For follow-up discussion and general commentary on the topic. Comments are sorted chronologically.
Joe Bell
In 1987 I was at a friends house, passing time, reading a Bible. I distinctly remember reading that exact phrase about being 'better to place your seed in a whore than on the ground'. The declaration was so profound, that I never forgot about it; the words stayed with me. However, throughout the years, when I tried to look up the exact scripture, I could never find it; it disappeared. Fact is, I know what I read, because I read it several times to make sense of it, analyze it.
Now I'm thinking the Bible I read that from was an obscure version containing a liberal translation attached to Gen 38. This has since perplexed me and confounded my sensibilities for purity sake. This is the reason why I stick to the KJV for clarity of content.
If anyone has read this in any of the many versions of the Bible, please speak up now. Blessings to all.
Jerry Travler
When Onan had sex with Tamar, he withdrew before his orgasm and "spilled his seed [or semen] on the ground", since any child born would not legally be considered his heir. The next statement in the Bible says that Onan did evil and that God slew him.
Joe Bell
Yes, that's the generally accepted story. I'm asking if anyone has ever read it, in print, that 'it's better to place your seed in a whore than on the ground'. I have read it before.
I read it 30 years ago in an abridged format, so it's possible Tamar was made a prostitute (she tricked Judah) merging with Onan's story. So, the question remains, who else can attest to reading the whore/seed on ground = death?
Danny Hickman
The statement you're ascribing to the bible sounds like a proverb, does it not? It has the sound of posing as a "wise saying," although being actually void of any true wisdom. If I searched the scriptures looking for it (I have no idea why I would need to read anything like that enough to spend time searching for it) I would look at the Proverbs. There's no wisdom in the statement, but it sounds like a proverb.
I don't think having sexual intercourse with anyone other than a man's wife, could be wisely said to be better than masturbation. Better for whom? You have to remember that there's no way to "place your seed in a whore" short of "joining yourself" to a whore.
Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? Certainly not! Do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her? (1 Cor 6:15,16)
This is simple and plain. The word won't contradict itself in some other place and state that getting jiggy with a prostitute is better than anything else you can name. Spilling your semen on the ground might be offensive to God, I don't know one way or the other. But it doesn't join you to a harlot. You don't become one with the ground the way you would with a whore.
You can search the scriptures but I don't suppose you'll find that anywhere in the Bible. And I don't think it's been edited out of the scriptures either.
EDWARD BURNS
I read this verse myself back in I believe 1984. I was unsaved then and used this verse for bad reasons, but it was in the Bible.
Jack Gutknecht
It is an interpretation, I think, of Genesis 38:9, "And Onan knew that the seed should not be his; and it came to pass, when he went in unto his brother's wife, that he spilled it on the ground, lest that he should give seed to his brother."