1 At that time Judah departed from his brethren and settled near an Adullamite whose name was Hira.
2 And Judah saw there the daughter of a certain Canaanite, whose name was Shua; and took her and went in to her.
3 She conceived and bore a son; and he called his name: Ir.
4 And she conceived again, and bore a son, and called his name: Onan.
5 And she gave birth to a son [the third] and called his name Shelah. Judah was in Cheziv when she gave birth to him.
6 And Judah took a wife to Er his firstborn; her name is Tamar.
7 Er, the firstborn of Judah, was objectionable in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord slew him.
8 And Judah said to Onan, Go in to your brother's wife, marry her like a brother-in-law, and raise seed for your brother.
9 Onan knew that the seed would not be for him, and therefore, when he went in to his brother's wife, he poured out [the seed] on the ground, so as not to give seed to his brother.
10 What was evil in the eyes of the Lord was what he did; and He slew him also.
11 And Judah said to Tamar, his daughter-in-law [after the death of her two sons], Live as a widow in your father's house until Shelah my son grows up. For he said [in his mind]: He would not have died like his brothers. Tamar went and lived in her father's house.
12 A long time passed, and the daughter of Shuya, the wife of Judah, died. Judah, comforted, went to Tamna to the shearers of his cattle, himself and Hira, his friend, the Adullamite.
13 And they warned Tamar, saying, Behold, your father-in-law is going to Tamna to shear his cattle.
14 And she took off her widow's clothes, covered herself with a veil, and shutting herself up, sat down at the gate of Enaim, which is on the road to Tamna. For she saw that Shelah had grown up, and she was not given to him as a wife.
15 And Judas saw her and took her for a harlot, because she covered her face. [And did not recognize her.]
16 He turned to her and said, I will come in to you. For he did not know that this was his daughter-in-law. She said: what will you give me if you come to me?
17 He said, I will send you a kid from [my] flock. She said: will you give me a deposit while you send it?
18 He said, What kind of pledge shall I give you? She said, Thy seal, and thy bandage, and thy reed which is in thy hand. And he gave it to her and went in to her; and she conceived from him.
19 And she got up and went, took off her veil, and put on her widow's clothes.
20 Judah sent a kid through his friend the Adullamite to take the pledge from the hand of the woman, but he did not find her.
21 And he asked the inhabitants of that place, saying, Where is the harlot that was in Enaim by the wayside? But they said: there was no harlot here.
22 And he returned to Judas, and said, I have not found her; and the inhabitants of that place said, There was no harlot here.
23 Judas said, Let her take it for herself, lest they make fun of us. behold, I sent this kid, but you did not find her.
24 About three months passed, and they said to Judah, saying, Tamar your daughter-in-law has fallen into fornication, and behold, she is pregnant from fornication. Judas said, bring her out and let her be burned.
25 But when they led her away, she sent a message to her father-in-law: I am pregnant from the one whose things these are. And she said: find out whose seal and baldric and reed it is.
26 Judah knew and said, She is more right than me, because I did not give her to Shela my son. And I didn't know her anymore.
27 At the time of her childbirth, it appeared that the twins were in her womb.
28 And at the time of her childbirth, the hand of [one] appeared; and the midwife took it and tied a red thread on his hand, saying: this one came out first.
29 But he returned his hand; and behold, his brother went out. And she said: how did you break your barrier? And his name was called: Peres.
30 Then his brother came out with a red thread on his hand. And his name was called: Zara.

Answered by Vasily Yunak, 06/11/2007

3.115. Anya Kiseleva ( [email protected]???.kz) writes: "What does the Bible say about contraception and birth control? I agree with the idea that abortion is murder, but I'm worried about taking pills and using condoms."

The answer is unequivocal: NOTHING. Although those who wish to deduce something on this subject may find sufficient grounds for their philosophizing. Yes, some church organizations condemn all family planning. Others, on the contrary, recommend it. If you try to find at least a hundred related to the issue of protection, then, perhaps, you can consider four texts:

"Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth." I especially want to pay attention to the second part. It implies a certain limit - fill, and as soon as you fill the earth, then the first part is fulfilled and is no longer a requirement. If man did not sin, but lived forever, then at some point the earth would be sufficiently populated by people and human reproduction would cease. Does this have anything to do with family planning today? If it does, it is only in the sense that we should not produce children if we cannot support them (even if we do not have a place or means to support them).

- "let him lie with you this night, for the mandrakes of your son" (see also). Here, however, the opposite remedy is presented - mandrakes, the fruits of a plant found in Palestine, which promote conception (at least, the ancient Jews believed so). It only follows from this that family planning took place, although at that time people wanted to have more children than they do now.

