Is masturbation a sin? Will it send me to hell?

[Whyayeman]

The passage I speak of is Lev. 15:16-17. However, to fully understand it, we really should look at verses 16-19 (and the following verses too, if you want). Here is the passage:

16 ‘Now if a man has a seminal emission, he shall bathe all his body in water and be unclean until evening. 17 As for any garment or any leather on which there is seminal emission, it shall be washed with water and be unclean until evening.

There it is. Masturbation in the Bible.

My Bible has the verse as 'seed from copulation'. Not masturbation.

I am continually bemused at translations of the Bible that are at odds with mine. (King James. The authorised Version.)

 

[Aryeh Jay]

My Bible has the verse as 'seed from copulation'. Not masturbation.

I am continually bemused at translations of the Bible that are at odds with mine. (King James. The authorised Version.)

Back when I cared about such things, I was bemused when everyone else was using translations and I would find all of the at odds with the Hebrew.

 

[MyChainsAreGone]

My Bible has the verse as 'seed from copulation'. Not masturbation.

I am continually bemused at translations of the Bible that are at odds with mine. (King James. The authorised Version.)

The bible (and likely the Hebrew language of that time) has no word for "masturbation."

My point is this... the passage clearly speaks of a man in a bed by himself... and he has an emission of sperm. KJV or any other translation, that's what it means.

But the Bible doesn't tell us how that emission happened or what brought it on. Evidently, it's immaterial! Whether it was by accident, during a dream, of by the man's own hand, the instructions of the passage still apply!!

It would have been really easy for God to specify what mechanism he was talking about that brought on the "emission"... and he could have strictly forbidden the intentional manual act to bring about the emission... but he didn't!

So... Here's a text that addressed masturbation--and any other way that might result in a seminal emission--and he gives clean-up instructions!

Wow! Huge opportunity to forbid masturbation and God just chooses to say, "clean up your mess." and "You'll be ceremonially unclean for the day..."

Consequently, we should NOT act like God just "forgot" to include instructions forbidding masturbation.

 

[Whyayeman]

My point is this... the passage clearly speaks of a man in a bed by himself... and he has an emission of sperm. KJV or any other translation, that's what it means.

Well the first fifteen verses are not about 'seed' at all; they are about 'running issue'. Pus. And cleanliness culminating in the sacrifice of two pigeons. Verses 15-18 are about a man and 'the woman also'.

It is all silly anyway in today's relatively hygienic world. Let us not get in a sweat about stuff that doesn't matter.

(I don't believe the Hebrews had no word for masturbation!)