Commandment 7 - Playing with Emotions

COMMANDMENT 7 - PLAYING WITH EMOTIONS

I am sure some of you will have heard the story about the Vicar who had his bicycle stolen, whilst visiting his parishioners.

He was convinced the culprit was another parishioner, so he and the churchwarden hatched a plot to catch the thief.

At the Sung Eucharist the following Sunday, he planned to read the Ten Commandments. When he got to the eighth, "Thou shall not steal", he suggested that the churchwarden look around the congregation to see if there was a guilty face.

On the Sunday, the Vicar commenced reading the Ten Commandments, but stopped short of the eighth commandment.

After the service, the churchwarden, who had been carefully waiting for the eighth to be recited so that he could catch the thief, asked the Vicar why he had stopped short.

The Vicar replied that, after reading the seventh commandment, "Thou shall not commit adultery", he suddenly remembered where he had left his bicycle!!

Whilst you and I may be amused at such a story, the committing of adultery in the Old Testament was no laughing matter. The Book of Deuteronomy prescribed death by stoning for adulterers and adulteresses (Deuteronomy 22.22). Although in later times this sentence was rarely carried out (an eyewitness was needed, and that was no doubt difficult), the offence itself continued to be thought of as one of major criminality.

However, in the Old Testament, adultery was less about sex; more about property.

From earlier times, women were seen in terms of man's property.

The cartoon drawing of a man claiming a wife by knocking her on the head with his club is probably not too far from the truth. The woman remained the property of the man until a stronger man came along to claim her.

Later, marriage by capture was replaced with marriage by purchase.

The woman was now seen as a piece of property, owned by her father, who had to be bought, with or without her consent. Hence Jacob, in the Old Testament was required to work for 14 years for the father of Rachel, before he could have her hand in marriage.

Incidentally, this idea of a woman being seen as property lies behind those words in the Wedding Service in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer:

"Who giveth this woman to be married to this man".

Likewise, when the best man used to give the wedding ring to the priest for blessing, he used to also hand over money to compensate the bride's father for losing a valuable labourer.

As the property of the husband, the husband in Jewish law was permitted to get rid of his wife, but a wife could not get rid of her husband. (I think this is still the practice in Orthodox Judaism today).

Likewise, as property, the wife had a function to perform, namely the provision of children for the husband. And if the husband died before the woman had given birth to children, it was the responsibility of the brothers of the husband to take over the wife in order to produce substitute heirs.

This view still persisted in the days of Jesus. Hence the test question once put to him about a man having seven brothers, all of whom married the same woman.

Thus, the seventh commandment about not committing adultery was about a man's right to his wife as a piece of property, rather than about having sex with someone who was not one's wife.

It was this male self-satisfaction which Jesus attacked by defining adultery in terms of a certain view of woman rather than a certain act involving a woman.

"Who so-ever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart". In other words, such a person is treating the woman as an object, rather than as a person, to be used for his own selfish satisfaction.

It is interesting to note that every statement Jesus made about sexuality works to protect women and to awaken men to their own responsibilities.

Whilst condemning adultery, he yet forgave the adulteress who repented, but denounced the lustful and loveless men who caused her to sin.

As far as Jesus was concerned, wives, and women in general, are not objects of pleasure and amusement. Like men, they are flesh and blood and should be treated and respected as such. Thus marriage is for keeps - you do not throw a woman away in favour of a young dolly-bird, as one would throw away a piece of property like an old coat, once her usefulness has come to an end.

Sex without love is no better than behaving like dogs in the park. It is treating people as objects and not as persons.

Not only do men need to bear this in mind, but since the emancipation of women in recent times, so do women need to bear this in mind. For they too are in danger of treating men as objects rather than as persons.

So whilst the Old Testament says: "You shall not commit adultery", the New Testament says; "Know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit".