Journal for the studyof the Pseudepigrapha

Vol 24.1 (2014): 43-67

© The Author(s), 2014. Reprints and Permissions:
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DOI: 10.1177/0951820714558755
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Sexuality and Eschatology:

In Search of a Celibate Utopia in
Pseudepigraphic Literature

W ILLIAM LOADER

52 The Circle, Warwick WA 6024, Australia

Abstract

This article investigates the possible backgrounds in Jewish pseudepigraphical

literature of the notion expressed in Mk 12.25 that the age of resurrection life will be
without sexual relations. It identifies the potential for such a view to develop on the
basis of presuppositions present in Jubilees of paradise as a temple, then turns to a
discussion of depictions of resurrected life in Jewish literature, which normally
envisages resurrected life as a transformed state corresponding to present realities and
so including both sacred space and other space where marriage and sexual relations
belong, often producing abundant progeny. It then considers eschatologies which
envisage both an earthly messianic reign and, following it, a more heavenly state,
before returning to Mark and related early Christian eschatologies. It concludes that
Mk 12.25 most likely reflects notions of resurrected life being in holy space, perhaps
linked to ideas of the transformed state as rendering sexual relations also unimportant.

Keywords: Sex, celibacy, resurrection, marriage.

44 Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha 24.1 (2014)

In this article I want to explore a problem thrown up by the

phenomenon which became evident in the course of my research on
attitudes towards sexuality in early Jewish and Christian literature to
the end of the first century CE (Loader 2007, 2009, 2011a, 2011b,
2012, 2013), namely that the early Christian movement appears to
have assumed that the age to come will be without sexual relations. A
logion attributed to Jesus of Nazareth makes this point explicitly: ὅταν
γαρ ἐκ νεκρῶν ἀναστῶσιν οὔτε γαμοῦσιν οὔτε γαμίζονται, ἀλλ’
εἰσὶν ὡς ἄγγελοι οἱ ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς (‘For when they rise from the dead,
they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in
heaven’, Mk 12.25). This is repeated with slight variation in Mt. 22.30
and in an expanded form in Lk. 20.34-36. T he issue is not weddings,
which would not answer the Sadducees’ question about which of a
woman’s seven former husbands would have her in the age to come
(Mk 12.18-23 par.), but marriage, and sexual relations in particular
(Loader 2012: 430-36).
The same view of a sexless age to come appears, as I have shown
elsewhere, to be shared by Paul and is detectable elsewhere in the
New T estament (Loader 2012: 453-67). It helps also explain why
some, including John the Baptist, Jesus, and Paul, chose to live now—
in celibacy—as they will then, and why some appear to have insisted
that this should be the rule for all, who may, in addition, have been
inspired by Paul’s celibacy (so Deming 2004: 124-26; R. Collins
1999: 256). Against them Paul must defend marriage in 1 Corinthians
7 and insist that his choice was a particular calling (7.7). Matthew’s
Jesus similarly cautions that the calling to be a eunuch for the king-
dom was not for everyone (19.10-12) (Loader 2012: 436-44). It is also
reflected in the reference in Rev. 14.14 to those 144,000 celibates,
‘who have not defiled themselves with women’, who as the first fruits
are then to be joined by the multitude of others in the age to come (cf.
also 7.1-7) (Loader 2012: 478-81).
The allusion to angels may indicate that Mk 12.25 assumes a non-
corporeal order of being where such physical activities as sexual
intercourse have no place, but that would not cohere with statements
elsewhere which assume resurrection and embodiment, including
those envisaging an eschatological feast (Mk 14.25; cf. Mt. 8.11-12)
and in any case angels are mostly pictured as embodied. Neither the
saying nor Paul’s statements suggest that the absence of sexual
relations relates to belief in a future return to androgyny, to which
 LOADER Sexuality and Eschatology 45

Meeks drew attention, citing Plato, Symp. 189C–193D; also Diodorus

Sic ulus 4, 6; Ovid, Metam. 4.285-385; Pliny, Nat. 7.2.3 (Meeks 1974:
180-89, 202, 207). That was understood in early Jewish and Christian
literature on the basis of Genesis as the return to the superior male
form of humanity before the female was created from it, as Martin
rightly notes (Martin 1995: 230-32). Such influence is indeed to be
found in the statements about oneness in Gos. Thom. 22.1-4; Gospel of
the Egyptians (Clement, Strom. 3.92) and 2 Clem. 12.2-6, and strik-
ingly in Gos. Thom. 114 about making Mary male. Yet, as Judith
Gundry-Volf observes, for Paul in Gal. 3.28, ‘“ neither Jew nor Greek”
is not about erasure of differences but revalorization of differences.
The point is not that differences should not exist in the eschatological
community, but that they should not “ count”’ (Gundry-Volf 1997:
457). In their oneness males remain males, and females, females (see
also Vorster 2008: 99-101; Loader 2012: 389-96, 468-76). The
explanation seems rather to lie in the notion that the age to come will
be so holy that, as in any sanctum, sexual relations are out of place,
and probably also that the nature of resurrected life is such that this
ceases to be a problem. T his is also more convincing than the view
that it implies the belief that in the age to come restrictive institutions
such as marriage cease and sexual freedom reigns (cf. Schüssler
Fiorenza 1985; 143-45).
But what precedents do we find for this? T he present study will
pursue the question of what light pseudepigraphic literature might
shed on the development of this belief. It will argue that the view is
not typical of the extant Jewish literature, including most pseud-
epigraphic literature, nor of the sectarian literature of the Dead Sea
Scrolls and Philo. The most common and widespread Jewish expecta-
tion was that the future will be as the present with temple and land,
only working properly, and that it will be a time of abundance, includ-
ing abundance of offspring. Sexual relations then as now will have
their appropriate place, not of course in the new or renewed temple,
but in normal life outside it. I shall pursue three main lines of
approach: first, Luke’s solution focussed on procreation as redundant
for immortals; second, a notion sugge sted by Jubilees of a return to
holy paradise; finally, issues pertaining to the nature of resurrection.
46 Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha 24.1 (2014)

Se xual Relations as Re dundant for Immortals

In his rewriting one of Jesus’ alleged responses to the scornful
question of the Sadducees a bout the seven times wido wed woman’s
future sexual partners in the age to come (Mk 12.18-27; Lk. 20.27-
40), Luke has Jesus declare:
οἱ υἱοὶ τ οῦ αἰῶν ος τ ούτ ου γαμοῦσιν καὶ ἐκγαμίζονται· οἱ δὲ καταξιωθέντες
τ οῦ αἰῶν ος ἐκείν ου τ υχεῖν καὶ τῆς ἀναστάσεως τῆς ἐκ νεκρῶν οὔτ ε γαμοῦσιν
οὔτε γαμίζοντ αι· οὐδὲ γὰρ ἀπ οθαν εῖν ἒτ ι δύν ανται ἰσάγγελοι γάρ εἰσιν καὶ
υἱοί εἰσιν θεοῦ τῆς ἀν αστ άσεως υἱοὶ ὄντες.
Those who belong to this age marry and are given in marriage; but those
who are considered worthy of a place in that age and in the resurrection
from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. Indeed they cannot
die any more, because they are like angels and are children of God, being
children of the resurrection. (Lk. 20.34-36)

