Category:Sexual Immorality (subject)

Sexual Immorality (Gk. porneia) denotes a series of sexual behaviors that were largely tolerated in the Greco-Roman World while Hellenistic Jews and Christians labeled as unacceptable not only for Jews but also for God-fearers and baptized Gentiles.

Paul's ethics

According to Paul, sinners receive justification (i.e. forgiveness of their past sins) through faith in Christ. There are no sins that cannot be forgiven. if a person believed in the authority of Jesus as the Messiah. From the moment a person has received justification, however, it is his/her responsibility "to be found blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Cor 1:8). Paul expected this time (i.e. the time before the Last Judgment) to be short and was very strict and demanding in terms of ethical behavior.

He openly rebukes those who believes that because they had been justified, they could now live without any kind of moral restraint, having “the right to do anything” (1 Cor 6:12; 10:23):

Do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived! Fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, male prostitutes, sodomites, 10 thieves, the greedy, drunkards, revilers, robbers--none of these will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And this is what some of you used to be. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God. 12 "All things are lawful for me," but not all things are beneficial ... The body is meant not for fornication but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.

On the contrary, people who are baptized, both Jews and Gentiles, are bound to the highest moral standards. The fact that they are loved by God and made free from the power of evil, does not mean that they are now free to do whatever they like. The freedom they have received is not freedom to sin, but freedom to love:

For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another. 14 For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." (Galatians 5:13-14).

If faith is what leads to forgiveness, and hope is what leads to repentance, love is the most important virtue as it leads to salvation:

(1 Corinthians 13) If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. 4 Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. 7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end... 13 And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

Sexual immorality (porneia) is, along with idolatry, something to be rejected in order to remain "blameless".

Sexual immorality

The Torah of Moses imposes very strict rules in terms of sexual conduct. While Gentiles were not expected to follow the same rules, both Hellenistic Jews and Christians required God-fearers and baptized Gentile to abstain from sexual impurity. Both the Letter of Aristeas and Philo of Alexandria offer a detailed account of what Hellenistic Jews meant by sexual impurity. According to the Acts of Apostles, baptized Gentiles were required to abstain from sexual impurity by the so-called Council of Jerusalem (Acts 15:20.29; 21:25) with the consent of all components of the early Church.

Paul also follows the same path. See also Romans 1:29 Rec.; 1 Corinthians 5:1; 1 Corinthians 6:13, 18; 1 Corinthians 7:2; 2 Corinthians 12:21; Ephesians 5:3; Colossians 3:5; 1 Thessalonians 4:3; Revelation 9:21; it is distinguished from μοιχεία in Matthew 15:19; Mark 7:21; and Galatians 5:19 Rec.; used of adultery ((cf. Hosea 2:2 (4), etc.)), Matthew 5:32; Matthew 19:9.

Incest

Roman civil law prohibited marriages between relatives. However, in some parts of the Roman Empire, especially in Egypt sibling marriages were widespread among all classes during the Graeco-Roman period, as the traditional form of marriage among Pharaohs. The fascination of this "Eastern" practice also affected some Roman aristocratic families.

Hellenistic Jews and Christian maintained a firm opposition against this practice. Paul had very strong words when he was informed that a member of the community in Corinth "lived with his father's wife": It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not found even among pagans; for a man is living with his father's wife. 2 And you are arrogant! Should you not rather have mourned, so that he who has done this would have been removed from among you? (1Cor 5:1-2).

Adultery and divorce

In the Roman world, adultery was always condemned without exceptions in case of women. On the contrary, sexual relationships of a married man with (female and boys) slaves and prostitutes were considered acceptable and amply justified, unless the husband would neglect his marital duties or disgrace publicly his wife. More questionable was the relationship of a married man with another free woman, especially of an equal rank as his own wife, since it was a threat to the unity of the family and the stability of the marriage.

Hellenistic Jews and Christians had a very strong view of the sanctity of marriage and the prohibition of adulterous relationships. In the earliest Christian community the situation was complicated by the eschatological expectations which led many (including Paul) to question the validity (or the opportunity) of marriage itself.

"It is well for a man not to touch a woman", but desire is worse, so it is better to have a spouse" (7: Better to marry than to be aflame with passion (7:9) By way of concession, not command.

No divorce if both spouses are baptized (7:10-11) (not I but the Lord). No divorce of an unbeliever (I and not the Lord).

10 To the married I give this command--not I but the Lord--that the wife should not separate from her husband 11 (but if she does separate, let her remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband), and that the husband should not divorce his wife. 12 To the rest I say--I and not the Lord--that if any believer has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, he should not divorce her. 13 And if any woman has a husband who is an unbeliever, and he consents to live with her, she should not divorce him. 14 For the unbelieving husband is made holy through his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy through her husband. Otherwise, your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy. 15 But if the unbelieving partner separates, let it be so; in such a case the brother or sister is not bound. It is to peace that God has called you. 16 Wife, for all you know, you might save your husband. Husband, for all you know, you might save your wife. 17 However that may be, let each of you lead the life that the Lord has assigned, to which God called you. This is my rule in all the churches. (1 Corinthians 7:10-17)

Remain in our condition (I have no command of the Lord, however...). "The married man's interests are divided" (7:34) But it is better to have your desire under control. This is the example of Paul, but other apostles and the brothers have wives (9:5)

See Matthew 5:31-32 (NRSV) -- [31] "It was also said, 'Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.' [32] But I say to you that anyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of porneia, causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery. -- Matthew 19:8-9: [8] He said to them, "It was because you were so hard-hearted that Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. 9 And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for porneia, and marries another commits adultery."

Prostitution

Slave Market (1882 Boulanger), art

Prostitution in ancient Rome was legal, public, and widespread. Restricted to the enjoyment of free males only, it involved the exploitation of both women (of every age) and young males (boys and adolescents).

