• Bride is a "possession" in Hebrew Scripture. The contract between the families was sealed by the payment of the mohar to the parents of the bride; . . . It seems more probable, however, that the mohar [bride payment] is an ancient custom which goes back to a conception of marriage by purchase; this conception left other traces in Israelite marriage practice (such as the terms ba‘al "owner," to designate the husband, and be‘ulah, "owned," to designate the bride). -- Dictionary of the Bible, John L. McKenzie, 1968, Geoffrey Chapman, London, article "Marriage," p 548 b.
• No actual special words "husband" and "wife" in Greek Christian Scripture. The oldest Christian scripture documents are in koine Greek. Wherever the scripture is translated in English as "husband," "wife," the actual Greek's basic meaning is "man," "woman." So the quote that "every woman should have her own husband" has the basic meaning "every woman should have her own man." (Now, does that put a slightly different complexion on some Church's claims about divine authority and marriage?)
• Women Devil's Gateway, and, The Most Shameful Activity.
Some time after the balanced views of the original Apostles were no longer available, adherents of the new religion developed an obsessional horror of sex, a desperate fear of the body, and a bitter intense hatred of womenkind.
Tertullian wrote: "God's verdict on the sex still holds good, and the sex's guilt must still hold also. You are the devil's gateway!" Women should go about "clad in mourning and ashes, her eyes overflowing with the tears of remorse," he added, "to make us forget that you have been man's destruction."
Convinced that practically all the ills of the earth had been caused by women, hysterical monks fled into the wilderness to wrestle with Satan, and to endure the most hideous forms of torture and self-mutilation. (p 179)
For examples of opposition to sex, Ambrose said that the race should die rather than that it be propagated with the "sin" of sexual intercourse, and Justin wrote that sexual activity was unnecessary to life. (p 78)
-- The late great book, the Bible, Nicholas Carter, 1985, Truth Missions, (PO Box 3849), Manhattan Beach (California 90266 USA), pp 11-12.
• Birth control forbidden, but interfering with nature by genetics is OK. PERTH:
I recently read an article that said the Catholic Church had come out in favour of genetically modified crops as a source of food for the starving throughout the world.
I find this curious, coming from an organisation whose medieval thinking on birth control has contributed considerably to the population growth among the poorer countries less able to feed themselves.
Surely the modification of crop genes is no less an interference with the laws of nature -- and by association, God -- than using artificial means to control the birthrate. Then again, maybe the Catholic Church holds shares in big companies like Monsanto. -- The West Australian, letter, Geoff Dunstone, Palmyra, Tue Aug 19 03, p 17
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