Sexual relations, accordingly, become redundant if people become

immortal like angels. Luke’s revision would have sat well with those
influenced by the strong emphasis in Hellenistic philosophy on pro-
creation as the sole ground for sexual relations, an emphasis shared by
Philo and Josephus (Philo, Opif. 161; Abr. 100; Josephus, Ant. 4.259,
261, 290; 5.168; Ag. Ap. 2.199) (Loader 2011b: 56-66, 328-31, 261-
65; 2012: 91-97). A similar emphasis is evident in Ps.-Phoc. 176;
T. Reub. 2.8; T. Iss. 2.1, 3; T. Naph. 8.8 (on this influence in Jewish
literature see Biale 1992: 37-40). This view is found in an extreme
form in the Neopythagoreans, Charondas in Preamble (some time
prior to mid-first century CE ) and Ocellus in The Nature of the
Universe (150 BCE ), but also among some Roman Stoics, namely
Seneca (4 BCE –65 CE ) and Musonius Rufus (c. 30–102 CE), but was a
regular emphasis also among those who saw procreation as not the
sole function of sexual relations (Skinner 2005: 154-64; Gaca 2003:
107-14; Thom 2008).
Restricting the legitimacy of sexual intercourse to procreation was
by no means confined to Hellenistic philosophy. In the expansion of
the Watcher myth which first includes reference to Enoch, namely
1 Enoch 12–16 in the Book of the Watchers, God tells Enoch to rebuke
the angels in a way that reflects a similar logic: ‘Therefore I gave them
women, that they might cast seed into them, and thus beget children
by them, that nothing fail them on the earth. But you originally existed
as spirits, living forever, and not dying for all the generations of
 LOADER Sexuality and Eschatology 47

eternity; therefore I did not make women among you’ (1 En. 15.4).
Angels (understood as male) live forever, therefore have no need of
women and no need of sex. Beside the other wrongs they had com-
mitted, such as abandoning their heavenly sanctuary and mixing of
kind, they acted in a way that made no sense—assuming propagation
is the sole purpose of sexual relations (Nickelsburg 2001: 272; Loader
2007: 8-52).
We can see this mono-functional view of sexual relations also in the
interpretation of Genesis given in 2 Enoch, Sibylline Oracles 1–2 and
2 Baruch, that sexual relations became necessary only after humans
lost their immortality (2 En. 30.16-17; 32.1; 2 Bar. 56.6; Sib. Or. 1.54,
57-58, 65-66) (Loader 2011a: 41-45 [2 Enoch], 72 [Sib. Or. 1–2], 102
[2 Baruch]). For despite Gen. 2.22-24, these texts see sexual relations
as in effect coming about as a result of the judgment in Gen. 3.16-19.
The Apocalypse of Moses goes further, declaring sexual desire an evil
sprinkled on Eve’s fruit (19.3; 25.3-4) (Loader 2011a: 339-40).
It was very difficult, however, for Jews to embrace the notion that
sexual passion was in itself something evil, for it was from the begin-
ning part of God’s creation. Thus Philo who embraces the suspicion of
passions cannot bring himself to condemn them as such, but like the
more moderate philosophers of his day condemns their excess and
misdirection (Loader 2011b: 84-100). Both Philo and Josephus ideal-
ize the Essenes, especially those who lived in celibate communities,
as leaving passions behind, although both also explained women’s
absence on the grounds that their alleged quarrelsomeness was dis-
ruptive of community, not actually an argument about sexuality as
such (Loader 2011b: 100-109, 334-39). Nevertheless, Philo, while
strongly espousing the notion that the justification for sexual inter-
course lies in procreation, recognizes Gen. 2.24 as expressing more
than just a functional procreation. For he argues that within that
context pleasure has its place (Opif. 161) (Loader 2011b: 56-61).
Similarly elsewhere he cannot bring himself to require that infertile
couples desist from sexual relations (Spec. 3.35) (Loader 2011b: 202-
204). Such comments enable us to recognize the two aspects of sexual
engagement grounded in Genesis: sex for multiplying (Gen. 1.27-28)
and sex for expressing companionship and intimacy (Gen. 2.15-24),
a distinction much easier for us to recognize in an age of effective
contraception.
48 Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha 24.1 (2014)

Luke’s solution—being like angels means that one has no need to

multiply, so no need for sex—rests on a rather one-sided approach,
when taken on its own. The argument that sex is solely for procreation
is surprisingly absent elsewhere in the gospel tradition and in Paul,
where, for instance, one might have expected it in his comments about
sa m e -s ex r el atio n s in Ro m a n s 1 . B y c o n t r ast, th er e is a str o n g e m p h a sis
on sexual union as oneness (Mk 10.7-8; 1 Cor. 7.2-6; Eph. 5.25-33).
Luke’s version of Jesus’ response has explained the analogy with
angels found in Mk 12.25 on the basis of their immortality. While
respecting that he is one of Mark’s first exegetes, it is likely that Mark
implies something different or something more with the analogy,
relating to holy space and state of being (Loader 2012: 30-36). Luke’s
depiction of the resurrected Jesus clearly does assume a different order
of being which can appear and disappear, but also one that eats
(24.43). We shall return to the broader issue of Luke’s eschatology
and his understanding of resurrected life, below.

Se xual Relations as Out of Place

In its remarkable rewriting of Genesis 2, Jubilees has God create the
woman for the man so that they might, like the animals, engage in
sexual union, seen as something very positive (3.1-7; cf. Gen. 2.18-
25). God then brings them into the paradise garden, which is a
sanctum, the holiest on earth (Jub. 3.12; 4.26; 8.19; similarly 4Q265/
4QSD 7 ii 11-14). Having already joined in sexual union before the
entry, they abstain while in the holy place, returning to sexual union
only after their exit from the garden and only then through their sexual
union giving birth to offspring (4.1) (Loader 2007: 236-45).
While Jubilees is here describing beginnings, its notion of paradise
as a sanctum is significant in the light of eschatology, which sees the
end as a return to the beginning, and not least as a return to paradise.
Jubilees does not, however, make that connection directly, a not
uncommon motif in later Jewish writings, so we are left to speculate.
On the other hand, its eschatology is suggestive. For in Jubilees 23 it
promises for the righteous a return to long life, declaring that all of
them will be infants and children (23.27-28). T his might suggest a
return to pre-pubescent innocence, such as Adam and Eve’s before
their sin and so a return to the Eden paradise. Such expectation would
cohere with its prohibition of sexual intercourse in sacred time,
 LOADER Sexuality and Eschatology 49

namely the sabbath (50.8; cf. also CD 11.5; 4QDf/4Q271 5 i.1-2;