There was no stigma attached to men even of the highest social status engaged in prostitution or purchasing women or boys for sexual exploitation, as long as it was done with moderation, discretion and no neglect of family responsibilities. A free male was expected to have a wife and children and be a good husband and a caring father; any public extravaganza which would disgrace the honor of the family, was sharply condemned.

On the other hand, the condition of prostitutes was considered shameful. Prostitutes were generally slaves or former slaves; abandoned children were often raised and sold as prostitutes. They served their own masters or worked in brothels under terrible conditions of exploitation; only a few professional prostitutes who cultivated elite patrons, had the possibility to emerge to a better life and acquire some wealth.

While prostitutes were despised, prostitution was considered not only a legal and legitimate activity but was also praised for its religious value. Ancient mythologies described married gods engaged in occasional sexual intercourses with women and boys. Sex played a central role in fertility rites and public festivals especially at the beginning of spring. In Rome female prostitution and boy prostitution were celebrated on Apr 23 and Apr 25, respectively, with processions and temple sacrifices.

It was the association with idolatry in particular that made prostitution a suspected activity in the eyes of Hellenistic Jews and Christians, who refused to take part in these rituals.

When Christianity became the religion of the Roman Empire sexual exploitation of slaves and prostitution of women and boys was not forbidden. The major concern was to severe the ties with pagan cult and idolatry.

Pederasty

The Education of Achilles by Chiron, a fresco from Pompeii

Prostitution with boy slaves was considered completely acceptable for a male citizen of any age and social condition, while it was a shameful stigma for the slaves forced in such a practice, and even more so in case of free adolescents who would sell their body for sex. The condition of boy slaves was particularly pitiful; they were often abandoned children raised by unscrupulous merchants, or children sold into slavery by their impoverished parents. As slaves and minors they had no rights, being considered mere properties; they could be even castrated to stop their puberty, prolong their youthful appearance and increase the pleasure or the profit of their owners.

However, in Greece (and in Roman circles attracted by Greek culture) pederasty was widely accepted as part of a free male's coming-of-age. In this case the pais (boy, generally a teenager) was regarded as a future citizen, not an inferior object of sexual gratification, as in the case of slaves, and was treated with the highest respect by his mate and portrayed with honor in art, poetry and mythology. Pederasty was understood as educative, as the teenager received mentorship and support by a respected adult. Teens usually had to be courted and were free to choose, meet and leave their mate; they often did it with the open consent of the parents. These connections were in fact an advantage for both the youth and his family, as the relationship with an influential older man resulted in an expanded social network. Typically, after their sexual relationship had ended and the young man had married, the older man and his protégé would remain on close terms of friendship throughout their entire life.

Hellenistic Jews and Christians abhorred and strongly opposed this practice. The Sibylline Oracles (3:595-600) condemned those who have "impious intercourse with male children" (see also 3:185-87; 5:166, 387). 2 Enoch (10:4 MS P) denounced "child corruption in the anus in the manner of Sodom".

In the Letter to the Romans, Paul issued a strong condemnation against those "men, who having left the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet." (Rom 1:26-27). These men are included among "the unrighteous [who] shall not inherit the kingdom of God" in the Letter to the Corinthians (6:9-11).

Sexual immorality, justification, salvation

Abandoning sexual immorality is not a prerequisite for justification. There are no sins that cannot be forgiven. The only prerequisite is the acknowledgement of the authority of the Son of Man.

Abandoning sexual immorality becomes an obligation for those who have been baptized. The historical context - as we have seen - shows that pederasty, sex with slaves, temple prostitution and other abusive forms of sex were prevalent in the first century when the Apostle Paul wrote 1 Corinthians. Paul invite the member of the community to "drive out the wicked person among you":

1 Corinthians 5:9-13 (NRSV) -- 9 I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral persons-- 10 not at all meaning the immoral of this world, or the greedy and robbers, or idolaters, since you would then need to go out of the world. 11 But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother or sister who is sexually immoral or greedy, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or robber. Do not even eat with such a one. 12 For what have I to do with judging those outside? Is it not those who are inside that you are to judge? 13 God will judge those outside. "Drive out the wicked person from among you."

However, Christians would continue to associate with sinners in this world and Paul does not condemn those "outside" as the judgment belongs to God only.

Sources

Hellenistic-Jewish sources

Letter of Aristeas (152-153): Most other men defile themselves by promiscuous intercourse, thereby working great iniquity, and whole countries and cities pride themselves upon such vices. For they not only have intercourse with men but they defile their own 153 mothers and even their daughters. But we have been kept separate from such sins.

