Seth Mokitimi Methodist Seminary NPC

Assignment Cover Page

Name Octavius Mohau Molelekoa

Course Code BIB 204 B.Th. X Diploma

Lecturer Dr. E. Nyirimana

Assignment title Marriage, Sexuality, and Holiness

Word Count

This assignment was due on 16/02/2023

This assignment was

16/02/2023
submitted on
I declare that:
• I have proofread this assignment and checked for spelling, grammar and typing errors.
• I have used Times Roman font, size 12, with a line spacing of 1.5.
• I have not widened the page margins or added unnecessary space between paragraphs.
• I have not copied from or worked with another student.
• I have not plagiarised from any source.
• I have provided complete in-text citation and a bibliography according to the Harvard style.
• No more than 15% of the word-count is comprised of direct quotations.
• No more than 25% of my sources are webpages/websites.
• I acknowledge that there will be a penalty for late work of 10% per weekday for the first day and
then 5% per subsequent day. No assignments will be accepted more than a week after the due
date of submission.
• I acknowledge that the deadline for assignment submissions is at 16h00 on the due date, and on
12h00 on Fridays.
• Assignments with cover pages must also be emailed to the course lecturer for a plagiarism
check. In cases of lecturers requiring hard copies as well, they are to be submitted in the
assignment box at Reception.
• Any dispensations granted for absences from lectures do not include permission for late
submissions of assignments. All due dates for assignments must strictly be adhered to.
Signature: Octavius Mohau Molelekoa
Introduction

With the shift from a matrimonial to a conjugal marital idea in the first century A.D., there is a
noticeable shift in how marriage is understood. While early Christianity took part in this history,
it also had a significant impact on it at key moments and created its own set of marriage ethics.
This article describes the marital ideas present in the NT setting by taking into account
philosophical and early Judaic sources. In this setting, sexuality is still solely reserved for
reproduction and the reciprocal community and length of the marriage are stressed. This article's
main body provides an summary and analysis.

Philosophical view of marriage and sexuality

There is a unique tension that is challenging for us to comprehend in both paganism and
Judaism, whether in works from Qumran or Philo of Alexandria. On the one hand, the marriage's
interpersonal component has gained prominence, raising the woman's worth and establishing her
as the sole partner in an emotional community. On the other hand, sexuality is devalued and
strictly controlled to the point of asceticism. Marriage is the only setting in which sexuality
exists, and even then it is connected to reproduction.

The greater societal context is the sole place to look for the causes of these restrictions. Gerd
Theißen has made the audacious claim that effective family planning and the emotional
intensification of romantic love relationships in marriage are only made feasible by the severe
restriction and control of sexuality (Theißen, 1997). When such connections were forbidden,
additional birth control methods had to be used because extramarital relationships with slaves,
prostitutes, or homosexual partners "were a functional (if not also an intentional) way of birth
control."

The sole viable option for the new marital ideal is a monogamous union with pronounced ascetic
features that veers toward relationships with strong emotional ties but lacks sexual union
(Theißen, 1997).

However, given the value of progeny, such a scenario necessitates the need for conscious and
rationally motivated birth control and is, in my judgment, improbable. Instead, I think a different
context is more likely. The idea of the married spouses' equality is immediately at odds with
frequent sexual contact. Historically, sexuality was classified into hierarchical categories such as
active-passive, strong-weak, male/female, etc. This brings to mind the ancient sexual machinery
(Tiedemann 2005:21). This system of sexual norms leads one to the conclusion that when
married couples engaged in sexual activity, the woman was typically required to play a passive
and subordinate role. But in doing so, the ideal of equality was weakened and diminished.
Judaism and Sexuality

Human sexuality should be understood in the context of a more comprehensive knowledge of

human corporeality, which is itself founded on a particular anthropological idea. The Torah,
which contains the narrative concerning the creation of the world, including the human being:
"So God made humanity in his own image, in his own image he formed them; male and female
he created them," is the starting point for all Jewish meditations on the subject of man. The
chapter makes it very plain why there is a man and why he and woman are made in the image of
the Creator. (Biale, 1984) state that human sexuality should be understood in the context of a
more comprehensive knowledge of human corporeality, which is itself founded on a particular
anthropological idea.