possibly CD 12.4; 4QDe/4Q270 2 i.18-19; 4QHalakhah A/4Q251),
especially if eternity is understood as a sabbath (Loader 2007: 283-
85). It would also fit its description of Israel’s destiny as ‘to be with
him and his holy angels’ (15.28). Again, Jubilees does not make
explicit reference to angels in paradise, although it is a widespread
understanding that angels surround God and inhabit holy space. In
other words, the ingredients are present in Jubilees for an eschatology
which sees future life as lived like the angels in paradise or at least in
holy space where celibacy is assumed.
Against that background people could hear a statement about
becoming like angels as referring to being like them in holy space and
so abstaining from sexual relations as one should in holy places,
whether or not identified as paradise. Gospel sayings about entering
the kingdom as little children (Mt. 18.3; Mk 10.15; Jn 3.3, 5; cf. also
Mt. 18.10; Gos. Thom. 22.1-4; Gospel of the Egyptians; 2 Clem. 12.2-
6) might reflect such understandings (Loader 2012: 467-76). Such a
view would correspond to what appears to be assumed in Revelation,
which paints the future as entering paradise, a place with no temple,
but holy because of God’s presence (Rev. 21.22-27; 22.1-5; cf. also
Lk. 23.43; 2 Cor. 12.4; Rev. 2.7). It is a world to come without sex.
Indeed, those who have not defiled themselves with women (14.5) will
be joined by the rest in a holy space where sexual relations have no
place (Loader 2012: 478-81). At most, however, one can argue that
Jubilees provides perspectives which when combined could result in
belief in a sexless utopia. It does not make such connections explicit
and so we are left with speculation.
Among the pseudepigraphic literature apart from Jubilees we come
close to what this speculation suggests in Liber Antiquitatum Bibli-
carum (Pseudo-Philo). Its eschatology envisages resurrection (3.10)
and a fertile earth, but stops short of promising abundant human
offspring. T he promise of resurrection is that ‘all who can live may
dwell in the place of sanctification (locum sanctificationis) I showed
you’ (19.13). T he locum sanctificationis refers to the temple. T his
must be a reference to heavenly paradise (so 11.15; 13.8-9), where
Moses was shown the pattern for the cult and the tree of paradise, and
so is understood as a temple, hence ‘place of sanctification’, as in
Jubilees (Loader 2011a: 274-75). T his would have implications, in
turn, for sexual relations, since they would have no place there.
50 Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha 24.1 (2014)

T wo further writings warrant mention in this regard. Sibylline

Oracles 1–2 envisages a future abode where there is ‘no marriage, no
death, no sales, no purchases’ (2.328), matching its depiction of Adam
and Eve in paradise as without sexual desire, but only the desire for
conversation. Yet the author grounds this not in notions of its holiness
but in his negativity towards sexual passion (Loader 2011a: 68-77).
Similarly, the Apocalypse of Moses apparently envisages a future
return to paradise as non-sexual (8.4; 37.5). T here one will be clothed
with the kind of garment of glory which Eve reports she lost, and
which preceded the implanting of sexual desire and awareness of
nakedness (19.3; 25.3-4), thus to a state where sexual relations have
no place, again reflecting primarily a negative attitude towards sexual-
ity (Loader 2011a: 336-41). Nothing in Mark suggests such a negative
attitude.
Returning to Jubilees and LAB, we do appear to have structures of
thought which envisage the future as entering holy space, whether
connected to paradise or not, or connected to the sabbath as sexless or
not, where sexual relations would be out of place. If one combined the
widespread notion of an eternal day (e.g. 1 En. 58.3, 5-6; 2 En. 65.7-
11; 4 Ezra 7.39-42; LAB 19.10; 26.13; cf. also Rev. 21.22-25; 22.5)
with seeing it as an eternal Sabbath and then applied Jubilees’
prohibition of sex on the Sabbath (50.8; cf. also CD 11.5; possibly
12.4; 4QDe/4Q270 2 i.18-19; 4QHalakhah A/4Q251), then holy time
would indeed be celibate, but this approach to Sabbath was unusual.
On the other hand, the view that holy space, usually seen as the
place where angels are present, is no place for sex and nakedness,
whether in this age or the age to come, is widespread. It explains
Paul’s assumption that married couples might abstain from sexual
intercourse for the purpose of prayer (1 Cor. 7.5), a view reflected
similarly in T. Naph. 8.7-10 (Loader 2012: 454-56). Requiring
abstinence before Sinai for three days (Exod. 19.15), before David’s
men can eat holy bread (1 Sam. 21.5-6; see also 2 Sam. 11.11-13),
before assembly in the presence of holy angels (1QS 2.3-11;
1QSa/1Q28a 2.4-9; CD 15.15-16; similarly 4QDa/4Q266 8 i.6-9), and
in the movement’s holy sites where some of its members lived in
celibacy (CD 7.4b-9a / 19.1-5a), and in the camp of holy war where
angels are present (1QM 7.6; 4QMa/4Q491 12), reflects such a view
(Loader 2009: 363-83), as does the celibacy which Revelation appar-
ently assumes in its heavenly paradisal sanctuary, as mentioned above.
 LOADER Sexuality and Eschatology 51

(On the presence of the holy angels in the assembly see also 1QSa/
1Q28a 2.8b-9a; CD 15.17/4QDa/4Q266 8 i.9; 4Q174/4QFlor 1.3-5;
4QMMT B 42-57; 11QT a/11Q19 45.12-14.)
Abstaining from sexual relations in sacred spaces best accounts also
for the movements where some practised more or less permanent
celibacy, at least as long as they remained in sacred community, such
as we see among the Therapeutai and the Essenes, despite the
rationalizations of Philo and Josephus, noted above, that the motives
were avoidance of passion and of women’s disruptiveness. T he notion
that celibacy is to be associated with traditions linking prophets and
the inspired to periods of abstinence, such as Moses (Philo, Mos. 2.68-
69; Sifre Num 12.1; Targ. Num. 12.1-2; b. Šabb. 87a; Deut. R. 11.10;
Exod. R. 46.3; Cant. R. 4.4) (Vermes 1973: 99-102; van der Horst
2002: 396-98), Jeremiah (Jer. 16.1-4) and Philip’s daughters (Acts
21.9) makes sense because with their special calling they must
constantly enter divine presence. T his is in fact a variant of the notion
that sexual abstinence relates to sacred time and space. It makes good
sense, then, also to conclude that people who saw the age to come as
one holy space in the company of angels would assume sexual
abstinence applied.
This reconstruction, which depends in part on a limited number of
sources and on a degree of speculation about probabilities, provides a
likely background to the belief in a sexless utopia. We are on much
firmer ground, however, in identifying alternative approaches, to
which we now turn.