Philo, The Decalogue -- XXIV. (121) Having then now philosophized in this manner about the honour to be paid to parents, he closes the one and more divine table of the first five commandments. And being about to promulgate the second which contains the prohibitions of those offences which are committed against men, he begins with adultery, looking upon this as the greatest of all violations of the law; (122) for, in the first place, it has for its source the love of pleasure, which enervates the bodies of those who indulge in it, and relaxes the tone of the soul, and destroys the essences of it, consuming every thing that it touches, like unquenchable fire, and leaving nothing which affects human life uninjured, (123) inasmuch as it not only persuades the adulterer to commit iniquity, but also teaches him to join others in wickedness, making an association in things in which there ought to be no such participation. For when this violent passion seizes on a man it is impossible for the appetites to arrive at the accomplishment of their object by one person alone, but it is indispensable that two should share in the action, the one taking the place of the teacher, and the other that of the pupil, for the complete confirmation of those most disgraceful evils, intemperance and licentiousness. (124) Nor can one allege as an excuse that it is only the body of the woman who is committing adultery that is corrupted, but, if one must tell the truth, even before the corruption of the body the soul is accustomed to alienation from virtue, being taught in every way to repudiate and to hate its husband. (125) And it would be a less grievous evil if this hatred were displayed without disguise; for it is easiest to guard against what is plainly seen. But at present it is with difficulty suspected, and difficult of detection, being concealed by cunning and wicked arts, and at times it assumes the contrary appearance of love and affection, by means of its trickery and deceit. (126) Accordingly, adultery exhibits the destruction of three houses by its means; that of the house of the man who sustains the violation of all the vows which were made to him at his marriage, and the loss of all the hopes of legitimate children, of which he is now deprived; and two others, namely, the house of the adulterer, and that of his wife. For each of these is filled with insolence, and dishonour, and the most excessive disgrace. (127) And if their connections and families are very numerous, then by reason of their intermarriages and the mutual connections formed with different houses the iniquity and injury will proceed and infect the whole city all around. (128) Moreover, the doubt as to the legitimacy of the children is a most terrible evil. For if the wife be not chaste, it is quite a matter of doubt and uncertainty to what father the children belong. And then, if the matter remain undiscovered, the children of adultery enter unjustly into the classification of legitimate children, and make a race spurious to which they have no pretensions to belong, and receive an inheritance which in appearance indeed is their own patrimony, but which in reality has no connection with them. (129) And then the adulterer, behaving with insolence and pluming himself upon his iniquity in having propagated an offspring full of reproach, when he has satiated his appetites will depart, leaving the object behind him, and turning into ridicule the ignorance that exists of the unholy wickedness which he has committed, on the part of the man against whom he has sinned. And the husband, like a blind man, knowing nothing of what has been going on in his own house, will be compelled to nourish and to cherish as his own the offspring sprung from his greatest enemies. (130) And it is plain that if such a wickedness takes place, the most miserable of all persons must be the wretched children, who have done no wrong themselves, and who cannot be assigned to either family, neither to that of the husband of the adulteress, nor to that of the adulterer. (131) Since, then, illicit cohabitation produces such great calamities, adultery is very naturally a detestable thing hated by God, and has been set down as the first of all transgressions.

Philo, The Special Laws III -- On the second table this is the first commandment, "Thou shalt not commit adultery," because, I imagine, in every part of the world pleasure is of great power, and no portion of the world has escaped its dominion, neither of the things on earth, nor of the things in the sea, nor even of those in the air, for all animals, whether walking on the earth, or flying in the air, or swimming in the water, do at all times rejoice in pleasure, and cultivate it, and obey its behests, and look to its eye and to its nod, obeying it with cheerfulness, however arrogant and proud they may be, and all but anticipating its commands, by the promptness and unhesitating rapidity of their service. (9) Therefore, even that pleasure which is in accordance with nature is often open to blame, when any one indulges in it immoderately and insatiably, as men who are unappeasably voracious in respect of eating, even if they take no kind of forbidden or unwholesome food; and as men who are madly devoted to association with women, and who commit themselves to an immoderate degree not with other men's wives, but with their own. (10) Still this sort of reproach, as affecting most men, is one rather of the body than of the soul, since the body has a vehement flame within, which consumes the food which is offered to it, and seeks other food at no great distance, by reason of the abundant moisture, the stream of which is conveyed into the most secret parts of the body, creating an itching, and stinging, and incessant tickling. (11) But those men who are frantic in their desires for the wives of others, and at times even for those of their nearest relations or dearest friends, and who live to the injury of their neighbours, attempting to vitiate whole families, however numerous, and violating all kinds of marriage vows, and making vain the hopes which men conceive of having legitimate children, being afflicted with an incurable disease of the soul, must be punished with death as common enemies to the whole race of mankind, in order that they may no longer live in perfect fearlessness, so as to be at leisure to corrupt other houses, nor become teachers of others, who may learn by their example to practise evil habits.

III. [Incest](12) Moreover the law has laid down other admirable regulations with regard to carnal conversation; for it commands men not only to abstain from the wives of others, but also from certain relations, with whom it is not lawful to cohabit; (13) therefore Moses, detesting and loathing the customs of the Persians, repudiates them as the greatest possible impiety, for the magistrates of the Persians marry even their own mothers, and consider the offspring of such marriages the most noble of all men, and as it is said, they think them worthy of the highest sovereign authority. (14) And yet what can be a more flagitious act of impiety than to defile the bed of one's father after he is dead, which it would be right rather to preserve untouched, as sacred; and to feel no respect either for old age of for one's mother, and for the same man to be both the son and the husband of the same woman; and again for the same woman to be both the mother and wife of the same man, and for the children of the two to be the brothers of their father and the grandsons of their mother, and for that same woman to be both the mother and grandmother of those children whom she has brought forth, and for the man to be at the same time both the father and the uterine brother of those whom he has begotten? (15) These enormities formerly took place among the Greeks in the case of Oedipus, the son of Laius, {1}{this is the subject, in fact, of the Oedipus Tyrannus of Sophocles. Philo alludes afterwards to the wars which are the subject of the EptÕ epi Teµbas of Aeschylus.} and the actions were committed out of ignorance and not voluntarily, and yet that marriage brought on such a host of evils that nothing was wanting to make up the amount of the most complete wretchedness and misery, (16) for there ensued from it a continual succession of wars, both domestic and foreign, which were bequeathed like an inheritance from their fathers and ancestors to their children and descendants; and there were destructions of cities which were the greatest in Greece, and destructions of embattled armies, and slaughter of nations and of allies which had come to the assistance of either side, and mutual slaughter of the most gallant leaders in each army, and unreconcileable enmities about sovereignty and authority, and fratricides, by which not only the families and countries of the persons immediately concerned were utterly extinguished and destroyed, but the greater portion of the whole Greek nation also, for cities which were previously populous now became desolate and void of their inhabitants, and were left as a memorial of the calamities of Greece, and a miserable sight for all beholders. (17) Nor, indeed, do the Persians, among whom such practices are frequent, avoid similar evils, for they are continually involved in military expeditions and battles, killing and being killed, and at one time invading their neighbours and at others repelling those who rise up against them. And many enemies rise up against them from many quarters, since it is not the nature of the barbarians to rest in tranquillity; therefore, before the existing sedition is appeased, another springs up, so that no season of the year is ever indulged in peace and quietness, but they are compelled to live under arms night and day, bearing for the greater portion of their lives hardships in the open air while serving in the camps, or else living in cities from the complete absence of all peace. (18) I forbear to mention the great and intolerable violence and pride of success exhibited by the kings, whose first contests begin at the very first assumption of their sovereign power with the greatest of all iniquities, fratricide, as thus alone do they imagine that they will be safe from all attacks and treachery on the part of their brothers if they appear to have put them to death with reason and justice. (19) And it seems to me that all these things arise from the unhallowed connections of sons with their own mothers, because justice, who surveys all human affairs, revenges herself thus on those who act improperly for their wickedness; for not only do those who act thus commit impiety, but those also who voluntarily signify their assent to the arbitrary conduct of those who do such actions. (20) But our law guards so carefully against such actions as these that it does not permit even a step-son, when his father is dead, to marry his step-mother, on account of the respect which he owes to his father, and because the titles mother and step-mother are kindred names, even though the affections of the souls may not be identical; (21) for the man who is thought to abstain from her who has been the wife of another man, because she is called his step-mother, will much more abstain from his own natural mother. And if any one, on account of his recollection of his father, shows a respectful awe of her who has formerly been his wife, it is quite evident that he, because of the respect which he feels towards both his parents, is not likely to meditate any improper conduct to his mother; since it would be downright folly for a man who studies to please one half of his family, to appear to neglect it in its wholeness and integrity.