- "Onan knew that the seed would not be for him, and therefore, when he went in to his brother's wife, he poured out [the seed] on the ground so as not to give the seed to his brother." Today, the name of Onan is called completely different from what he did. Onan used the most popular method of contraception - interrupted intercourse. And we read that he was punished for this by God. Many base their opposition to contraception on the very fact that God punished Onan. But Onan was punished not because he "poured out on the ground", but because he did not want to "give seed to his brother." The Jews had a law according to which, if someone died childless, then his closest relative had to take his wife for himself, and the first son born to her was considered the son of the deceased and bore his name. This was necessary for the continuation of the family of the deceased. Onan committed a sin against this law. Had it been a different situation, not related to the continuation of the family of a relative, Onan would hardly have been charged with a sin that he "poured out on the ground." So I don't consider this text to be related to contraception except as information about what method of family planning was known in antiquity.

- "Do not deviate from each other, except by agreement, for a while, for exercise in fasting and prayer, and then be together again, so that Satan does not tempt you with your intemperance." It says that the spouses are obliged to be together (to lead an active sexual life) regardless of their desire to have children. Yes, it does not say that the birth rate should or should not be controlled. But this text denies the asceticism that is observed in some religious organizations in relation to the relationship of spouses.

There is one more text that should be included here. It is - "If anyone destroys the temple of God, God will punish him: for the temple of God is holy; and this temple is you." The question of our health is very high placed in Holy Scripture. Not every method of protection is equally useful (or harmless). Therefore, choosing a method of protection, think about health. You are responsible before God for yourself and for your children - can you raise them well-to-do and healthy enough without harming your own health?

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April 26, 2017

There is a misunderstanding of the issue of sin committed by Onan. The Christian Church, not knowing the Jewish understanding of Tanakhic things, distorted the meaning of the events, which tells about Onan. The Church believes that the sin of Onan is masturbation. It was this interpretation of this biblical event that began to call masturbation the sin of Onan. But did Onan really engage in masturbation?

Onan's sin is not masturbation

Of course, in order to consider this event more essentially, you need to read more than the passage below, but we will try to see the sin of Onan in this short passage.

1 At that time Judah departed from his brethren and settled near an Adullamite whose name was Hira.

2 And Judah saw there the daughter of a certain Canaanite, whose name was Shua; and took her and went in to her.

3 She conceived and bore a son; and he called his name: Ir.

4 And she conceived again, and bore a son, and called his name: Onan.

5 And she gave birth to a son, and called his name Shelah. Judah was in Cheziv when she gave birth to him.

6 And Judah took a wife to Er his firstborn; her name is Tamar.

7 Er, the firstborn of Judah, was objectionable in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord slew him.

10 What was evil in the eyes of the Lord was what he did; and He slew him also.

11 And Judah said to Tamar his daughter-in-law, Live as a widow in your father's house until Shelah my son grows up. For he said: He would not have died like his brothers. Tamar went and lived in her father's house.

(Gen. 38:1-11)

Now let's turn our attention to the central verse, which tells us about the holy duty that Onan had to perform.

8 And Judah said to Onan, Go in to your brother's wife, marry her like a brother-in-law, and raise seed for your brother.

What was Onan to do? Fulfill the commandment. What commandment? The commandment to restore the seed of the firstborn in your home. In this case, the first-born in their house was Ir, who died without leaving offspring - the first-born who would have led the genealogy of Judah.

5 If brothers live together and one of them dies without having a son, then the wife of the deceased must not go out to the side for a stranger, but her brother-in-law must go in to her and take her to his wife and live with her, -

6 And the firstborn whom she bears shall remain with the name of his dead brother, lest his name be blotted out in Israel.

7 If he does not want to take his daughter-in-law, then his daughter-in-law will go to the gate, to the elders, and say: “My brother-in-law refuses to raise his brother’s name in Israel, he does not want to marry me”;

8 Then the elders of his city must call him and persuade him, and if he stands and says, “I do not want to take her,”

9 [then] let his daughter-in-law go to him in the sight of the elders, and take off his shoe from off his foot, and spit in his face, and say, “This is what is done to a man who does not build his brother’s house.”

10 And they shall call his name in Israel: House of the barefoot.

(Deut. 25:5-10)

One can object and say, but the event with Onan took place even before the Law was given to Israel?

Who is Israel anyway? Israel is Jacob. Therefore, Israel as a people are the children of Jacob, the children of Israel.

