ABSTRACT
In his modest book, Sex and Family in the Bible and the Middle East (1959), Raphael Patai offers a survey of customs and traditions regarding family values and sexuality in both ancient Middle East and biblical times. Relevant to my subject, Patai brings to the fore symbolic codes concerning patriarchal hospitality and sexual licence. The two codes seem to generate uncompromising imperatives; the rules that generate them, however, may infringe on one another.
