Often, when a bible believer is against contraception, they reference verses like 1 Tim 2:15 and Gen 38:9-Often, when a Bible believer is against contraception, they reference verses like 1 Tim 2:15 and Gen 38:9-10, but those verses are out of context. One talks about wives and their husbands, and the other is about a guy who hated his brother. The Bible doesn’t speak on contraception, thus no one can claim it a sin or not a sin.
1 Tim 2:13 (NLT) For Adam was first formed, then Eve. 14 And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression. 15 Nevertheless she will be saved in childbearing if they continue in faith, love, and holiness, with self-control.
1 Timothy 2:15 has a larger cultural context at play, and Paul appeals to women to adhere to cultural norms, such as head covering, and not usurp authority, which would disparage the church in the eyes of the community. Paul does the same with Christian slaves (Eph 6:5-9, Col 3:22-25), telling them not to participate in slave revolts because he doesn’t want Christianity associated with revolts so that Gentiles won’t see them as terrorists. However, he does encourage them to buy their freedom if they get the chance (1 Cor 7:21-24). 1 Tim 2:15 refers to the story of Adam and Eve because, like Eve, some women in the church of Ephesus were deceived by false teachers. The man (Adam) was made first and is supposed to instruct the woman (Eve) properly; however, when Satan deceives them, the order of everything is out of sync. Paul wants them to submit to the proper teachings of righteous leadership (like Timothy). This was said because some false teachers (Hymenaeus and Alexander) were teaching corrupt theology, which was corrupting the church. There were issues with women who were members of the Cult of Artemis bringing pagan asecticism into the church, as well as wealthy widows who were using their influence to usurp authority and look down on others. They even took advantage of the charity for widows, despite their wealth. Furthermore, they engaged in gossip and meddling in people’s affairs (1 Tim. 5:11-15).
The statement about childbearing refers to two things. One is that it is a reference to 1 Timothy 4:1-4, where Paul critiques some false teachings that suggest things like eating meat, getting married, and having children weaken a person’s spirituality. This could have been influenced by the Artemis cult in Ephesus or by Jews with gnostic views that took Old Testament ritual purity laws about menstruation and sex out of context. In this case, Paul is arguing against pagan philosophies by saying it is okay to be married and have children; women do not lose the Holy Spirit by engaging in these activities, as some were suggesting. The other reference is to the larger promise of salvation through a child born from a woman in Genesis 3:15-16.
Gen 3:15 says the “woman’s seed” will bruise the serpent’s head (Gen 3:15). Eve’s “seed” was Jesus the Messiah, who would bruise the serpent’s (Satan’s) head. Furthermore, Gen 3:16 is the initiation of difficulty in conception (infertility and miscarriages) as a consequence of Eve’s sin. This deception in the garden was by Satan, and Paul is comparing the deception of Eve by Satan to the deception of the Ephesian women by the heretics. In the Greek version of 1 Tim 3:15, it says sōthēsetai (σωθήσεται), which directly translates to “She will be saved.” However, in some English translations, it is rendered as “women will be saved.” The “she” Paul is referring to is Eve herself because it is to her that the promised descendant (Jesus), who will defeat the serpent (Satan), will come. Therefore, this does not imply that women are “saved” by childbearing. If that were true, then women don’t need Jesus; they just need to get pregnant. People are saved by believing in Jesus, not by making babies.
With that being said, is it a sin not to make babies? In the New Covenant, marriage is not a requirement, as we don’t create new kingdom members by having children, but by sharing the gospel. Jesus confirmed the option of being a eunuch in Matt 19:11-12 when talking about people made eunuchs (castrated by others), born eunuchs (asexual or intersex), or made themselves eunuchs (either through castration or will-powered celibacy) for the Kingdom. Jesus said all this in a culture where being unmarried was frowned upon (amongst Jews) and even illegal according to Roman Law (Lex Papia Poppaea). Paul was celibate and even encouraged being celibate in his letter to the Corinthians when talking about marriage (1 Corinthians 7:25-40). However, he never required it and even suggested getting married if a person can’t control their sexual desires. He recommends celibacy so that Christians can focus on the work of the Kingdom, as single people can concentrate on the Lord’s work without the distractions of familial obligations.
In the Old Covenant, it was expected that everyone get married because of the command to be fruitful and multiply in Gen 1:28 and Gen 9:1. Castration (or injury to male genitals) is recognized as uncleanness that got a person cut off from the community Deut 23:1. However, the Torah never outright states that a person has to have children to be righteous. Some women were barren, and some people died before having children, so obviously, that was not a command. However, Jews of that time would have frowned upon such a thing because, culturally, they believed it was wrong to stay childless if you were physically capable of having them. In the Old Covenant, the Israelites had a different obligation: they were to inherit the land and preserve the bloodline until the Messiah came, because through Abraham’s seed, all nations would be blessed (Gen 12:1-3). So it makes sense that they should make babies. However, we don’t have to make physical babies in the New Covenant to get more people into the Kingdom. We are to teach all nations (Matt 18:28) so they can be BORN AGAIN, the spiritual birth necessary to be a citizen in the Kingdom (John 3:1-8). Eunuchs can make more covenant people by preaching the gospel than Jews (or anyone else) can reproduce.
