Post by gnosticbishop on Oct 10, 2014 16:45:10 GMT
"For man God made all things to be common property. He brought the female to be with the male in common and in the same way united all the animals. He thus showed rightousness to be a universal sharing along with equality. But those who have been born in this way have denied the sharing which is the corollary of their origin and say Let him who has taken one woman keep her, whereas all can share her, just as the other animals show us. With view to the permanence of the race, he has implanted in males a strong and ardent desire which neither law nor custom nor any other restraint is able to destroy. For it is God´s decree."?
The stage you should try to think from is a city state with finite resourses governed by a King/God.
"For man God made all things to be common property.”
Put yourself in the world of the ancients who were living in a world of finite resources and where anything that was created by men automatically had a lot of value.
In a city state, any waste would have been frowned upon and so everything, although belonging to a certain person, would likely be thought of as communal property. The King/God would have it no other way.
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“He brought the female to be with the male in common and in the same way united all the animals.”
This is just the showing the King/God recognizing that men take wives and set up their livestock to have both male and females to insure reproduction and continuity of both men and their livelihood.
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“He thus showed righteousness to be a universal sharing along with equality.”
City states or small villages and groups would all live more as communes than the way we live today. Sharing would have been a huge part of life as people would have relied on each other directly more than we do today. Our interdependency is no less real today but we do not see the other fellow working beside us anymore.
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“But those who have been born in this way have denied the sharing which is the corollary of their origin and say Let him who has taken one woman keep her, whereas all can share her, just as the other animals show us.”
This is a tough one. I think, because in that day there were Temple Prostitutes, this is saying that no man can touch another man’s wife but that all can share the Temple prostitutes.
In nature, the alpha female is off limits to the rest of the flock but others can share the unmarried, so to speak, while remembering that in that day, sex was controlled somewhat so as to reduce the numbers of babies who would have to be sacrificed due to those finite resources. Parents of course would make sure their children are kept unmolested and marriage contracts would ask for virginity of the woman.
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“With view to the permanence of the race, he has implanted in males a strong and ardent desire which neither law nor custom nor any other restraint is able to destroy.”
This just speaks to man’s lust and desire to reproduce.
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“For it is God´s decree."
I would change this to, it is nature’s decree, in our modern world but back then it was saying that it was as the King/God decreed.