Re: evil desires/lust or lust

David L. Moore (dvdmoore@ix.netcom.com)
Thu, 14 Nov 1996 07:39:32 -0500

At 10:23 PM 11/13/96 -0500, Nichael Lynn Cramer wrote:
>At 7:32 PM 11/13/96, Carl W. Conrad wrote:
>>KULIKOVSKY, Andrew wrote:
>>> [...] Apparently the ancient Greeks
>>>were also quite favourable toward pedofilia. [...]
>>
>>The definitive work on the subject is K.A. Dover, _Greek Homosexuality_,
>>Oxford UP(?); you'll find there probably more than you care to know. I'm
>>inclined to think that broad generalizations about homosexuality among
>>ancient Greeks should be avoided--but probably won't.
>
>The full reference is:
>
> K.J. Dover, _Greek Homosexuality_, Harvard University Press, 1989.
>
>
>Two points on the preceeding discussion (drawn from Dover):
>
>1] "Pedofilia", yes, but in the sense of an adult male with a "youth"; not
>in the modern sense of sex with children.
>
>2] Likewise Dover makes a strong case that while "pedofilia" (in the above
>sense) may have been relatively common, what we would think of as
>"homosexuality" --i.e. sexual relations between adult, co-equal males--
>seems to have been rather rare.
>
>Not necessarily explicitly condemned, rather there just seems to be little
>to no evidence --literary, artistic, epigraphic, etc-- for its common
>practice (in contrast to _much_ evidence for virtually all other imaginable
>pairings/groupings).

Among the papyri one finds reference to the practice under
discussion. In one marriage contract from 92 B.C., written in Greek,
keeping a boy (MHDE PALLAKHN MHDE PAIDIKON EXEIN, MHDE TEKNOPOIEISQAI EC
ALLHS GUNAIKOS) is classed, along with concubinage and having children by
another woman as a breaking of the marriage contract (_Select Papyri_, A. S.
Hunt and C. C. Edgar, eds., [Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard, 1932] vol. 1, 2:19,
20).

The New Testament, of course, taking pointers from the Old Testament
in its attitude toward aberrant sexual behavior, treats the practice of
homosexuality as sin.

David L. Moore Director
Miami, Florida, USA Department of Education
dvdmoore@ix.netcom.com Southeastern Spanish District
http://www.netcom.com/~dvdmoore of the Assemblies of God