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  • From: <Stephen.Finlan AT durham.ac.uk>
  • To: "Corpus-paul" <corpus-paul AT franklin.metalab.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: Paul and homosexuality?
  • Date: Fri, 14 Jun 2002 22:25:57 +0100


-to Jim Miller. A negative view of sex is also
present in the NT. Asceticism, and reasons for it,
were very important to Paul, who can be called a
"model ascetic" (Roetzel), as we see in Romans:

6:6 ... so that the sinful body might be destroyed

6:12 [don't] obey its passions

7:5 our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were
at work in our members to bear fruit for death.

7:8 sin, finding opportunity in the commandment, wrought
in me all kinds of covetousness.
[Probably it is the commandment to "be fruitful"
that accidentally (?) stimulated sinful sexual desire,
hence the repeated mention of how it was "through
the commandment" (7:13) that sin, like a Trojan horse,
penetrated our defenses and seduced us into sinning]

7:24 Who will deliver me from this body of death?

8:3 ...sinful flesh...

8:6 to set the mind on the flesh is death.


Despite his very reasonable advice in 1 Cor 7, Paul's
own attitude about sexuality is quite dualistic,
and passion is bad.

Stephen Finlan
University of Durham




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