God and Sex
Encyclopedia
God and Sex: What the Bible Really Says is a book by Professor Michael Coogan
, published in 2010.
The book was well-received by Jessica Warner, PhD, from the University of Toronto
and criticized by Prof. Phyllis Trible, from Wake Forest University School of Divinity
in North Carolina
, for not noticing that patriarchy
was not decreed by God
, it being specific for humans after the fall. She admits that Saint Paul made the same mistake as Coogan in this respect.
According to its author, in the Hebrew Bible
there is no prohibition of premarital or extramarital sex
for men, except for adultery
, i.e. sleeping with the wife of another man. Coogan affirms that premarital sex for women was "discouraged", but the Bible
has a word for the sons of unmarried women, i.e. they were allowed to give birth to such sons, although they were relegated to an inferior social status. According to Coogan, Paul the Apostle condemned extramarital sex out of apocalyptic
fears (he thought that the world was going to end soon). Jesus
does not say anything about this, except regulating divorce
between a man and one of his wives, a stance which bears no implication on premarital and extramarital sex. Coogan does use therein the singular ("wife"), but does not say that a man could have only one wife, since Jesus was therein discussing the Law of Moses
, which allowed for polygamy
.
Interviewed by Time
magazine about this book, he also says that words often translated in the Bible as "sodomy
" have often nothing to do with anal intercourse between men
, and that according to Sola Scriptura
, the Mormon
s were right about polygamy
.
, covers many issues in the book God and Sex, including:
Those are some of the issues up through page 188 of the book.
Michael Coogan
Michael D. Coogan is a Professor of Religious Studies at Stonehill College, a private Roman Catholic institution located in Easton, Massachusetts. He is also Director of Publications for the Harvard Semitic Museum. Coogan has taught at Stonehill College since 1985...
, published in 2010.
The book was well-received by Jessica Warner, PhD, from the University of Toronto
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...
and criticized by Prof. Phyllis Trible, from Wake Forest University School of Divinity
Wake Forest University School of Divinity
Wake Forest University School of Divinity is an ecumenical divinity school located on the campus of Wake Forest University. The School offers a Master of Divinity degree as well two dual-degree programs in cooperation with other graduate programs at the university: a four-year Master of...
in North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
, for not noticing that patriarchy
Patriarchy
Patriarchy is a social system in which the role of the male as the primary authority figure is central to social organization, and where fathers hold authority over women, children, and property. It implies the institutions of male rule and privilege, and entails female subordination...
was not decreed by God
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
, it being specific for humans after the fall. She admits that Saint Paul made the same mistake as Coogan in this respect.
According to its author, in the Hebrew Bible
Hebrew Bible
The Hebrew Bible is a term used by biblical scholars outside of Judaism to refer to the Tanakh , a canonical collection of Jewish texts, and the common textual antecedent of the several canonical editions of the Christian Old Testament...
there is no prohibition of premarital or extramarital sex
Sexual intercourse
Sexual intercourse, also known as copulation or coitus, commonly refers to the act in which a male's penis enters a female's vagina for the purposes of sexual pleasure or reproduction. The entities may be of opposite sexes, or they may be hermaphroditic, as is the case with snails...
for men, except for adultery
Adultery
Adultery is sexual infidelity to one's spouse, and is a form of extramarital sex. It originally referred only to sex between a woman who was married and a person other than her spouse. Even in cases of separation from one's spouse, an extramarital affair is still considered adultery.Adultery is...
, i.e. sleeping with the wife of another man. Coogan affirms that premarital sex for women was "discouraged", but the Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
has a word for the sons of unmarried women, i.e. they were allowed to give birth to such sons, although they were relegated to an inferior social status. According to Coogan, Paul the Apostle condemned extramarital sex out of apocalyptic
Apocalypticism
Apocalypticism is the religious belief that there will be an apocalypse, a term which originally referred to a revelation of God's will, but now usually refers to belief that the world will come to an end time very soon, even within one's own lifetime...
fears (he thought that the world was going to end soon). Jesus
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
does not say anything about this, except regulating divorce
Divorce
Divorce is the final termination of a marital union, canceling the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage and dissolving the bonds of matrimony between the parties...
between a man and one of his wives, a stance which bears no implication on premarital and extramarital sex. Coogan does use therein the singular ("wife"), but does not say that a man could have only one wife, since Jesus was therein discussing the Law of Moses
Moses
Moses was, according to the Hebrew Bible and Qur'an, a religious leader, lawgiver and prophet, to whom the authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed...
, which allowed for polygamy
Polygamy
Polygamy is a marriage which includes more than two partners...
.
Interviewed by Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
magazine about this book, he also says that words often translated in the Bible as "sodomy
Sodomy
Sodomy is an anal or other copulation-like act, especially between male persons or between a man and animal, and one who practices sodomy is a "sodomite"...
" have often nothing to do with anal intercourse between men
Homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...
