Voting on Laws
15 years ago
Showing posts with label sex. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sex. Show all posts
Monday, December 29, 2008
Numbers 25
Today's reading was quite short, but further reinforces two of the commandments God had given the Israelites: do not commit adultery, and do not have any gods before Yahweh. This is a theme we will see recur throughout the history of the nation of Israel - they will be tempted away by other peoples around them (whether sexually or otherwise) and then that leads to worship of foreign gods, which incurs God's wrath. On this occasion that resulted in over 24,000 deaths by plague; I suspect in the future the punishment may be even more severe.
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Leviticus 20
More today on sexual regulations, along with some prohibitions on worshiping other deities and consulting mediums/spirits. The only new thing that stood out to me here was that having sex with a woman during her period is so strongly rebuked; presumably even if that woman is ones wife. I really wonder about that, as it makes so logical sense to me - but then I suppose God doesn't have to conform to human logic. This seems especially odd, though, since earlier we were just told that this made someone unclean until the next morning. I'd be very interested in any comments or insight readers might have on this subject.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Leviticus 18
Today's reading largely covers laws about sexual relations. Of particular note I found the following:
- Verse 22 is a pretty straight-forward prohibition against homosexuality. However, it only addresses male (gay) sex - the female equivalent (lesbian) is not mentioned here. There are other passages later in the Bible that also deal with this topic, so I will have to remember to see if both forms of sex are addressed or not.
- Some things that I would think are pretty straightforward, like not having sex with your own mother, are expressly forbidden here. Since the purpose of this chapter is to prevent the Israelites from falling into the same debauchery that the Egyptians and Canaanites had partaken in, there much have been some pretty twisted people in both of those cultures.
- Verse 22 is a pretty straight-forward prohibition against homosexuality. However, it only addresses male (gay) sex - the female equivalent (lesbian) is not mentioned here. There are other passages later in the Bible that also deal with this topic, so I will have to remember to see if both forms of sex are addressed or not.
- Some things that I would think are pretty straightforward, like not having sex with your own mother, are expressly forbidden here. Since the purpose of this chapter is to prevent the Israelites from falling into the same debauchery that the Egyptians and Canaanites had partaken in, there much have been some pretty twisted people in both of those cultures.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Genesis 19
Wow - there is a lot that could be said about this passage. It is one of the most disturbing chapters I know of, on several levels. It deals with attempted rape, homosexuality, incest, and extremely destructive judgement. If I had the time I could write pages on all of this, but for now I'll just list off a few of the oddest and most surprising (and disgusting) things I noticed.
- Lot lives with the people of Sodom, which he selected because of the nice land quality in that region (earlier in Genesis). Here he appears to actually live in the city, though he apparently does not participate in or condone the activity that the others there take part in. I guess the old adage of "location, location, location" is not strictly true: your neighbors and their moral compass (or lack thereof) should also be taken into consideration!
- The passage says that all the men of the city came to try to rape the angelic messengers, so it makes me wonder if the men engaged to marry Lot's daughters were also there. If so, did they not speak out when Lot offered his daughters to satiate the crowd? Did they care? They certainly didn't heed the warning that Lot gave them to leave, which leads to the next observation...
- Lot's daughters were planning to marry before Sodom was destroyed. They don't seem to have had kids yet, which likely means that they weren't simply sleeping around as appears to have been the norm in the area they lived. That speaks well for Lot and his parenting, but I guess he hadn't mentioned that incest was a bad idea - left to their own devices the girls didn't say "lets go find new husbands", but instead got their dad drunk and raped him (effectively). That seems to be the opposite of many abusive family relationships these days, and seems just plain weird... and wrong! I wonder how much wine it took to get Lot so far drunk that he didn't even know they were taking advantage of him. I'm also curious what the conversation looked like nine months later when his daughters gave birth, and Lot thought back to the three of them being alone in the mountains :/
- Lot's wife looking back on the destruction - and so bringing judgement on herself - and the actions of the daughters later on seem to be very influenced by the culture of Sodom that they lived in. I wonder if the wife was actually from that area, and married Lot after his arrival in the area. That would explain the resulting tragedies a bit more, if they felt that they were loosing the only home they had known (whereas Lot was still considered a foreigner).
- Lot lives with the people of Sodom, which he selected because of the nice land quality in that region (earlier in Genesis). Here he appears to actually live in the city, though he apparently does not participate in or condone the activity that the others there take part in. I guess the old adage of "location, location, location" is not strictly true: your neighbors and their moral compass (or lack thereof) should also be taken into consideration!
- The passage says that all the men of the city came to try to rape the angelic messengers, so it makes me wonder if the men engaged to marry Lot's daughters were also there. If so, did they not speak out when Lot offered his daughters to satiate the crowd? Did they care? They certainly didn't heed the warning that Lot gave them to leave, which leads to the next observation...
- Lot's daughters were planning to marry before Sodom was destroyed. They don't seem to have had kids yet, which likely means that they weren't simply sleeping around as appears to have been the norm in the area they lived. That speaks well for Lot and his parenting, but I guess he hadn't mentioned that incest was a bad idea - left to their own devices the girls didn't say "lets go find new husbands", but instead got their dad drunk and raped him (effectively). That seems to be the opposite of many abusive family relationships these days, and seems just plain weird... and wrong! I wonder how much wine it took to get Lot so far drunk that he didn't even know they were taking advantage of him. I'm also curious what the conversation looked like nine months later when his daughters gave birth, and Lot thought back to the three of them being alone in the mountains :/
- Lot's wife looking back on the destruction - and so bringing judgement on herself - and the actions of the daughters later on seem to be very influenced by the culture of Sodom that they lived in. I wonder if the wife was actually from that area, and married Lot after his arrival in the area. That would explain the resulting tragedies a bit more, if they felt that they were loosing the only home they had known (whereas Lot was still considered a foreigner).
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