God and Sex
What the Bible Really Says
By
Michael Coogan 2010
Reviewed by
Geoffrey W. Sutton
Coogan sets the stage for a biblical view of sex by citing the popularity of the Bible in US society--over 90% of us have "The Book." He challenges readers who believe the Bible is simply "God's Word" rather than a collection of works by multiple authors to consider some obvious inconsistencies easily recognized by anyone who has taken the time to read the text. Coogan want readers to see the unfolding of the biblical message in ways that allows a nuanced approach to modern life. Thus, he will write about women as equals, sexual prohibitions, and the stories of rape.
Chapter 1
We begin with an invitation to see the biblical past as life in a foreign country with a different language, culture and values. He quickly shows readers love and sex through the eyes of the Song of Solomon. Then opens readers' eyes to biblical sex by lifting the veil of euphemisms. Soon, sex is everywhere. And we begin to hear women's voices.
Chapter 2
It is still common in Christianity to find only male leaders in Christian churches and organizations. Coogan provides several examples of the subordinate role of women in the Bible. He even shows us what a woman was worth by age. The highest value was 30 shekels of silver compared to 50 for men in the age group 20 to 60. This is based on the redemption vows. There's more here. We learn about widows, virgins, and the roles of women in public and the home.
Chapter 3
In this chapter, Coogan looks at marriage and divorce. Abortion and polygamy fit here. There are no comments on abortion and birth control in a culture where children are valuable assets. Infant mortality is a horrific 50% based on some estimates. Coogan explains the familiar pro-choice argument about ending pregnancies and shows the problem with the poets recognition of life in the womb. Following comments on polygamy, Coogan looks at the restrictions on divorce explained in the context of Jewish culture and law.
Chapter 4
Here we learn about forbidden relationships like adultery, incest, and rape. An important reminder to moderns is an understanding of women as a man's property. Incest is of course part of the list of forbidden relationships. The value of a virgin daughter to her father is a noteworthy point of ancient culture. Next Coogan offers his take on same-sex sexuality. He offers the cultural context for the disapproval and challenges modern moralists to consider their views about same sex-sex prohibitions in view of culture and their inconsistent stance on other moral matters.
Chapter 5
This essay is about rape and prostitution. The familiar Bible stories are revisited. We learn the oft told stories of righteous prostitutes like Tamar and Rahab, but we also see how they were marginalized.
Chapter 6
Coogan introduces ideas about God and his wives and the problem of polytheism in ancient Israel. We know Israel was warned by the biblical writers of metaphorical adultery in their pursuit of other Gods. Coogan reminds readers that ancient cultures told stories about gods having relations with humans. And he finds evidence for these beliefs in the Scriptures.
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I quoted Coogan's work in A House Divided: Sexuality, Morality, and Christian Cultures to help readers appreciate various interpretations of scriptures dealing with contemporary issues like sexual abuse, abortion, and the role of women.
Coogan's work overlaps with other similar books aimed at helping Christians be careful with their moral proclamations. Frankly, I doubt many Christians will take the time to peruse alternative interpretations of their firm beliefs about biblical marriage and sex as presented by their clergy and in books by evangelicals. Nevertheless, Coogan's work is well documented and offers a cautionary message to modern zealots even as it helps readers appreciate an ancient culture so distant in time from our own.
Sex Topics: adultery, marriage, divorce, homoeroticism, pregnancy and abortion, women, biblical language about sex
Religious focus: The Hebrew Bible / Christian Old Testament
References
Coogan, M.D. (2010). God and sex: What the bible really says. New York: Twelve.
Sutton, G. W. (2016). A House Divided: Sexuality, morality, and Christian cultures.
Eugene, OR: Pickwick. ISBN: 9781498224888 ON AMAZON
Notable Quotes from God and Sex by Coogan
Bible
“…the Bible is an anthology, a selection of
texts from ancient Israel, early Judaism, and, for Christians, from the first
hundred years or so of Christianity.” (p. xii).
Clearly, different writers had different
views. Inconsistencies like these require first that readers of the Bible who
consider it authoritative read all of it, not blithely picking only passages
that coincide with their own views. Second, such inconsistencies invite, even
demand interpretation: if scripture itself reflects developing or at least
differing views, then its readers must scrutinize them carefully, critically.
This is especially true given the profound influence the Bible enjoys. (pp.
xiv-xv)
Women
In the biblical world, as in antiquity more
generally (and in some respects today as well), society was overwhelmingly
patriarchal. The basic unit was the “house of the father,” an extended nuclear
family over which the patriarch presided. (p. 22)
Not only were women subordinates in the family structure, they were also considered essentially inferior. (p. 23)
Husbands and fathers had virtually absolute control over their wives and daughters. Sarah refers to her husband as her “lord,” and later Abraham is referred to as her “master.” (p. 24)
Fathers could also dispose of their
daughters. (p. 25).
In the Hebrew Bible, virginity is an attribute
only of women. We find frequent references to women who have not known a man,
but never to a man who has not known a woman. In all the laws concerning
marriage and rape, a man’s previous sexual history is never an issue, only a
woman’s. (p. 33)
Chapter 3
I am sometimes asked by relatives and students to suggest biblical passages for use at their weddings, but few are appropriate. The Song of Solomon is too erotic—not to mention that the lovers are not married. Most texts concerning married couples are permeated with patriarchalism. Many major biblical characters had more than one wife. Because biblical views on marriage originated in societies whose mores were in many ways different from ours, biblical models do not necessarily inform either our practice or our theory of marriage. As a result, couples seeking my advice usually end up choosing Paul’s vague if eloquent catalog of the qualities of love—“love is patient, love is kind,” and so on1—which is not about marriage at all but about the greatest of spiritual gifts. (p. 63).
