Why was Onan slayed?

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anhphan

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How do we understand the Bible verse Genesis 38:8-10?
Could Onan get to the heaven?
And why shouldn’t we use onanism for contraception?
 
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Coitus interruptus despite a clear command to carry on his kin’s lineage.

In those days and place, the lineage was very important to carry on in the honor/shame dichotomy.

People probably have used it against contraception, but I don’t find it that swaying of an argument given the other factors involved. Rather natural law and Church declaration should make it clear.
 
anhphan said:
How do we understand the Bible verse Genesis 38:8-10?
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In those days, if your older brother died and he and his wife were childless, it meant that she would become destitute. (After all, she would not have a son to care for her.) So, in order to preserve your older brother’s lineage and to ensure that his wife would have someone to care for her, the next oldest son had to ensure that his sister-in-law would give birth to a child.

Onan, recognizing that any child she had wouldn’t be his, knew he wouldn’t see any benefit from getting her pregnant. (In fact, it could hurt his inheritance.) So, he didn’t really want to fulfill his obligation.

However, rather than just saying ‘no’, he actually had sex with her, but in a way that made it impossible for her to conceive. Think about it for a second: he actually had the gall to lay with his sister-in-law, but not for the reason of giving her a child!

That’s the sin of Onan: using sex purely for pleasure, and not for the possibility of conception.
Could Onan get to the heaven?
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Just like any of us, if he repented before dying, then yes.
And why shouldn’t we use onanism for contraception?
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Well, first off, I hope there aren’t any brothers-in-law having sex with their widowed sisters-in-law. 😮

Secondly, though, the answer is “because we see why it was wrong for him, and for the same reason, it’s wrong for us to do.”
 
anhphan said:
How do we understand the Bible verse Genesis 38:8-10?
Could Onan get to the heaven?
And why shouldn’t we use onanism for contraception?
Click to expand...
Pope Pius XII, Casti Cannubii:
55. Small wonder, therefore, if Holy Writ bears witness that the Divine Majesty regards with greatest detestation this horrible crime and at times has punished it with death. As St. Augustine notes, “Intercourse even with one’s legitimate wife is unlawful and wicked where the conception of the offspring is prevented. Onan, the son of Juda, did this and the Lord killed him for it.”[45]
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https://w2.vatican.va/content/pius-...ents/hf_p-xi_enc_19301231_casti-connubii.html
 
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If think you’re confusing the with Marian the Librarian…

 
Kei said:
In those days and place, the lineage was very important to carry on in the honor/shame dichotomy.

People probably have used it against contraception, but I don’t find it that swaying of an argument given the other factors involved. Rather natural law and Church declaration should make it clear.
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I think the key fact that ties this incident to contraception is that the usual punishment for not giving your brother’s widow children was public humiliation, not death (see Deut. 25:7-10). It follows then that the means Onan used is what led to his being punished with death instead.
 
Onan was struck down for disobedience to the law… which was to give a woman other than his wife a child… he refused.

Many mistakenly link Onan’s sin to masturbation
 
Read my post again and the cited verses. The punishment in the law for disobeying that law was public humiliation, not death. And yet, he was killed. So there must have been more to his sin than just disobeying that particular law.
 
Everyone seems to know that name, though his name is only mentioned briefly. Some say woman - is like the altar - without question - God, very much, dislikes that way, of doing things. Oman was made a biblical example to all generations forthwith.
 
Arguments against that are
  1. The law in Deuteromy had not been given yet
  2. Onan did not refuse to marry Tamar, which is the scenario in Deuteromy. He acted like he was going to do his duty and refused.
 
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