Making sense of sex : attitudes towards sexuality in early Jewish and Christian literature / William Loader.

Grand Rapids, Michigan : William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2013.

vii, 168 pages ; 24 cm

Companion to: Loader, William. Attitudes towards sexuality in Judaism and Christianity in the Hellenistic Greco-Roman era. (Grand Rapids, Michigan : Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2007-2012).

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

1. In the beginning -- In the beginning according to Genesis 1 -- In the beginning according to Genesis 2 -- In the beginning according to Aristophanes in Plato's Symposium -- Sexual union and social reality -- Change for the worse -- Retelling the creation story in the Book of Jubilees -- Becoming one flesh -- Becoming one flesh in Jesus and Paul -- The creation stories in Greek -- Interpreting the Greek text -- The myth of the watchers and the beginning of evil -- The watcher myth in later literature -- In the beginning? -- 2. Households -- Households and livelihood -- Marriages and households -- Arranging marriages -- Limitations -- Marrying -- Before marriage -- Sex and the household -- Polygyny -- Inheritance -- Incest -- Love and marriage -- Conception and pregnancy -- Public affairs of the household -- Adultery and forbidden liaisons -- Adultery and divorce -- 3. Sacred space -- Dealing with impurity -- Purity and the Temple -- Against intermarriage with foreigners -- For intermarriage with foreigners -- Holiness beyond the Temple and sexual abstinence -- Sex and the future -- Celibacy now and then -- 4. Passions and persons -- Living in the Hellenistic world -- Finding common ground -- Managing sexual passion -- Prostitution -- Confronting the dangers -- Merging Greek and Jewish wisdom on the passions -- Out of control -- Eunuchs -- The flesh -- Celebrating sexuality -- Attacking perversion.