IV. (22) There follows after this a command not to espouse one's sister: which is an injunction of great excellence, and one which contributes very greatly to temperance and good order. Therefore the Athenian lawgiver, Solon, when he permitted men to marry their sisters by the same father, forbade them to marry those by the same mother. But the lawgiver of the Lacedaemonians, on the other hand, allowed of marriages between brothers and sisters by the same mothers, but forbade those between brothers and sisters by the same father. (23) While the lawgiver of the Egyptians, ridiculing the cautious timidity of the others as if they had established imperfect ordinances, gave the reins to lasciviousness, supplying in great abundance that most incurable evil of intemperance both to body and soul, and permitting men fearlessly and with impunity to marry all their sisters, whether by both parents or by one, or by either, whether father or mother, and that too not only if younger than, but even when older than, or of the same age as themselves; for twins are very often born, which nature, indeed, at their very birth has dissevered and separated, but which incontinence and love of pleasure has invited to an association which ought never to be entered into, and to a most inharmonious agreement. (24) But the most sacred Moses, rejecting all those ordinances with detestation, as being quite inconsistent with and at variance with any praiseworthy kind of constitution, and as laws which encouraged and trained people to the most disgraceful of all habits, almost peremptorily prohibited any connection with a man's sister, whether by both parents, or whether only by one of the two; (25) for why should any one seek to deface the beauty of modesty? And why make virgins destitute of all modesty, to whom it is becoming to blush? And, moreover, why should one be willing to limit the associations and connections with other men, and to confine a most honourable thing within the narrow space of the walls of a single house, which ought rather to be extended and diffused over all continents, and islands, and the whole inhabited world? For the intermarriages with strangers produce new relationships, which are in no respect inferior to those which proceed from ties of blood.

V. (26) On which account our lawgiver has also forbidden other matrimonial connections, commanding that no man shall marry his granddaughter, whether she be his son's or his daughter's child; nor his niece; nor his aunt; nor his grandmother, by either father or mother; nor any woman who has been the wife of his uncle, or of his son, or of his brother; nor, again, any step-daughter, whether virgin or widow, whether his own wife be alive or even after her death. For, in principle, a step-father is the same as a father, and therefore he ought to look upon his wife's daughter in the same light as his own. (27) Again. He does not permit the same man to marry two sisters, neither at the same time nor at different periods, even if he have put away the one whom he previously married; for while she is living, whether she be cohabiting with him or whether she be put away, or if she be living as a widow, or if she be married to another man, still he did not consider it holy for her sister to enter upon the portion of her who had been unfortunate; by this injunction teaching sisters not to violate the requirements of justice towards their relations, nor to make a stepping stone of the disasters of one so united to themselves by blood, nor to acquiesce in or to pride themselves in receiving attentions from those who have shown themselves enemies to their relations, or to reciprocate any kind offices received from them. (28) For from such things as these arise bitter jealousies and quarrels, and enmities which scarcely admit of reconciliation, but which bring on indescribable hosts of misfortunes; for that would be just as if the different members of the body were to abandon the harmony and fellowship in which they are put together by nature, and to quarrel with one another, which circumstance must necessarily cause incurable diseases and mischiefs. And sisters are like limbs, which, although they are separated from one another, are nevertheless all adapted to one another by nature and natural relationship. And jealousy, which is the most grievous of all passions, is continually producing new, and terrible, and incurable mischiefs. (29) Again. Moses commands, do not either form a connection of marriage with one of another nation, and do not be seduced into complying with customs inconsistent with your own, and do not stray from the right way and forget the path which leads to piety, turning into a road which is no road. And, perhaps, you will yourself resist, if you have been from your earliest youth trained in the best possible instruction, which your parents have instilled into you, continually filling your mind with the sacred laws. And the anxiety and fear which parents feel for their sons and daughters is not slight; for, perchance, they may be allured by mischievous customs instead of genuine good ones, and so they may be in danger of learning to forget the honour belonging to the one God, which is the beginning and end of extreme unhappiness. (30) But if, proceeds the lawgiver, a woman having been divorced from her husband under any pretence whatever, and having married another, has again become a widow, whether her second husband is alive or dead, still she must not return to her former husband, but may be united to any man in the world rather than to him, having violated her former ties which she forgot, and having chosen new allurements in the place of the old ones. (31) But if any man should choose to form an alliance with such a woman, he must be content to bear the reputation of effeminacy and a complete want of manly courage and vigour, as if he had been castrated and deprived of the most useful portion of the soul, namely, that disposition which hates iniquity, by which the affairs both of houses and cities are placed on a good footing, and as having stamped deeply on his character two of the greatest of all iniquities, adultery and the employment of a pander; for the reconciliations which take place subsequently are indications of the death of each. Let him, therefore, suffer the punishment appointed, together with his wife.

