. Contraception is not a “new problem”, it was around in the ancient world. They are mentioned in texts contemporary to the Bible, to say this was foreign to the ancient world is wrong.
Hippokratis the Greek father of ancient medicine in the 4th century B.C. was an expert on contraception as well. The Oath of Hippokratis forbade to perform abortions or to give abortive drugs (abortive potions) to women, but not so with contraception. Hippokratis and others knew many contraceptive drugs and used them in the antiquity.
Quote from
science.jrank.org/pages/1761/Contraception-An-ancient-interest.html :
Contraception - An Ancient Interest
A survey of early contraceptive methods reflects an odd combination of human knowledge and ignorance. Some methods sound absurd, such as the suggestion by the ancient Greek Dioscorides that wearing of cat testicles or asparagus would inhibit contraception. Yet some early methods used techniques still practiced today.
The Egyptian contraceptive tampon, described in the Ebers Papyrus of 1550 B.C., was made of lint and soaked in honey and tips from the acacia shrub. The acacia shrub contains gum arabic, the substance from which lactic acid is made, a spermicidal agent used in modern contraceptive jellies and creams.
Aristotle was one of many ancient Greeks to write about contraception. He advised women to use olive oil or cedar oil in the vagina, a method which helps inhibit contraception by slowing the movement of sperm. Other Greeks recommended the untrue contention that obesity was linked to reduced fertility.
Roman birth control practices varied from the use of woolen tampons to sterilization, which was typically performed on slaves. Another common ancient practice, still in use today, was the prolonged nursing of infants which makes conception less likely although still possible.
Ancient Asian cultures drew from a wide range of birth control methods. Women in China and Japan used bamboo tissue paper discs which had been oiled as barriers to the cervix. These were precursors of the modern diaphragm contraceptive device.
Read more: Contraception - An Ancient Interest - Contraceptive, Methods, Women, and Practice - JRank Articles
science.jrank.org/pages/1761/Contraception-An-ancient-interest.html#ixzz1hLJHMi4K
Quote from
socrates58.blogspot.com/2007/03/contraception-early-church-teaching.html :
There was no lack of birth control in the ancient world. I don’t think that there is any type of contraception known today that was not known in the ancient world: pharmacological, barrier (both chemical and mechanical), coitus interruptus, sodomy, sterilization, etc. For a brief introduction to the subject by the foremost historian of the subject, see John M. Riddle, et al., “Ever Since Eve . . .: Birth Control in the Ancient World”, Archaeology, March/April 1994, pp. 29-35. We really do underestimate the ingenuity of our ancestors. While in the past these were far from always effective or reliable, people kept trying. See John M. Riddle: Contraception and Abortion from the Ancient World to the Renaissance (1992), and Eve’s Herbs: A History of Contraception and Abortion in the West (1997).
For centuries, historians paid no attention to ancient accounts that claimed certain plants provided an effective means of birth control. . . . Modern laboratory analysis of various plants [including silphium, asafoetida, seeds of Queen Anne’s lace, pennyroyal, willow, date palm, pomegranate, inter al.], however, gives us reason to believe that the classical potions were effective, and that women in antiquity had more control over their reproductive lives than previously thought.
{Riddle, op. cit., p. 30}
Byzantine medical writers, esp. Paul of Aegina in the 7th C., transmitted the theories and techniques of contraception outlined by the 2nd-C. Gynaikeia of Soranos, which recommended vaginal wool suppositories and the application of olive oil, honey, cedar resin, alum, balsam gum, or white lead to prevent sperm from passing into the uterus. Paul, however, provided only one herbal contraception recipe, whereas Dioskorides had 20. In the 6th C. Aetios of Amida recommended magical protection such as wearing an amulet of cat’s liver or a womb of a lioness in an ivory tube.
{The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, ed. A.P. Kazhdan (Oxford, 1991, 3 vols.), s.v. “Contraception”}
Soranus of Ephesus, physician under Trajan and Hadrian (AD 98-138), studied at Alexandria and practised at Rome. He wrote around twenty books . . . [including] Gynaecology. The latter gives valuable information on gynaecology and obstetrics in the Roman Empire. . . . Although Galen was the more influential writer for gynaecology in the Latin west in late antiquity and the Middle Ages, sections of Soranus were translated into Latin and adapted for different audiences. In the Greek east, Soranus’ gynaecology survived in the work of the encyclopaedists.
{The Oxford Classical Dictionary, ed. S. Hornblower & A. Spawforth (3d ed., 1996), s.v. “Soranus”}
A contraceptive differs from an abortive, for the first does not let conception take place, while the latter destroys what has been conceived. Let us therefore call the one ‘abortive’ [phthorion] and the other ‘contraceptive’ [atokion].
{Soranos Eph., Gynaeciorum libri, 1.60}
Folks, please go to the website given above to read William Klimon’s article, with much more details on ancient contraception methods (let’s not underestimate ancient science and medicine!!!) and the Early Church Fathers’ condemnation of contraceptive methods and practices.
). Cutting off the penis was very rare. The Fathers (such as St. Clement of Rome and St. Irenaeus) were clear that Gnostics were sexually promiscuous. So it was not that sex was evil that was the defining characteristic of Gnosticism (as far as this topic is concerned anyway), but their opposition to conception itself.
And the quotations were not provided by me, but by L Piperatus in his post #180 on page 12. However, I’m very glad to make use of them. 