Abortion
Because children were a valuable economic asset, and because infant mortality was high—as much as fifty percent—the ancient Israelites did not usually practice birth control.4 In particular, abortion as a means of birth control is not mentioned anywhere in the Hebrew Bible, or in the New Testament.5 That absence of evidence has not prevented both sides in the ongoing debate about abortion from citing the Bible in support of their respective positions. (pp. 64-65)
Polygyny
Polygyny continued to be practiced well
into the biblical period, and it is attested among Jews as late as the second
century CE. (p. 78)
Opponents of same-sex marriage often assert
that from the beginning marriage has been between one man and one woman. Well,
yes and no: in the beginning, according to Genesis, there was only the original
couple in the Garden of Eden, no one else with whom either could have any sort
of relationship;52 but Genesis never reports a marriage ceremony. Not long
after Eden, however, the biblical writers tell us, men began to have more than
one wife, beginning with Cain’s descendant Lamech, who had two wives, Adah and
Zillah.53 So, with the authority of the Bible behind them, early Mormons argued
for “plural marriage,” and some Mormon fundamentalist sects continue to
practice polygyny. They were and are right: if the Bible provides authoritative
models, then a man should be allowed to have more than one wife, as did
Abraham, Jacob, David, and other biblical heroes, with no hint of divine
disapproval. Polygyny had a payoff: it increased the number of offspring, who
were valuable in their own right as sources of labor. It also was a status
symbol, showing that a man or his family had the assets to come up with
bride-prices for and to support several wives. Moreover, polygyny is presumed
in biblical law. (pp. 78-79).
Chapter 4
Not all of these prohibitions concern what
we would call incest, sex between close relatives. As with the seventh
commandment, they have to do with property: one man in an extended family
expropriating the property of another man in the same family, a woman under the
latter’s control. That is why the list is incomplete according to our
definition of incest: sex between a father and his daughter is not mentioned,
because the daughter was the father’s property, as the law permitting a man to
sell his daughter as a slave shows.25 If a man had sex with his daughter, there
was no one he could prosecute for her loss of value.26 (p. 109)
The juxtaposition of bestiality and male homoerotic relationships is revealing. Bestiality is prohibited because it entails a mixing of natural categories as the ancients understood them. Similarly, if a man was penetrated, he was feminized—his natural category was changed, so both he and the penetrator were guilty of “category confusion.”
The Bible may contain another interpretation of the sin of Sodom, as sodomy.80 That possible interpretation is found in the short letter of Jude in the New Testament.81 Its author reminds his audience of divine punishment of sinners in the past: (p. 130)
“Going after other flesh” could refer to
the homoerotic proclivities of Sodom and Gomorrah; if so, it is the only
biblical text that does so explicitly.83 But here the context suggests an
alternate interpretation. The line about angels refers to the myth of how the
“sons of God” had intercourse with human women,84 (p. 131)
Contemporary moralists who argue that the
Bible is opposed to homosexuality (or, better, homoeroticism) are correct, but
when they appeal to the Bible’s authority as a timeless and absolute moral
code, they ignore the cultural contexts in which the Bible was written.
Moreover, such moralists are selective in their use of biblical authority. (p.
140)
Chapter 5
For biblical writers, then, rape was like
adultery: it violated the rights of the men under whose control the victims
were—their fathers, brothers, fiancés, or husbands. What had happened to the
raped women themselves was of minor significance. (p. 150)
Chapter 6
In the Bible, God is a king, a shepherd, a
warrior—all elements of human experience and society projected onto the deity.
Likewise, metaphorically at least, God has body parts: eyes, ears, heart, nose,
arms, feet, even a backside, a rear end.9 And, despite assertions that the god
of Israel is not a sexual being, there are hints that he has reproductive
organs as well, as in Ezekiel’s vision. This is hardly surprising. In
mythology, which I would define briefly as the elaboration of metaphors
concerning the divine, often in narrative and art, other gods and goddesses of
the ancient world were sexually active. (p. 165)
Many biblical writers frequently used polytheistic concepts, depicting Yahweh as the head of a large pantheon whose members advised him and celebrated his accomplishments. (pp. 171-172)
Imago Dei (Image of God)
Worship of other gods and goddesses is
repeatedly attested, and polytheism pervades biblical language. We find an
example in the opening chapter of Genesis, in the account of the creation of
humans. Each preceding creation is introduced by the formula “Let there be” or
the like, but this time, to mark the importance of the occasion, God addresses
his pantheon, his divine council: “Let us make humans in our image, according
to our likeness.” The narrator then goes on to say: So God [elohim] created
humans in his image, in the image of elohim he created them, male and female he
created them.21 The general principle here is that humans are modeled on God,
almost genetically—just as later in Genesis, “Adam fathered [a son] in his
likeness, according to his image.”22 (p. 175).
***
The Bible is an artifact of the distant
past that has shaped our culture in myriad ways, and it continues to do so for
better and for worse. That past—that foreign country—is no longer our home, yet
our ties to it are many. (p. 189)
A related book
A House Divided: Sexuality, Morality, and Christian Cultures
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