Erotica Judaica: A sexual history of the Jews

by Allen Edwardes

[Omnipotent Phallus; Plague of Lust; Flesh-and-blood Covenant; Marriage by Capture; Sexual Hospitality; The Ark & the Uncircumcised; Babylonian Capitivity; Hellenization; Roman Incubus; Renaissance

238 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1967

About the author

Born in 1939. Edwardes was also known as D.A. Kinsley

Reviews

[Ben · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is trash. Entertaining trash, but trash nonetheless. Rather than "Erotica" or a broad "Sexual History," it's largely focussed on circumcision and reversal thereof, with a few naughty historical tidbits thrown in. There are quite a few interesting midrashim (what did Onan do exactly? Who was Goliath's mother?) and Talmudic discussions (Is a priest whose penis hangs past his knee disqualified from Temple Service?) The authors creativity with non-Masoretic vowels which he renders into anatomical Anglo-Saxon for certain Bible verses is very problematic, and he relies on Tarikh-al-Yahud and the writings of RIchard Burton without introduction or appropriate caveat. I'll admit I couldn't put the book down, but I felt like I needed a shower afterwards.

[Diane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this whole book in one day. It was interesting though I felt like it needed a lot more documentation for what it suggested. At least half the book dealt with circumcision, which seemed boring, and made the earlier parts of the book seem somewhat bare by comparison. Also, as a pagan, all that male-centered penis worship got a bit frustrating. Still probably worth a read.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

A prurient and fun read that lacks citations and engages in embellishment to prove that Jews are a lustful lot.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another book I picked up for free from a book fair. And it did not disappoint. I know you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but I judged correctly in this case. This was an extremely fun and interesting read. This book starts by exploring the sexual symbolism present in the Bible itself and slowly delves into how that will later affect the sexual traditions and habits of Jewish people. It goes further into depth about the variety of sexual experiences present in Jewish life in different geographic regions (though mainly concentrated on Jews living in the Middle East and Europe). It also doesn’t shy away from talking about how Gentiles throughout history have tried to eradicate the ‘Jewish race’ through antisemitic laws and violent outbreaks. The main reasoning given by anti-semites for these indefensible acts of violence being mainly sexual myths they had about Jewish people peddled to them by the Church or through some other institutionalised propaganda (accusing Jewish men of raping Christian boys and girls, having sex with animals, throwing massive orgies, etc). It was sort of a relief to see the author address that aspect too, as part of me worried some of this book would fall under that same trap and peddle other stereotypical sexual myths about Jewish people to the reader. Luckily the author didn’t seem interested in that, which makes the stories told so much more fun!

That being said, there were some moments that I felt like were easily overlooked by the author. While he obviously doesn’t take any of the stereotypical myths at face value, I do get the sense that he assumes an ancient reading of the sexual practices of a given leader as an acceptable authority/source on the matter. For example, the section on Marcus Aurelius Antoninus. No doubt there were a lot of homosexual and effeminate men in the Roman Empire, and I don’t even doubt he may have been one of them, but I do wonder how much of his story (and others)- particularly the one about whipping out his newly-circumcised cock to scandalize a patriarchal delegation- is actually true or just exaggerated by his political opponents at the time. Politics do have a funny way of warping history and I wonder how much of that impacted the research done here. Indeed, researching anything regarding sexual history can just be sorting through what is just political hogwash and what actually happened. In any case, that’s not really something I can pin on the author as he’s clearly done a thorough job here, just something I always like to keep in mind when reading the sexual history of anything.

The conclusion also didn’t feel that strong to me. I get that he was trying to circle back to the idea of circumcision brought up in the beginning, but there were so many other forms of sexual symbolism that was brought up that I felt was wholly under appreciated in the end.

Even if it’s not the most accurate (and even better if it is more accurate than I currently presume), it’s still extremely entertaining. I love hearing about the sexual debauchery of modern humanity’s ancestors. I think it helps ground us and remind us not to take current social/health trends based on nothing more than aestheticism regarding sex so seriously. I mean, clearly they didn’t have it figured out either!