Politics as Sex: The Old Testament Case

In The Origin of Species and Selection in Relation to Sex, Darwin predicted that success in competition would lead to success in reproduction. In the 20th century CE, that relationship was looked for around 700 times, and almost always found. Sometime after the 10th century BCE, it had already been written into the Bible. In the Old Testament, powerful men-patriarchs, judges, and kings-have sex with more wives; they have more sex with other men's women; they have sex with more concubines, servants and slaves; and they father many children. Bible authors knew that sex and power went together: on his way out of Egypt, Moses warned that a king might ‘multiply wives for himself (Deuteronomy 17:17); and when David took Israel over from Saul, he was given his ‘master's wives’ along with his master's house (2 Samuel 12:8). Throughout the Old Testament, people act on a mandate to reproduce. From Genesis to the prophets, they do their best to ‘be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it’ (Genesis 1:28).

Abstract licence: CC BY-NC

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