English Translation
Masturbation leads to insanity.
Of course, this is utter nonsense!
True, and since we are in a language forum:
It goes all back to wrong translations and cultural misunderstandings.
Accoding to Genesis Onan’s brother died and he had to marry his brother’s widow. In nomadic cultures this is common (levirat?) and children from these marriages are considered to be children and heirs of the dead.
Now Onan tried to cheat his dead brother of an heir and “let his semen fall to earth”.
For this cheating and not fullfilling his family obligations, he was punished by God.
But not for the sexual practice that later got his name.
It took us 2000 years and countless generations of unhappy adolescents to translate and understand this story halfway correctly.
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