title: Religious views on masturbation

text: In his writing on 1 Thessalonians 4:3–5 ("It is God's will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control your own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the pagans, who do not know God;"), Luther advises that, "All young people should...resolve to strengthen themselves against lust and sexual passions by reading and meditating on a psalm or some other portion of God's Word...If your sexual appetites continually tempt you, be patient. Resist them as long as necessary, even if it takes more than a year. But above all, keep praying! If you feel that you can't stand it any longer, pray that God will give you a devout spouse with whom you can live in harmony and true love...I have known many people who, because of their crude and shameful fantasies, indulged their passion with unrestrained lust. Because of their insatiable desires, they abandoned self control, and lapsed into terrible immorality. In the end, they had to endure dreadful punishment."


title: Religious views on masturbation

text: Immanuel Kant, (who was raised as a Pietist), when writing on masturbation, argued that "...the question here is whether the human being is subject to a duty to himself with regard to this enjoyment, violation of which is a defiling (not merely a debasing)" of the humanity in his own person. The impetus to this pleasure is called carnal lust (or also simply lust). The vice engendered through it is called lewdness; the virtue with regard to this sensuous impulse is called chastity, which is to be represented here as a duty of the human being to himself. Lust is called unnatural if one is aroused to it not by a real object but by his imagining it, so that he himself creates one, contrary to [natural] purpose; for in this way imagination brings forth a desire contrary to nature's end, and indeed to an end even more important than that of love of life itself, since it aims at the preservation of the whole species and not only of the individual. That such an unnatural use (and so misuse) of one's sexual attribute is a violation of duty to oneself, and indeed one contrary to morality in its highest degree, occurs to everyone immediately, with the thought of it, and stirs up an aversion to this thought to such an extent that it is considered indecent even to call this vice by its proper name. But it is not so easy to produce a rational proof that unnatural, and even merely unpurposive, use of one's sexual attribute is inadmissible as being a violation of duty to oneself (and indeed, as far as its unnatural use is concerned, a violation in the highest degree). — The ground of proof is, indeed, that by it man surrenders his personality (throwing it away), since he uses himself merely as a means to satisfy an animal impulse. But this does not explain the high degree of violation of the humanity in one's own person by such a vice in its unnaturalness, which seems in terms of its form (the disposition it involves) to exceed even murdering oneself. It consists, then, in this...unnatural lust, makes man not only an object of enjoyment but, still further, a thing that is contrary to nature, that is, a loathsome object, and so deprives him of all respect for himself."


title: Religious views on masturbation

text: In Germany during the Weimar Republic period, there were Protestant societies for moral purity that opposed masturbation. In the Adenauer era, there was very strict sexual morality in the Church. However, at the end of the 1960s, Protestant theologians set about redefining human sexuality. Siegfried Keil emerged as a leading figure in this movement but even he continued to oppose masturbation, seeing it as immoral. However, in 1971, the Church published its "Denkschrift zu Fragen der Sexualethik" ("Memorandum on Issues of Sexual Ethics"), which took an extremely liberal position on masturbation. Sexologist Volkmar Sigusch claimed the positions in the memorandum read like they could have been written by liberal sex education teachers, rather than by pastors and theologians. Despite this liberalization, there was a growing alienation between the Church and faithful in the 1970s as people no longer turned to the church for advice on sexual morality but to doctors and sexual magazines. This was a dramatic shift from the 1950s, when the Churches had dominated the field of public and private morality in Germany. In the 1960s, theologians had been either criticised or respected by the media as moral figures but now they were simply ignored. However, the liberalization of the theologians and the pastors chiefly served to brand the majority view in the Church as backward-looking and traditionalist.


title: Religious views on masturbation

text: Despite its liberalism, the 1971 memorandum still forbade sex outside of marriage, pornography usage and group sex. Sigusch wrote, "Protestant ethics disqualifies most sexual relations. the unmarried have today...[However] the attitudes of the Lutheran Church in Germany (EKD) memorandum on masturbation, contraception, [and] various sexual practices...are...largely liberal...Sexually deviant behaviors enjoy tolerance." There has not been another memorandum on sexuality since that time, despite an attempt to draft one between 2010 and 2015.


title: Religious views on masturbation

text: Despite its official liberalism, the EKD contains Christians with a much more conservative view of sexuality. A 2015 academic study found that although Germany is a relatively sexually-liberal country and that young people's viewing of pornography is linked to masturbation, pornography use is lower amongst religious youth. The authors of the study found that "...organizational religious activity was negatively associated with pornography use. Participants attending church or other religious meetings on a regular basis were older at their first exposure (weak association) and used pornography less often (strong association). This result confirmed findings from previous research on associations between religiosity and sexual behaviour: frequent attendance of religious services is generally related to greater sexual abstinence, fewer lifetime sexual partners, delayed age of sexual debut and lesser likelihood of premarital sex...We also found a negative relationship between non-organizational religious activity and current pornography engagement (relatively large effect). Spending time in private religious activities, such as prayer, meditation, or Bible study, was associated with lower frequency of pornography use in the last six months...In agreement with the findings in several previous studies...we found that religious attendance was negatively associated with pornography use."


