2. The Tanakh
“He causes the grass to grow for the cattle,
And vegetation for the labor of man,
So that he may bring forth food from the earth,
And wine which makes man’s heart glad,
So that he may make his face glisten with oil,
And food which sustains man’s heart.”
Psalm 104
3. The Tanakh
“Strengthen me with raisins,
refresh me with apples,
for I am faint with love.
His left arm is under my head,
and his right arm embraces me.
Daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you
by the gazelles and by the does of the field:
Do not arouse or awaken love
until it so desires.”
Song of Solomon 2
4. The Tanakh
“Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a
merry heart, for God has already approved what you do.
Let your garments be always white. Let not oil be
lacking on your head. Enjoy life with the wife whom you
love…”
Ecclesiastes 9
5. The Tanakh
“Drink water from your own cistern,
running water from your own well.
Should your springs overflow in the streets,
your streams of water in the public squares?
Let them be yours alone,
never to be shared with strangers.
May your fountain be blessed,
and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth.
A loving doe, a graceful deer—
may her breasts satisfy you always,
may you ever be intoxicated with her love.
Why, my son, be intoxicated with another man’s wife?
Why embrace the bosom of a wayward woman?”
Proverbs 5
6. “I, wisdom, dwell together with prudence;
I possess knowledge and discretion…
Now then, my children, listen to me;
blessed are those who keep my ways.
Listen to my instruction and be wise;
do not disregard it.
Blessed are those who listen to me,
watching daily at my doors,
waiting at my doorway.
For those who find me find life
and receive favor from the LORD.
But those who fail to find me harm themselves;
all who hate me love death.”
Proverbs 8
7. Aristotle (384-322 BC)
“Moderation in all things.”
Epicurus (341-270 BC)
“If a little is not enough for you, nothing is.”
Solomon (d. 932 BC)
“Whoever fears God will avoid all extremes.”
Ancient Philosophy
8. Avoid Extremes:
Food is good, starvation and gluttony is not.
Wine is good, drunkenness is not.
Sex is good, promiscuousness is not.
9. In contrast we have Augustine (354-430)
“consecrated virginity is rightly preferred to
marriage…”
“Complete abstinence is easier than perfect
moderation.”
10. Augustine’s Sex Education 101
1. Procreation was once necessary to populate the earth, but is now
no longer needed.
2. Celibacy is better for it will populate the kingdom of heaven.
3. Sex in Eden would have been by “a calm act of the will”.
4. Due to the Fall we are now sexually dysfunctional.
11. Jerome (347-420)
“Christ loves virgins more than others, because they willingly give
what is not commanded them. And it indicates greater grace to offer
what you are not bound to give, than to render what is exacted of
you.”
“…the angelic life be not exacted of us,
but merely recommended.”
12. Why were so many of the Ancient Church
leaders so puritanical and prudish?
13. “All religions have had a problem with women and sex -
and Christianity more than most.”
Karen Armstrong
18. Passion
Pathos: Suffering, Experience, Emotion
1. A strong and barely controllable emotion.
2. The suffering and death of Jesus.
Reason is the Antidote to the Passions.
19. Passion
“He who too ardently loves his own wife is an adulterer.”
Sextus the Pythagorean
20. 1. Philosophical
Religious Trends
Gnosticism
Gnosis: Knowledge (secret individual knowledge)
Multiple Teachers mean multiple versions.
Dualistic (God & World) & Monism (Emanations)
The Physical is either Evil or Distant & Irrelevant.
Salvation is escape from the physical.
21. 1. Philosophical
Religious Trends
Manichaeism
Mani (c. 216-c. 276)
Dualistic religious system
Light (Spirit) and Darkness (Material)
Salvation light escaping from the material darkness.
Purify yourself.
Augustine was a member for a while.
23. 2. Gospel Categories
Jesus’ Treasures
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where
moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and
steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where
moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not
break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart
will be also.”
Matthew 6
24. 2. Gospel Categories
Jesus’ Treasures
“Jesus replied, ’You are in error because you do not know the
Scriptures or the power of God. At the resurrection people will
neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the
angels in heaven’.”
Matthew 22
25. 2. Gospel Categories
Paul’s letter to Corinthians
“It is good for a man not to have
sexual relations with a woman.”
“Now to the unmarried and the widows I say: It is
good for them to stay unmarried, as I do. But if they
cannot control themselves, they should marry, for it is
better to marry than to burn with passion.
”From now on those who have
wives should live as if they do
not…”
”…he who marries the virgin does right, but he
who does not marry her does better.”
26. 2. Gospel Categories
Paul’s “Flesh and Spirit”
“So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the
desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the
Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in
conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you
want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the
law.”