When Cain killed Abel, the Law of Moses was still very far away. Why then did God curse Cain? For sin. Why was the world destroyed by the waters of the flood? - for sin. So there was a law. People knew about it, but violated it and retreated from it. For this they were punished. There is no need to prove it diligently, everyone understands this very well. Why was there a speech to Judas about the extension of the Ira clan, if there were no such law?

Another question is why God killed him, because the Law did not sentence a person to sin if he refused to take his brother's wife as his wife.

Back to the sin of Onan

If Onan would have refused his brother's wife, then everything would have been much better in his life. His problem was that he defamed his brother's wife. How? He took her, slept with her, but did not give her the opportunity to become pregnant. Why?

9 Onan knew that the seed would not be for him, and therefore, when he went in to his brother's wife, he poured it out on the ground, so as not to give seed to his brother.

Let us consider in this text the insidious crime of Onan. Using her for his sexual pleasures, Onan did not want her to become pregnant. Why? Because the child she will give birth to (we are talking about a male child who will be the head of the clan after Ira) will be the head of the Ira clan, but his. He didn't want to restore his brother's seed while using his wife for sexual gratification.

Proceeding from this, the sin of Onan is both the unwillingness to restore the seed to his brother and the defilement of his brother's wife. If he didn't want from day one living together, to give seed for the continuation of the family of his brother, which means that he treacherously used Tamar to use her for sexual pleasures.

Let us summarize the sin of Onan. Onan died not because he was engaged in masturbation, but because he committed a grave sin against his brother and his wife.

Really, then, masturbation is not a sin, if Onan was engaged in this, but did not die for this?

Onan did not engage in masturbation. This is how the Christian church has presented it. In fact, everything looks completely different. It is said that Onan "poured out on the ground." Spilling seed on the ground does not mean doing it by masturbation. Simply, during ejaculation, he took out the sexual organ from the vagina and poured out the seed on the bed where they lay. It is identical that he poured out the seed on the ground, if only for the reason that beds were made in tents on the ground.

At that time, Judah departed from his brothers and settled near one Adullamite, whose name is Hira.And Judah saw there the daughter of a certain Canaanite, whose name was Shua; and took her and went in to her.She conceived and gave birth to a son; and he called his name: Ir.And she conceived again, and gave birth to a son, and called his name: Onan.And she also gave birth to a son and called his name: Shela. Judah was in Cheziv when she gave birth to him.

And Judah took a wife to Ira, his firstborn; her name is Tamar.Ir, the firstborn of Judah, was objectionable in the eyes of the Lord, and the Lord killed him.And Judas said to Onan: Go in to your brother's wife, marry her like a brother-in-law, and restore seed to your brother.Onan knew that the seed would not be for him, and therefore, when he went in to his brother's wife, he poured out seed on the ground, so as not to give seed to his brother.Evil was in the eyes of the Lord what he did; and He slew him also.And Judah said to his daughter-in-law, Tamar, Live as a widow in your father's house until Shelah my son grows up. For he said: He would not have died like his brothers. Tamar went and lived in her father's house.

A lot of time passed, and the daughter of Shuya, the wife of Judah, died. Judah, comforted, went to Tamna to the shearers of his cattle, himself and Hira, his friend, the Adullamite.And they warned Tamar, saying, Behold, your father-in-law is going to Tamna to shear his cattle.And she took off her widow's clothes, covered herself with a veil, and, closing herself, sat down at the gate of Enaim, which is on the road to Tamna. For she saw that Shelah had grown up, and she was not given to him as a wife.

And Judas saw her and took her for a harlot, because she covered her face.He turned to her and said: I will come in to you. For he did not know that this was his daughter-in-law.

She said: what will you give me if you come to me?

He said: I will send you a kid from the flock.

She said: will you give me a deposit while you send it?

He said: what bail can I give you?

She said, Thy seal, and thy bandage, and thy reed which is in thy hand. And he gave it to her and went in to her; and she conceived from him.And she got up and went and took off her veil and put on her widow's clothes.

Judah sent a kid through his friend the Adullamite to take the pledge from the hand of the woman, but he did not find her.And he asked the inhabitants of that place, saying: where is the harlot, Which was in Yenaim by the road?

But they said: there was no harlot here.

And he returned to Judas and said: I did not find her; and the inhabitants of that place said, "There was no harlot here."

Judas said: let her take it for herself, so that they don’t laugh at us; behold, I sent this kid, but you did not find her.

About three months passed, and they said to Judah, saying: Tamar, your daughter-in-law, has fallen into fornication, and, behold, she is pregnant from fornication.

