Bizzlebin said:
Thanks, that helps a lot. Any patristic quotes on the matter?
There are many, many, many of them, especially in St. John Chrysostom's
On Virginity. Here are two relevant quotes that I happen to have readily at hand since someone else quoted them in a recent post on the Indiana list.
The first is from St. John Chrysostom's homily on Genesis 4:1 ("Now Adam knew his wife, and she conceived"). Notice how he assumes "living like angels" means no cohabitation, i.e. conjugal activities.
After the disobedience, after the banishment from Paradise, then it was that married life began. Before the
disobedience, the first people lived like angels, and there was no talk of cohabitation. And how could this be, when they were free of
bodily needs? Thus, in the beginning life was virginal; but, when, because of the carelessness (of the first people), disobedience
appeared and sin entered the world, virginity fled away from them, since they had become unworthy of such a great good, and in its place there entered into effect the law of married life.
Thus, we have a perfect symmetry: The Edenic man existed without conjugal relations and was therefore "like the angels," and so too shall the heavenly, transfigured man. This is the standard Patristic interpretation of Genesis, most especially after Chrysostom, who emphasized these things quite strongly in a number of homilies and tracts. Of course, this doesn't quite make sense
prima facie, according to the text of Genesis, which obviously speaks of sexual differentiation before the fall and even records God's pre-fall command to be fruitful and multiple. Nevertheless, the Fathers quickly dealt with such objections, as we see, for example, in St John Damascene's
Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith 4, 24:
In Paradise virginity held sway. Indeed, Divine Scripture tells that both Adam and Eve were naked and were not ashamed. But after their transgression they knew that they were naked, and in their shame they sewed aprons for themselves. And when, after the transgression, Adam heard, dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return, when death entered into the world by reason of the transgression, then Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bare seed. So that to prevent the wearing out and destruction of the race by death, marriage was devised that the race of men may be preserved through the procreation of children.
But they will perhaps ask, what then is the meaning of "male and female," and "Be fruitful and multiply?" In answer we shall say that "Be fruitful and multiply" does not altogether refer to the multiplying by the marriage connection. For God had power to multiply the race also in different ways, if they kept the precept unbroken to the end. But God, Who knoweth all things before they have existence, knowing in His foreknowledge that they would fall into transgression in the future and be condemned to death, anticipated this and made "male and female," and bade them "be fruitful and multiply." Let us, then, proceed on our way and see the glories of virginity: and this also includes chastity.
http://www.balamand.edu.lb/theology/book_iv.htm
This may be one of the major ways in which Christian praxis (and, hence, theology) differs greatly from its Judaic roots. Aside from certain well-known exceptions (the Essenes), Judaism evinces a standard Ancient Near Eastern understanding of marriage, procreation and women. The Patristic sources, however, reinterpret the ideal woman as a sort of virginal, ascetical philosopher queen (e.g. St. Gregory of Nyssa's
Life of Macrina). And we all know what the Fathers have to say about monastic vs. married life.