VI. (32) And there are particular periods affecting the health of the woman when a man may not touch her, but during that time he must abstain from all connection with her, respecting the laws of nature. And, at the same time, he must learn not to waste his vigour in the pursuit of an unseemly and barbarous pleasure; for such conduct would be like that of a husbandman who, out of drunkenness or sudden insanity, should sow wheat or barley in lakes or flooded torrents, instead of over the fertile plains; for it is proper to cast seed upon fields when they are dry, in order that it may bear abundant fruit. (33) But nature each month cleanses the womb, as if it were some field of marvellous fertility, the proper season for fertilising which must be watched for by the husband as if he were a skilful husbandman, in order to withhold his seed and abstain from sowing it at a time when it is inundated; for, if he do not do so, the seed, without his perceiving it, will be swept away by the moisture, not only having all its spiritual energies relaxed, but having them, in fact, utterly dissolved. These are the persons who form animals in that workshop of nature, the womb, and who perfect with the most consummate skill each separate one of the parts of the body and soul. But when the periods of illness which I have spoken of are interrupted, then he may with confidence shower his seed into the ground ready to receive it, no longer fearing that there will be any loss of the seed thus sown. (34) But those people deserve to be reproached who are ploughing a hard and stony soil. And who can these be but they who have connected themselves with barren women? For such men are only hunters after intemperate pleasure, and in the excess of their licentious passions they waste their seed of their own deliberate purpose. Since for what other reason can they espouse such women? It cannot be for a hope of children, which they are aware must, of necessity, be disappointed, but rather to gratify their excess in lust and incurable incontinence. (35) As many men, therefore, as marry virgins in ignorance of how will they will turn out as regards their prolificness, or the contrary, when after a long time they perceive, by their never having any children, that they are barren, and do not then put them away, are still worthy of pardon, being influenced by habit and familiarity, which are motives of great weight, and being also unable to break through the power of those ancient charms which by long habituation are stamped upon their souls. (36) But those who marry women who have been previously tested by other men and ascertained to be barren, do merely covet the carnal enjoyment like so many boars or goats, and deserve to be inscribed among the lists of impious men as enemies to God; for God, as being friendly to all the animals that exist, and especially to man, takes all imaginable care to secure preservation and duration to every kind of creature. But those who seek to waste all their power at the very moment of putting it forth are confessedly enemies of nature.

VII. [Pederasty] (37) Moreover, another evil, much greater than that which we have already mentioned, has made its way among and been let loose upon cities, namely, the love of boys, which formerly was accounted a great infamy even to be spoken of, but which sin is a subject of boasting not only to those who practise it, but even to those who suffer it, and who, being accustomed to bearing the affliction of being treated like women, waste away as to both their souls and bodies, not bearing about them a single spark of a manly character to be kindled into a flame, but having even the hair of their heads conspicuously curled and adorned, and having their faces smeared with vermilion, and paint, and things of that kind, and having their eyes pencilled beneath, and having their skins anointed with fragrant perfumes (for in such persons as these a sweet smell is a most seductive quality), and being well appointed in everything that tends to beauty or elegance, are not ashamed to devote their constant study and endeavours to the task of changing their manly character into an effeminate one. (38) And it is natural for those who obey the law to consider such persons worthy of death, since the law commands that the man-woman who adulterates the precious coinage of his nature shall die without redemption, not allowing him to live a single day, or even a single hour, as he is a disgrace to himself, and to his family, and to his country, and to the whole race of mankind. (39) And let the man who is devoted to the love of boys submit to the same punishment, since he pursues that pleasure which is contrary to nature, and since, as far as depends upon him, he would make the cities desolate, and void, and empty of all inhabitants, wasting his power of propagating his species, and moreover, being a guide and teacher of those greatest of all evils, unmanliness and effeminate lust, stripping young men of the flower of their beauty, and wasting their prime of life in effeminacy, which he ought rather on the other hand to train to vigour and acts of courage; and last of all, because, like a worthless husbandman, he allows fertile and productive lands to lie fallow, contriving that they shall continue barren, and labours night and day at cultivating that soil from which he never expects any produce at all. (40) And I imagine that the cause of this is that among many nations there are actually rewards given for intemperance and effeminacy. At all events one may see men-women continually strutting through the market place at midday, and leading the processions in festivals; and, impious men as they are, having received by lot the charge of the temple, and beginning the sacred and initiating rites, and concerned even in the holy mysteries of Ceres. (41) And some of these persons have even carried their admiration of these delicate pleasures of youth so far that they have desired wholly to change their condition for that of women, and have castrated themselves and have clothed themselves in purple robes, like those who, having been the cause of great blessings to their native land, walk about attended by body-guards, pushing down every one whom they meet. (42) But if there was a general indignation against those who venture to do such things, such as was felt by our lawgiver, and if such men were destroyed without any chance of escape as the common curse and pollution of their country, then many other persons would be warned and corrected by their example. For the punishments of those persons who have been already condemned cannot be averted by entreaty, and therefore cause no slight check to those persons who are ambitious of distinguishing themselves by the same pursuits.