The Nature of Resurrection Life

Expectation of new life centred on temple and city in a transformed
existence appears to be the more common eschatology. It appears in
works as far apart as the Book of the Watchers, the Animal
Apocalypse, Tobit, Baruch, the Psalms of Solomon, the Parables of
Enoch, 4 Ezra, 2 Baruch, Sibylline Oracles 3, 4 and 5, Qumran
sectarian literature, Wisdom, and Philo. T he vision of Isaiah 65–66 of
new heavens and a new earth inspires the predictions in the Book of
the Watchers of long life on a renewed earth (1 En. 5.7-9) and of great
fertility among trees and plants, and also among people, who ‘will live
and beget thousands and all the days of their youth and their old age
will be completed in peace’ (10.17). Similarly, Enoch is shown a
52 Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha 24.1 (2014)

future where the tree of life is transplanted from paradise to beside the
sanctuary in Jerusalem, so that the people will live a long life beside
the sanctuary and with the fragrance of the tree in their bones and
nourished by its fruit (25.3-6). As Nickelsburg shows, these hopes are
located on earth (Nickelsburg 2004: 54-55). The association of future
hope with imagery of paradise occurs also in the Parables of Enoch (1
En. 60.8, 23; 61.12; cf. also 1 En. 39.10; 43.4; 45.5-6; 51.1-5), and 4
Ezra (7.119-126; 8.51-54), 2 Baruch (4.1-5), Luke (16.19-31; 23.43)
and Revelation (22.1-5). As Nickelsburg notes, the Parables refer to
both the glorified state of the righteous in heaven (39.4-5) and a time
after resurrection when hope is fulfilled on a renewed earth under the
rule of the Chosen One (Nickelsburg 2004: 60-63).
Despite the often larger than life nature of these expectations, as
already in Isaiah 65–66, the assumption appears to be of life structured
as in the present with holy space, where sex has no place, and normal
space, in which the promises of abundant offspring presuppose family
life. Similarly, the later Animal Apocalypse envisages a new Jerusalem
and probably a new temple (1 En. 90.28-29, 33-36), also clearly as a
setting for normal family life (Loader 2007: 64-65). As Nickelsburg
notes, ‘most of the major sections of 1 Enoch—drawing on Isaiah 65–
66 for their inspiration—envision a renewed earth and a restored
Jerusalem as the setting for the long life that the righteous will enjoy
after the judgment’ (Nickelsburg 2001: 49).
Jubilees similarly depicts the gathering of God’s people around a
renewed Jerusalem and a new temple (23.15-18, 29). They will live
for a 1000 years, ‘all of them will be infants and children…peacefully
and joyfully. There will be neither a satan nor any evil one who will
destroy. For their entire lifetimes will be times of blessing and
healing’ (23.28-29; similarly 50.5, ‘they will no longer have any satan
o r an y e v il p er so n . T h e l an d will b e p u r e f ro m th at ti m e u n til et e rn it y ’).
That might, as we have noted above, exclude sexual relations.
Otherwise it assumes normal community life, and strikingly matches
Jubilees’ image of Joseph’s reign in Egypt under Pharaoh, which it
describes in similar terms: ‘The pharaoh’s rule was just, and there was
no satan or any evil one’ (40.9) (Loader 2007: 123-24, 179, 292).
According to Tobit, the future promise is that God ‘will gather you
from all the nations among whom you have been scattered’ (13.5) and
that Jerusalem will be gloriously rebuilt (13.11, 13-17). Similarly,
Baruch reports God’s promise ‘I will bring them again into the land
 LOADER Sexuality and Eschatology 53

that I swore to give to their ancestors, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,

and they will rule over it; and I will increase them, and they will not
be diminished’ (2.24). Psalms of Solomon acclaims the ‘good news’
that God will gather his people to Jerusalem in its glory (11.2-7;
17.20-40). According to Sibylline Oracles, ‘the sons of the great God
will all live peacefully around the temple’ (3.702-704) and the
righteous look forward to abundance and peace under God’s law and
before God’s house (3.744-59, 767-95; cf. also 4.45-46; 5.247-70,
414-33). 4 Ezra promises that in the age to come paradise will be
opened, the tree of life planted, the city established, and evil and ill-
ness banished (8.51-54). 2 Baruch promises abundant harvests (29.1-
8) and childbirth without pain (reversing Gen. 3.16) (73.7). Similarly
Wisdom promises a place for the eunuch in God’s temple and that
infertile woman will bear children in the age when God’s people will
ru l e o v er an d ju d g e th e n ati o n s (3 . 7 - 1 5 ) ( L o a d e r 2 0 1 1 a 4 0 6 - 4 0 9 ). Ph il o
similarly envisages a return to the land with promises of abundant
offspring in fulfilment of the promise of fertility in Exod. 23.26 (οὐκ
ἔσται ἄγονος οὐδε στεῖρα ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, ‘No one shall miscarry or be
barren in your land’). T hus he writes that ‘no man shall be childless
and no woman barren’ (oὐδεὶς ἄγονος οὐδε στεῖρα γενήσεται), for
‘all the true servants of God will fulfil the law of nature for the
procreation of children’ (Praem. 108-109). Beside that he looks to
victory over enemies, cessation of enmity (Praem. 79, 85-98), abun-
dance and prosperity (Praem. 103-104) and freedom from disease
(Praem. 119) (Loader 2011b: 131-35).
In all these the assumption is that life will resemble its current
forms, including, therefore, sexual relations and procreation, often in
association with promises that barrenness will cease and progeny be
abundant. This eschatology appears to be widely assumed also among
the sectarian and related documents found at Qumran. Thus the
Treatise on the Two Spirits, now incorporated in the Community Rule,
promises to those who walk in the spirit of light: ‘healing and a spirit
of peace in length of days and fruitful offspring (‫ )פרות זררע‬with all
everlasting blessings, eternal enjoyment with endless life, and a crown
of glory with majestic raiment in eternal light (‫עם מדת הדר באור‬
‫( ’)עולמים‬4.6b-8—partly preserved in 4Q257 5.4-5), including ‘all the
glory of Adam’ (4.23) and ‘new creation’ (4.25) (Loader 2009: 189-
95). The Damascus Document speaks of God filling the face of the
world with the offspring of the faithful remnant (‫)למלא פני תבל מזרעם‬
54 Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha 24.1 (2014)

