By David J. Hathaway

E-Mail

9/8/99

MY THESIS

Biblical moral and spiritual teachings on sex and prostitution come out of an attempt to stop the spread of disease in general, venereal disease in particular. ( They were probably also to prevent genetic problems of inbreeding and other factors mentioned at the end of this paper, but they are beyond the scope of this discussion.)

Biblical History and Principles

1. In Biblical times, disease was seen to be a punishment from God because of spiritual sins. Ex.9:14 Lev.26:14-17 esp.v16. This included problems with the land production, drought, thistles, flood, and losses in battle.

Harlotry and improper sex was punished by God cursing land and people. Isa.23:15 to24:6 ; Prov. 56:3-23 esp. v.4,5,11 ( maybe Gen. 3:14ff.)

The physical world was controlled by the spiritual world. Disease came from spiritual sin. Disease was seen to be a consequence of sin , and brought from the Devil as allowed by God. Job.1:6-12. It was commonly believed that if a person would repent, they would be healed. Job 8:3-6

2. Obedience to Gods’ commandments prevents his punishing people with disease. Ex.15:26

3. The sacrificial, ceremonial, and dietary laws were given to prevent disease. Deut. 7:11-15. Venereal diseases and leprosy, trichinosis, and other diseases were endemic in Egypt and in the middle east. They could be spread by sexual contact, consuming uncooked meat, and unhygienic conditions and practices.

Diseases of : consumption, anxiety, Deut. 28:15-48 esp.v.22,27; physical internal pain, tumours, incurable scabs, madness blindness. v.28,29, and other references to sterility, burning fever, blindness, and depression. Lev. 26:14-17. (These are symptoms of syphilis, gonorrhoea, herpes, A.I.D.S., chlamydia, trichinosis and or leprosy.

Laws of washing, abstinence from casual sex, i.e. prostitutes, burning of blood animals, etc. could help prevent diseases. Refer to the book None of These Diseases 

4. Prostitution was a part of worshiping other gods, as it was a part of their religion. To worship other gods was to have sex with temple prostitutes. Sex with prostitutes was likely to result in venereal disease. Therefore, worshiping other gods, or visiting prostitutes, was seen to be a spiritual sin punishable by Jehovah by venereal disease, and often its consequences of death. Lev. 26:14-17. Re. 18:3,4 Prov.2:16 (cr.v.18), 7:5-27 Ex. 32:6,35 (The golden calf was an Egyptian sexual deity and “rose up to play” is sexual involvement.)

6. Prostitutes, and women taken in captivity from other nations were killed to prevent the spread of venereal diseases. Virgins only were kept for sexual partners. Num. 31:6,35; 25:1-9. (Disease probably the background of the ideas of the spiritual purity of virginity, and the “dirtiness” of sex. )

Purification of disease was accomplished by burning prostitutes, captured men, their sexual partners, their children, animals, and infected garments and villages. Anything that could carry diseases from one village to another was burned to purify it from communicable diseases. Num.31:19-23 Only the virgins were spared since experience had shown that they wouldn’t spread venereal disease, i.e. the judgement of God. They wouldn’t have served as temple prostitutes for other gods, and were already spiritually, and hence, physically pure..

Summary and Conclusion

Biblical standards regarding sexuality in general, and prostitution in particular, came out of the historical background of attempting to stop endemic disease. The saw disease as a judgement of God for certain sexual practices. Morality and spiritual values were built upon these historical beliefs.

To ignore this historical background is to make the interpretation and application of Biblical teachings incomplete, and hence maybe misleading to today’s culture..

Further Considerations – Practical, and Moral from Prostitution and Extramarital Sex That are Beyond the Scope of this Paper:

A. Recognition of the disease factor does not discount the other moral and spiritual factors of prostitution and sexual fidelity, but shows a practical reason for compliance, i.e. health.

B. In the 1960’s the “God is Dead ” movement coincided with the “free Love” movement. When people stopped believing in a vengeful God, They saw no reason to follow Biblical principles. In thirty years of “Free Love” and “coming Out”, our society has an increased world wide epidemic of a variety of venereal diseases. How many are new, and how many are from Biblical days is debatable, but probably syphilis, gonorrhoea are most likely, and A.I.D.S. In a more quickly acting virus existed then.

Most people now believe that disease came from viruses and bacteria, and therefor stopped believing in a the practicality of the Bible. I think that the Biblical practices for preventing disease are still mostly valid, even though the explanation of how and why disease originates. (This does not prove that God can’t use viruses and bacteria to punish people, but id doesn’t seem logical to me since viruses and bacteria seem to affect people indiscriminately. 

C. Unwanted children results in harm to the mother and the child.  Because of no father to support the mother or child emotionally, economically, or as no father figure and disciplinarian. Problems of inheritance for bastards. Poor self esteem for mother and child from prejudicial social stigma. abortions resulting in injury to the mother directly, of resulting in her sterility. Abortion of the foetus and the moral question of murder, and the guilt and loss for the mother. 

D. Hurt feelings of woman because of infidelity of their mate, and  insecurity in relationships, depersonalisation , poor self esteem. Breakdown in family security, stability, and this effect on economics, family violence, incest, and discipline of step parents. 

E. Ethics of contracts between persons of unequal power. When a person is forced to make a contract because they are in an inferior position, and when the contract is unfair, even though they need to sign it, the contract may be seen to be immoral. I.e., prostitutes who need to give sex for basic survival needs of themselves or their children verses men o wealth and /. I.e. women who make men, who have no sexual prowess with women, pay for gratification of their basic sexual needs. 

A response:

My guess is that the psychologist is someone who does not treat the

bible as unvarnished inerrant truth, but as a record of a people who

developing their ideas of God in their own particular circumstances.

The above paragraph expresses a hypothesis about the basis for certain

laws which seems tolerably plausible to me.

He seems to be proposing a possible justification for ideas expressed in the bible.

Curiously, the justification is quite secular, in the sense that the rules about

preserving virgins etc were not simply given directly by God, but were developed in

response to issues of disease at a particular time. The validity of his thesis is thus

quite unrelated to the actual existence or otherwise of God. Of course, I could be quite

wrong about this guy as well! 
Felicitations — Chris 

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