VIII. [Sex with animals] (43) But some persons, imitating the sensual indulgences of the Sybarites and of other nations more licentious still, have in the first place devoted themselves to gluttony and wine-bibbing, and other pleasures affecting the belly and the parts adjacent to the belly, and then when fully sated have behaved with such extraordinary insolence (and it is natural for satiety to produce insolence) that in their insanity of passion they have gone frantic and been so maddened as to desire to longer human beings, whether male or female, but even brute beasts, as they say that in ancient times in Crete, the wife of Minos the king, by name Pasipha', fell in love with a bull, (44) and became very violent in her passion from her despair of being able to gratify it (for love which fails in its object is usually increased in no ordinary degree), so that at last she reported to Daedalus the affliction by which she was overwhelmed, and he was the most skilful of all workmen of his Time.{2}{this story is alluded to by many poets, and especially by Virgil, Aeneid 6.24 (as it is translated by Dryden)--"There too, in living sculpture, might be seen / The mad affection of the Cretan queen: / Then how she cheats her bellowing lover's eye: / The rushing leap; the doubtful progeny: / The lower part a beast, a man above; / The monument of their polluted love."} And he, being very ingenious, so as by his contrivances to discover things undiscoverable to any one else, made a cow of wood, and put Pasipha' into it at one of the sides, and the bull rushed at the wooden cow as if it had been an animal of its own kind. And Pasipha', becoming pregnant at a certain period, brought forth an animal half man and half beast, called the Minotaur.{3}{ovid describes this animal more than once (A. A. 2.24; Her. 10.101).} (45) And it is very likely that there may be other Pasipha's also, with passions equally unbridled, and that not women only, but men likewise may fall madly in love with animals, from whom, perhaps, indescribable monsters may be born, being memorials of the excessive pollution of men; owing to which, perhaps, those unnatural creations of unprecedented and fabulous monsters will exist, such as hippocentaurs and chimaeras, and other similar animals. (46) But so great are the precautions which are taken against them in the holy laws of God, that in order to prevent the possibility of men ever desiring any unlawful connection, it is expressly commanded that even animals of different kinds shall not be put together. And no Jewish shepherd will endeavour to cross a sheep with a he-goat, or a ram with a she-goat, or a cow with a horse; and if he does, he must pay the penalty as breaking a solemn law of nature who is desirous to keep the original kinds of animals free from all spurious admixture. (47) And some persons prefer mules to every other kind of animal for the yoke, since their bodies are very compact, and are very strong and powerful; and accordingly, in the pastures and stalls where they keep their horses, they also keep asses of an extraordinary size, which they call celones, in order that they may breed with the mares; and then the mares produce a mixed animal, half horse and half ass, which, since Moses knew that its production was wholly contrary to nature, he forbade the existence of with all his might by a general injunction, that that no union or combination between different kinds of animals should on any account be permitted. (48) Therefore he provided thus against those evils in a manner suited to and consistent with nature; and from a long distance off, as from a watchtower, he admonished men and kept them in the straight path, in order that both men and women, learning from these percepts of his, might abstain from unlawful connections. (49) If, therefore, a man seek to indulge himself with a quadruped, or if a woman surrender herself to a quadruped, they shall all die, both the man or woman and the quadruped. The human beings, because they have gone beyond even the bounds of intemperance itself, becoming discoverers of unprecedented appetites, and because with their new inventions they have introduced most detestable pleasures, the very mention of which is infamous; and the beasts shall die, because they have been subservient to such iniquities, and also to prevent their bringing forth or begetting any thing intolerable, as would naturally be the result of such pollutions. (50) Moreover, those who have even a slight care for what is becoming would never use such animals as those for any purpose of life, but would reject and abominate them, loathing their very sight, and thinking that whatever they touched would at once become impure and polluted. And it is not well that those things which are of no use for life should live at all, since they are only a superfluous burden on the earth, as some one has called them.

IX. (51) Again, according to the injunctions of the sacred scriptures the constitution of the law does not recognise a harlot; as being a person alienated from good order, and modesty, and chastity, and all other virtues, who has filled the souls both of men and women with intemperance, polluting the immortal beauty of the mind, and honouring above it the short-lived perishable beauty of the body prostituting herself to every chance comer, and selling her beauty as if it were some vendible thing in the market, doing and saying every thing with a view to catch the young men. And she excites her lovers to contests with one another, proposing herself as the most disgraceful prize for those who gain the victory. Let her, therefore, be stoned as an injury and mischief to, and a common pollution of, the whole state, having corrupted the graces of nature, which she ought to have adorned further by her own excellence.

