Discussion » Questions » Religion and Spirituality » If we are going to start bashing other religions we don't understand, how about all the underage sex in the BIBLE?

If we are going to start bashing other religions we don't understand, how about all the underage sex in the BIBLE?

Posted - March 10, 2018

Responses


  • 3463
    I don't claim to be. But neither are those who allow adults to have sex with children or rapists to remain in good standing in the church.
      March 11, 2018 8:05 PM MDT
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  • I don't disagree with that.  They should be charged as pedos, not shielded by the church.  BUT, I am curious as to what you suggest would be an appropriate legal age?  Do you agree with 17/18?
      March 12, 2018 8:02 AM MDT
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  • 6098
    In Biblical times in most of those countries the ideal was to marry girls as soon as they reached sexual maturity.  So 14, 15, etc.  Perhaps so they would have less chance to get into trouble before. 
      March 11, 2018 3:57 PM MDT
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  • 2657
    Maybe some countries, I don't know about that but Christians were admonished to wait until past the bloom of youth. That applied to Christians in whatever country they resided in.
      March 27, 2018 8:59 AM MDT
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  • 2217
    The mores of 2000 years ago were very different from those of today. Rape was not taken nearly so seriously and the concept of underage was probably ill-defined if defined at all. 
      March 11, 2018 4:31 PM MDT
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  • 16366
    Conversely, paedophilia is condemned in the Bible. The KJV translators got 1Cor6:9 completely wrong. The word "malakos", translated as "homosexual", is better translated "catamite", ie a slave boy kept as a sexual plaything, a common practice in the Greco-Roman world in the first century. "Arsenokoites", translated "sodomite" is the man who keeps them, so again "pederast" fits better. Tiberius Caesar was known to have several, which is why he delegated so much to his grandson Caligula, so he could spend more time in the bath abusing said boys.
    It is this practice that Paul spoke out against - not consenting acts between adults, but enforcing sexual slavery upon children.  This post was edited by Slartibartfast at March 11, 2018 8:22 PM MDT
      March 11, 2018 8:17 PM MDT
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  • 2657
    Not sure what your point is? Are you saying that Paul or the God of the Bible is okay with sexual relations between two men as long as they are both agreeable?
      March 27, 2018 9:01 AM MDT
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  • 16366
    That and also that sex with children is NOT okay.
      March 27, 2018 9:33 PM MDT
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  • 2657
    Well you got the last part right.

    I don't see how you think that the God of the Bible is okay with sex between two men?
    (1 Corinthians 6:9) Or do you not know that unrighteous people will not inherit God’s Kingdom? Do not be misled. Those who are sexually immoral, idolaters, adulterers, men who submit to homosexual acts, men who practice homosexuality,
    (Romans 1:26, 27) That is why God gave them over to uncontrolled sexual passion, for their females changed the natural use of themselves into one contrary to nature; 27 likewise also the males left the natural use of the female and became violently inflamed in their lust toward one another, males with males, working what is obscene and receiving in themselves the full penalty, which was due for their error.
    (1 Timothy 1:10) sexually immoral people, men who practice homosexuality, kidnappers, liars, perjurers, and everything else that is in opposition to the wholesome teaching
    (Leviticus 18:22) “‘You must not lie down with a male in the same way that you lie down with a woman. It is a detestable act.
    (Leviticus 20:13) “‘If a man lies down with a male the same as one lies down with a woman, both of them have done a detestable thing. They should be put to death without fail. Their own blood is upon them.

    (Matthew 19:4-6) In reply he said: “Have you not read that the one who created them from the beginning made them male and female 5 and said: ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and his mother and will stick to his wife, and the two will be one flesh’? 6 So that they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has yoked together, let no man put apart.”

    (2 Timothy 4:1-4) I solemnly charge you before God and Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his manifestation and his Kingdom: 2 Preach the word; be at it urgently in favorable times and difficult times; reprove, reprimand, exhort, with all patience and art of teaching. 3 For there will be a period of time when they will not put up with the wholesome teaching, but according to their own desires, they will surround themselves with teachers to have their ears tickled. 4 They will turn away from listening to the truth and give attention to false stories.
      March 28, 2018 2:28 PM MDT
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  • 16366
    I already pointed out the mistranlations of "arsenokoites" and "malakos" - add to that "gynemaides" in Timothy. The KJV scholars brought their own prejudices to the job of translation.
    As for Leviticus - a little historical and cultural exegesis is demanded. Rape was permitted if the rapist then "bought" the victim from her father (same book). You couldn't do that with a man,  unless a slave (and slavery wasn't permanent in that era, it was more akin to indenture). We were released from the Law by the blood of Christ.
      March 28, 2018 6:30 PM MDT
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  • 2657
    While those you mention would be included that would not exclude adults and not everyone accepts your definitions nor that of the KJV. I've read that King James himself was gay.
    Is there even a single homosexual act in the Bible that is put in a good light or not unnatural? 
    Genesis 19:4, 5, 24, 25; Judges 19:22-23

