comparison between Jewish and Christian family life, and as justification for
studying each society separately.^14 Even scholars who have examined Jewish
and Christian family institutions in tandem have emphasized the theological
gap that exists in this context.^15
The Christian preference for celibacy was central from its beginnings.^16 In-
deed, most of the extant medieval records dealing with attitudes toward pro-
creation were written by the same small and select group that chose celibacy
as its way of life. Men who lived in monastic frameworks understood their
choice as an expression of their ability to refrain from worldly pleasures and re-
main pure. Women who chose to be nuns viewed their celibacy, especially if
they were virgins, as a ticket to the male spiritual environment and an escape
from their fate as women.^17 Yet despite the many references to these men and
women in medieval literature, we must remember that this was not the ma-
jority choice. Most Christians throughout the ages were married, not celibate.
Because they esteemed the ideal of celibacy, Christian society treated mar-
ried life as the less ideal choice. Nevertheless, in their discussions of nonceli-
bate married women, the medieval authors resembled their Jewish peers. The
cultural significance of women as childbearers is also evident in these authors’
descriptions of women who forewent motherhood to become brides of Christ.
As a number of scholars, especially Caroline Bynum, have shown, images of
birth and of maternity are prominent in descriptions of all women, including
those who do not actually give birth.^18
Jews, as is well known, did not share this attitude toward celibacy. While only
few Christians actually chose the monastic way of life, all saw this as an ideal,
albeit one that posed too big a challenge for most. In contrast, all Jews saw pro-
creation as an obligatory and positive commandment. Jewish and Christian at-
titudes toward the biblical commandment of procreation from antiquity
through the Middle Ages have been examined in a recent study by Jeremy
Cohen. Cohen examined Jewish and Christian attitudes toward the biblical
command. His study altered the prevailing tendency to present Jewish and
Christian attitudes as completely distinct. Cohen emphasized that in spite of
their fundamental difference, there were also areas of similarity. For example,
Cohen maintained that despite the ideal of celibacy, some Christian scholars
included procreation as part of the ius naturalis(natural order). In other words,
procreation was not simply a commandment to be interpreted allegorically,
but one that had practical implications. Thus, Cohen demonstrates that
among the eastern Church Fathers, procreation within a family framework was
understood as a positive commandment.^19
Procreation was often reassessed and discussed in Western Christian thought
throughout the Middle Ages. While some claimed that procreation was a bib-
lical commandment no longer relevant to Christian lives, other interpreters
began to attribute more importance to the commandment to procreate within
the marital framework. For example, in some cases, the biblical command-
rick simeone
(Rick Simeone)
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