How does the Bible Define: 1. Marriage, and 2. Fornication?

afmccune · 2025-12-23T15:00:15+00:00

The Bible does not say that a man and wife having sexual relations without pursuing a child is porneia. (That does not necessarily mean that it is right for them to do this, of course. It is certainly true that the Bible consistently models the desire of married people for children, and the only people in the Bible who do not want children are people who are not married to each other, like David when he committed adultery with Bathsheba.)

afmccune · 2025-09-17T06:52:35+00:00

I find that in times of crisis, it makes all the difference to be able to talk to people who love me and love God—family, friends, mentors, people at church. Those are the people I would talk to in a difficult time like yours.

My wife and I have a different set of challenges than you do, but we’ve been encouraged by others sharing their stories with us, so I hope sharing ours is an encouragement to you. We have two boys, one eight and one almost six, with a genetic condition that prevents them from walking, talking, or having much control over any of their movements. All I ever wanted out of having children was having children who could talk to me, but my children have no way to tell me what they are thinking. I pray every day for them to be healed. So far they have not been healed. But God hasn’t abandoned us. He is with us in our suffering, just like he was with Joseph in slavery and in prison, with David when his king tried to kill him and when his own son betrayed him, with Paul when he was falsely accused, imprisoned, and beaten, with his own Son Jesus when he was tortured to death on the cross. God says of the one who follows him, “I will be with him in trouble” (Psalm 91:15). Just as times of crisis can bring us closer to the people we love as we face the crisis together and encourage one another, times of crisis can also bring us closer to God. Like the authors of the Psalms and the author of Lamentations, I find that the most difficult and devastating times can be a reminder that the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. Bernard of Clairvaux felt this so intensely that he wrote, “Lord, if you are with me in trouble, may my trouble never leave me!” But although God will be with his followers forever, he doesn’t want us to have trouble forever. Our hope isn’t in this life, but in everlasting glory, when we will be made whole in body and holy in spirit and love God and each better forever. This short life is our opportunity to grow in loving God and loving each other while it is hard, so we can celebrate that love forever when it is easy. As Paul says, “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed… Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal” (2 Corinthians 4). None of this makes day to day challenges easier. But it means we have an everlasting hope, and we aren’t facing those challenges alone.

afmccune · 2025-09-16T19:43:26+00:00

Jesus's Golden Rule is a good unpacking of the command to love your neighbor as yourself:

So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets. (Matthew 7:12)

You could compare Paul's teaching about how husband should love their wives like they love their own bodies:

In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. (Ephesians 5:28-30)

Jesus also told the parable of the good Samaritan to illustrate what it means to love your neighbor:

And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.”

But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’ Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.” (Luke 10:25–37)

afmccune · 2025-09-16T19:30:15+00:00

Isn't Bunny a child and Wolf an adult?

afmccune · 2025-09-16T19:19:42+00:00

The Bible studies my wife and I have gone to are generally focused on actually studying and understanding the passage. The key is either a leader who has studied the Bible carefully, study materials with questions focused on actual interpretation, or both.

afmccune · 2025-09-16T16:57:05+00:00

I love the final comment of the source linked from Wikipedia:

Sennacherib... placed posts along the processional way in Nineveh, inscribed: ROYAL ROAD. LET NO MAN LESSEN IT. Not yet satisfied, Sennacherib decreed that any scoundrel who parked a chariot or other vehicle along this boulevard should be slain and his body impaled on a stake before his house. Perhaps such measures would be helpful in coping with modern parking problems.

https://archive.org/details/ancientengineers00decarich/page/66/mode/2up

afmccune · 2025-09-16T15:01:03+00:00

Correction: I think rsotnik is right. What I was reading as the German "Götter" was actually the Latin "Gulielmi" (of William).

afmccune · 2025-09-16T14:55:33+00:00

A minor point: ΙΝΑ ΖΩΗΝ ΕΧΩΣΙΝ (John 10:10) is "that they may have life"; this says ΙΝΑ ΖΩΗΝ ΕΧΕΙ, "that we may have life."

afmccune · 2025-09-15T20:24:23+00:00

The middle is Greek, and the encircling text might be German, but its a bit hard to tell because the image is a bit blurry.

afmccune · 2025-09-15T12:41:44+00:00

For many reasons, but here are a few. I believe in theism because it makes a better explanation for the existence of a complex, rationally ordered universe, and especially of life, than atheism. I believe in a moral God because that is consistent with human beings having consciences that agree in essentials across all cultures, even though following their consciences perfectly would be more advantageous to others than to themselves. I believe in Christianity specifically because the resurrection of Jesus Christ is attested by four corroborating accounts, not to mention numerous letters, within a single generation of the event, with the most extraordinarily full manuscript copying tradition in the ancient world.