    (Jude 7) In the same manner, Sodʹom and Go·morʹrah and the cities around them also gave themselves over to gross sexual immorality and pursued unnatural fleshly desires; they are placed before us as a warning example by undergoing the judicial punishment of everlasting fire.


    Deut 22:28 taphas was used, not kabash.

    https://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=H3533&t=KJV kabash

    to subject, subdue, force, keep under, bring into bondage

    1. (Qal)

      1. to bring into bondage, make subservient

      2. to subdue, force, violate

      3. to subdue, dominate, tread down

    2. (Niphal) to be subdued

    3. (Piel) to subdue

    4. (Hiphil) to bring into bondage


    n
    https://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=H8610&t=KJV  taphas

    to catch, handle, lay hold, take hold of, seize, wield

    1. (Qal)

      1. to lay hold of, seize, arrest, catch

      2. to grasp (in order to) wield, wield, use skilfully

    2. (Niphal) to be seized, be arrested, be caught, be taken, captured

    3. (Piel) to catch, grasp (with the hands)

    n

    Why did God’s Law say that an Israelite man who had sex relations with an unengaged virgin had to marry her and could never divorce her?
    At Exodus 22:16, 17 and Deuteronomy 22:28, 29, we find this law, which some have claimed seems unsympathetic toward women. Actually, it encouraged a high moral standard for both men and women.
    Deuteronomy chapter 22 presented various domestic laws. For instance, it dealt with the situation of a man who no longer loved his wife and claimed that she had not been a virgin. It also presented God’s laws about adultery and rape. Then we read:
    “In case a man finds a girl, a virgin who has not been engaged, and he actually seizes her and lies down with her, and they have been found out, the man who lay down with her must also give the girl’s father fifty silver shekels, and she will become his wife due to the fact that he humiliated her. He will not be allowed to divorce her all his days.”—Deuteronomy 22:28, 29.
    This was a case of pressured seduction and/or fornication. If an unscrupulous man felt at liberty to have sex relations with a virgin, she would be the primary loser. Besides the possibility that she might have an illegitimate child, her value as a bride was diminished, for many Israelites might not want to marry her once she was no longer a virgin. What, though, would discourage a man from taking liberties with a virgin? God’s “holy and righteous and good” Law would.—Romans 7:12.
    The Mosaic code had a provision allowing a man to divorce his wife for certain reasons. (Deuteronomy 22:13-19; 24:1; Matthew 19:7, 8) But what we read at Exodus 22:16, 17 and Deuteronomy 22:28, 29 shows that the option of divorce disappeared after premarital fornication. This, then, might cause a man (or a virgin woman) to resist a temptation to share in fornication. A man could not feel, ‘She is pretty and exciting, so I’ll have a good time with her even though she is not the sort I’d like to marry.’ Rather, this law would deter immorality by causing any would-be offender to weigh the long-term consequences of fornication—having to stay with the other party throughout his life.
    The Law also lessened the problem of illegitimacy. God decreed: “No illegitimate son may come into the congregation of Jehovah.” (Deuteronomy 23:2) So if a man who seduced a virgin had to marry her, their fornication would not result in an illegitimate offspring among the Israelites.
    Granted, Christians live in a social setting that is different from that of the ancient Israelites. We are not under the decrees of the Mosaic Law, including this law requiring the marriage of two persons who engaged in such fornication. Nonetheless, we cannot feel that engaging in premarital fornication is an insignificant thing. Christians should give serious thought to long-term consequences, even as this law moved the Israelites to do so.
    Seducing an unmarried person ruins that one’s right to enter a Christian marriage as a clean virgin (male or female). Premarital fornication also affects the rights of any person who might become the individual’s mate, namely, that individual’s right to marry a chaste Christian. Most of all, fornication must be avoided because God says that it is wrong; it is a sin. The apostle aptly wrote: “This is what God wills, the sanctifying of you, that you abstain from fornication.”—1 Thessalonians 4:3-6; Hebrews 13:4.
      March 29, 2018 5:35 AM MDT
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