Judas said, bring her out and let her be burned.

But when they took her away, she sent to tell her father-in-law: I am pregnant from the one whose things these are. And she said: find out whose seal and baldric and reed it is.

Judah found out and said: She is more right than me, because I did not give her to Shela my son. And I didn't know her anymore.

During her birth, it turned out that the twins were in her womb.And during childbirth her hand appeared one; and the midwife took it and tied a red thread on his hand, saying: this one came out first.But he returned his hand; and behold, his brother went out. And she said: how did you break your barrier? And his name was called: Peres.Then his brother came out with a red thread on his hand. And his name was called: Zara.

To the ground, so as not to give seed to his brother "(Gen.), for which he deserved the death penalty from the Lord.

From his name, the term "onanism" was formed, which is mistakenly associated with the phenomenon of masturbation, while Onan, according to the Pentateuch, practiced coitus interruptus.

Despite the fact that the Bible nowhere calls masturbation a sin. , there are opinions of a number of Orthodox fathers that in the First Epistle to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians) under the word " malakia"Apostle Paul meant precisely masturbation.

The term "masturbation"

Modern interpreters believe that this passage does not describe masturbation, but coitus interruptus, and it is a sin to violate the law according to which the brother-in-law was to father the child of a widowed daughter-in-law.

However, this text in early XVIII century became the source of the name "masturbation", which was introduced into use in 1716 in an anonymous pamphlet Onania, circulating in London and telling about the "terrible sin of" self-pollution ", entailing impotence, gonorrhea, epilepsy and waste of ability" , as well as in the work of a doctor from Lausanne Tissot published in 1760 L'Onanisme. Tissot was a pioneer in medical research on masturbation, substantiating, based on the ideas then prevailing in medical science, the harm of masturbation. He associated disorders such as impotence, blindness, mental and physical exhaustion with excessive ejaculation. Involuntary pollutions were also recognized as a disease. It should be noted that although already in those years works were published that spoke of the harmlessness of masturbation, including the work of D. Hunter (1786), it was Tissot's theory, supported by such famous "rulers of thoughts" that was perceived by the society in which Puritan culture was adopted. like Voltaire and Kant.

see also

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Notes

2. Coogan Michael.. - 1st. - New York, Boston: Twelve. Hachette Book Group, 2010. - P. 110. - ISBN 978-0-446-54525-9.
3. // Sex in the Bible: a new consideration. - Westport, Conn.: Praeger Publishers, 2006. - P. 48. - ISBN 0-275-98767-1.
4. Church Father Epiphanius of Salamis agrees, referring to // Contraception and abortion from the ancient world to the Renaissance. - Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1992. - P. 4. - ISBN 0-674-16875-5.
5. Patton, Michael S. (June 1985). "". Journal of Religion and Health(Springer Netherlands) 24 (2): 133–146. DOI:10.1007/BF01532257. ISSN. “Societal attitudes towards masturbation at the professional level only happened in the 1960s, and at the societal level in the 1970s. ...masturbation and masturbation are mistakenly considered synonymous... ...there is no law in the Bible related to masturbation. ”
6. Kwee, Alex W.; David C. Hoover (2008). "". Journal of Psychology and Theology(Rosemead School of Psychology. Biola University) 36 (4): 258–269. ISSN. “The Bible presents no clear theological ethic on masturbation, leaving many young unmarried Christians with confusion and guilt around their sexuality.” sexuality.”
8. Stolberg M. 2000a. Self-Pollution, Moral Reform, and the Venereal Trade: Notes on the Sources and Historical Context of "Onania" 1716 // Journal of the History of Sexuality. - 2000. - No. 9. P. 37-61.
9. Deryagin G. B., Sidorov P. I., Solovyov A. G. // Russian Psychiatric Journal. 2002. No. 2. S. 76-80.

