In ancient times human beings lived shorter lives, and human populations experienced unpredictable fluctuations in size due to natural disasters, especially plagues and famines. Our ancestors were constantly at war, their endless preoccupation with warfare being found in the historical records everywhere on the planet. In those days war was a very personal business, the technology of the day being swords, spears, knives, rocks, clubs and other tools of mortal hand to hand combat. Victory in warfare was population dependant, and a small population was unlikely to survive in a battle of attrition with a large 'superpower' of the time.
A state with a large population was destined to become the 'super-state', and as history tells us, our ancestors were obsessed with this concept of a super-state. The Bible was written during this time of the rise and fall of the great empires. The earliest books in the Bible, such as Samuel and Judges, pre-date the age of the empires, and describe a time of transition from small tribal confederacy and endless small feuds between neighbouring tribes to the era of the of the nation state.. During the time period covered by the book of Kings the nation state had superseded the tribal confederacy, bringing different tribes into sometimes uneasy, but larger, and thus more powerful, military blocks. As the size of these nation states grew so did their military potential, and the threat also increased. The book of Kings was obviously written during a very dangerous time in Israelite history, and this is demonstrated by the endless preoccupation with the military throughout the manuscript. The age of the nation state was followed inevitably by the rise of the Great Empires, which came and went, and were replaced by ever larger, and ever more powerful empires - the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks, the Romans, following one after another..
The ancient Israelite monarchy was not without ambitions itself in this great game of population growth, victory in warfare, and then empire. According to boundaries described in the Bible the monarchy had smbitions to form an empire that covered the entire middle east, as far east as Iraq, thus making Israel the great regional power, displacing even the mighty Assyrians and Babylonians. It is these calls for regional domination, described in the Bible, that fuel so much conflict in the Middle East today, as elements in Israeli society insist on the divine right of Israel to all the land described as belonging to Israel in the Bible.
Israel never became the Great Empire, and throughout most of its history it was confined to the area around the Mediterranean coast, as Israel is today. The drive to create empire was probably fueled by what people today would call 'National Security Interests.' Better to be the Top Dog and the conqueror, than to be the vanquished slave nation. There was only one way to achieve this objective - population growth. Like other ancient states, the monarchy of Israel had laws on human sexuality and procreation that were intended to address our ancestor's concerns about military security by encouraging procreation. In most ancient cultures these concerns were addressed through religion and religious mythology. There was no such thing as separation between religion and state, the Israelite nation being a theocracy, so religious laws and regulations on these matters found in the Bible, was also the legislation of the state.
The Bible presents opposing pictures of human sexuality in the Torah. An innocent sexuality, free of concerns about nakedness, is portrayed in the Garden of Eden parable of the Yahweh school, and one of the first consequences of the fall was a peculiar sexual shame. Similar sexual traditions can be found scattered throughout the rest of the Bible (a good example is the eroticism of the Song of the Songs).
In a previous section I pointed out that the Yahweh prophets and the Levitical Priesthood were poles apart in ideology and are found to be in conflict on the pages of the Bible. The viewpoint of the priestly writings is itself found to contain variant sources, and there is no better example of this than a comparison of certain priestly viewpoints about sexuality in the Bible.
According to Genesis chapter 1 sexuality was good, just as everything created was examined and upon inspection found to be good from the very beginning. In Leviticus, sexuality is not good, and not all things created were created good, but rather certain behaviors, situations, and certain living beings (such as owls or rock badgers) were created 'unclean' (prohibited) and thus by definition were not good at the time of creation. These two ideologies are poles apart, and the controversy created by these two divergent sources is found reflected in the writings of the Church Testament.
One of the major themes running through the Gospel of Mark is the rejection of Levitical Torah purity regulations. According to Mark, nothing that goes into a person can defile them, and this puts Mark in opposition to Biblical regulations.
"And he (Yeshua) said to them, "Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a man from outside cannot defile him,
since it enters, not his heart but his stomach, and so passes on?" (Thus he declared all foods clean.)"
(Mark chapter 7 verse 18)
This concern over the validity of the purity laws was not peculiar to the Gospel of Mark. It surfaces in various manuscripts of the Church Testament. Paul, in Romans, was familiar with the tradition and in the following passage from the epistles the purity laws are equated with 'human commandments'.
"I know and am persuaded in YAHWEH Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself; but it is unclean for any one who thinks it unclean."
(Romans chapter 14 verse 14)
"This testimony is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith,
instead of giving heed to Jewish myths or to commands of men who reject the truth.
To the pure all things are pure, but to the corrupt and unbelieving nothing is pure."
(Titus chapter 1 verse 13)
Menstruation and childbirth were both considered unclean in Leviticus, and these regulations were a source of controversy in the early church. The theme of the curse of menstruation and is featured twice in the gospel of Mark. According to Leviticus, Women were confined in isolation for seven days for menstruating and served a thirty day sentence for childbirth, and in both cases were obligated to make a sacrifice of a pigeon as ‘atonement' for the bloody sin (blood being produced in both these cases). ( (Leviticus chapter 12 verse 2). The menstrual laws provide the background for understanding the story of the woman cursed with 12 years of non-stop menstruation. According to Leviticus she was perpetually 'unclean', which meant she was banished and untouchable for 12 straight years.
"And there was a woman who had had a flow of blood for twelve years,
and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse.
She had heard the reports about Jesus, and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment.
For she said, "If I touch even his garments, I shall be made well."
And immediately the hemorrhage ceased; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease."
(Mark chapter 5 verse 25)
"If a woman has a discharge of blood for many days, not at the time of her impurity, or if she has a discharge beyond the time of her impurity, all the days of the discharge she shall continue in uncleanness; as in the days of her impurity, she shall be unclean.
