Sexuality, what it is and how it plays into God’s role of
salvation are fascinating to discuss. I
presume that this is at least one reason why St. John Paull II came out with
his ‘Theology of the Body’. It is a
topic that virtually everyone is interested in, especially today.
One of the most intriguing questions to me is what the Bible
has to say on sexuality. There are many
instances in which Scripture does bring up, address or imply various meanings
upon human sexuality. I do not intend to
discuss all of them here, nor will I bring up every single instance in
Scripture in which sexuality is mentioned.
This is not meant to be an exhaustive list of sex within the Bible, but
I do hope that some key themes can be revealed about sexuality and how God
designed it within us.
One of the most obvious passages of sexuality is in Genesis
2: 24, where after Eve was formed from the side of Adam we are told, ‘That is
why a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife, and the two
become one flesh.’ I have talked about
this verse before in a previous post concerning marriage, but just to recap:
The meaning of ‘two becoming one flesh’ identifies with both
the sexual act and with the spiritual life of husband and wife. That is why sex between husband and wife is a
physical representation of the spiritual reality in which they live together;
they are one, just as Christ is one with his Church. In fact, marriage between husband and wife is
a symbol of the union that Christ has with His Church, as seen in Ephesians 5
where St. Paul quotes Genesis 2: 24 and then says, ‘This is a great sacrament;
but I speak in reference to Christ and the Church’ (Ephesians 5: 31-32). Thus sex between husband and wife is meant
not merely as a symbol of the spiritual reality of husband and wife, but even
more so of the spiritual reality of Christ being one with His Church. This is the fulfilled meaning of Genesis 2:
24 and of marriage and sexuality as a whole.
Any and all other passages on sexuality build off of and
hinge on this understanding. Sex and
marriage point to other Godly things, but it first and foremost points to the
union of Christ and His Church, as all things that pertain to salvation must.
Another thing we see a few times in the Bible is the idea of
‘knowing’. Genesis 4: 1 ‘And Adam knew Eve his wife: who conceived and
brought forth Cain…’. The famous Sodom
and Gomorrah store in Genesis 19: 5 where the townspeople said to Lot,
concerning his two guests, ‘bring them out hither that we may know them’. Or how about Numbers 31: 17, ‘Therefore kill
all of the male sex, even of the children: and put to death the women that have
carnally known men.’
In all of the examples the word know or knew, Hebrew word
yada, connotes a sexual meaning. This is especially obvious in Genesis 4: 1
where the immediate action that occurs after Adam knew Eve was Eve’s conception of Cain. It is interesting that yada, however, does not necessitate
a sexual connotation. In fact, it is
more often then not used in the Bible as: to
comprehend something, to understand
something, or to learn something, as
for example in Exodus 6: 7 where God says, ‘I will be to you a God: and ye
shall know [yada] that I am the Lord
your God…’ (emphasis mine).
This to me seems to be intentional. The sexual act is clearly an idiomatic
meaning for yada. Thus the normal meaning for knowing is in some way tied in to the
understanding of the sexual act.
Take Genesis 4: 1 as an example. If Adam knew
Eve then yes that means they had sexual intercourse. But it also means much more then that when
you take into consideration what yada
is usually defined as. For Adam to know
Eve through the sexual act means he knows her and understands her in a way that
no one else does: in a personal, intimate, and unifying way. Marriage and the sexual act meant to
accompany it is the unification of man and woman and as such you, in the ideal
situation, know (understand) this
woman or this man in a way that is completely unique and that no one else ever
has before.
Another definition of yada
is to reveal. This is even more tied in
with the sexual connotation in Genesis 4: 1, for Adam and Eve reveal their
whole selves to each other via the sexual act, as does any husband and wife who
enters into the marital bond. An act
that is supposed to be in its very nature entirely self-sacrificing (because
you are literally giving your body and soul to your spouse in the act) entails
that each spouse reveals themselves to each other in ways they could not
before. As a result the other spouse
grasps an understanding of their beloved more fully than they did and could
before.
What a beautiful way of understanding the conjugal act.
‘But wait,’ you may say, ‘Even if a passage like Genesis 4:
1 could be interpreted in that way doesn’t a passage like Genesis 19: 5 fly
right in the face of that? Isn’t the
intention of the townspeople against Lot and his guests to do something
horrible and wrong? And if so, how could
that square with your interpretation of ‘to know’?’
Genesis 19: 5 does seem to be talking about a sexual act
here, since only a couple of verses later Lot offered his two daughters to the
crowd who ‘have never known man’. So
what can we make of this?
It seems to be that yada is being used here to describe
purely the physical act of sex. But this
is not contradictory to the deeper meaning behind yada described above for two
reasons. First, even today we use the
word ‘sex’ as simply the physical act of sexual intercourse, even though when I
and other Catholics use the word ‘sex’ we imply something with a far deeper
meaning. So it is very possible for the
same situation to be applied here.
