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This is taking too much time, so just a few remarks. (1) No one is asking that sex between a couple is unrelated to procreation, all things being equal. The quote from St Maximus the Confessor doesn't really say what you seem to want it to say. He criticizes the man "who seeks in it ONLY sensual pleasure...." Moreover, I would not categorize the unitive aspect of lovemaking ever as "ONLY sensual pleasure." This is perhaps why, e.g., the Roman Catholic Church does not classify NFP as contraception. Besides, the ''Song of Songs'' is pleasure through and through, with no mention of children or childbearing! As for St Nikodemos, his theology ways in many ways quite Catholic - I shouldn't be surprised that he took a Roman view of Onan. Verse 18 of the Leviticus passage deals with emissions stemming from intercourse; vv 16-17 dealt with nocturnal emissions. The Eastern Fathers (with the exception of Epiphanios), along with the Rabbis, did not see Onan's sin as one of contraception. It was his disobedience of God and the law on Levirate marriage. There was no law about ''coitus interruptus'', much less a death penalty for it. One final comment on Onan, this time from Jacob Milgrom's Leviticus commentary: "May a married couple practice ''coitus interruptus''? The example of Onan (Gen 38.8-10) is irrelevant. His act is condemned because he refused to act as the levir and thus denied an heir to his deceased brother.... the silence of our text would permit the inference that birth control was not prohibited as long as the couple had reproduced. This, indeed, is the opinion of the rabbis: two males according to R. Shammai.... and one male and one female according to R. Hillel...."
:I think you might be surprised to find how similar the traditional Eastern view might be to the traditional Western view regarding marital sex. Western, or Western-affiliated fathers like St Epiphanius, haven’t been the only ones to emphasise that the procreative aspect of marital sex is essential. Gregory of Nyssa clearly expresses it as his ideal, as does Maximus the Confessor (although the latter doesn’t discuss the relationship of the unitive aspect of sex to the procreative in the same terms as in dissenting position 1, as you’ve pointed out). Regarding 1, while this quote of St Maximus’ is not saying exactly the same thing as dissenting position #1, it does clearly state that he believes the purpose of procreation to be essential to the sexual act. As for Nicodemus taking the “Roman” view of Onan, there is, as far as I know, no “Eastern” view on Onan apart from St Epiphanius of Salamis. Can you point specifically to discussions of Onan’s sin by any Eastern Fathers other than St Epiphanius? As for rabbinic commentary, while it is interesting, I don’t take it as authoritative regarding Orthodox moral teaching or interpretation of scripture. Do you? Yevamot, which I think Milgrom uses to find Rs. Shammai and R Hillel’s opinions, is particularly strange, insisting among other things in 34b, that Tamar broke her hymen with her finger, that sexual intercourse cannot result in conception the first time, and that both Er and Onan engaged in anal sex with Tamar. Yevamot also seems to imply that heterosexual anal intercourse is permitted on occasion.
:Interestingly, when we look at the text of Genesis 38, there was no command from God in Genesis 38 regarding Onan’s taking Tamar as his wife and “raising up seed unto his brother” – it was, in fact, a command from his father, Judah (no model of Christian morality). Moreover, there were no laws regarding ritual impurity as this was Pre-Sinai and the giving of the Mosaic law. All we have is that Onan disobeyed his father, and that something about Onan’s action was so displeasing to God such as to merit death.
:Regarding Song of Songs, just because it emphasises the loveliness of physical union and does not mention childbearing does not mean Scripture justifies actively divorcing the procreative aspect of sex from the unitive aspect. Moreover, it’s traditionally considered to be a dialogue between Solomon and one of his lovers (whether it’s one of his 1000 concubines or wives, we do not know). This is hardly a book from which Orthodox Christians should take their cues regarding sexual morality, is it?
:The Roman Catholic Church does classify NFP as contraception (see Humanae Vitae), however classifies it as the only acceptable form of contraception (for casuistic reasons which defy my understanding – again, see Humanae Vitae) aside from total abstinence.
:To summarise the argument to date, I’ve offered Fathers’ views either condemning contraception and/or emphasising the essentiality of the procreative aspect of sex within sexual acts. You’ve tried to dismiss each of these, either by claiming that they’re not Fathers (Clement), that they’re too “Western” (Jerome, Augustine, Caeserius) or Western-affiliated (Epiphanius, Nicodemus), or that they don’t actually mean what they say (Nyssa, Maximus, Chrysostom). At the same time you haven’t produced a single Orthodox voice pre-20th century which endorses a single form of contraception. If I haven’t persuaded you on this basis (even regarding the ridiculousness of Evdokimov’s comment on the issue of birth control not being raised in the age of the Fathers), then I’m not sure I have much hope at this stage. Consequently, I’ll have to change tack. I’m assuming that we both agree that heterosexual anal intercourse within marriage is not good for a couple (please correct me if that is not the case). What exactly is it that is wrong about this kind of sex in your view? I ask this to find out the rationale behind your picture of sexual morality.--[[User:Gmharvey|Gmharvey]] ([[User talk:Gmharvey|talk]]) 10:32, July 10, 2018 (UTC)