On to Genesis 38:
Gen 38:6 In the course of time, Judah arranged for his firstborn son, Er, to marry a young woman named Tamar. 7 But Er was a wicked man in the Lord’s sight, so the Lord took his life. 8 Then Judah said to Er’s brother Onan, “Go and marry Tamar, as our law requires of the brother of a man who has died. You must produce an heir for your brother.” 9 But Onan was not willing to have a child who would not be his own heir. So whenever he had intercourse with his brother’s wife, he spilled the semen on the ground. This prevented her from having a child who would belong to his brother. 10 But the Lord considered it evil for Onan to deny a child to his dead brother. So the Lord took Onan’s life, too.
Genesis 38:9-10 is often used out of context in various ways. It is used to call out both contraception and masturbation. In Gen 38:6-10, Judah’s eldest son, Er, gets married and dies. Then Judah asked his brother Onan to marry her so that they could produce an heir for his brother. Onan did not want to do it, but he was pressured into this “levirate marriage,” a custom in which a widow marries a male relative of her deceased husband to produce an heir for him. Out of spite for his brother, he “pulled out” of Tamar when having sex with her and spilled the semen. He ended up dying as well, and Judah promised Tamar his youngest son, Shelah, although he later neglected her by ignoring the promise he had made. She prostituted herself to him in disguise and got pregnant. Judah tried to have her killed for adultery to get rid of his obligation to marry her to his son, but she had proof that he was the one who got pregnant since she kept his walking stick, along with his identification seal as collateral. He acknowledged that he deserved to be tricked because he abandoned his obligation to arrange the marriage to his youngest son, so he married her himself after getting her pregnant.
The text makes it clear that both sons were killed as judgments by God because of their wickedness. We don’t know precisely what Er did, but I deduce that he mistreated his brother, Onan, in some way, and Onan hated him because of it. Often, people suggest that Onan died because he “pulled out” during sex and even go as far as to say this was masturbation. First of all, it can’t be masturbation if he is having sex with a woman; that doesn’t make any sense. We can look at Bible verses about sexual sin in the heart, like in Matt 5:27-29 and “sinning against your own body” like 1 Cor 6:18, for a reference to masturbation being a sexual sin. However, there is no literal act of masturbation recorded in the Bible. Back on the topic, did he die for pulling out? It clearly states in verse 9 that Onan’s motives were that he hated his brother, and he did it so that his brother wouldn’t have any heirs. Then, verse 10 confirms the reasoning behind God’s punishment.
Onan was in a particular kind of marriage that he did not want to enter, but was pressured into. Levirate marriage is a type of marriage in which a deceased man’s brother (or male relative) marries his brother’s widow. Jews and various other cultures and tribes throughout Eurasia and Africa practiced this. In a levirate marriage, the firstborn of the marriage belongs to the deceased brother. This is done so that the deceased man can have heirs to inherit his land. That way, the land stayed in the family.
In Deut 25:5-10, we get a definition of levirate marriage in ancient Israel.
Deut 25:5 “If two brothers are living together on the same property and one of them dies without a son, his widow may not be married to anyone from outside the family. Instead, her husband’s brother should marry her and have intercourse with her to fulfill the duties of a brother-in-law. 6 The first son she bears to him will be considered the son of the dead brother, so that his name will not be forgotten in Israel. 7 “But if the man refuses to marry his brother’s widow, she must go to the town gate and say to the elders assembled there, ‘My husband’s brother refuses to preserve his brother’s name in Israel—he refuses to fulfill the duties of a brother-in-law by marrying me.’ 8 The elders of the town will then summon him and talk with him. If he still refuses and says, ‘I don’t want to marry her,’ 9 the widow must walk over to him in the presence of the elders, pull his sandal from his foot, and spit in his face. Then she must declare, ‘This is what happens to a man who refuses to provide his brother with children.’ 10 Ever afterward in Israel his family will be referred to as ‘the family of the man whose sandal was pulled off’!
In verses 5-6, it is stated that the woman is to marry the brother of the deceased, and the firstborn son of the union would belong to the deceased as an heir. Side note: If he didn’t have a brother, then the book of Ruth reveals that she is to marry the closest male relative (Ruth 2:20 and Ruth 3:10-13). It clearly shows in verses 7-10 that the man can refuse the levirate marriage. When a man does so, he is subject to public humiliation, NOT DEATH. Even though this event is recorded in Genesis and takes place before the Mosaic law, Onan has the right to say no. Mosaic law was more strict on marriage and other rules than the moral laws of the Genesis era applied to Noah’s descendants (everyone), so if a man can say no under the Mosaic law, then he can say no in the Noahide Law. In Ruth 3:12, Boaz reveals that he is not the family redeemer and that there is another who holds this role. In chapter 4, he consults with the other man and says that if he wants the land that would have generally gone to the offspring of Ruth’s late husband, Mahlon, he would have to marry Ruth, Mahlon’s widow. The man said no and willingly passed those rights on to Boaz. Since the levirate marriage practice is from before the time of Moses, it was not uniquely an Israelite practice. That means it wasn’t explicitly a command from God but rather a cultural practice that functioned to preserve family inheritance and tribal land allotments, which could explain why it is voluntary. God allowed the Israelites to do this to preserve their permanent allotments (Lev 25:23) when they took the Land of Canaan.
Therefore, Onan’s death resulted from his breaking the special covenant of the levirate marriage out of spite for his older brother, Er, by refusing to give him an heir. The text does not indicate that he didn’t want children of his own; it simply states that he didn’t want the firstborn to be his brother’s heir. This implies it wouldn’t have been a problem if he had his own wife. This has NOTHING to do with contraception (or masturbation).
Resources:
Greek lexicon on 1 Tim 2:15