Sex and Religion in the Bible

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If we look to the Bible for historical accounts of ancient life, we make a profound error. So contends Calum Carmichael in this original and incisive reading of some of the Hebrew Bible and New Testament� s most famous narratives. Sifting through the imaginative layers of these texts with an uncanny sensitivity and a panoptic critical eye, he unearths patterns connecting disparate passages, providing fascinating insights into how ideas were expressed, received, and transformed in the ancient Near East. Ranging from Jacob ��s encounter with Leah to the marriage at Cana to Jesus� � encounter with the woman at the well, these readings demonstrate the remarkable subtlety and sophistication of the biblical views on marriage, sexuality, fertility, impurity, creation, and love.

Sex and Religion in the Bible Review

This review is based on the Kindle version of the book, but it will primarily address that content which is common to both the Kindle and the Paper editions.

I suggest that if you are a dedicated Kindle user, there is not a lot with which to be disappointed, except for the list of references to the Bible after the text.The translation from paper to electronic essentially destroyed the usefulness of this table, as what was once primarily in rows, is now in columns, so the page number is below the verse citation. Sometimes, it appears the page number is missing. The index of words seems to suffer from the same problem. This is odd, because I have seen many Kindle books which do not have this problem. Perhaps the translation to e-Book was done by a contractor working for Yale University Press. If you are not dedicated to the Kindle, these problems mean you should get the paper copy, if possible, at a "used" price.

For the paper edition alone, I would give the book 3 1/2 stars. The title, probably dictated by the publisher, does not accurately represent the subject of the book. The title of my review may be a more apt title. In addition to law and custom, the book also deals with some unusual ideas about the meaning of some things which sound like "Thou shalls", but are actually blessings that "Things will go well."

The subject is appropriate from this author, who seems to be one of those people who were profoundly influenced by a single person, in this case, David Dube, recently passed away, who was the leading scholar of Hebrew and ancient middle eastern law. Dr. Carmichael was one of his many students, and has recently published an edition of Dr. Daube's "Jottings" (probably somethng like Luther's "Table Talk". Sometimes, this work appears to be a commentary on Daube's work.Carmichael also seems to have an affinity to referring to works by Daube's students, such as C. K. Barrett's commentary on John, in preference to the larger and better known commentary by Raymond Brown.

On the language of the Old Testament, Dr. Carmichael leans in the direction of taking anything in the Deuteronomic history which does not agree with our understanding should be taken as myth. Just to be sure, I quote from the introduction "... myth in the form of an explanation and often justification of some event, real or imagined, characterizes most biblical material where a different vision for understanding the world from ours prevails..." This is just a bit hard to swallow. To elaborate on the idea, Carmichael shows how some rather important laws dealing with sexual behavior in the Torah were written the way they were in order to be consistant with the legends we find in Genesis.

And since, as he also says, citing Dr. Daube, "We immediately encounter a surprise. Both Judaism and Christianity traditionally view the text in Genesis 1:28 as laying down a duty to procreate, and even modern scholars take its words to be a commandment. But, as David Daube observed, the words do not in fact command. Rather, the full text of the passage constitutes a blessing: "And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply."

So what are we to make of a discussion which says "law like starements" are actually blessings, or explanations of myth. Dr. Campbell redeems himself by being more careful and circumspect when he deals with individual situations. There is much that he says which ranges from probably right to certainly provocative.

While much of the book deals with the Old Testament, the first two chapters deal with some facinating interpretations of two incidents in the Gospel of John, the wedding at Cana and Jesus with the Samaritan woman at the well.He claims both events are connected to stages in the Genesis story of creation. The marriage at Cana represents the third day of creation and the incident at the well represents a sexual encounter, comparable to day six of the Genesis story. Carmichael's arguments are cogent, but in such a carefully structured Gospel, why do only these episodes seem to line up with Genesis (on the other hand, the working theory on John is that it was built up by several different hands, through several revisions.

By far my favorite claim in the book is the parallel between the search for wisdom and sexual desire. Carmichael says "the search for wisdom is the pursuit of an attractive woman whose qualities, while the opposite of those of a loose woman, are yet similar-- imitation par opposition..." Understanding the equating wisdom with a woman is quite old. What is daring is to make the pursuit of wisdom similar to the pursuit of sexual satisfaction. If one accepts the pragmatic theory of truth, where truth is what it means to us "in the flesh", this becomes very provacative.

What seems odd, given the title, is that the author seems to engage none of the principle issues and speakers on issues in biblical sexuality. He briefly addresses Paul's statements in Romans 1:26,27 but says nothing about how they are embedded in a larger discussion Romans 1:23 - 32 on idolatry. His focus is on law and customs and metaphor. But even so, sometimes his comments seem remarkably naive, such as "The idea that marriage should be thought of as an institution is in some ways odd. Why should the state or religious authorities legislate for marital unions?" Is it not necessary for community authority to legislate marriage, since so much is invested in communal property and care of the children. But, to be fair, that is from a 21st century point of view. The author is looking at a society where wives and children were property of the male head of household.

The footnotes are oddly annoying, as all the references to an entire paragraph are lumped together in one footnote. This is a problem of Yale. And, there is no Bibliography in the Kindle edition.

There is value in the book, but I would carefully weight what it is you want to know about Sex and scripture. If it's modern issues you want, go to Dale Martin's book, "Sex and the Single Savior".

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