Every bed on which she lies, all the days of her discharge, shall be to her as the bed of her impurity; and everything on which she sits shall be unclean, as in the uncleanness of her impurity.
And whoever touches these things shall be unclean, and shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the evening."
(Leviticus chapter 15 verse 25)
The pigeon sacrifice was intimately linked with female menstruation, and the regulations indicate that a woman was to wait seven days after her menstrual discharge had ended and then make the sacrifice of a pigeon to atone for her sin of menstruating. It would be a given that pigeons would have to be purchased by families for every woman of childbearing age once every month to avoid violating religious taboos. Mark's parable of the cursing of the temple features prominently the symbol of money and a pigeon within the temple, and the temple is wrapped around by a parable of a withered fig tree (in Mark's gospel the parable of the withered fig tree is used as parentheses enclosing the parable of the cursing of the temple (Mark 11:13, 11:20), not as a single parable, as in Matthew 21:19. This symbolic arrangement suggests that the pigeon sacrifice was an unnecessary rite, and its only purpose was to serve as a monthly cash cow for the temple authorities (labelled a band of thieves in the parable). The sequence opens with the cursing of a fig tree.
"And he (Yeshua) said to it (the fig tree), "May no one ever eat fruit from you again." And his disciples heard it.
And they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons ...
And when evening came they went out of the city.
As they passed by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered away to its roots.
And Peter remembered and said to him, "Master, look! The fig tree which you cursed has withered.""
(Mark chapter 11 verse 14)
The implications of this symbolic arrangment are obvious. The cursed fig tree withered and died, and it leaves on to suppose that the cursed temple system was doomed to wither.
The superstitions surrounding childbirth and menstruation were not only the examples of sexual pessimism in the Levitical school. While childbirth was encouraged and one of the good things created by God, in Genesis chapter 1, and in the epistles, sexuality is frowned upon in Leviticus. Both sexuality and certain foods are considered 'unclean' (prohibited). After each sexual act a couple was required to ‘do penance' and underlying this idea is the notion of wrong doing and sinfulness requiring atonement and purification rituals. Sex was 'dirty', according to Leviticus. Couples were required to bath after sex, and then were considered ‘unclean' (which meant they were ‘untouchable' and in isolation for the required period of time).
"If a man lies with a woman and has an emission of semen, both of them shall bathe themselves in water, and be unclean until the evening."
(Leviticus chapter 15 verse 18)
The notion that sexuality was an offense punishable by a day in jail (as an isolated untouchable) found in Leviticus can be itself be contrasted with the excited eroticism and idealization of sexuality in the Song of Songs. No one in the Song of Songs is feeling particularly dirty, but rather they are celebrating. As in the case of the food laws mentioned above, there were elements in the early church which rejected the sexual pessimism of Leviticus as well. Indeed, the point of view that either foods or sexuality could be unclean was equated with 'demon doctrines' in these churches, which isn't saying much for the Levitical Priesthood, who believed similar things. In this matter the epistle echoes the priestly source in Genesis, and the prominent blessing bestowed on sexual activity in the opening chapter of the Bible.
"Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by giving heed to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons,
through the pretensions of liars whose consciences are seared,
who forbid marriage and enjoin abstinence from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.
For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving."
(1 Timothy chapter 4 verse 1)
Everything God created good, and as the priests of the Elohim in Genesis suggested, everything was inspected upon creation, found to be good, and blessed. This statement undermines the justification for the sexual impurity regulations in Leviticus, written by a different school of priests who claimed to be speaking for Yahweh, obviously a more pessimistic and thus separate source. In Genesis chapter 1 the Elohim priestly source declares sexuality to have been good from the moment of its creation, and advocates large family size, and thus endorses sexual activity, and also, between the lines you might say, also supports the military policy of the state, and the ambition to become the victor and be the state to dominate the coming empire. Once again the priest and prophet are found to be in conflict, for as one of the Jewish prophets put it, while criticizing state war policy, "you say, oh Israel, that you will be just like all the other nations, but that is never going to happen..."
In Genesis the policy that Israel should actively strive for Great Empire is openly endorsed by the priests employing the technique of incorporating these into mythological stories, such as Abraham' s walk throughout the lands of the east, claiming most of the middle east, every place his foot touches the ground.
"YAHWEH said to Abram ... "Lift up your eyes, and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward;
for all the land which you see I will give to you and to your descendants for ever.
I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth; so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your descendants also can be counted.
Arise, walk through the length and the breadth of the land, for I will give it to you."
(Genesis chapter 13 verse 14)
The promise to Abraham had military implications when it came to practical application in the real world. Abraham was given the promise of empire, with great land, great population, all the requirements for Super Power status in the ancient world. The imperialist viewpoint that underlay the mythology is made explicit through recitation of the target list.
"On that day YAHWEH made a covenant with Abram, saying, "To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates,
the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites,
the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim,
the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites."
(Genesis chapter 15 verse 18 )
Abraham would need descendants like the number of the stars to vanquish this long list of nations, and establish empire. That Israel should establish empire is one of the recurring themes of the book of Genesis. The point to be made here is that the priests were not oblivious to political realities, and thus it is important to understand the political-military context of even such statements as ‘be fruitful and multiply' which in the very opening chapter of Genesis is followed by the first of many calls to establish empire, 'fill the earth and subdue it'.
"And the Elohim blessed them (male and female), and the Elohim said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.""
(Genesis chapter 1 verse 27)
Human population growth and empire building
Sexuality in the Bible
The military ambitions of the ancient Israelites
A Unified Field Theory
The Unified Field Theory
is also available as a zip file -> unified.zip
Introduction :The Pioneer Effect and the New Physics. A brief description of the new physics required to explain the 'Pioneer Effect', which is the constant deceleration of space craft as they fly through space.