Second, the passage could actually prove the deeper meaning if the wording is being used in order to
prove a point. We see this for instance
in 1Corinthians 6: 15-16 where St. Paul says, ‘Do you not know that your bodies
are members of Christ? Shall I then take
Christ’s members and make them the members of a prostitute? Of course not! [Or] do you not know that anyone who joins
himself to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For “the two,” it says, “will become one
flesh.”’ Now clearly St. Paul does not
think that having intercourse with a prostitute is unifying in the same way
that a husband and wife having intercourse is, even though he compares both
situations to the passage from Genesis 2: 24; if that were the case then that
would mean that a man and a prostitute would be comparable to Christ and his
Church like husband and wife is. But
that is the point. St. Paul is using the
Genesis 2: 24 comparison to show how ridiculous it is for one to misuse their
body for sexual immorality, for it becomes a false connection to that unifying
aspect of marital love.
So it is in Genesis 19: 5.
The crowd’s use of the word ‘know’ here shows how twisted and godless
they really are to imply that their suggested actions are comparable to the
true meaning of sexual complementarity that God designed.
Hence no contradiction remains. Yada can have clear sexual implications and
it speaks to the very nature of the sexual act to do so.
Last but not least, we must discuss the Song of Songs. While justice cannot be done to it here it
nonetheless needs to be discussed for its obvious sexual and marital
imagery.
The Song of Songs was originally meant to describe the ideal
relationship between God and Israel, as numerous biblical authors have
described said relationship as a marriage.
The coming of Jesus was a fulfillment of the Song as the Song becomes a
‘type’ of sorts for Christ and his Church.
In other words, the Song that was a symbol of the marriage between God
and Israel now, with the coming of Christ, represents a fuller understanding of
God’s marriage with the whole Church.
Ephesians 5 is a fulfillment of the Song of Songs.
The Song is also seen as a great example of human marital
love and sexuality. This makes sense,
for if the full meaning of the Song comes to light in Christ and His Church and
human marital love is a symbol of Christ and His Church, then it follows that
certain parallels the Song makes can be applied to husband and wife.
The very first verse, ‘Let him kiss me with kisses of his
mouth’ is a kickoff to how the rest of the Song is going to be: poetical and
sensual. The Bride and Bridegroom
continue this by referring to each other with loving characterizations of the
other; ‘my beloved’, ‘O most beautiful among women’, ‘as a lily among thorns,
so is my beloved among women’, ‘you ravish my heart my sister, my bride’, ‘my
lover is radiant and ruddy; he stands out among thousands’. Even by today’s standards these would be
considered to be very romantic and loving ways to refer to one’s spouse.
Sensual scenes are seemingly depicted throughout the Song as
well. One such example is when the Groom
describes his Bride as an ‘enclosed garden, a fountain sealed,’ (Song 4: 12)
and his Bride responds, ‘Let my lover come to his garden and eat his choice
fruits’ (Song 4: 16).
Later the Bride describes an instance in which the two meet:
“I was sleeping but my heart kept vigil; I heard my lover knocking: ‘Open to
me, my sister, my beloved, my dove, my perfect one! For my head is wet with dew, my locks with
the moisture of the night.’ I have taken
off my robe, am I then to put it on? I
have bathed my feet, am I then to soil them?
My lover put his hand through the opening; my heart trembled within me,
and I grew faint when he spoke. I rose
to open to my lover, with my hands dripping myrrh: with my fingers dripping
choice myrrh upon the fittings of the lock.’ (Song 5: 2-5).
And another: “[Bridegroom] How beautiful you are, how
pleasing, my love, my delight! Your very
figure is like a palm tree, your breasts are like clusters. I said: I will climb the palm tree, I will
take hold of its branches. Now let your
breasts be like clusters of the vine and the fragrance of your breath like
apples, and your mouth like an excellent wine –[Bride] that flows smoothly for
my lover, spreading over the lips and the teeth. I belong to my lover and for me he yearns. Come, my lover, let us go forth to the fields
and spend the night among the villages.
Let us go early to the vineyards, and see if the vines are in bloom, if
the buds have opened, if the pomegranates have blossomed; there will I give you
my love” (Song 7: 7-13).
Very sexually implicit themes here, yet nonetheless
beautiful because of how beautiful the sexual act and marital love truly
is. The last quoted verse in particular
is breathtaking, for it shows their explicit yearning for and their unity to
one another by having the Bride complete the Bridegroom’s words of passion and
desire. This speaks to the very heart of
intimate and binding love.
That is the case with the entire Bible, though. All of Scripture points towards the beauty of
God-given sexuality and love whether it plainly discusses it or not. That is because all of Scripture is focused on
the author of that sexuality and love, the Eternal Love. From that Love alone flows forth the grace
present in the marital covenant and the marital act.
May God give us the grace to always remember the gift of our
sexuality and may we use it in accordance with His will. Amen.