(2.11b-12) and of their living for a thousand generations (7.6 / 19.1-2),

a promise repeated in the Pesher on Psalms (4QpPsa/4Q171), along
with reference to the inheritance of Adam (1-10 iii.1-2a) and to
repossessing the holy mountain (1-10 iii.10-11). Future abundance of
offspring features also in the Temple Scroll (59.12), and Instruction
(4QInstr g /4Q423 3 1-5 / 1QInstr/1Q26 2 2-4). Like Philo, 11QSefer
ha-Milḥamah/11Q14 1 ii.11 // 4QSefer ha-Milḥamah/4Q285 8 8
draws on Exod. 23.26 to declare: ‘no woman shall miscarry in your
land’ (11 // 8 ‫)ואין משׁכלה‬, reinforcing it with reference to the enabl-
ing presence of angels (ii.14b // 8 10-11), in contrast to their presence
in holy space, which requires sexual abstinence.
Above all, the Thanksgiving Hymns express the sectarian spiritual-
ity of angelic communion already now and certainly in the future.
1QH xi.19-20 uses ‘raises up’ as a metaphor: ‘You have raised me up
to an everlasting height, so that I can walk about on a limitless plain’,
but the context indicates that such elevation promises having a place
with the angels, both in the present and in the future, including after
the final judgment (xi.25-36; similarly xix.11-12; xii.20-22) (Puech
1993: 363-66; Brooke 2003; Charlesworth 2006: 248-50). Despite use
of Adamic imagery (CD 3.18-20; 4QpPsa/4Q171 1-10 iii.1-2a; 1QS/
1Q28 4.23, 25) none of the texts indicates belief in a celibate future,
but they assume abstinence is a matter of time and place, as it was in
the present age. Fletcher-Louis construes the Qumran sectarian docu-
ments as espousing an angelomorphic eschatology consistent with Mk
12.25, which would render procreation redund a n t, citin g th e r ef e r en c e
to th e ‘p eo p l e o f t h e sp i rit ’ in 1 /4 Q I n st ru ctio n (Fletcher-Louis 2002:
133-34), but this is a document which clearly has a positive attitude
towards marriage and sexual relations. T he transformed resurrection
state does not necessarily imply absence of procreation, as many of
the texts we have considered show.
Usually such hope is not just a matter of restoration of what is, but
entails some transformation, including resurrection, not as resuscita-
tion but as transformed embodiment. Where resurrection appears, we
often find language reminiscent of, and probably reflecting inspiration
from, the prophecy of Daniel: ‘Many of those who sleep in the dust of
the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and
everlasting contempt. Those who are wise shall shine like the bright-
ness of the sky, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the
stars for ever and ever’ (Dan. 12.2-3). T hus we read of ‘majestic
 LOADER Sexuality and Eschatology 55

raiment in eternal light’ (1QS 5.8); shining like sparks in the stubble
(Wis. 3.7-8); being clad in garments of glory (Parables of Enoch;
1 En. 62.14-16) and being ‘like fiery lights’ (39.7); being raised up to
the stars (T. Mos. 10.10); being like the stars of heaven (LAB 33.5);
shining like the stars (4 Ezra 7.88-99; similarly 7.125); ‘made more
brilliant than the stars’ (Sib. Or. 5.420-21); ‘like the angels and
be[ing] equal to stars’ and exceeding them (2 Bar. 51.9-10, 13); the
Maccabean martyrs as being ‘star-like’ (4 Macc. 17.5); ‘those who
shine brightly’ (4Q184 1 7). T he notion of human beings taking in
part the appearance of angels was wide spread, both in Qumran litera-
ture and beyond, as Brooke has also shown (Brooke 2005: 163-71).
Similar assumptions inform the understanding of resurrection
among the gospel writers and Paul. T heir resurrected Jesus material-
izes and dematerializes (Lk. 24.31; Jn 20.19, 26; Acts 1.3). His future
state is foreshadowed in the metamorphosis of the transfiguration
scene, where his garments glisten and he shines like the sun (Mk 9.2-
3; Mt. 17.1-2; Lk. 9.28-29). Similarly Matthew depicts resurrection of
believers in Danielic terms: ‘the righteous will shine like the sun in the
kingdom of their Father’ (Mt. 13.43). For his part, Paul insists that the
resurrection is spiritual not physical (1 Cor. 15.35-49 and 2 Cor. 5.1-
11), for ‘flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God’ (1 Cor.
15. 15.50) and that those who remain at the parousia of Jesus will be
similarly transfigured (1 Cor. 15.52).
Such embodiedness need not even entail belief in resurrection of
one’s corpse without remainder as Paul and the gospel writers appar-
ently assume. Wherever post-existence was understood to involve
more than a kind of passive, resting survival, it entails some kind of
embodiedness where people can speak and see and hear. It may entail
taking on a new body. T his may be the case in Jub. 23.31, where those
on high can look down on their former bodies. Often the hope of a
transformed (embodied) existence comes to expression without speci-
fic reference to resurrection at all. In much traditional scholarship
done within a Christian context, the focus on resurrection, like the
focus on the figure of the Messiah, has led to distortions in under-
standing early Jewish literature, where resurrection is just one element
of future hope understood very diversely and as a presupposition for
embodied life which need not even be mentioned, just as the figure of
the Messiah is just one way of speaking of God’s agency and God’s
action which is the true focus of hope and need not even mention
messiahship.
56 Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha 24.1 (2014)

One might imagine that such future existence, especially under-

stood as resurrection to everlasting life, might imply cessation of the
need for procreation, but that is nowhere explicit. Indeed, Wisdom, for
instance, includes both the promise of the infertile giving birth and
notions of shining resurrection imagery (Wis. 3.7-8, 13). A number of
documents inspired by Isa 60.19-20 speak of the promise of an endless
day (1 En. 58.3, 5-6; 2 En. 65.7-11; 4 Ezra 7.39-42; LAB 19.10; 26.13;
cf. also Rev. 21.22-25; 22.5), perhaps envisaging it as a sabbath, but
none draw the conclusion either that this makes procreation redundant,
or that sex is out of place, which they could have argued had they
shared the view of the sabbath noted above which is reflected in
Jubilees and the Damascus Document (Jub. 50.8; cf. also CD 11.5;
possibly 12.4; 4QDe/4Q270 2 i.18-19; 4QHalakhah A/4Q251) as a
time when sexual relations were out of place.
While statements about resurrection or embodied life, including of
the former dead, appear to describe a transformed state of what is the
structure of present reality, with temple and city and land and normal
family life, there are some instances which may suggest that the
transformed state may be of such an order that such bodily functions
as sexual relations would cease. Beside those considered in our dis-
cussion of the future as only holy space, such as LAB, and probably
Jubilees, there are some instances where clearly the future is seen as
being not on earth but in heaven. This appears to be the case in the
Epistle of Enoch, which uses imagery of Dan. 12.3 in speaking of
those who would shine ‘like the luminaries of heaven’ (1 En. 104.2) to
describe a heavenly existence in the company of angels (see also 1 En.
104.4, 6). As Nicklelsburg observes, ‘As I understand it, this is the
first reference in the Enochic corpus to an eternal heavenly existence
for the righteous’ (Nickelsburg 2004: 59). The Testament of Moses
speaks of Israel being exalted to the heaven of the stars, from which
they then look down on earth, an allusion to Dan. 12.3 (see Nickels-
burg 2004: 66, who notes the parallel with 1 En. 104.4-6). The
Testament of Job looks to a heavenly hope (T. Job. 33.3-9), as does
the Testament of Solomon; and probably LAB (11.15; 13.8-9; 19.10)
and Joseph and Aseneth, which nevertheless declares their marriage
eternal: ‘Courage, Aseneth, chaste virgin. Behold, I have given you
today to Joseph for a bride, and he himself will be your bridegroom
for ever (and) ever’ (cf. the shorter text of Philonenko 1968, which
lacks ‘for ever and ever’). Perhaps this also implies that marriage
continues in the future place of heavenly rest.
 LOADER Sexuality and Eschatology 57

