The emphasis on chastity, virginity, and lack of defilement from women does not have to do with misogyny or asceticism. In biblical perspective, it means that this is both a liturgical and <\/em>a military assembly.<\/p>\n When Israel arrived at Sinai, the men had to keep themselves from women so as not to be defiled when Yahweh arrived to initiate a covenant ceremony. This gets institutionalized in Leviticus 15, which prohibits anyone who has had sexual relations from entering the presence of God without being purified by washing. Not being defiled by women means being prepared for worship.<\/p>\n Hebrew warriors were also required to keep themselves from women. When David got showbread from the priest, he had to assure the priest that the men had been kept from women. Uriah refused to go in to sleep with Bathsheba when David brought him back from the war because he was still under special purity regulations that applied to the war camp. Deuteronomy 23:9-11 indicates that a man who had a nocturnal emission had to purify himself before returning to the war camp. The war camp was not as holy as the sanctuary, but it was holy.<\/p>\n Within Revelation, this has an additional significance. In the letters to the churches, Jesus warns the angels about two main sins, which are encouraged by both Balaam and by the prophetess Jezebel \u2013 eating things sacrifice to idols and committing acts of porneia. These are the sins that Balaam literally encouraged Israel to commit, and in Revelation they amount to a false, idolatrous wedding feast of the Lamb. That the 144,000 have \u201ckept themselves from women\u201d and \u201care chaste\u201d means that they have resisted the Balaamite temptation.\u00a0<\/p>\n In the context of Revelation, this has to do with Judaizing. The 144,000 are from the twelve tribes of Israel, but they refuse to join Israel\u2019s idolatry of the sea beast, refuses to join with the harlot Babylon, refuses to drink the \u201cwine of the passion of her porneia\u201d (14:8). They have kept themselves from the harlot and the rest of the company of whores who are in Babylon\u2019s brothel.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The emphasis on chastity, virginity, and lack of defilement from women does not have to do with misogyny or asceticism. In biblical perspective, it means that this is both a liturgical and a military assembly. When Israel arrived at Sinai, the men had to keep themselves from women so as not to be defiled when […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3021,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible-nt-revelation"],"yoast_head":"\n