PAUL HAD
SEXUAL HANG-UPS
Hugh Fogelman
Paul had sexual hang-ups. Perhaps the reason for this can be found in early writings. The early Jewish-Christians, called the Ebonite’s, wrote that Paul was not a Jew by birth. This belief is found in the writing of Epiphanius in the 4th century, which states; “They declare that Paul was raised in a pagan household. He went up to Jerusalem and when he had spent some time there, was seized with passion to marry the daughter of the high priest; and this was the reason he became a proselyte (Jew) and went through the Jewish ritual of circumcision. But when the lady rejected him, he flew into a rage and wrote against circumcision and against the Sabbath and the Jewish Law” (Pamarion 30.16.6).
In
Paul’s mind, he went through a very painful surgery?circumcision?for nothing. Being rejected would have given Paul a reason
to hate Jews and women. Epiphanies continues, “After being rejected by the priest’s daughter, he then found
employment in the service of the high priest as a police informer and
enforcer.” But, that is another story altogether.
There
is no record that Paul was ever married. His painful experience with the
priest’s daughter appears to have soured him against women in general, for Paul
wrote; “It is good for a man not
to touch a women” (l Corinthians 7:1). He continues to warn “For I would that
all men were even as myself… It is good for them if
they abide even as
Paul does not believe that marriage is based on
personal love, but that it only has one purpose?that of
satisfying, in a legal manner, the sexual urge. Christian partners in marriage
are bound to give each other the “conjugal rights” that each owes to the other:
“The wife hath not power
of her own body, but the husband: and likewise also the husband hath not power
of his own body, but the wife
(l
Corinthians 7:4). Paul also demanded; “those who have wives should
live as though they had none” (l Corinthians
As we have shown, Paul was apparently very upset
over having been circumcised for nothing. Perhaps this was one of his reasons
for stressing to the Gentiles he was trying to convert, that circumcision as no
longer necessary. Being Roman himself, Paul knew that many men in
Paul also knew the Greeks were very touchy about
circumcision and that Jews who wished to enter Greek sporting events naked
would first have themselves “uncircumcised,” a very painful operation of skin
grafting. In fact Paul warns against it when he says, “He who is circumcised, let him not become uncircumcised” (l
Corinthians
Shmuel Golding wrote:
What does Paul mean by “concision” (Philippians 3:2), when he
said; “Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision?” To
understand this word, one must look up in the original Greek New Testament? “katatomim” ?meaning mutilation. Paul has
used the word sarcastically in place of the Greek word “peretomy,”
which means circumcision. Paul now, after being spurned by the daughter of the high priest, considered
circumcision to be mutilation.
Paul despised circumcision and taught against it:
“And they are informed of thee, that thou teachest
all the Jews which are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, saying that they
ought not to circumcise their children neither to walk after the customs” (KJV
Acts 21:21).
According
to the New Testament, Paul had a mission. His mission was to convert pagans who
wanted to leave polytheism for monotheism, and only had a brief knowledge of
what God told Moses. Paul knew that two obstacles stood in the way of these
Gentile pagans converting to his new religion, the Laws and Circumcision – so
he eliminated them, telling them they didn’t have to obey God’s laws or even be
circumcised. Paul told his new converts that circumcision of the heart replaces
circumcision of the skin (Romans
Paul
says that the Law is the knowledge of sin (Romans
Paul
s
ays you become dead to the Law by the
body of Christ (Romans 7:4-6)
Paul
says Christ is the end of the Law (Romans 10:4)
Paul
says Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the Law (Galatians
Paul
says that every man that is circumcised is a debtor to do the whole Law.
To the Galatians, Paul (paraphrasing) taught that if
a man is circumcised, “Christ will be of no use to him” (Galatians 5:2-3 and
6). BUT, did Paul forget that Jesus was
circumcised??
Paul
had a major hang up on circumcision. He made it a point to talk about
circumcision in seven of his epistles: (source: Strong’s New Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible)
Romans:... 16 times
1
Corinthians: 3 times
Galatians: 13 times
Ephesians:
1 time
Philippians:
2 times
Colossians: 4 times
Titus......... 1 time
Titus:........
1 time
Book of Acts: 9 times
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