"Pulling out" method

[mark_a]

I feel bad for Onan. He didn’t want to have sex with his sister-in-law to produce offspring for his dead brother, so God killed him.

I don’t think it was the spilling of the seed, per se, that God was angry about.

It was his refusal to father a child with his dead brother’s wife, as he was ordered to do.

Can you show us where this was ever taught by any Christian community before say 1950?

 

[EasterJoy]

I feel bad for Onan. He didn’t want to have sex with his sister-in-law to produce offspring for his dead brother, so God killed him.

I don’t think it was the spilling of the seed, per se, that God was angry about.

It was his refusal to father a child with his dead brother’s wife, as he was ordered to do.

But perhaps he felt it was unethical to have sex with his dead brother’s wife.

.

To the best of my knowledge, there is no evidence in Holy Scriptures itself, nor in Jewish commentaries, that Onan thought marrying his dead brother’s wife was unethical. This is what Holy Scriptures actually say about his motives:

*Then Judah said to Onan, “Unite with your brother’s widow, in fulfillment of your duty as brother-in-law, and thus preserve your brother’s line.” Onan, however, knew that the descendants would not be counted as his; so whenever he had relations with his brother’s widow, he wasted his seed on the ground, to avoid contributing offspring for his brother. What he did greatly offended the LORD, and the LORD took his life too. * Gen. 38:7-10

Note that it strains belief that someone who thought it unethical to get his brother’s wife pregnant* would find it ethical to have sexual relations with her*. His relations with her were entirely selfish, as was his decision to use the withdrawal method as birth control. Likewise, masturbation is entirely self-centered.