Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

SEX

When investigating the attitude toward sexual intercourse in ancient Israel, it is important not to impose modern assumptions about sexuality on an ancient culture.

In ancient Israelite thought humans have been given a sexual desire to create life through the production of children (Gen. 3:16), so sexual intercourse establishes people’s tie to God who is the perpetuator of life (implied by the name Yahweh) and to nature. Although the full meaning of the word “Yahweh” is not known, some scholars feel that the name is related to the causative (hiphil) future (imperfect) of the verb “to be or exist.” Since this Hebrew tense implies a flow from the present into the future, the causative imperfect would suggest that God sustains and perpetuates being/existence from the present onward. Consequently, because sexual intercourse ties people to the divine, its power is highly valued and considered the greatest power that humans possess. The idea of sex being inherently dirty is out of the question. Male and female sexual roles follow the patterns of nature where the male is the “fertilizer” and the female is the “producer,” so through sexual intercourse humans participate in the flow of God’s creation.

In small agricultural communities which require abundant and intense labor (such as ancient Israel), sexual intercourse is central for the physical survival of the household and the overall society. Because individuals have a sense of the continuation of their lives through children, sexual intercourse is central for their psychological sense of salvation. Women, as the “co-producers” of children with Yahweh (cf. Gen. 4:1), are the co-producers of salvation; there is no greater power, no greater functioning in this kind of society. Therefore, women have significant power and value within the society. Because women receive social status from the number of children they produce, they are sexually aggressive (e.g., Tamar or Ruth). But sexual intercourse is also a threatening power, in that it can produce either life (birth) or death of the infant and/or mother in childbirth. So sexual intercourse embodies both the risk and the pleasure of life; it entails living fully and authentically.

In Hebrew Scripture sex has two primary functions: the production of progeny which lead to salvation, and the creation of the strong ties or oneness which are essential for holding the household and the community together. Sex is the physical bonding together of what appears physically different in order to produce life, suggesting that the uniting of opposites is both creative and essential to the divine life process. In Gen. 1 God creates by separating what is different in the original chaos, but in Gen. 2:24 sexual intercourse reunites what is separate and different into a physical (a child) and psychological unity. Likewise, the oneness between Israel and God is often envisioned in terms of the sexual bonding of marriage. Sexual intercourse is associated with love, which in the OT is perceived in physical and psychological terms as the bonding together of different things in oneness.

Sexual intercourse is a boundary crossing that requires the relaxing of the boundaries that the ego uses to define its identity and as a defense mechanism. In sex, identity and defense mechanisms are penetrated or enveloped. This is symbolized in the OT by the association of sex with nakedness, which entails the removal of the protective barrier of culturally prescribed clothing. Nakedness exposes people’s vulnerability, both the vulnerable parts of the body, the genitals (the site of fundamental human power critical to continued life), and the vulnerable self deprived of its artificial ego defenses. But when humans do not relax ego boundaries and defenses in intimate relationships with one another, they can become barriers to intimate, genuine love and oneness. If people cannot loosen these barriers with one another, most probably they will not be able to loosen them in relationship with God. Because of the association of sexual intercourse with intimacy, it is also connected to “knowing,” which encompasses broad intellectual, experiential, and sexual knowing. Since sexual intercourse involves boundary crossing, vulnerability, intimacy, and oneness, it should entail “knowing” a person in the fullest sense.

Since sexual intercourse is a critical yet threatening power that impacts the life/salvation of the household, it must be used with great care and control. For example, the male is to “control” the female’s sexual desire (Gen. 3:17) because it can produce either life or death and because if it is used outside the household or society, it squanders the salvific power of the group and “builds the house” of outsiders. But the word “control” (Heb. māšal) connotes a noncoercive power that encourages and enhances potential within limitation. So the male’s control of the female’s sexual desire is set within the context of potential not being unlimited and limitation not destroying potential.

There is also casual sex or sex that does not create marital or family bonding and obligation (e.g., Deut. 22:28-29) or that violates existing marital or family bonding and obligation (e.g., vv. 23-24). This kind of sex is considered foolish and shameful, an “inadequacy” or “failure” to live up to internalized, societal goals and ideals because it violates the purpose of sex and therefore does not participate in the divine life process. Thus the prostitute is tolerated, but her sexual activity is marginal because it does not create bonding and does not build the household or community. Rape, which entails a man overpowering a woman, who cries out for help but with no one to rescue her, is a hostile, exploitative crime against a woman and society (e.g., Deut. 22:25-27; 2 Sam. 13:11-14). This kind of sexual activity is usually employed for purposes of building the individual ego with power and control, not for building the community. Sexual intercourse in ancient Israel is intended to be an activity that builds the community first and therein fills the needs of the individual.

Lyn M. Bechtel

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

SEX

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)