Two-Ste p Eschatologie s
In both 4 Ezra and 2 Baruch the matter is complicated by their having
a two-step eschatology: a messianic reign, looking very much like the
standard eschatological pattern above, followed by something of a
different order including paradise, and introduced by resurrection (4
Ezra 7.26-44; 2 Bar. 48.48–52.7). In 4 Ezra this envisages a 400-year-
long messianic reign (7.26-29), followed by the death of all (7.30),
and by seven days of primeval silence as in the beginning (7.30). Then
earth is roused and universal resurrection occurs for judgment, result-
ing in fire and torment for the disobedient and delight and rest in
paradise for the righteous (7.32-44). In 7.76-101 the angel then
describes what the wicked and righteous will see in the seven days
after their death before they are brought to their chambers where are
held till the day of judgment. That foreknowledge for the righteous
includes seeing their future resurrected state when their ‘face is to
shine like the sun’ and be made to shine ‘like the light of the stars’
(7.97). Elements of this hope are then taken up in Ezra’s complaint
that none will reach it (7.116-26). We again find reference to the safe
habitations of souls (in their chambers) (7.121), to paradise (now as
having unspoiled fruit and ‘abundance and healing’) and to
resurrection with faces shining ‘more than the stars’ (7.123-25). The
promise returns in 8.51-54, noted above, which refers to paradise
being opened, the tree of life planted, the city established, and evil and
illness banished.
While the above description derives from the dialogues with Uriel
and is kept rather vague, 4 Ezra also contains visions which give more
specific detail. Hogan has convincingly shown that the visions and the
dialogues are not in conflict on eschatology even though they are
different in emphasis (Hogan 2008: 199-204). Thus while 7.32-34
refers to the universal judgment of the nations, the visions of the Eagle
(11.46) and Man from the Sea (13.1-13) refer to the judgment and
defeat of the Gentile nations by the Messiah. While only the Uriel
visions mention a messianic reign, this is nevertheless to be assumed
in the Visions whose focus is rather on the defeat and demise of the
Roman Empire. The promise of the coming to earth of the heavenly
Zion, predicted in the interpretation of the Vision of the Woman and
her transformation in 10.49-59 and in 13.35-26 (but also 7.26-28),
implies a period of reign. The interpretation of the Eagle Vision
58 Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha 24.1 (2014)

(12.34) makes it clear that a universal judgment is to follow which is

distinct from the Messiah’s acts of judgment. As Hogan notes, ‘The
three visions may be viewed as elaborations of three aspects of the
messianic era that are touched upon in 7.26-28: the appearance of the
heavenly city, the advent of the Messiah, and the reward of the
survivors’ (Hogan 2008: 201).
4 Ezra thus envisages a two stage eschatology. Its final stage
envisages embodied life including the presence of the holy city and
paradise. No mention is made in depictions of stage two of sexual
relations, nor of this being a totally holy place where they would be
out of place. Indeed, the motif of abundance (7.123) may suggest
abundance also in human progeny, though nothing is said specifically
in that direction. T he transformed resurrection state might imply an
order of being where such things as sex and food are irrelevant, but
nothing points specifically in that direction, any more than it does in
other depictions of shining resurrected life considered above.
2 Baruch similarly envisages a two-stage eschatology. Its three
accounts of the messianic era (chs. 22–30; 35–40; and 53–74), while
varying, have in common the notion of a temporary messianic reign
(Lied 2008: 185). The Messiah’s coming defeats enemies, removes
suffering and introduces a time of bliss. According to 29.1-8, during
the rule of the Messiah God’s people will be protected by the land,
will feed on the corpses of Behemoth and Leviathan and enjoy
miraculous harvests of food and wine and heavenly manna, a return to
paradisal conditions (29.5; cf. Ezek. 47.17; Rev. 22.2). T hereafter,
‘when the time of the appearance of the Anointed One has been ful-
filled and he returns with glory, that then all who sleep in hope of him
will rise’ (30.1). T his is not a general resurrection but one limited to
the righteous. In the interpretation of the vision of the vine and the
cedar (chs. 35–38) the author depicts the Messiah’s victory over the
last wicked ruler, whom the Messiah will execute. God’s people will
then live under his protection ‘until the world of corruption has ended’
(40.1-4).
The author returns to the messianic rule a third time in his interpre-
tation of the vision of the clouds (53.1-12), which rehearses history up
to the time when the Messiah comes and executes judgment on the
nations on the basis of their treatment of Israel (72.1-5). We then read:
‘And it will happen that after he has brought down everything which
is in the world, and has sat down in eternal peace on the throne of the
 LOADER Sexuality and Eschatology 59

kingdom, then joy will be revealed and rest will appear’ (73.1). There
will be health and relief from illness and all things that have brought
evil and confusion to humanity and there will be peace also between
people and the animals (73.2-6, an echo of Isa. 11.6-9). This vision
of final joy depicts a time when ‘nobody will again die untimely’
(reversing one of Adam’s effects) (73.3), ‘judgment, condemnations,
contentions, revenges, blood, passions, zeal, hate’ will be ‘uprooted’
(73.4), but also that ‘women will no longer have pain when they bear,
nor will they be tormented when they yield the fruits of their womb’
(73.7). ‘Passions’ here probably includes sexual passion, probably
understood as excessive passion (Ellis 2007: 22). What is being
reversed here is not conception, but the curse of Gen. 3.16, namely
pain in pregnancy and childbirth. It also assumes sexual relations, at
least for procreation, as an element of life in the messianic age. As
Ellis concedes, ‘sex and reproduction are not “ uprooted” along with
revenge, hate, and passions (73.4)’ (Ellis 2007: 22). There follow
promises of abundance and fertility, recalling 29.5. ‘For that time is
the end of that which is corruptible and the beginning of that which is
incorruptible’ (74.2). As Lied notes, the depiction of the messianic
ag e, esp e ci ally i n c h s. 7 3 – 7 4 is o f a r et u r n to p r e- tr an sg r essio n cr e atio n
in a transformed state (Lied 2008: 219-21). T he assumption in all
three accounts is that this reign will be centred on Zion, protected by
the Land, ultimately ‘because righteous people, and consequently
divine presence, have returned’ (Lied 2008: 206). Lied observes that
none of the descriptions has the temple at its centre (Lied 2008: 207).
Stage two of 2 Baruch’s eschatology begins with a general resur-
rection: ‘For the earth will surely give back the dead at that time; it
receives them now in order to keep them, not changing anything in
their form’ (50.2; similarly 85.15; cf. 30.5). They will then face
judgment. After the day of judgment ‘the shape of those who have
proved to be righteous will change’ (51.1). ‘Their splendour will then
be glorified by transformations, and the shape of their face will be
changed into the light of their beauty’ (51.3). They will ‘be changed
into the splendour of angels’ (51.5). ‘T ime will no longer make them
older. For they will live in the heights of that world and they will be
like the angels and be equal to stars’ (51.9-10), their excellence
exceeding that of angels (51.13). They are in the heavenly world. In
21.21-25 the author already referred to this transformed state, but with
much less elaboration.
60 Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha 24.1 (2014)

