When Judaism demanded that all sexual activity be channeled into marriage, it changed the world. The Torah's prohibition of non-marital sex quite simply made the creation of Western civilization possible. Societies that did not place boundaries around sexuality were stymied in their development. The subsequent dominance of the Western world can largely be attributed to the sexual revolution initiated by Judaism and later carried forward by Christianity.
This revolution consisted of forcing the sexual genie into the marital bottle. It ensured that sex no longer dominated society, heightened male-female love and sexuality (and thereby almost alone created the possibility of love and eroticism within marriage), and began the arduous task of elevating the status of women. . . .
Judaism placed controls on sexual activity. It could no longer dominate religion and social life. It was to be sanctified — which in Hebrew means "separated" — from the world and placed in the home, in the bed of husband and wife. Judaism's restricting of sexual behavior was one of the essential elements that enabled society to progress. Along with ethical monotheism, the revolution begun by the Torah when it declared war on the sexual practices of the world wrought the most far-reaching changes in history.
2 comments:
Read Curmudgeonly Librarian on the Jewish position on sex in marriage:
https://curmudgeonlylibrarian.wordpress.com/2017/04/06/marriagedivorce-restoring-balance-part-1/
https://curmudgeonlylibrarian.wordpress.com/2017/04/11/marriagedivorce-restoring-balance-part-2/
https://curmudgeonlylibrarian.wordpress.com/2017/04/18/marriagedivorce-restoring-balance-part-3/
https://curmudgeonlylibrarian.wordpress.com/2017/04/26/marriagedivorce-restoring-balance-part-4/
In addition to confining sex within marriage, Jewish law also made very strict stipulations on the amount of sex that was to occur within marriage and what constituted a violation of conjugal rights. The status of being declared "mored" (refusing husband) or "moredet" (refusing wife) had punitive consequences that could, if the refusal became persistent, lead to legal divorce. The Jews took marriage so seriously that they insisted that marital rights were spelled out, and this included the wife's right to food and clothing and both spouses' rights to fidelity and conjugal relations.
For this reason, I believe Christians cannot simply emphasize marriage as the only legitimate place for sexual relations. It must also emphasize sexual relations as a marital requirement and sexual refusal must be treated as a form of sexual immorality.
Just as a caveat, there is a lot on those links and on that site which I think is unbiblical. But this is not the place to discuss it, rather I'm leaving your comment as it is.
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