reputation of being sympathetic toward female prostitutes is well known, the basis for this reputation is surprisingly slim. It rests on a single statement recorded in a single Gospel:

Amen! I say to you, the toll collectors and the prostitutes precede you into the Kingdom of God. For John [the Baptist] came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe in him, but the toll collectors and prostitutes believed him. Yet, seeing them, you did not repent thereafter so as to believe in him. (Matt. 21:31b-32)^[1]

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Detail of a first-century C.E. mosaic from Pompeii depicting a brothel scene. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

^[1] For an in-depth analysis of this saying, see Joshua N. Tilton and David N. Bivin, “Refusing John the Baptist,” The Life of Yeshua: A Suggested Reconstruction (Jerusalem Perspective, 2025) [https://www.jerusalemperspective.com/30118/]. ↩