An excerpt characterizing Onan

But the princess did not listen to him.
“Yes, I knew this for a long time, but I forgot that, apart from baseness, deceit, envy, intrigues, except ingratitude, the blackest ingratitude, I could not expect anything in this house ...
Do you or don't you know where this will is? asked Prince Vasily with even more twitching of his cheeks than before.
- Yes, I was stupid, I still believed in people and loved them and sacrificed myself. And only those who are vile and vile have time. I know whose intrigues it is.
The princess wanted to get up, but the prince held her by the hand. The princess had the appearance of a man suddenly disillusioned with the whole human race; she glared angrily at her interlocutor.
“There is still time, my friend. You remember, Katish, that all this happened by accident, in a moment of anger, illness, and then forgotten. Our duty, my dear, is to correct his mistake, to ease his last moments by preventing him from doing this injustice, not to let him die thinking that he made those people unhappy ...
“Those people who sacrificed everything for him,” the princess picked up, trying to get up again, but the prince did not let her in, “which he never knew how to appreciate. No, mon cousin,” she added with a sigh, “I will remember that in this world no reward can be expected, that in this world there is neither honor nor justice. In this world, one must be cunning and evil.
- Well, voyons, [listen,] calm down; I know your beautiful heart.
No, I have a bad heart.
“I know your heart,” the prince repeated, “I appreciate your friendship and would like you to have the same opinion about me.” Calm down and parlons raison, [let's talk plainly,] while there is time - maybe a day, maybe an hour; tell me everything you know about the will, and, most importantly, where it is: you must know. We'll take it now and show it to the count. He probably forgot about him already and wants to destroy him. You understand that my one desire is to sacredly fulfill his will; I then just came here. I'm only here to help him and you.
“Now I understand everything. I know whose intrigues it is. I know, - said the princess.
“That is not the point, my soul.
- This is your protegee, [favorite,] your dear Princess Drubetskaya, Anna Mikhailovna, whom I would not want to have a maid, this vile, vile woman.
– Ne perdons point de temps. [Let's not waste time.]
- Oh, don't talk! Last winter she rubbed herself in here and said such nasty things, such nasty things to the count about all of us, especially Sophie - I can’t repeat it - that the count became ill and did not want to see us for two weeks. At this time, I know that he wrote this nasty, vile paper; but I thought this paper meant nothing.
– Nous y voila, [That's the point.] Why didn't you tell me before?
“In the mosaic briefcase he keeps under his pillow. Now I know,” said the princess, without answering. “Yes, if there is a sin for me, a big sin, then it is hatred for this bastard,” the princess almost shouted, completely changed. “And why is she rubbing herself here?” But I will tell her everything, everything. The time will come!

While such conversations were taking place in the waiting room and in the princess's rooms, the carriage with Pierre (who was sent for) and Anna Mikhailovna (who found it necessary to go with him) drove into the courtyard of Count Bezukhoy. When the wheels of the carriage sounded softly on the straw laid under the windows, Anna Mikhailovna, turning to her companion with consoling words, convinced herself that he was sleeping in the corner of the carriage, and woke him up. Waking up, Pierre got out of the carriage after Anna Mikhailovna, and then only thought of that meeting with his dying father that awaited him. He noticed that they did not drive up to the front, but to the back entrance. While he was getting off the footboard, two men in bourgeois clothes hurriedly ran away from the entrance into the shadow of the wall. Pausing, Pierre saw in the shadow of the house on both sides several more of the same people. But neither Anna Mikhailovna, nor the footman, nor the coachman, who could not but see these people, paid no attention to them. Therefore, this is so necessary, Pierre decided with himself, and followed Anna Mikhailovna. Anna Mikhailovna walked with hasty steps up the dimly lit narrow stone stairs, calling Pierre, who was lagging behind her, who, although he did not understand why he had to go to the count at all, and even less why he had to go along the back stairs, but , judging by the confidence and haste of Anna Mikhailovna, he decided to himself that this was necessary. Halfway down the stairs they were almost knocked down by some people with buckets, who, clattering with their boots, ran towards them. These people pressed against the wall to let Pierre and Anna Mikhailovna through, and did not show the slightest surprise at the sight of them.
- Are there half princesses here? Anna Mikhailovna asked one of them...
“Here,” the footman answered in a bold, loud voice, as if everything was already possible now, “the door is on the left, mother.”
“Perhaps the count did not call me,” said Pierre, while he went out onto the platform, “I would have gone to my place.
Anna Mikhailovna stopped to catch up with Pierre.
Ah, mon ami! - she said with the same gesture as in the morning with her son, touching his hand: - croyez, que je souffre autant, que vous, mais soyez homme. [Believe me, I suffer no less than you, but be a man.]
- Right, I'll go? asked Pierre, looking affectionately through his spectacles at Anna Mikhailovna.
- Ah, mon ami, oubliez les torts qu "on a pu avoir envers vous, pensez que c" est votre pere ... peut etre al "agonie." She sighed. - Je vous ai tout de suite aime comme mon fils. Fiez vous a moi, Pierre. Je n "oublirai pas vos interets. [Forget, my friend, what was wrong against you. Remember that this is your father... Maybe in agony. I immediately fell in love with you like a son. Trust me, Pierre. I will not forget your interests.]