Perverse Paul

Despite their dedication to raping women not of their tribes, the early Jews had a remarkably permissive attitude towards sex as a natural and pleasurable activity. Dying in the virgin state was considered unfortunate rather than desirable. A man could have as many wives as he could manage and have consensual sex with as many unmarried girls as he wished. (“Adultery” meant having sex with another’s Jew’s wife; thereby violating that man’s property rights.) Some teachers even believed that, upon his death, a man would be called upon “to account to God for every pleasure he had failed to enjoy.” *

  And then, along came a guy called Paul.

Although not exactly a “hero” of the Bible, Paul is the key character in its later pages. Without him, the book’s impact would be far less today.

Influenced by the dualism of oriental religions, which were then spreading throughout the Roman Empire, Paul had an extremely negative, pessimistic view of mankind in general, and sex in particular. He believed that any physical pleasure interfered with spiritual development and that, since the cataclysmic end of the world was imminent, men should put away all things worldly to prepare themselves for passage through the Pearly Gates.

 At first, Paul’s extremist views earned some credence as folks bought into the idea that the sky was about to fall, so they really hadn’t much to lose by sacrificing a bit of pleasure. By the time it became obvious that the apocalypse was not imminent, the Christian leaders were learning how much power and control they could gain by convincing the populace that man’s natural desires were sinful. Thus, the twisted teachings of Paul and his compatriots were the transient event in the desexualization of western religion — the disturbance in the force that triggered an avalanche of repression, persecutions, killings, hysteria, and mayhem engineered by the Christian fathers.

 Serving as a coadjutant to ‘the physical is inferior’ idea, was the “women are inferior” idea. Paul is infamous for comments such as: “Let a woman learn in silence with all submissiveness. I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over men; she is to keep silent. For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.” [1Tim 2:11 13] .

Footnote

* Taylor, G. Rattray, Sex in History, Vanguard Press, 1954.