Editing Lust (section)

====Christianity====
=====New Testament=====
In many translations of the [[New Testament]], the word "lust" translates the [[Koine Greek]] word ἐπιθυμέω (epithūméō),<ref>{{Cite web |title=Wiktionary ἐπιθυμέω |url=https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E1%BC%90%CF%80%CE%B9%CE%B8%CF%85%CE%BC%CE%AD%CF%89 |access-date=2022-01-26}}</ref> particularly in [[Matthew 5:27-28]]:

{{Blockquote|Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust (ἐπιθυμέω) after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.}}

In English-speaking countries, the term "lust" is often associated with [[sexual desire]], probably because of this verse. However, just as the English word was originally a general term for 'desire', the Greek word ἐπιθυμέω was also a general term for desire. The [[LSJ]] lexicon suggests "set one's heart upon a thing, long for, covet, desire" as glosses for ἐπιθυμέω, which is used in verses that clearly have nothing to do with sexual desire. In the [[Septuagint]], ''ἐπιθυμέω'' is the word used in the commandment to not covet:

{{Blockquote|You shall not covet your neighbour's wife; you shall not covet your neighbour's house or his field or his male slave or his female slave or his ox or his draft animal or any animal of his or whatever belongs to your neighbour.|Exodus 20:17, New English Translation of the Septuagint}}

While coveting your neighbour's wife may involve sexual desire, it's unlikely that coveting a neighbour's house or field is sexual in nature. And in most New Testament uses, the same Greek word, ''ἐπιθυμέω'', does not have a clear sexual connotation. For example, from the [[American Standard Version]] the same word is used outside of any sexual connotation:

# [[Wikisource:Bible (American Standard)/Matthew#13:17|Matthew 13:17]]: For verily I say unto you, that many prophets and righteous men ''desired'' to see the things which ye see, and saw them not; and to hear the things which ye hear, and heard them not.
# [[Wikisource:Bible (American Standard)/Luke#22:15|Luke 22:15-16]]: And he said unto them, With ''desire'' I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer: for I say unto you, I shall not eat it, until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God.
# [[Wikisource:Bible (American Standard)/Acts#20:33|Acts 20:33]]: I ''coveted'' no man's silver, or gold, or apparel. Ye yourselves know that these hands ministered unto my necessities, and to them that were with me.
# [[Wikisource:Bible (American Standard)/Luke#15:14|Luke 15:14-16]]: And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that country; and he began to be in want. And he went and joined himself to one of the citizens of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he ''would fain'' have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him.

=====Catholicism=====
[[File:Daemon.jpg|left|thumb|A demon [[masturbation|satiating his lust]] in a 13th-century manuscript]]According to the ''[[Catholic Encyclopedia]]'', a Christian's heart is lustful when "venereal satisfaction is sought for either outside wedlock or, at any rate, in a manner which is contrary to the laws that govern marital intercourse".<ref>{{CathEncy|wstitle=Lust}}</ref> [[Pope John Paul II]] said that lust devalues the eternal attraction of male and female, reducing personal riches of the opposite sex to an object for gratification of sexuality.<ref name="PopeJohn">Pope John Paul II, ''Mutual Attraction Differs from Lust''. ''[[L'Osservatore Romano]]'', weekly edition in English, 22 September 1980, p. 11. Available at http://www.ewtn.com/library/papaldoc/jp2tb39.htm .</ref>

Lust is considered by [[Catholicism]] to be a disordered desire for [[sexual pleasure]], where sexual pleasure is "sought for itself, isolated from its procreative and unitive purposes".<ref>'Catechism of the Catholic Church, n° 2351 sq.</ref> In Catholicism, sexual desire in itself is good, and is considered part of God's plan for humanity. However, when sexual desire is separated from God's love, it becomes disordered and self-seeking. This is seen as lust.

St. [[Thomas Aquinas]] differentiates between sexual intercourse within marriage, which is seen as meritorious through giving justice to one's spouse, and sins of lust which can themselves be differentiated in magnitude of immorality according to intention and action. For example, Aquinas says in the [[Summa Theologica]] II-II, q. 154, a. 12 "I answer that, In every genus, worst of all is the corruption of the principle on which the rest depend. Now the principles of reason are those things that are according to nature, because reason presupposes things as determined by nature, before disposing of other things according as it is fitting." He uses St. Augustine as his source writing "Augustine says that 'of all these,' namely the sins belonging to lust, 'that which is against nature is the worst.'" Which St. Thomas clarifies means that they are greater than sins against justice pertaining to the genus of lust, such as rape or incest, in his statement "Reply to Objection 3: The nature of the species is more intimately united to each individual, than any other individual is. Wherefore sins against the specific nature are more grievous." Thus St. Thomas gives the order of magnitude of lustful acts as: "The most grievous is the sin of bestiality, because use of the due species is not observed...(Then) the sin of sodomy, because use of the right sex is not observed...(Then) the sin of not observing the right manner of copulation (or the unatural act or masturbation)... (Then) incest... is contrary to the natural respect which we owe persons related to us... Then, it is a greater injustice to have intercourse with a woman who is subject to another's authority as regards the act of generation, than as regards merely her guardianship. Wherefore adultery is more grievous than seduction. And both of these are aggravated by the use of violence."     <ref>{{cite web |last1=Aquinas |first1=St Thomas |title=Summa Theologiae |url=https://www.newadvent.org/summa/3154.htm#article12 |website=NewAdvent.org |access-date=1 September 2021}}</ref>

