Your Body Belongs to the Lord (may contain ancient erotica and nudity)

In order to understand perceptions of the body and pleasure in Paul and in Roman Corinth, it may be helpful to begin with Plato:

Republic, IV, 439d: We shall think that these things are twofold and different to one another: The one which reasons in the soul we call rationality; and the other which loves and hungers and thirsts, and concerning the other desires [epithumias] feels disturbance , we call the irrational [alogiston] and appetitive [epithumētikon], companion of various fulfilments and pleasures [hēdonōn].

Plato’s distinction between reason and appetites/passions proved to be very influential.  But it was not that the body itself (or the part of the soul devoted to its interests) was evil; rather it needed to be in harmony and submission to that part of the soul which was entrusted with reason.  So Demosthenes was able to write to a male friend, praising his bodily beauty, because it was in harmony with (perhaps the expression of) a beautiful soul.  This praise of a fellow male’s beauty was, according to Demosthenes, emphatically not to be considered as homosexual passion, but rather as “pure and self-disciplined” love:

61.6 “Erotic Essay”: Therefore I have been all the more moved to write this message [logon], not wanting to miss out on directing toward two goods.  For, beginning to describe to you your good qualities, I hope at the same time to demonstrate both that you are desirable [zēlōton], and that, being thus, I am not senseless if I love [agapō] you.  And in offering this most pressing advice, I will show my own goodwill and provide a basis for our common friendship.

61.8: All will agree with me that for those of such an age as yours it is most pressing to have beauty of appearance, and prudence [sōphrosunēn] of soul, and manliness [andreian] with regard to both of these, and consistently to have gracefulness of speech.

 

So the beauty of the human body was celebrated in the Greco-Roman world, without necessarily implying “sensual passion”.  It is in this light that Greek “pederasty” should be understood: This was a relationship in which a boy on his way to respectable adulthood was to be given an education by an older man, whose reward  would be to enjoy the youth’s beauty, as seen especially in his athletic pursuits.  As the object was to develop the boy into a respectable man, there would be no sexual penetration (as this was considered feminising and degrading to the recipient), but at times there was sexual involvement of other kinds.  This was not automatically considered to be obscene, and certainly wasn’t considered as a mutual sexual relationship… but of course, Jewish onlookers found this detestable (so Philo, On the Decalogue, XXXII).

This is also the light in which to consider presentations of Aphrodite: She is presented as, at one and the same time, one who incites erotic desire, and one whose beauty represents a purer sort of love.  She continues to be presented in this way into the Roman period.  Notice her shyness, and her rejection of Pan’s sexual advances (she’s ready to whack him with a well-aimed sandal).  The final picture is from Corinth:

Interestingly, Hellenistic Jewish presentations of ethics often seem to attempt to present the ideals of the Torah in a way that appeals to the values of Greek philosophy – viewing “passions”/”appetites” as being the basest expression of idolatry.  Thus, “sexual immorality” is generally presented as the most fundamental vice:

IV Maccabees 1:1: Godly reason [eusebēs logismos] is master of the passions [pathōn].

Sibylline Oracles, Book III, 762-6: But enliven your thinking in your breasts, Flee unlawful worship [latreias], worship the living one.  Guard against adultery [moicheias] and homosexual intercourse [arsenos akriton eunēn].  Nourish and do not murder [phoneue] the children you have borne.  For the immortal one will become angry at the one who sins in these things.

Psalms of Solomon 2:11-13: They [i.e. the Gentiles] held up the sons of Jerusalem to ridicule, on account of the prostitutes [or fornications: pornōn] among her.  Every passer-by entered in the view of the sun [i.e. daylight].  They mocked their lawless ways compared to their own doings.  In the view of the sun they displayed their evil deeds [adikias].  And the daughters of Jerusalem are polluted according to your judgement.  For they defiled [emiaiōsan] themselves  in promiscuous disorder.

Pseudo-Phocylides, Sentences 3-8: Do not commit adultery [gamoklopeein], nor stir homosexual passion [arsena Kupron].  Do not sew together deceit, nor defile [miainein] your hands with blood.  Do not become wealthy [ploutein] unjustly, but live from honourable means.  Be content with your possessions and abstain from those of another.  Do not tell lies, but always speak truth.  First honour God; and thereafter your parents.

Philo, On the Decalogue XXIV, 121-123: In writing the other set [i.e. the second table of the Decalogue], concerning prohibitions related to humans, he begins with adultery [moicheias], taking this to be the greatest of crimes.  For firstly it springs from the love of pleasure [philedonian], which both enfeebles the bodies of those it holds, and loosens the tendons of the soul and destroys the very existence, consuming all that it touches as an unquenchable fire, leaving nothing safe in human life.

This logic can also be seen in the epistles of Paul, including 1 Corinthians, in which the ethical section of chs.5-14 begins with the problems of “porneia”, “moicheia” and the “body”: Perhaps what we see in Paul is a “Christologisation” of the ethics of Hellenistic Judaism.

Tomorrow: Meat Sacrificed to Idols

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