, and that according to Sola Scriptura
Sola scriptura
Sola scriptura is the doctrine that the Bible contains all knowledge necessary for salvation and holiness. Consequently, sola scriptura demands that only those doctrines are to be admitted or confessed that are found directly within or indirectly by using valid logical deduction or valid...
, the Mormon
Mormon
The term Mormon most commonly denotes an adherent, practitioner, follower, or constituent of Mormonism, which is the largest branch of the Latter Day Saint movement in restorationist Christianity...
s were right about polygamy
Polygamy
Polygamy is a marriage which includes more than two partners...
.
Abstract
The author, Michael CooganMichael Coogan
Michael D. Coogan is a Professor of Religious Studies at Stonehill College, a private Roman Catholic institution located in Easton, Massachusetts. He is also Director of Publications for the Harvard Semitic Museum. Coogan has taught at Stonehill College since 1985...
, covers many issues in the book God and Sex, including:
- notes that in the Old TestamentOld TestamentThe Old Testament, of which Christians hold different views, is a Christian term for the religious writings of ancient Israel held sacred and inspired by Christians which overlaps with the 24-book canon of the Masoretic Text of Judaism...
, child sacrifice was prohibited, but this prohibition wasn't always obeyed; that a man's sexual history was never an issue (thus no such thing as a virginityVirginityVirginity refers to the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. There are cultural and religious traditions which place special value and significance on this state, especially in the case of unmarried females, associated with notions of personal purity, honor and worth...
requirement for men); the only religiously celibate JewsJewsThe Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
were the EssenesEssenesThe Essenes were a Jewish sect that flourished from the 2nd century BCE to the 1st century CE which some scholars claim seceded from the Zadokite priests...
, but this was contrary to mainstream JudaismJudaismJudaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
; Saint PeterSaint PeterSaint Peter or Simon Peter was an early Christian leader, who is featured prominently in the New Testament Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles. The son of John or of Jonah and from the village of Bethsaida in the province of Galilee, his brother Andrew was also an apostle...
was married; Saint Paul thought that Saint JosephSaint JosephSaint Joseph is a figure in the Gospels, the husband of the Virgin Mary and the earthly father of Jesus Christ ....
had fathered JesusJesusJesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
; "Joseph 'did not know' MaryMary (mother of Jesus)Mary , commonly referred to as "Saint Mary", "Mother Mary", the "Virgin Mary", the "Blessed Virgin Mary", or "Mary, Mother of God", was a Jewish woman of Nazareth in Galilee...
'until she has given birth to a son'" (she did not remain virgin, according to Saint Matthew), prophets were both male and female, the priesthood and the rabbinateRabbinateThe term rabbinate may refer to the office of a rabbi or rabbis as a group:*Chief Rabbinate of Israel, the supreme Jewish religious governing body in the state of Israel...
were for men only, but Phoebe was a deaconDeaconDeacon is a ministry in the Christian Church that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions...
and JuniaJuniaJunia or Junias was a 1st century Christian highly regarded and complimented by the apostle Paul: Paul describes Junia as kinsmen, fellow prisoners, and as being "in Christ" before Paul's dramatic Damascus road conversion...
was an apostleApostleAn apostle is a messenger and ambassador.Apostle and apostles may refer to:-Religion:* Apostle , one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus Christ, named in the New Testament...
, the BibleBibleThe Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
states that men are superior to women, polygynyPolygynyPolygyny is a form of marriage in which a man has two or more wives at the same time. In countries where the practice is illegal, the man is referred to as a bigamist or a polygamist...
was frequent, abortionAbortionAbortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...
s were so rare that they were not a problem for the authors of the Bible, but there was a ritual meant for making unfaithful women abort; the books of the Bible were "kind of hypertextHypertextHypertext is text displayed on a computer or other electronic device with references to other text that the reader can immediately access, usually by a mouse click or keypress sequence. Apart from running text, hypertext may contain tables, images and other presentational devices. Hypertext is the...
", YahwehYahwehYahweh is the name of God in the Bible, the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Jews and Christians.The word Yahweh is a modern scholarly convention for the Hebrew , transcribed into Roman letters as YHWH and known as the Tetragrammaton, for which the original pronunciation is unknown...
visited AbrahamAbrahamAbraham , whose birth name was Abram, is the eponym of the Abrahamic religions, among which are Judaism, Christianity and Islam...
, IshmaelIshmaelIshmael is a figure in the Hebrew Bible and the Qur'an, and was Abraham's first born child according to Jews, Christians and Muslims. Ishmael was born of Abraham's marriage to Sarah's handmaiden Hagar...
has probably sexually abused IsaacIsaacIsaac as described in the Hebrew Bible, was the only son Abraham had with his wife Sarah, and was the father of Jacob and Esau. Isaac was one of the three patriarchs of the Israelites...
