# Stupid Bible Question: Is Virginity Required? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 16, 2003, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-bible-question-is-virginity-required/195657 "2003-08-16T22:58:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2003, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-bible-question-is-virginity-required/195657/1 "2003-08-16T22:58:39Z")
Ok,ok! So I slept through all those years of Bible study! But seriously, can the SDopers tell me where the Bible says you should remain a virgin until being married? Or, is this simply some noble opinion from darker ages to avoid bringing shame unto her family? If the latter, what is the origin of this stigma? (When answering, it would help me if you could please specify if you’re citing a passage from the Old or New Testament.) Maybe I’m naive? But, the Boards are a great chance to ask everything I wanted to know but was afraid to ask… - Jinx 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2003, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-bible-question-is-virginity-required/195657/2 "2003-08-16T23:18:53Z")
AFAIK, the Bible says no such thing. But the question is, what did God endow humans with sexuality for? (I presume in response to this sort of question, the presumption of a God who gives laws, and specifically the one of the Bible, is a reasonable axiom.) And the general answer is that it was for two or three purposes: procreation, of course, and _oneness_. I think it’s a reasonable assumption that having a father present and active in a child’s life, in addition to a mother, is a good thing. Unrestricted sex without contraception (which has only been something one can be confident of within the lifetimes of about half the adults on this board) results in children with no committed father present and intimately connected with them. And, for Christians, Paul gets positively lyrical on the idea that when you make the two-backed beast, you’re not just getting metaphorical – there’s a real, if mystical, bond between the participants in intercourse. Logical conclusion is that the God-given purpose of sex is best achieved within marriage. Since we’re supposed to give God our best efforts, anything else is by definition sin. Remember that for the majority of the time this rule held sway, there was only a year or two between completing puberty and arriving at marriageable age – time enough for courtship and arriving at conclusions as to what you wanted in a spouse, but not an interminable period of adolescent frustration. That’s mostly a Victorian addendum to the basic Christian concept. (It would be helpful if a Jew could speak to this issue on the basis of the Jewish understanding, which I don’t believe myself competent to express.) ---
**Author:** ![Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Speaker_for_the_Dead)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2003, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-bible-question-is-virginity-required/195657/3 "2003-08-16T23:20:54Z")
Jesus also says that lusting after a woman you’re not married to (let alone forking her) is adultery, so at the very least, you’re sinning in that respect, even if there’s no specific “until marriage” clause. ---
**Author:** ![jiHymas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/439d5e/32.png) [@jiHymas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jiHymas)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2003, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-bible-question-is-virginity-required/195657/4 "2003-08-17T01:22:03Z")
> [@](#): > > _1 Corinthians 6:9 - New World Translation_ > **…Do not be misled. Neither fornicators … nor adulterers … will inherit God’s kingdom** > [@](#): > > _1 Corinthians 6:18 - New World Translation_ > **Flee from fornication. Every other sin that a man may commit is outside his body, but he that practices fornication is sinning against his own body** > [@](#): > > _1 Corinthians 7:8 & 7:9 - New World Translation_ > **Now I say to the unmarried persons and the widows, it is well for them that they remain even as I am. But if they do not have self-control, let them marry, for it is better to marry than to be inflamed [with passion]** ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2003, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-bible-question-is-virginity-required/195657/5 "2003-08-17T03:15:09Z")
…presuming that you equate any premarital sex with the fornication of which Paul warns. I’m not prepred to argue that one way or the other. (Do not prsume to quote the dictionary on the definition of “fornication,” unless you have proof that Paul had a Merriam-Webster handy to check words as he was writing.) ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2003, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-bible-question-is-virginity-required/195657/6 "2003-08-17T03:55:58Z")
I’d imagine in an ancient society that lacked effective means of birth control, yet where “illegitimate” births were still a severe taboo, a “no sex before marriage” rule would be pretty sure to pop up. ---
**Author:** ![jiHymas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/439d5e/32.png) [@jiHymas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jiHymas)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2003, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-bible-question-is-virginity-required/195657/7 "2003-08-17T03:59:26Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by polycarp_ > **…presuming that you equate any premarital sex with the fornication of which Paul warns.** I’m hardly a Bible Scholar. But: > [@](#): > > _B. F. Westcott, Saint Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians, cited by The New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures_ > **This [_the Greek word porneia_] is a general term for all unlawful intercourse, (1) Adultery Hos. ii. 2, 4 (LXX); Matt. v. 32; XIX. 9; (2) unlawful marriage, I Cor. v. I; (3) fornication, the common sense as here [Eph. 5:3]." … NWTHS editor’s note adds that "By the ‘common sense’ evidently reference is made to the modern, limited, sense involving only unmarried persons** The NWTHS, by the way, is the edition used by the Jehovah’s Witnesses - or was 15 years ago, anyway, when I bought my copy from the guy living downstairs. It’s quite good … a reasonably good index and a few appendices. Next time they knock on your door, make their day and ask them to sell you a Bible! ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2003, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-bible-question-is-virginity-required/195657/8 "2003-08-17T06:11:06Z")
Interesting. Westcott is a classic scholar, less than respected by modern scholarshp, but not without influence still. (He was not a JW.) My understanding of _porneia_ was “sex for thrills,” one-night stands and the like, as opposed to sex between people in a relationship. (Following the law of some states, the dictionary does define it as any sex by unmarried persons – but that’s derivative of a traditional interpretation of Paul’s meaning, rather than the other way around. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2003, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-bible-question-is-virginity-required/195657/9 "2003-08-17T12:56:08Z")
You can have sex with her, but then you’ve got to marry her: From Exodus 22:15-16 If a man seduces a virgin who is not betrothed, he must pay a dowry and must marry her. If her father refuses to allow him to marry her, then he must pay [the father] the usual dowry money for virgins Of course, if she’s already married or betrothed and you have sex with her, you’re both, if you’ll excuse the pun, screwed. ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2003, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-bible-question-is-virginity-required/195657/10 "2003-08-17T14:11:20Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Polycarp \* > \*\*(Do not presume to quote the dictionary on the definition of “fornication,” unleess you have proof that Paul had a Merriam-Webster handy to check words as he was writing.) \*\* When completed, this [Sumerian Dictionary](http://www.upenn.edu/researchatpenn/article.php?555&soc) will date to roughly 2,700 B.C.E. I’ve been searching, and cannot find a confirmed dictionary that predates this one that has been compiled with any kind of scientific and historical rigor. Assuming that we all believe in the calendar currently in use ( opposed to the Jewish Calendar, which makes today Sun, 17 August 2003 - 19th of Av, 5763 ), then this Sumerian calendar predates the Crucifixion by roughly 2,734 years. Give or take a month. 🙂 Paul may not have had a Mirriam-Webster, but it is undoubtedly true that formal language predated the writing of Paul. He could have well consulted a current dictionary (_sic_). Cartooniverse ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2003, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-bible-question-is-virginity-required/195657/11 "2003-08-17T14:32:21Z")
[_Crepidula fornicata_](http://www.marlin.ac.uk/index2.htm?species/Crefor.htm) [_Pleurothallis fornicata_](http://www.pleurothallids.com/pleurothallis_fornicata.htm) [_Hygrocybe fornicata_](http://w1.930.telia.com/~u93004798/PAGES_DH/Hygrocybe_fornicata.html) Lot o’ fornicatin’ going on in God’s creation! 🙂