Homosexuality: A Matter of Productivity
The early Hebrews were deeply preoccupied by their testicles. In only one verse in the whole Old Testament that forbid a woman to help her husband, the Book of Deuteronomy says, "When men fight with one another, and the wife of one draws near to rescue her husband from the hand of him who is beating him, and puts out her hand and seizes him by the private parts, then you shall cut off her hand" (25:11-12). It seems that other Near Eastern women were also prone to reach for a man's testicles in a brawl, for the Assyrian's, too, legislated against it. "If a woman has crushed a man's testicle in an affray, one fo her fingers shall be cut off; and if although a physician has bound it up, the second testicle is affected with it and becomes inflamed or if she has crushed the second testicle in the affray, both of her [breasts or nipples] shall be torn off."
The law also exacted a penalty for injury to a pregnant woman. "When men strive together," said the Book of Exodus, "and hurt a woman with child, so that there is a miscarriage, and yet no harm follows, the one who hurt her shall be fined . . . If any harm follows, then you shall give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth . . ." (21:22-24). In Assyria, any man who struck a wellborn lady and "caused her to cast the fruit of her womb" was liable to a heavy fine, a beating, and a month's forced labor; if the lady was not wellborn, the only penalty was a fine. The Hittites were cooly businesslike. Ten shekels of silver if she was near full term, only five if she had not yet passed the sixth moon month.
Abortion was a criminal offense. For an Assyrian woman, the penalty was "to be impaled and not to be given a burial." If she died of the abortion, the same punishment was meted out to her corpse. But no one was much interested in infanticide, presumably because it was a fate usually reserved for girl children, while miscarriage or abortion might prevent a boy from being brought into the world. Only the Hebrews ruled against it by forbidding children to be given to Molech-not a demon, as was once thought, but a technical term for child sacrifice-which amounted to much the same thing.
As such laws show, the people of the early civilizations were concerned about productivity, particularly the Hebrews. Only parental fertility and adequate child care could strengthen and multiply the chosen people, the children of Israel, and the breeding rules that were imposed and the sexual practices that were banned were both designed to attain that end.
The first-century Jewish historian Josephus said, "The Law recognizes no sexual connections, except the natural union of husband and wife, and that only for the procreation of children," and there were various provisions, positive and negative, to enforce this principle. It was ordained, for example, that a newly married man should be free of military and business obligations for a year, "to be happy with his wife whom he has taken." The object was to insure that the newlyweds started their family right away, although one unintended side effect may have been to encourage an annual increase in the number of rich men's new wives.
The other side of the coin was thunderous denunciation of all types of nonproductive sex. While Babylon was prepared to recognize whole corporations of homosexual prostitutes, the Lord had said to the people of Israel, "If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall be put to death, their blood upon them." And, without any perceptible change of tone, "If a man lies with a beast, he shall be put to death; and you shall kill the beast. If a woman approaches any beast and lies with it, you shall kill the woman and the beast." Zoophilia-sexual intercourse with cattle or any of the (larger) domesticated animals-was not uncommon in pastoral societies but, when the nomads began to settle down, came to be seen as a custom belonging to the bad old days. Even the tolerant Hittites imposed the death penalty for it-in an attempt, perhaps, to break people of the habit.
From:
Sex In History
by: Reay Tannahill
Publishers: Scarborough House
Copyright: 1992
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I certainly hope none of you Bush Homophobes out there have ever had Hellish, God Forsaken sex simply for pleasure's sake. If you have, then may God have mercy on your souls for being as corrupt and depraved as those homos you love to hate. |
