Great work Samseau, looking forward to more of this sort of research. It's been a while since I took a deep dive into this area, but my conclusion was the same as yours in your follow-up posts: fornication is a sin, like gluttony, akrasia, but it's certainly not adultery. In fact - contra modern Churchians - marrying a non-virgin is a far greater sin than whoremongering:
"But I say to you that whoever divorces his wife for any reason except sexual immorality causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a woman who is divorced commits adultery." - Matthew 5:32
And polygamy is clearly permitted. But, polygamy is also understood to be taking multiple virgin wives.
The Bible seems to divide women into three categories: 1) Virgins (potential wives), 2) Wives (seducing = adultery) and 3) Whores. There is no fourth category of liberated Sex and The City women, because the authors either couldn't conceive of the modern dating scene, or couldn't conceive of men unable to recognize them as whores.
So, I agree with scorpion and RawGod that there's no way around the sinfulness of sex outside of marriage to a virgin or widow. Would Jesus or anyone else have any trouble identifying nightclubs and mobile dating apps as 21st-century pornix? I'm pretty sure the Bible's authors would view modern women simply as whores with poor bargaining skills.
You make an excellent point that God views male promiscuity as much, much less serious than female promiscuity, and that modern Churches invert this. But you over-reach by saying that casual sex is 100% A-OK. Even in 2015, a good Christian man should be trying to find and marry a virgin wife. Is that impossible? Of course not. Is it difficult? No more so than being fed to lions or spending a few days on a cross.
But, you know the Bible a lot better than I do and you have access to a priest who speaks Koine, so I'm guessing you'll have a lot more to teach me than vice versa. Looking forward to your follow-up posts.
Cheers,
Frost
"But I say to you that whoever divorces his wife for any reason except sexual immorality causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a woman who is divorced commits adultery." - Matthew 5:32
And polygamy is clearly permitted. But, polygamy is also understood to be taking multiple virgin wives.
The Bible seems to divide women into three categories: 1) Virgins (potential wives), 2) Wives (seducing = adultery) and 3) Whores. There is no fourth category of liberated Sex and The City women, because the authors either couldn't conceive of the modern dating scene, or couldn't conceive of men unable to recognize them as whores.
So, I agree with scorpion and RawGod that there's no way around the sinfulness of sex outside of marriage to a virgin or widow. Would Jesus or anyone else have any trouble identifying nightclubs and mobile dating apps as 21st-century pornix? I'm pretty sure the Bible's authors would view modern women simply as whores with poor bargaining skills.
You make an excellent point that God views male promiscuity as much, much less serious than female promiscuity, and that modern Churches invert this. But you over-reach by saying that casual sex is 100% A-OK. Even in 2015, a good Christian man should be trying to find and marry a virgin wife. Is that impossible? Of course not. Is it difficult? No more so than being fed to lions or spending a few days on a cross.
But, you know the Bible a lot better than I do and you have access to a priest who speaks Koine, so I'm guessing you'll have a lot more to teach me than vice versa. Looking forward to your follow-up posts.
Cheers,
Frost