The Latin for ''extravagance'' (Latin: ''luxuria'') was used by St. [[Jerome]] to translate a variety of biblical sins, including drunkenness and sexual excess.<ref>Mark D. Jordan, ''The Invention of Sodomy'' (1994) p. 37</ref> [[Gregory the Great]] placed ''luxuria'' as one of the seven capital sins (it is often considered the least serious of the seven deadly sins), narrowing its scope to disordered desire,<ref>Mark D. Jordan, ''The Invention of Sodomy'' (1994) pp. 39–40; [https://www.academia.edu/8268216/_Luxure_cléricale_gouvernement_de_l_Église_et_royauté_capétienne_au_temps_de_la_Bible_de_saint_Louis_Revue_Mabillon_25_2014_p._165-194 Julien Théry, "Luxure cléricale, gouvernement de l’Église et royauté capétienne au temps de la 'Bible de saint Louis'", ''Revue Mabillon'', 25, 2014, pp. 165–194]</ref> and it was in this sense that the Middle Ages generally took ''luxuria'', (although the [[Old French]] [[cognate]] was [[loan word|adopted]] into English as ''luxury'' without its sexual meaning by the 14th century{{Citation needed|date=February 2011}}).

[[File:Sankt_Bartholomäus_(Reichenthal)_04.jpg|left|thumb|156x156px|Detail of ''Lust'' at the [[Bartholomew the Apostle|Sankt Bartholomäus]] church ([[Reichenthal]]), [[Pulpit]] (1894)]]

In [[Romanesque art]], the [[Anthropomorphism|personified]] Luxuria is generally feminine,<ref>J. Jerman/A. Weir, ''Images of Lust'' (2013) p. 30</ref> often represented by a [[siren (mythology)|siren]] or a naked woman with breasts being bitten by snakes. [[Prudentius]] in his ''[[Psychomachia]]'' or 'Battle of the Soul' had described<ref>Helen Waddell, ''The Wandering Scholars'' (1968) p. 48</ref>

<blockquote>Luxury, lavish of her ruined fame, Loose-haired, wild-eyed, her voice a dying fall, Lost in delight....</blockquote>

For [[Dante]], Luxuria was both the first of the circles of incontinence (or self-indulgence) on the descent into hell, and the last of the cornices of Mount Purgatory, representing the excessive (disordered) love of individuals;<ref>Dante, ''Hell'' (1975) p. 101; Dante, ''Purgatory'' (1971) p. 67 and p. 202</ref> while for [[Edmund Spenser]], ''luxuria'' was synonymous with the power of desire.<ref>C. J. Berry, ''The Idea of Luxury'' (1994) pp. 97–8</ref>

For Gregory and subsequent Thomists, the 'daughters' (by-products) of Luxuria included mental blindness, self-love, haste, and excessive attachment to the present.<ref>Mark D. Jordan, ''The Invention of Sodomy'' (1994) pp. 37–9</ref> [[Marianne Dashwood]] has been seen as embodying such characteristics for a later age – as a daughter of Luxuria.<ref>Robert Liddell, ''The Novels of Jane Austen'' (London 1963) p. 22</ref>

The [[Catholic Church]] defines lust as the idolatry of sexual pleasure, in all of its forms: [[contraception]], [[masturbation]], [[adultery]], [[premarital sex|premarital relations]], [[homosexuality|relations between persons of the same sex]], etc, which destroys the human capacity of loving, that is, of the person to give themselves to God and to others.

=====Protestantism=====
{{POV section|date=January 2022}}
The evangelical [[Melvin Tinker]] states that: "The principle is clear isn't it, 'You shall not commit adultery'? How does the Pharisee handle it according to the minimum requirement method? He says, 'Sex outside marriage is OK for us because neither of us are really married. I am not sleeping with another man's wife, so it isn't adultery, she's my girlfriend'. Or it is also not adultery because 'I have not had sex with that woman.' to quote [[President Clinton]]'s plea in the [[Clinton–Lewinsky scandal|Monica Lewinski [''sic''] saga]]. So he can abuse his position as President by messing around with a girl who is hardly younger than his daughter, he can engage in all kinds of sexual activities with her, but because he technically doesn't have intercourse he can hold up his hands and say, 'I have not had sex with that woman.' That is a Pharisee speaking.

"But the maximum application method says, adultery doesn't just happen when you have sexual intercourse, it happens in your heart. However, the mistranslation is unfortunate at this point. In the Greek it says, 'If anyone looks upon a woman in order to lust, has already committed adultery with her in his heart.' That is an important distinction. I need to point that out because sexual arousal, sexual interest, sexual attraction are essential for the continuation of the human species. 

It is about looking in order to lust. The striptease show, the dirty movie or video, the internet pornography.

You see, it is the intending to look in order to have that arousal that Jesus has in his sights."<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.stjohnnewland.org.uk/sermtext.asp?id=273 |title=St John Newland - Sermon text |access-date=29 December 2018 |archive-date=30 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181230130539/https://www.stjohnnewland.org.uk/sermtext.asp?id=273 |url-status=dead }}</ref>