William R G Loader FAHA

I grew up in Auckland, New Zealand. My first engagement with the New Testament came as I attended Sunday School at the Sandringham Methodist Church. Sunday School was the name given to classes given to children, where they were taught Bible stories and nurtured in the Christian faith. Perhaps the earliest memories are of Old Testament stories, such as the heroics of David, but there were also stories of Jesus, such as his welcoming children, and, of course, the Christmas stories which surrounded the summer holiday period, as it was in the southern hemisphere. More earnest young teachers at the Bible Institute, put on placement at our church, introduced me as a teenager to the challenges of evangelism and “decision”-making. Their approach to the Bible was fundamentalist, the infallible Word of God, and by thirteen I was set upon a path taking my faith, that version of it, very seriously…

This piece examines references to sexuality in the diverse writings of the Apocrypha. It uses the term “sexuality” broadly to encompass matters pertaining to sexuality, rather than in the more confined sense that is found in discussions of sexual orientation and sexual theory. It will therefore consider a range of ways in which sexual drive or desire finds expression in various contexts, from marriage to sex work, same-sex relations to celibacy, and beyond. It will do so by examining such references in the particular context of the writings being considered and in the light of the broader social context. It discusses each writing or set of writing in turn: 1 Esdras, Baruch, Judith, the Books of the Maccabees, 2 Esdras, Ben Sira/Sirach, Tobit, Wisdom of Solomon, Susanna, the Additions to Esther, and the Letter of Jeremiah. There are sexual elements common to many of these works: male stereotypes about women in their sexuality as dangerous, associated with mockery of men who lose control to women; male predatory behavior; rape and sexual violence in war; linkage of idolatry to profligate sexuality; gender role reversals, which as exceptions confirm the norms; affirmation of sexual attractiveness when not abused and of (arranged) marriage and the processes of procreation and nurture; and disapprovals of sex work and marriage to foreigners or exogamy.