virginity

virginity denotes the state of a person who has not taken part in sexual intercourse. In women, this is ascertained by the physical integrity of the hymen. In many cultures, this plays a central role as a prerequisite for marriage. Prior to genetic testing, only the bride's unbroken hymen could ascertain the husband's paternity, and hence continuity of the family line. Probably as a psychological result of this biological fact, both temporary sexual abstinence and permanent virginity play a fundamental role in most world religions. Virginity represented avoidance of ritual pollution through sexual intercourse and thus was seen as a magic power bestowed upon men and especially women, which predisposed such virgins for specific magic and religious activities. As far as Europe and the Mediterranean world are concerned, permanent virginity, in contrast to temporary abstinence, became a central religious theme only with the rise of Christianity.

Prior to Christianity, virginity was a characteristic of female deities engaged in hunting and fishing, and worshipped as protectors of forests and wildlife. Examples are the Greco-Roman nymphs and the goddess Artemis/Diana, but also Athena/Minerva, the virginal goddess of warfare, early on depicted as the ‘goddess of the animals’. Some Near-Eastern mythologies considered virginity a state of primordial innocence terminated by the first sexual experience, which resulted in a fall from grace and a discovery of shameful nakedness. The earliest example is the Gilgamesh epic, a Mesopotamian text as old as c.2000 bce, which narrates the expulsion of its ‘hunter-hero’ from the forest. The old Testament book of Genesis is a parallel text, where, it has been argued, the eating of the fruit of knowledge symbolically represents the loss of virginity, and results in expulsion from the ‘wilderness of paradise’. Absence of sexual pollution and the resulting magic powers often made virginity a prerequisite for female priesthood. Virgin priestesses were engaged in maintaining fires, easily prone to ‘pollution’ (the Vestal virgins in Rome, and the virgins in Icelandic lore); functioned as prophetesses (Pythia of Delphi, the Sybills in Rome); or performed acts of magic. Occasionally, virgins were sacrificed as especially potent offerings (seven male and seven female virgins to the Cretan Minotaur, Iphigenia). Male virginity was associated with absence (congenital eunuchs) or removal of the testicles (castration), and was also a prerequisite for certain cultic functions. In the Greek world, eunuch-priests served the goddess Artemis of Ephesos, and castrated priests were central to the worship of the Syrian goddess Atagarte as well as to the cult of Cybele and Attis in Asia Minor.

In the history of Israel virginity was always necessary for marriage, but did not appear as a religious theme prior to 200 bce. Only then, during the so-called apocalyptic period of external pressures, did certain Jewish sects praise virginity as a means to preserve the cohesiveness of their community (Essenes, Qumran). At the same time, those who were ‘virgins’ by default — eunuchs and sterile men — or chose to remain chaste, gained acceptance, and were increasingly seen as capable of direct communion with the divine, provided they lived according to the Law.

In Christianity perpetual virginity as a conscious choice of lifestyle, permitting a layperson's complete devotion to God, became a central theme. This notion was present from the beginning. We find it in the Gospels and Paul's writings, but it took several hundred years for the concept of virginity as a form of religious life to develop fully, and equally long to find agreement on ways to practice such a life. One impetus for the later importance of a virginal life was the celibacy of Jesus. Though the Gospels do not discuss his marital status, the life that Jesus led, as an itinerant preacher who moved about announcing the imminent coming of the kingdom of God, implies the absence of a wife and children. Furthermore, certain Gospel passages, especially a controversial saying of Jesus recorded in Matthew 19: 10–12, which mentions those who castrate themselves for the kingdom of heaven, and Luke's references to the virginity of Mary (virgin birth), suggest that virginity formed part of the eschatological message of Jesus, the way his teaching relates to the imminent end of the world. Unmarried people increasingly tolerated in the Jewish context of Jesus, were commonplace in the Greco-Roman world of Paul. Stoic philosophy had long since questioned whether or not the truly wise should be married, arguing that marriage was useful but distracting, since it impedes the emotional detachment necessary to serve the Divine truly. Paul takes a similar line in his first Letter to the Corinthians, a text that became fundamental to later Christian developments. What distinguishes Paul's argument from the Stoics or Jewish apocalyptic thinkers is his emphasis: virginity permits complete dedication to the service of God, not only for reasons of ritual purity and emotional detachment, but as a loving gift ‘pleasing the Lord’.

Thus, the itinerant lifestyle of Jesus and the apostles merged with Stoic notions to form the basis of a celibate Christian life, which already had a significant following by the second and third centuries ce. In the fourth century, after Constantine had recognized Christianity as a legitimate religion, virginity as a permanent state gained additional popularity because it replaced martyrdom (persecutions had ceased) as a means of gaining a specially revered status within the Christian community. Increasingly, men and women demonstrated their choice to remain virgins dedicated to God not only by remaining unmarried, but also by leaving their families, villages and cities either to roam about as itinerants or to live as desert-dwellers. Both options, that of the wanderer as well as that of the desert-dweller, gave rise to what we now know as monasticism. By the sixth century ce, priests in Western Christianity were expected to be virgins. In the Eastern Church, virginity remains a special choice for monks and nuns, but is not required of priests below the rank of a bishop.

Susanna Elm

Bibliography

Brown, P. (1988). The body and society. Men, women and sexual renunciation in early Christianity. Columbia, University Press, New York.
Rouselle, A. (1988). On desire and the body in antiquity. Blackwell, Oxford.

See also asceticism; chastity; flesh.