Both masculinity and femininity are deliberate expressions of God's will. The biblical author
goes on to describe the process of creating a woman in more detail: The guy was sent into a deep
slumber by the Lord God, and while he was dozing, the Lord God removed one of the man's ribs
and covered the gap with flesh. The man was then given a woman by the Lord God, who had
created her from the man's removed rib. This is now flesh from my flesh and bone from my
bone; she shall be named woman since she was taken from man, the man declared. (Gen 2:21–
23)

In addition to being fundamentally made in God's image and likeness, Judaism also holds that
man is a sexual being with a fixed sex. As a result, it engages in relationships with both the
Creator and other people. According to David Novak, there is a link between human sexuality
and the human community, and these aspects in turn are connected to God. Human sexuality,
human sociality, and human sanctity are the three facets of human existence that influence one
another. The stages of socialization and spiritualization of human sexuality are evident in the
Jewish religion.

General Pauline Theology about Sexual Activity

Almost nothing is known regarding Paul's sexual history. However, if Romans 7:7–25 is taken to
be Paul's autobiography, then would imply that his sexual drive first surfaced during puberty.
The only thing we can be certain of is that Paul was single (1 Corinthians 7:7-8), whether as a
widower (1 Corinthians 9:5), a man who had never wed, or as someone whose wife had
abandoned him to live alone without experiencing excessive sex urge (I Cor. 7:9). It appears that
Paul made more references to sexual issues than the gospels do, which in some way illustrates
how permissive Hellenistic societies' sexual practices were. 17

He demonstrates the contradiction of living with sexual freedom and entering God's Kingdom
because no immoral or unclean person is entitled to inheritance there (Eph.5:5)

Although he does not despise sexual activity, Apostle Paul makes an argument against coerced
and false ascetism based on I Cor. 7:5. Women were once kept in separate rooms to deny them
the opportunity. Both couples should refrain from having sexual relations with one another, with
the exception of prayer - why? - so that they might each personally recognize their unity with
Christ and exercise their rights and privileges in communion with God. (Ige, 2016)

Although Paul frequently speaks on the topic of human sexuality in answer to specific questions,
he never does it in a systematic way. Paul's most intended description of the less opulent sexual
situation in Corinth was sexuality. Actually, the Corinthians' misconstrued view of
eschatological led to their premature exaltation of the perfection of their present-day salvation (I
Cor. 4:8). (Ige, 2016)

According to I Corinthians 6:12, this caused some people to live a libertine lifestyle under the
motto "Everything is lawful for me," while others became ascetics under the motto "It is good for
a man not to have sexual relations with a woman" (I Cor. 7:1). Paul created the foundation for a
provocative flexible Christian sexuality in order to confront these issues and alter the
perspectives previously provided.

Paul believed that sexuality involved the entire person, using the body as an example; if we are
God's Temple, then there must be something wrong with using the same body for prostitution.
Paul's unique anthropology, according to which the flesh or body is not only an outward
representation or tool of the genuine person who is housed in some inner essence, serves as the
foundation for such teaching. He prefers to emphasize that a human being is a body rather than
that they have a body. This is a method of describing the man as a sexual being and a being who
belongs to Christ at the same time.

Conclusion

In order to encourage conversation on this subject, I'd like to wrap up by outlining a few
principles for a code of marital and sexual ethics. We are unable to discuss sexual or marital
ethics in the context of a fundamental theory of marital behavior. Yet, there are defenses and
reasons that let us to use the term "implicit sexual ethics."

References

Biale R., 1984, Women and Jewish Law: An Exploration of Women’s Issues in Halakhic
Sources, New York
Novak D., 1995, Some Aspects of Sex, Society, and God in Judaism, in: Contemporary Jewish
Ethics and Morality, E.N. Dorf, L.E. Newman (ed.), New York–Oxford 1995, pp. 271–288

Ige, Abiodun Simeon. “Implications of the Culture of Pooling Resources: Illustration from
Africa and Acts 4:34 – 37” Nigeria Journal of Indigenous Knowledge and Development Volume
2, September, 2009:103 – 111

Theissen, G. 1997. Eros and Early Christianity. Using the example of Paul. In: H.-G. Pott (ed.),
Love and Society: The Sex of the Muses (Munich: W. Fink), pp. 9-30.

Tiedemann, H.1998. The Experience of the Flesh. Paul and the burden of lust. Stuttgart: radius
publisher