Thus stage one clearly envisages a future which includes the bless-
ing of human fertility and so normal sexual relations, as is standard in
the common vision of the future which we have been observing. T his
is the period before resurrection, or, at least, before general resurrec-
tion, because 30.1 appears to envisage a resurrection of the righteous
in advance. Certainly the imagery used to describe stage two of
2 Baruch’s eschatology in 2 Baruch 51 derives from resurrection trad-
ition and the notion of transformed embodiment. Accordingly the
righteous shine, even more brightly than the angels. That they will be
in that sense comparable to angels recalls the likeness to angels in
Mk 12.25, but unlike there, nothing is said in 2 Baruch pertaining to
sexual relations. Lied argues that ‘according to 21.19-23 and 51.9 and
16 earthly biological processes such as ageing and death, and by
implication also birth, are overcome only in the other world’ (Lied
2008: 233). We must bear in mind, however, that most other instances
of transformed embodiment discussed a bove do not appear to exclude
sexual relations from the new life, but instead presume it when they
speak of abundant offspring.
There is one further passage in 2 Baruch which appears to be
speaking of stage two of its eschatology, namely 2 Baruch 4. There, in
response to Baruch’s bewailing the plight of Jerusalem, God declares
that at the time that he created paradise he also created the holy city, to
be distinguished from the earthly Jerusalem, and showed it to Adam
before he sinned, then to Abraham, and then to Moses on Mt Sinai,
when he ‘showed him the likeness of the tabernacle and the vessels’
(2 Bar. 4.1-5; cf. Exod. 25.9, 40). We have here reference not only to
a heavenly paradise, but also a heavenly city and temple, best under-
stood as matching the pattern of the earthly city and temple. Lied
argues that in 2 Bar. 4.1-7 ‘there is no distinction between that
heavenly city and the sanctuary’, citing the way Jerusalem, Zion, and
the temple are used interchangeably in 3.6; 7.1-2; 8.1 (Lied 2008: 45)
and Sayers’ comment that ‘the notion of the city may be implicit in
the notion of the city and vice versa’ (Sayler 1984: 16), but this is far
from identifying them all as one single sanctum as in the Temple
Scroll and the Damascus Document (11QT a/11Q19 45.11-12; CD
12.1b-2a) (Loader 2009: 10-28). Were the author, however, to have
understood the city and temple as one single sacred entity and con-
nected it with paradise as also sacred, so that the entire realm for the
dwelling of the righteous could be seen as a sanctum, then it would
follow that he would have assumed that sexual relations would have
 LOADER Sexuality and Eschatology 61

been out of place there, thus in the second stage of his eschatology,
but this is far from clear and nowhere intimated, despite the author’s
clear emphasis on matters of holiness, as Lied rightly notes in relation
to temple vessels (Lied 2008: 259, 266).
The different order of reality between life in the messianic period
and life beyond it, which is described as analogous to that of angels, at
least in appearance, may well include the notion that at this level of
being matters such as sexual relations, eating and drinking, are no
longer relevant, but this, too, remains speculation. Significantly, stage
two depicts resurrected life which therefore assumes (transformed)
embodiment and life in a heavenly world. If 2 Baruch did envisage the
second stage of its eschatology as including celibacy, then the ground
for such a belief would not derive from negativity towards sexuality,
because the author depicts childbirth (and by implications sexual
relations) as something positive.
One could read Sibylline Oracles Book 3 as also envisaging a two-
stage eschatology. The reign of ‘a king from the sun’ (3.652), could
refer to the future reign of a Ptolemaic king (cf. also 193, 318, 608)
(so Collins, who identifies either Ptolemy VI Philometor (180–145
BCE ) or Ptolemy VIII Physcon (145–116 BCE) (J. Collins 2004: 8-17),
though this is disputed (see Buitenwerf 2003: 272-83). T hat promised
reign is described in characteristically messianic terms: it will bring
peace, see the temple’s wealth greatly increased, the harvest of land
and sea abundant (Sib. Or. 3.652-60), but climax in an assault on the
land and the temple (3.660-68). At that point God will intervene in
judgment (3.669-701), while ‘the sons of the great God will all live
peacefully around the temple’ (3.702-73), engaging in worship, enjoy-
ing an abundant life and living faithfully by God’s law (3.702-61). We
then read in 3.767 that God ‘will raise up a kingdom for all ages
among men’. This could be the beginning of a second stage, but this is
doubtful. There is no reference to a resurrection nor to a universal
judgment of individuals. The development is that the peaceful reign
will now extend to all. God’s law and house will be central and there
will be justice for all. The author employs the imagery of light and of
Isaiah 11’s imagery of peace among the animals and between animals
and humans (3.767; cf. also Isa. 2.3; 11.6-8; 12.6; 60.1; 65.25; Dan.
2.44; 7.27; Zech. 2.10; 14.16). The reign which follows God’s
judgment does not in any case suggest an age without procreation.
Life continues on earth.
62 Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha 24.1 (2014)

The book of Revelation, composed at roughly the same time as

4 Ezra and 2 Baruch, similarly has a two-step pattern but differs from
both in its sequence of events. Its stage one has the Messiah defeat the
enemies, Rome in particular (19.11-21), and consign the devil to be
chained in a bottomless pit for a thousand years, during which the
Messiah will reign (20.1-3). At the beginning of this reign the right-
eous martyrs are raised from the dead, to join this messianic reign,
which is centred on Jerusalem, the holy city (20.4-6). At its end the
devil is released and a further battle follows where the nations launch
an assault on Jerusalem, only to be defeated and permanently con-
signed with the devil to the lake of fire (20.7-10). Stage two begins
with the universal resurrection and judgment, after which all whose
names are not written in the book of life are also consigned perman-
ently to the lake of fire (20.11-15). In chs. 21–22 Revelation then
depicts the new Jerusalem on earth (descended from heaven) and
paradise as sacred space, but with no temple. God, it declares, is its
temple, and the implication is that therefore the whole dwelling place
of the righteous is a sanctum, in which, therefore, nakedness and
sexual relations would have no place. T his accords with earlier depic-
tions of the holy realm as one into which, according to Rev. 14.14, the
144,000 celibates, ‘who have not defiled themselves with women’ (a
comment about cultic not moral impurity), enter as the ‘first fruits’,
and who then are to be joined by a multitude of others (cf. also 7.1-7),
who are also by implication to be celibate (Loader 2012: 478-81).
Presumably during stage one in Revelation’s eschatology, the messi-
anic reign, sexual relations would have had their place. As noted
hypothetically in relation to 2 Baruch, deeming stage two a celibate
stage need not imply any negativity toward procreation in stage one.
2 Enoch appears initially also to locate the place of salvation,
paradise, the reward of the righteous (9.1), not on earth, but in heaven,
indeed in the third heaven (8.1-8), but it assumes a cosmology in
which paradise on earth connects to the heavenly world, so that
earthly and heavenly connect. Thus one can look into heaven from
Eden (31.2; 42.3) and the root of paradise is portrayed as being at the
exit that leads to the earth (8.4) (Loader). It does not imply like
Jubilees that paradise is a temple and that therefore sexual relations
would be out of place.
Luke’s Jesus promises immediate entry into paradise for the repent-
ant criminal, probably reflecting a celestial location (Lk. 23.43), but
 LOADER Sexuality and Eschatology 63

