'Learn' As in Biblical 'Know'

[Charles Doyle]

The idea that sexual experience (like all other human endeavors) could and should be an avenue to knowledge was a well established Christian/Platonic (even "Puritan") concept in the 16th and 17th centuries.  That's one of the implications of the term "carnal knowledge"--what's often referred to nowadays as "knowing in the biblical sense" (which means "in the KJV sense"!).  Of course, the phrase was also simply a euphemism.

Knowledge comes from learning; so it seems that we OUGHT to encounter sexual learning (and sexual teaching) alongside (or prior to) sexual knowledge!  Searching the phrase "carnal learning" does turn up some Google hits:  900+ of them, together with 500 in Google Books--some of which seem to quote the phrase from the early Quaker George Fox, and many are from the 19th century.

--Charlie



---- Original message ----
>Date: Tue, 24 Mar 2009 11:22:51 -0400
>From: Doug Harris <cats22 at STNY.RR.COM>
>Subject: 'Learn' As in Biblical 'Know'
>
>I'm not a biblical scholar, but I seem to recall it using the term 'know'  or 'known' relative to sexual intercourse. I recently saw what I imagined to be a twist on that concept, in a poem written by a 23-yr-old about a love-gone-bad situation. The line read 'Two years ago you learned me.' Earlier, she'd spoken of him fucking her. So the inference in the 'learned' reference is clear.
>--
>I don't recall ever seeing that usage before. Is it more common that I imagine it to be?

>dh

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