X. (52) The law has pronounced all acts of adultery, if detected in the fact, or if proved by undeniable evidence, liable to the punishment of death; but cases in which guilt is only suspected, it does not choose should be investigated by men, but it brings them before the tribunal of nature; since men are able to judge of what is visible, but God can judge also of what is unseen, since he alone is able to behold the soul distinctly, (53) therefore he says to the man who suspects such a thing, "Write an accusation, and go up to the holy city with thy wife, and standing before the judges, lay bare the passion of suspicion which affects you, not like a false accuser or treacherous enemy, seeking to gain the victory by any means whatever, but as a man may do who wishes accurately to ascertain the truth without any sophistry. (54) And the woman, having incurred two dangers, one of her life, and the other of her reputation, the loss of which last is more grievous than any kind of death, shall judge the matter with herself; and if she be pure, let her make her defence with confidence; but if she be convicted by her own conscience, let her cover her face, making her modesty the veil for her iniquities, for to persist in her impudence is the very extravagance of wickedness. (55) But if the charge which is made against her be contested, and if the evidence be doubtful, so as not to incline to either side, then let the two parties go up to the temple, and let the man stand in front of the altar, in the presence of the priest for the day, and then let him state his suspicions and his grounds for them, and let him produce and offer some barley flour, as a species of oblation on behalf of his wife, to prove that he accuses her, not out of insult, but with an honest intention, because he has a reasonable doubt. (56) And the priest shall take the barley and offer it to the woman, and shall take away from her the head-dress on her head, that she may be judged with her head bare, and deprived of the symbol of modesty, which all those women are accustomed to wear who are completely blameless; and there shall not be any oil used, nor any frankincense, as in the case of other sacrifices, because the sacrifice now offered is to be accomplished on no joyful occasion, but on one which is very grievous. (57) And the reason why the flour is to be made of barley is, perhaps, because the food which is made of barley is of a somewhat ambiguous character, and is suited for the use both of irrational animals and of needy men; and is therefore a sign that a woman who has committed adultery differs in no respect from the beasts, whose connections with one another are promiscuous and incessant; but she who is pure from all such accusations is devoted to that manner of life which befits human beings. (58) Then the law proceeds to say, the priest, having taken an earthen vessel, shall pour forth pure water, having drawn it from a fountain, and shall also bring a lump of clay from the ground of the temple, which also I think has in it a symbolical reference to the search after truth; for the earthenware vessel is appropriate to the commission of adultery because it is easily broken, and death is the punishment appointed for adulterers; but the earth and the water are appropriate to the purging of the accusation, since the origin, and increase, and perfection of all things, take place by them: (59) on which account it was very proper for the law-giver to set them both off by epithets, saying, that the water which the priest was to take must be pure and living water, since blameless woman is pure as to her life, and deserves to live; and the earth too is to be taken, not from any chance spot, but from the soil of the ground of the temple, which must, of necessity, be most excellent, just as a modest woman is. (60) And when all these things are previously prepared, the woman with her head uncovered, bearing the barley flour in her hand, as has been already specified, shall come forward; and the priest standing opposite to her and holding the earthenware vessel in which are the water and the earth, shall speak thus: (61) "If you have not transgressed the laws of your marriage, and if no other man has been associated with you, so that you have not violated the rights of him who is joined to you by the law, you are blameless and innocent; but if you have neglected your husband and have followed empty appetites, either loving some one yourself or yielding to some lover, betraying your nearest and dearest connections, and adulterating them by a spurious mixture, then learn that you are deservedly liable to every kind of curse, the proofs of which you will exhibit on your body. Come then and drink the draught of conviction, which shall uncover and lay bare all thy hidden and secret actions." (62) Then the priest shall write these words on a paper and dip it in the water which is in the earthenware vessel, and give it to the woman. And she shall drink it and depart, awaiting the reward of her modesty or the extreme penalty of her incontinence; for if she has been falsely accused she may hope for seed and children, disregarding all apprehensions and anxieties on the subject of barrenness and childlessness. But if she is guilty then a great weight and bulk, form her belly swelling and becoming full, will come upon her, and a terribly evil condition of her womb will afflict her, since she did not choose to keep it pure for her husband, who had married her according to the laws of her nation. (63) And the law takes such exceeding pains to prevent any irregularity taking place with respect to marriages, that even in the case of husbands and wives who have come together for legitimate embraces, in strict accordance with the laws of marriage, after they have arisen from their beds it does not allow them to touch anything before they have had recourse to washings and ablutions; keeping them very far from adultery and from all accusations referring to adultery.

XI. (64) But if any one should offer violence to a widow after her husband is dead, or after she has been otherwise divorced from him, and defile her, committing a lighter offence than adultery, and one that may perhaps be about half as serious, he shall not indeed be liable to the punishment of death, but he shall be impeached for violence, and insolence, and intemperance, having thus adopted the most infamous conduct as if it had been the most creditable; and the tribunal of the judge shall decide and condemn him to the penalty that he deserves to suffer. (65) Again, seduction is an offence which is similar and nearly related to adultery, as they are both sprung from one common mother, incontinence. But some of those persons who are accustomed to dignify shameful actions by specious names, call this love, blushing to confess the real truth concerning its character. But, nevertheless, though it may be akin to it, it is not in every respect similar to it, because it is an offence that does not spread so as to affect many families, as is the case with adultery, but it is limited to one house alone, that of the virgin who has been seduced. (66) Therefore we must say to a man who desires to enjoy a virgin who is a free-born citizen, "My good man, rejecting your shameless rashness and audacity, the sources of treachery and faithlessness, and all such feelings, do not allow yourself to be discovered to be wicked, either openly or secretly, (67) but if, indeed, you have any legitimate feeling of love for the maiden in your soul, go to her parents, if they are alive, and if they are not, then go to her brother or to her guardians, or to any other persons who chance to be her protectors, and having discovered to them your feelings towards her, as a free-born man should do, ask her in marriage, and implore them not to account you unworthy. (68) "For no one of those who have the guardianship of the maiden entrusted them could be so base as to oppose an earnest and persevering entreaty, and especially as to refuse you since you, would be found, by strict examination, not to have falsely pretended a passion which you do not feel, or to have conceived only a superficial love for her, but one which is genuine and thoroughly Established."{4}{#de 22:13.} (69) But if any one, being insane and frantic, repudiating and discarding all the suggestions of reason, were to submit himself wholly to passion and desire as his masters, and looking, as people say, on might as stronger than right, were to ravish and seduce women, treating free-born women as slaves, and doing acts of war in time of peace, let such a man be led before the judges. (70) And if the damsel who has been forced has a father, let him take counsel and deal with the ravisher about espousing her; then if he refuse to do so, he shall give the damsel a dowry for another husband, being fined in a sum of money sufficient for this purpose. But if he consents and registers her as his wife, let him marry her at once without any delay, confessing a second time that he owes her the same dowry, and let him have no permission to delay or evade the fulfilment of this marriage; both because of his own conduct, in order that the mishap which took place respecting her first connection with a man may be comforted by a firm marriage, which nothing shall ever separate but death. (71) But if the damsel be an orphan and have no father, then let her be asked by the judges whether she is willing to take this man for her husband or not; and whether she agrees to do so or whether she refuses, still let her have the same dowry that the man would have agreed to give her while her father was yet alive.

