Bloody Mary Bible Brunch: Sex and the Bible Ep. 7

Primary Sources: Gen. 6:1-8; Gen. 19; Gen. 32:22-32. 1 Corinthians 11:10; Jude 7, 14-16; 2 Peter 2:4; Luke 1:26-38, 46-56.

Secondary Sources: Unprotected Texts, by Jennifer Wright Knust, chapter 5, A Lily Among the Thorns, Miguel de la Torre, pp. 27-28 (woman as temptress), 151 (rampant heterosexuality)

 

Outline

 

I.  Is this a serious topic?

   A. It was to the Hebrews

      1. Explore Gen. 6: 1-8.  Note that Wright Knust cites to 1 Enoch & the Book of the Watchers (but I feel less confident with these texts)

      2. Discuss the divine moving with humans -- Gen 2; wrestling an "angel"

      3. Sodom story of Angle rape - note role reversal from Nephilim on who wants to have cross-species sex

 B. Was still a concern for Early Christians

      1. 1 Corinthians 11:10 - women covering up "on account of the angels"

      2. Jude 7 talking about sexual immorality of Sodom, but what was the immorality?  See citation to Enoch again in 14-16.  (If the sin was rape, why not cite to Tamar, or Dinah, or Bathsheba, or the Levite's concubine?  

  3. 2 Peter 2:4 talks about punishing the angels, but for what?    

 

II.  Did God have sex with Mary?

   A. God definitely impregnated Mary

   B. Helenistic authors would not be unfamiliar with deities knocking boots with human women

   C. Certainly possible given God's interactions with humans in other contexts

  

III.  What the hell do we do with all of this?

   A.  First, this demonstrates how dramatically different the world view of the Biblical author's was from ours.  Related, Miguel de la Torre points out that one lesson from these stories is the idea of woman as temptress.  They are so potently tempting that they even tempt angles. Which should be a point of discontinuity between us and the ancients, but sadly is often not.

   B.  Second, these are often stories of rampant unchecked, male heterosexuality.  That feels like a caution we can discuss in our world today.

   C.  Third, these stories of sex--at least in the case of other miraculous reproductions--point to the value of sex in God's plan.  

   D.  Finally, this points to the cosmic power of sexuality.  In the act of sex--because of its connection to reproduction--it is the point where we as individual humans most intersect with human beings the species.  That is our mortal manifestation of humanity as individual breaches the division with the potentially immortal manifestation of humanity, the species.  And that's no joke.