Virgin is apparently an important word for those who are into olive oil or
religion. In many cultures, virginity has been highly
valued, and associated with purity and virtue and high sexual moral.
Islamic law and scriptures are quite funny in the sense that sexual
activity is very restricted in the earthly life, but Paradise is quite erotic. Personally,
I think it might be better to do it the other way around, but I didn’t write the
Quran.
In Paradise the men who are admitted will meet 72 virgins who are ready
to provide them with pleasure. The 72 virgins may get quite busy because, also
according too Islamic scripture, the men in Paradise have eternal erection. In
earthly life, this is a painful medical condition (priapism). But we all know
that our world is not always a paradise.
Our most admired virgin is Mary, the mother of Jesus. There has been
debate among scholars if she stayed virgin forever, or if Jesus had a bunch of
brothers and sisters. This is basically a discussion about ambiguous
translations of old Hebrew and Greek texts.
In our new 2011 translation of the Bible, Mary is not a virgin anymore.
The word which has traditionally been translated to virgin can also mean young
woman. And that’s what she has become in some of the verses (Isaiah 7:14). That’s not too bad either, becoming a young
woman after all these years.
Regarding women, I have no strong preference, but when it comes to olive oil,
I usually go for extra virgin.
Hello there.
ReplyDeleteI'm a big fan of extra virgin olive oil. It's excellent on naturally curly hair and I actually make my own hair souffle with EVOO, shea butter and coconut oil.
With regards to Mary...yes, she was a virgin when God chose her to bear His Son, Jesus (Luke 1:30-33). She did not remain a virgin, however, because she went on to have other children besides Jesus with her husband Joseph (Matthew 13:55, 56) - The Nazarenes referred to the natural, physical family that lived in their village, Joseph the carpenter, his wife Mary and her sons and daughters whom they knew to be the natural brothers and sisters of this man Jesus. The idea of "Queen Mary" or "Virgin Mary" is not a Bible teaching but actually goes back to ancient Babylon with its pagan religion and customs. You might find Matthew 15:3, 6-9 and Colossians 2:8 fitting in this case.
Enjoy the rest of the challenge!
Entrepreneurial Goddess
That's what I learnt in school too, that Mary went on to have more children. But then there is a question of ambiguity in translation. Some linguists argue that the words that translate to brothers and sisters of Jesus may refer to cousins ... The problem is that the English version of the Bible is a translation
DeleteExactly what I would have said EG, except the part about using oil on my hair. I don't have any.
DeleteWe only use extra virgin olive oil. No idea what it means those. Were those olives never touched?
ReplyDeleteI read about this once when I was in Greece. The olives are used and reused several times in avious prcesses extracting the oil (from the top of my head): First cold squeezing, then hot squeezing, then centrifugation. The quality of the extracted oil is best in the early stages of the process. The very first stage produce the extra virgin. The last stages make stuff for industrial use, such as soap production.
DeleteHaha, extra virgin in bed might be quite a catastrophic event, at least based on my experience... Extra virgin olive oil is another story. It's the best quality you can get. That's a nice paradox. :-)
ReplyDeleteExtra virgin in bed can be somewhat awkward. There's something about experience and creativity. Sometimes olive oil is easier to deal with than women >;)
DeleteNot really, see, you cannot use the extra virgin olive oil for cooking! It's the same with women: you must know which sort is the best for what ;-)
Deletenew thought--extra virgin is not recommended for cooking/ baking. Seemingly itt can be harmful when heated :-) so could also be catastrophic.
ReplyDeleteThanks for visiting me though U for Underline was pretty boring by comparisom.
Beautiful featured photo--where is it?
@AnneKnol1 from
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I don't bake much, but must admit I use extra virgin for cooking.
DeleteI wonder how they ever came up with the idea of 72 virgins. Seems silly to me. One, that's a large number. And for every man (or Islamic man)? There wouldn't be enough. And eternal erections? Yeah, those virgins wouldn't be virgins anymore. Their logic isn't sound. At least not to me.
ReplyDeleteAs for oil, I also use extra virgin.
It's not logical to me either (a lot of scriptures aren't). It probably takes an Islamic scholar to interpret the meaning of this. Eventually we will see how it works if we're admitted to Paradise >:)
DeleteA permanent erection is not my idea of paradise nor is having that many sexual partners. I've had enough already. I think I'll stick to the one I've got, and dream of heaven where sex, if there is any-and I won't mind if there isn't- is pure and beautiful like God intended it to be. I use extra virgin for cooking. Sorry about that. I don't even know why.
ReplyDeleteI guess you can always pick one virgin and send the 71 others back home >:)
DeleteA very good point - why wait for heaven for goodness sake..
ReplyDeleteAt least we know what we have in our earthly life. Nobody knows if we ever make it to Heaven or Paradise
DeleteEducational as always. I wonder what the reward is for the women who enter paradise, assuming that they are allowed, or at least the ones that are no longer, um, pure.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure. Women don't play a very active role in Islam (with a couple of exceptions). Not sure what kind of promise Paradise has for the women, nor how the 72 virgins are recruited.
DeleteAccording to Islam, women should not stay virgin after they marry, so I guess there's no purity requirement for women who arrive with a wedding ring
There's just something about that word...
ReplyDeleteI used to just go for the extra virgin olive oil, but lately I've tried regular. I'm not sure if it makes that much of a difference. But then again, I'm not a bit foodie.
Liz A. from Laws of Gravity
I don't know either if extra virgin makes a really big difference- I've never done a blind test
DeleteI wonder if those 72 virgins are virgins forever, returning to the virginal state after the guy has had his way because otherwise where would they get a constant supply of virgins? 72 for every man. not much fun for the virgins.
ReplyDeleteThat's probably a question we need an Imam to answer. However, if virgin birth is possible, I guess anything is possible in Paradise >:)
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