XII. [Concubinage] (72) Some people think that a licensed concubinage is an offence something between seduction and adultery, when the two parties come together, and agree to live as man and wife by a certain agreement, but before the marriage ceremony is completed, some other man meeting with the woman, or forcing her has connection with her; but in my opinion this also is a kind of adultery; for such an agreement as is here mentioned is equivalent to a marriage, for in it the names of the woman and of the man are both registered, and all other things which were to lead to their union; (73) on which account, the law orders both the parties to be stoned if with one and the same mind they agree together to commit adultery; for it is impossible that, unless they both set out with the same intention, they should be looked upon as equal in iniquity, if they and not both sinned in an equal degree; (74) at all events it often happens that the offence is enhanced or diminished, with reference to the difference of place in which it is committed. For, as it seems, such an offence is greater if it be committed in a city, and less it if be committed outside the walls of any city, in a wilderness; for in such a place there is not one to assist the maiden, even though she may have said and done everything, which could conduce to the preservation of her virginity, unattacked and undefiled; but in a city there are halls of council, and courts of justice, and great assemblies of generals, and aediles, and rulers of the markets, and other magistrates; and besides all these there is the people; (75) for there is in the soul of every man, even though he may be a private individual, a feeling which is hostile to iniquity, which, when it is excited, makes the man who cherishes it a champion for the time being, and a spontaneous and voluntary defender of the person who appears to be unjustly treated.

XIII. (76) Therefore justice in every case pursues the man who has committed violence, nor is his iniquity excused by the difference of the place, so that cannot be any plea to defend him from the consequence of his violence and lawlessness; but as I have said before, there will be compassion and pardon for the damsel in the one case, and in the other inexecrable punishment will visit her. (77) And concerning her the judge must examine the matter very carefully, not referring everything to or making everything depend upon the place; for it is possible that a woman may be ravished against her will even in the middle of the city; and on the other hand even if outside the city, she may have voluntarily given herself up to an illicit connection. Wherefore the law, making a very careful and very admirably conceived defence, on behalf of a damsel ravished in the wilderness, says, "for the damsel cried out, and there was no one to help Her;"{5}{#de 22:27.} so that if she neither cried out nor resisted, but willingly consented to her ravisher, she must be looked upon as guilty, having only put forward the fact of the place, as a sophistical excuse to make it appear that she had been ravished. (78) And yet in the city what advantage can her efforts be to a damsel, who is willing to do everything for the sake of preserving her own reputation, but who is unable to succeed by reason of the strength of the man who is assaulting her? for what advantage could she derive from those who live in the same house if he were to bind her with ropes, or to gag her mouth, so that she could not utter even a word; for in some sense she then, although dwelling in a city, is in reality in a wilderness, inasmuch as she is destitute of all protection; but if she be in a wilderness, and yet willingly gives herself up to her ravisher, she is in no different condition from a woman in a city.

XIV. (79) There are also some persons easily sated with their connection with the same woman, being at once both mad for women and women haters, full of promiscuous and irregular dispositions, who at once give themselves up to their first impulses whatever they may be; letting those passions proceed without restraint which they ought to curb, and like blind men, without any consideration, without any prudence, stumbling upon any bodies or any things, upsetting, and overturning, and confusing everything in their violent impetuosity and haste, and suffering evils as great as those which they inflict; (80) and concerning these men we have this law enacted. When those men who marry virgins in accordance with the law, {6}{#de 22:13.} and who have sacrificed on the occasion and celebrated their marriage feast, and who yet afterwards preserve no natural affection for their wives but treat them with insolence, and behave to freeborn citizens as if they were courtesans, if they seek to procure a divorce, and to being able to find any pretext for such a separation, then betake themselves to bringing forward false accusations, and from an absence of any clear grounds of impeachment direct all their charges at things which cannot be made certain, and come forward and accuse them, saying that though they fancied that they had been marrying virgins, they found on the first occasion of their having intercourse together, that they were not so. When, I say, these men make such charges let all the elders be assembled to decide on the case, and let the parents of the woman who is accused also appear, to make their defence in this their common danger. (81) For in such a case, not only are their daughters themselves in danger, as to their reputation as having preserved the chastity of their bodies, but their guardians are likewise imperilled, not only because they have not kept them safe till the important period of their marriageable age, but because they have given in marriage as virgins those who have been defiled by others, deceiving and imposing upon those who have taken them to wife. (82) Then if they appear to have justice on their side, let the judges impose a pecuniary fine on those who have invented these false accusations, and let them also sentence those who have assaulted them to corporeal punishment, and let them also pronounce, what to those men will be the most unpleasant of all things, a confirmation of their marriage, if their wives will still endure to cohabit with them; for the law permits them at their own choice to remain with them or to abandon them, and will not allow the husbands any option either way, on account of the false accusations which they have brought.

Christian sources

Acts (15:20): I [James] have reached the decision that we should not trouble those Gentiles who are turning to God, 20 but we should write to them to abstain only from things polluted by idols and from sexual immorality and from whatever has been strangled and from blood. -- (15:28-29) 28 For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to impose on you no further burden than these essentials: 29 that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols and from blood and from what is strangled and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. -- (21:25) But as for the Gentiles who have become believers, we have sent a letter with our judgment that they should abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols and from blood and from what is strangled and from sexual immorality.

1 Thessalonians 4:3-5 -- For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that you should abstain from sexual immorality:

1 Corinthians (5:1-2) It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not found even among pagans; for a man is living with his father's wife. 2 And you are arrogant! Should you not rather have mourned, so that he who has done this would have been removed from among you? -- (6:9-10) Do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived! Fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, male prostitutes, sodomites, 10 thieves, the greedy, drunkards, revilers, robbers--none of these will inherit the kingdom of God. -- (6:13) The body is meant not for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. -- (6:18-19) 18 Shun sexual immorality! Every sin that a person commits is outside the body; but the fornicator sins against the body itself. 19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own? -- 2 Corinthians (12:21):

Galatians (5:19)

Romans (1:26-27) -- For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet.

Ephesians 5:3 -- But sexual immorality, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becomes saints;

Colossians (3:5)

Mark 7:21

Matthew 5:32 -- 15:19 -- 19:19

Revelation (2:21) -- (9:21) -- 14:8 -- 17:2 -- 18:3 -- 19:2