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You seem intent on misunderstanding. I don't deny that semen was what Onan spilt, but that is implied by the text -- Jerome added a word to the text in his "translation," a THIRD occurrence of vera/sperma. And I showed that the two actual occurrences in the text of zera/sperma cannot mean semen in this instance. If we follow your remarks just now, we get the mistranslation, "But because Onan knew that the ejaculate would not be his, it would come about that he would pour out upon the ground when he would go in to his brothers wife so that he would not give ejaculate to his brother." --[[User:Fr Lev|Fr Lev]] ([[User talk:Fr Lev|talk]]) 13:43, June 27, 2018 (UTC)
::I don’t know what it means to suggest that I’m intent on misunderstanding. I either understand, or do not. In any case, that’s not what I mean. It seems that sperma in this passage implies both offspring (especially in its first occurrence) and imply ejaculate (especially in its second occurrence, along with the meaning of offspring). In any case, we both agree that this passage is conveying that Onan spilt his ejaculate on the ground instead of in the vagina of Tamar when he had sex with her, in order to avoid procreating a child that would legally be his brother’s. If we both agree that this is the meaning, what is the significance of St Jerome’s inclusion of “semen” as the direct object of “fundebat”? Surely none? --[[User:Gmharvey|Gmharvey]] ([[User talk:Gmharvey|talk]]) 08:49, June 28, 2018 (UTC)
:I’m not sure what you mean by “Greek” views on marriage? Please elaborate. Also, how is approval of contraception any less unbiblical than its condemnation (by Jerome or whomever)? No verse either directly approves of or condemns its use. Is everything that isn’t forbidden in the bible moral, or edifying for the Christian? It should also be noted that “for the procreation of children” does not necessarily mean that its enjoyment it to be precluded, just that it is naturally oriented towards this (i.e. procreation is at least one of its teloi), and that actively preventing sex from leading to procreation would be unnatural. This, I argue, is very Orthodox, and very Patristic.