also appears to envisage a messianic kingdom based on Jerusalem to

which Jesus will return as its Messiah (Lk. 21.28; 13.35, respectively),
when God restores the kingdom to Israel (Acts 1.6; Lk. 24.21; 23.50-
51; 2.25, 38; 1.32-33, 68-75, respectively) and may well have envis-
aged a two-step eschatology like that of 4 Ezra and 2 Baruch, where
the general resurrection took place after the messianic reign. The
immediate entry into what is assumed to be heavenly paradise (as
already in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus) (16.19-31) may
indicate a belief that in the intervening period between death and
resurrection a degree of punishment and reward already occurs among
the souls of the dead. Stage two commences after resurrection and,
according to Lk. 22.33-35 in this stage sexual relations have no place.
The other clues in Luke in relation to the nature of resurrected life
come in his depiction of the resurrected Jesus, who, as noted above,
materializes and dematerializes, but who in his resurrected body also
eats (Lk. 24.15, 31, 36, 43, 51; Acts 1.9). Luke’s explanation in 22.33-
35 for the resurrected ones not engaging in sex is based, however, on
their immortality not on the nature of their new embodiment.
The comment by Mark’s Jesus in Mk 12.25 that the resurrected will
no longer engage in sexual relations but will instead be like the angels
belongs within what appears to be a simpler eschatology which, unlike
Luke’s, does not employ a two-stage model. In Mark, the most we
learn is that the Son of Man will return and send out his angels ‘to
gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the
ends of heaven’ (13.27; cf. also 14.62; similarly Mt. 24.31), presum-
ably those still alive. Nothing indicates an interim messianic reign.
Matthew assumes that the Son of Man’s arrival will initiate the day of
judgment, which apparently assumes a general resurrection (25.31-
32). This is probably already Mark’s view and also that of Paul. Paul’s
depictions of the eschaton similarly envisages a gathering of the
saints, their transformation, and a resurrection of the dead (whose
souls, those of believers, had been held safe with Christ till that
time—Phil. 1.23), followed by judgment and for the righteous: life in
their newly transformed state (1 Thess. 4.12-17; 1 Cor. 15.51-57). A
messianic reign appears as a prelude to God’s ultimate reign according
to 1 Cor. 15.21-28, but this is not a messianic reign on earth, as 4
Ezra, 2 Baruch, Luke and Revelation assume, but rather something
exercised now by the Messiah since his enthronement as Messiah at
God’s right hand.
64 Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha 24.1 (2014)

Paul, Mark, Matthew, and, despite his two-step eschatology, also

Luke, envisage life in a transformed resurrected state in which sexual
relations have no place. While it is not said, we may assume that, as in
Revelation, the new sacred realm by definition could not tolerate
nakedness or sexual relations, but also that it was of a spiritual order
where that such physical aspects no longer mattered. References to
feasting in that future state (Mt. 8.11-12; Lk. 13.28-29; Mk 14.25) and
to Jesus eating in that state (Lk. 24.43) reflect embodiment and normal
activity at least in relation to food. T his coheres generally with what
one might expect, given the depictions of future embodied life in the
various Jewish texts considered above. Nevertheless, it still is possible
that the Christian movement espoused a view of the nature of that
embodiment which was so spiritual as to render sex irrelevant, even if
it did not render food irrelevant. In part, however, and I suggest for the
main part, the absence of sexual relations had to do with seeing that
future space and time as holy and so requiring abstinence. They prob-
ably understood that, however, not as their having to suppress their
sexual desire and its expression in a permanent discipline of celibacy,
but as their also being of a nature where such desires ceased or ceased
to matter. T his was not in itself a devaluing of sexual desire and its
expression, let alone grounds for seeing them as evil, for in this age
they were part of God’s good creation, as Paul must insist, against
those who saw it differently and wanted to impose on all the calling
given to some to live now as they would then.
Clearly, in the interim disembodied state which all assume for those
who had died, whether with a low or high level of consciousness,
sexual relations and other physical activities have no place, and this
will be true also of the Jewish writings discussed above. T his applies
also where this state of post-mortem being has become the primary
focus of hope, rather than the day of resurrection and judgment, such
as we find in the Fourth Gospel and in Hebrews, and where that
interim state seems to be one which is no longer properly described as
sleep—as in Paul—but instead characterized by more developed
consciousness and awareness.

Conclusion
Among the possible backgrounds for the statement in Mk 12.25, we
have considered the belief that eternal life makes procreation and so
marriage and sexual relations redundant as possible but least likely.
 LOADER Sexuality and Eschatology 65

There is some precedent, directly and indirectly, for the view that the
age of resurrection might be seen as entering holy space which would
on grounds of its holiness exclude sexual relations and so marriage.
Paul’s view about sexual abstinence for prayer lends support for this
notion. Within Jewish literature of the period the view of an ultimate
future as resurrected to a heavenly holy state occurs in LAB, possibly
2 Baruch, and could be construed as likely in Jubilees, standing in
contrast to or as a step beyond the standard eschatology of a trans-
formed and renewed community life, including of the resurrected,
after the pattern of the present with holy and other space. As we have
seen, some developments suggest a spiritualizing which could lead in
addition to an understanding of the nature of the resurrection existence
in which sexual relations would not only be deemed out of place, but
as no longer an aspect of human need and desire. T he materializing
and dematerializing risen Jesus, his appearance from heaven, and
Paul’s insistence on non-physicality, may well indicate that both
notions of holy space and a specific ontology of resurrection informs
Mk 12.25.
There was clearly considerable freedom of imagination in envis-
aging the nature of resurrection, including both transformation of
existing bodies, their replacement, and notions of embodiedness in the
sense of speaking, hearing, and seeing which were barely thought of
as embodied at all. T he Markan logion may well reflect such specula-
tion, but it is also to be seen as expressing something endemic to early
Christian eschatology. The adaptation of messianic expectations and
their transformation into a spiritual kingdom would have encouraged
such thought.

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