Galatians 5
27. 2. Gospel Categories
Temple Purity
“‘For the generations to come, if any of your descendants is
ceremonially unclean and yet comes near the sacred offerings
that the Israelites consecrate to the LORD, that person must be
cut off from my presence. I am the LORD.’”
Leviticus 22
28. 2. Gospel Categories
Temple Purity
“These are those who did not defile themselves with women,
for they remained virgins.
They follow the Lamb wherever he goes. They were
purchased from among mankind and offered as first fruits to
God and the Lamb.”
Revelation 14
29. 3. Early Christians
Excesses of Pagan Vice
“Do not be deceived! Fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, male
prostitutes, sodomites, thieves, the greedy, drunkards, revilers,
robbers—none of these will inherit the kingdom of God.”
1 Corinthians 6
30. 3. Early Christians
Excesses of Pagan Vice
“Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their
glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things.
But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior
from there…”
Philippians 3
31. “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the
godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by
their wickedness…
Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their
hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with
one another…
Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for
unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural
relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one
another. Men committed shameful acts…
They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil,
greed and depravity…”
Romans 1
33. 3. Early Christians
Champions of God: From Martyr to Monk
Counter Cultural
Asceticism
Strict self-denial as a measure of
personal and especially spiritual
discipline.
Training (disciplining) the body.
35. Healing the Divisions
“Consecrated virginity is rightly preferred to marriage…”
Augustine
“May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the
wife of your youth.”
Proverbs 5
36. Reasons to Enjoy the Earthly Delights
The Good Creation
Incarnation
The Wedding at Canaan
Resurrection of the Body
The New Creation
38. “…in fact, it is the one ground of condemnation, that
the creature misuses the creation.”
Tertullian
39. “It suits divine studies not to be heavy with wine… But towards
evening, about supper-time, wine may be used, when we are no
longer engaged in more serious readings…
But the miserable wretches who expel temperance from
conviviality think excess in drinking to be the happiest life. But
their life is nothing but revel, debauchery, baths, excess, urinals,
idleness, drink…
…he who drinks ought to observe moderation”.
Clement of Alexandria (d. 216)
Editor's Notes
Sex with limits…
Wine is good, drunkenness is not.
Sex with your wife is good, with your friend’s wife is not.
Food is good, gluttony is not.
A Balanced life, don’t over do, but don’t underdo.
Ecclesiastes 7:18
Augustine On Marriage and Concupiscence, Book 1, Ch 5
On Marriage
1. There are enough people around now.
4. Some would say it is Augustine that is dysfunctional.
Fra Angelico’s The Conversion of Saint Augustine (1395-1455)
Phaedo
We see beautiful things, but not Beauty itself.
Body as a Tomb / Body as a Temple (Paul)
The Soul is the Person, the Body holds the Soul as the Stem holds the Grain, & will eventually be left behind.
Porphyry in his Letter to Marcella
Transhumanism: the Body as a Limitation.
Diogenes L. Greek Historian, 180-240 AD
Stoicism (Zeno): The Four Passions are Distress, Lust, Fear, Delight
What is your passion? Your drive in life? It should be God.
Jerome quoting Sextus, Against Jovinianus (393)
Earliest know quote of The Sentences of Sextus is by Origen.
It appears that he was widely read by many Christians.
Ardent: Passionately, enthusiastically.
Paul instructed husbands to Love their wives.
Parasitic, i.e. infiltrated religions, using their terminology, but with different teachings.
There is a Spark of Deity within Us.
Even though the Fathers were against Gnosticism, they were influenced by the world where Gnosticism flourished.
Similar to Gnosticism, but was itself a separate religion.
Other religions were partial truths.
At death the faithful were reunited with the Divine, the unfaithful were to be reborn.
Influenced by Zoroastrianism?
1 Corinthians 7
Mostly for Ministry purposes.
This includes sexual purity, as well as racial!
Monks and asceticism
The Life of Saint Anthony was a best seller.
Influenced many, including Augustine who wanted to be like that.
A separate category developed, the priesthood was expected to be wholly dedicated.
Like the OT Priests, like the monks.
The Strong Rules were for the Clergy.
100% for the ministry, and 100% for God and Spirituality.
The things of the earth just get in the way, like women, sex, play, sports, wine, fun, recreation…
“Complete abstinence is easier than perfect moderation.”
Male and Female, Heaven and Earth…
But, still in the Ancient Platonic worldview.
The Shows, Chapter 2
http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0303.htm
He clearly did prefer celibacy over marriage.
He has great respect for ascetics that reframe from all wine.