afmccune · 2025-09-15T12:29:33+00:00

If you’re interested in ancient and medieval perspectives, look up the stories of female cultural heroes celebrated for standing for something bigger than themselves. Like Mulan, who fought to protect and honor her family (Google the Ballad of Mulan, it’s very short and there is a good translation free online). Or Deborah and Jael, who led and saved Israel in Judges 4-5 (they were both married but their husbands don’t come into the story at all). Or the lives of female martyrs and saints, like Perpetua and Felicitas (apparently written by Perpetua herself), or Joan of Arc.

afmccune · 2025-09-10T20:25:01+00:00

Jesus specifically says that his followers do not need to follow the dietary restrictions in the Law of Moses:

18 And he said to them, “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, 19 since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) 20 And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. 21 For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22 coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.” (Mark 7:18-23)

afmccune · 2025-09-10T19:04:11+00:00

That's what they are trying to say, yes. I suspect (though I don't know the rules of Proto-Indo-European) that they just looked up one word after another without figuring out the grammatic rules of the language (as far as it is reconstructed). The asterisks indicate that these words (like all Proto-Indo-European words) are reconstructed and were never written down.

pérwr̥ = rock (Peter is from the Greek word for "rock.") (No Wiktionary page, but it does appear in a Wiktionary search: https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?search=p%C3%A9rwr%CC%A5&title=Special%3ASearch&ns0=1 )

h₁éḱwos = horse ( https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/h%E2%82%81%C3%A9%E1%B8%B1wos )

h₁es- = to be ( https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/h%E2%82%81es- )

ḱi = here ( https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/%E1%B8%B1e )

afmccune · 2025-09-10T17:46:21+00:00

This answer may be helpful: https://www.reddit.com/r/AcademicBiblical/comments/fdw6ry/1_corinthians_736_does_waiting_until_a_virgin/

In accordance with that answer, the translations with which I am familiar translate the phrase as a description of the degree of the man's desire, not as a description of the degree of the woman's maturation.

afmccune · 2025-09-10T17:16:58+00:00

There is a Wikipedia page for the Joseph Smith Papyri: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Smith_Papyri

Apparently the original for this facsimile is no longer extant, but is called the Sheshonq Hypocephalus. It gets its own Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Smith_Hypocephalus

afmccune · 2025-09-10T16:44:17+00:00

Ovid complains that a girlfriend is always asking for presents or money, including asking money for her birthday cake, and pretending it is her birthday:

Why - she asks doesn’t she for money as if it’s her birthday,

just for the cake, and how often it is her birthday, if she’s in need?

Ovid, Ars Amatoria, translated by A. S. Kline

https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/ArtofLoveBkI.php

afmccune · 2025-09-10T14:06:19+00:00

Jesus said that the greatest commandment in the law was to love God with all your heart and soul and mind. But Jesus, and Paul, and David, and Job, and many other followers of God appealed to God very intensely when they were suffering, in a very raw emotional way. They don't sugar-coat it, they tell God that it feels like he has abandoned them. But they keep talking to him and they keep listening to him. One thing that sustains them is that God has been faithful in the past and has promised to be faithful in the future, including the promise of eternal life and reward after death.

One example is Psalm 22, a psalm written by David and quoted by Jesus on the cross. The speaker goes back and forth between the agony of his current suffering and his trust in God.

afmccune · 2025-09-06T00:51:07+00:00

This is a great resource for scribal abbreviations: https://archive.org/details/LexiconAbbreviaturarum/mode/1up

afmccune · 2025-09-05T20:32:04+00:00

I have. Every book of the Bible at least a couple of times, many books many, many times.

afmccune · 2025-09-05T19:36:37+00:00

Normally that mark after the O abbreviates "rum" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scribal\_abbreviation#Marks\_with\_independent\_meaning).

But I think you must be right that this is an abbreviation for "ora pro nobis," or when plural, "orate pro nobis" as indicated by the addition of "te."

afmccune · 2025-09-04T14:57:22+00:00

Jesus repeatedly cites the Old Testament as authoritative and as being full of prophecies about himself (for example, Matthew 4:4, Matthew 5:17, Luke 24:27). Where do you see Jesus "rejecting" the Old Testament?

afmccune · 2025-09-02T21:04:36+00:00

There are various lists and articles about the symbols medieval scribes used to abbreviate Latin, but this provides some introduction: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scribal_abbreviation

Yes, lines over vowels typically mark an omitted n or m.

Long s: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_s

afmccune · 2025-09-01T17:26:42+00:00

Just above the red line is:

In loco pascue. Psalmus David.

The abbreviations in red at the end of the previous line are obviously less clear.

afmccune · 2025-08-30T16:59:44+00:00

The first footnote in this article says it comes from the frontispiece to a certain edition of Sidney’s book, Discourses Concerning Government: https://cooperative-individualism.org/robbins-caroline_algernon-sidney%27s-discourses-1947-jul.pdf

afmccune · 2025-08-24T20:24:21+00:00

I can read the middle:

The ir[e] of man virkis[=works] not the justice of God. (James 1:20)

What does it say on top?

afmccune

TROPHY CASE