; the Bible does not state if AdamAdamAdam is a figure in the Book of Genesis. According to the creation myth of Abrahamic religions, he is the first human. In the Genesis creation narratives, he was created by Yahweh-Elohim , and the first woman, Eve was formed from his rib...
and EveEveEve is the first woman created by God in the Book of Genesis.Eve may also refer to:-People:*Eve , a common given name and surname*Eve , American recording artist and actress-Places:...
were married; there are Biblical laws regulating polygyny, and "concubine" meant "secondary wife"; AbishagAbishagAccording to the Old Testament, Abishag was a young woman of Shunem, distinguished for her beauty. She was chosen to be a helper and servant to David in his old age. Among Abishag's duties was to lie next to David and keep him warm; however, David did not have sexual relations with her...
lied with DavidDavidDavid was the second king of the united Kingdom of Israel according to the Hebrew Bible and, according to the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, an ancestor of Jesus Christ through both Saint Joseph and Mary...
but he was impotent, widows, rape victims and divorced women were "used goods", thus unworthy of a priest; the Bible is inconsistent on divorce and "pervasively patriarchalPatriarchyPatriarchy is a social system in which the role of the male as the primary authority figure is central to social organization, and where fathers hold authority over women, children, and property. It implies the institutions of male rule and privilege, and entails female subordination...
"; the Ten CommandmentsTen CommandmentsThe Ten Commandments, also known as the Decalogue , are a set of biblical principles relating to ethics and worship, which play a fundamental role in Judaism and most forms of Christianity. They include instructions to worship only God and to keep the Sabbath, and prohibitions against idolatry,...
were intended for Jewish men only; marriage meant transfer of property, but women were inferior to real estate; adultery was about property rights; in the Hebrew Bible there was no ban on men having sex with unmarried women (including prostitutes); in David's time Jerusalem had only a few thousand inhabitants; father-daughter incest was only a devaluation of daughter's value; OnanOnanOnan is a minor biblical person in the Book of Genesis , who was the second son of Judah. Just like his older brother, Er, Onan died prematurely by YHWH's will for being wicked....
was not masturbatingMasturbationMasturbation refers to sexual stimulation of a person's own genitals, usually to the point of orgasm. The stimulation can be performed manually, by use of objects or tools, or by some combination of these methods. Masturbation is a common form of autoeroticism...
; the Bible is inconsistent about brother-sister incest; sex with a woman was prohibited during her periodMenstruationMenstruation is the shedding of the uterine lining . It occurs on a regular basis in sexually reproductive-age females of certain mammal species. This article focuses on human menstruation.-Overview:...
, but so is wearing wool and linen; David and Jonathan were not sexual partners; SodomSodom- Places :* Sodom and Gomorrah, infamous Biblical cities* Sodom, Ontario, Canada* Mount Sodom or Mount Sedom, Israel* Mount Sudum and valley near Lund Khwar, Pakistan Lund Khwar#Holy war against the Sikh* Winschoten or Sodom, Netherlands...
's sin was being unhospitable to strangers and "mistreatment of the powerless"; Saint JudeSaint JudeJude was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus. He is generally identified with Thaddeus, and is also variously called Jude of James, Jude Thaddaeus, Judas Thaddaeus or Lebbaeus...
does not say that Sodom's sin was homosexualityHomosexualityHomosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...
; "sacred prostitution" nowhere and "never took place"; the Hebrew Bible does not say anything about lesbianLesbianLesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
ism, but Saint Paul thought that GodGodGod is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
made homosexuals so; Jesus said very little about sexuality; the Bible is opposed to homosexuality; having sex with prostitutes was seen as a way of losing money and Saint Paul opposed the use of prostitutes, but "Judah's use of a prostitute was normal and acceptable", this also applies to SamsonSamsonSamson, Shimshon ; Shamshoun or Sampson is the third to last of the Judges of the ancient Israelites mentioned in the Tanakh ....
, who also foreshadowed suicide bombers; Mary MagdaleneMary MagdaleneMary Magdalene was one of Jesus' most celebrated disciples, and the most important woman disciple in the movement of Jesus. Jesus cleansed her of "seven demons", conventionally interpreted as referring to complex illnesses...
wasn't a prostitute; God has reproductive organs and had a wife/wives; Jews were initially polytheist, Genesis 1:26-27 says that the elohimElohimElohim is a grammatically singular or plural noun for "god" or "gods" in both modern and ancient Hebrew language. When used with singular verbs and adjectives elohim is usually singular, "god" or especially, the God. When used with plural verbs and adjectives elohim is usually plural, "gods" or...
were male and female and humans were made in their image; God's sons had sex with women; Yahweh is a sexual being, Wisdom was God's wife, gods used to have children in many mythologies, IsraelIsraelThe State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
was God's wife (polygyny wasn't a problem for him); "all theology is metaphor" and Yahweh was "an insanely jealous and abusive husband".
Those are some of the issues up through page 188 of the book.