title: Religious views on masturbation

text: There are ongoing debates about sexual ethics between liberal and conservative pastors in the German church.


title: Religious views on masturbation

text: The sexually-liberal Church of Sweden argues that masturbation is not a sin. The church's pastors frequently address the issue in confirmation classes for adolescents. The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland also has a positive view of masturbation, noting that it provides a secure approach to sex for single people by reducing the temptation to drift into promiscuity. The Lutheran churches in the Scandinavian countries are known for being, generally speaking, sexually very liberal compared with, for example, the Lutheran churches in the Baltic states, which are more traditional.


title: Religious views on masturbation

text: The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Metropolitan Chicago Synod believes that masturbation is sinful.


title: Religious views on masturbation

text: The conservative Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod's Commission on Theology and Church Relations says the following regarding masturbation: "To view our sexuality in the context of a personal relationship of mutual love and commitment in marriage helps us to evaluate the practice. "Chronic" masturbation falls short of the Creator's intention for our use of the gift of sexuality, namely, that our sexual drives should be oriented toward communion with another person in the mutual love and commitment of marriage."


title: Religious views on masturbation

text: The Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod has said the following regarding masturbation: “Masturbation is self-stimulation to some form of arousal and climax. God gave sex as a gift and a blessing to human beings for marriage with a life-long partner of the opposite sex. Self-stimulation is a corruption of God’s gift and blessing of sex.”


title: Religious views on masturbation

text: Doctor John Kleinig, Lecturer Emeritus at the Australian Lutheran College, argues that, "The regular use of pornography for masturbation is a kind of sexual addiction. When Paul speaks about impurity and sexual greed as idolatry in Ephesians 5:3-7 and Colossians 3:5, he accurately describes how it works. It begins with sexual impurity, the defilement of our imagination by depictions of sexual intercourse that present naked bodies as idols for us to admire. Our fixation on these images arouses disordered desires and make us more and more greedy for sexual satisfaction from things that God has not given to us for our enjoyment. Yet they fail to satisfy us and serve only to feed our growing appetite for them...Where masturbation is involved...the more ashamed we become, the more secretive we become; the more secretive we become and the more we hide in the darkness, the more vulnerable we become to the accusation and condemnation of Satan...You need to be careful that Satan does not distort your perception by making a fool of you and getting you to focus on the wrong thing. Nowhere in the Bible is masturbation explicitly forbidden. There is good reason for this because the problem does not come from masturbation, which is in itself neither good or bad, but the adulterous sexual fantasies that accompany it, as Christ makes clear in Matthew 5:28. That's the problem spiritually!...That's how Satan gets a hold on us through our imagination. If you use pornography to masturbate, you put another woman, an idol that promises heaven and gives you hell, sexually, in the place of your wife. It arouses your greed for what you don't have, greed for what God has not given for you to enjoy, greed that increases as you give in to it. The more you indulge it, the more dissatisfied and empty you become."


title: Religious views on masturbation

text: John Calvin, the founder of the Reformed tradition (which includes the Continental Reformed, Presbyterian, Congregationalist, and many Anglican Churches), taught that the Onan passage actually condemned coitus interruptus. In his Commentaries on Genesis (1554), Calvin teaches that "the voluntary spilling of semen outside of intercourse between a man and a woman is a monstrous thing. Deliberately to withdraw from coitus in order that semen may fall on the ground is double monstrous." Nevertheless, Calvin was strongly against masturbation.


title: Religious views on masturbation

text: For Reformed Christians, masturbation came to be considered, as early as the 17th century, a major deviation, as evidenced by the writings of the Calvinist Richard Capel: "The pollution of oneself is the worst and most polluting of sins of impurity." Protestants at this time looked on masturbation much more seriously than Roman Catholics did.


title: Religious views on masturbation

text: According to Humbert, "Protestants, by rediscovering the Bible, had brought up to date the Old Testament notions of the Jewish religion, and among them the requirement of purity...In the Calvinist exegesis of the Bible, children were affected from the moment of their birth by original sin, so that parents had to start early to give them a strict education on proper morals. In this context, it explains the insistence to eradicate the slightest caress observed, the least weakness, and this from the youngest age." The Swiss Calvinists had a frantic quest for purity, and regarded gratuitous sexual pleasure an abomination.


title: Religious views on masturbation

text: Calvin's views permeated Geneva and influenced the way Huguenots thought about masturbation. For instance, "For Rousseau the puritanical moralist and citizen of the theocratic republic founded by John Calvin, masturbation is exclusively the activity of an inflamed erotic imagination; it is not a legitimate or acceptable expression of sexuality, but a perverted and sterile self-indulgence that saps one's energies and destroys one's mental and physical health."


title: Religious views on masturbation

text: In the United States, the influence of Calvin and the Puritans on perceptions of female sexuality, including masturbation, was gradually eroded from the latter part of the eighteenth century and early nineteenth century onwards: "the birth control movement, the women's suffrage campaign, the Free Love Movement, and finally the need for female labor in factories began to counterbalance the influence of John Calvin, the Mathers and "Mrs Grundy.""


title: Religious views on masturbation

text: Calvinists were renowned for their moral rigor and strict adherence to their interpretation of Biblical standards of morality. Indeed, "Churches fashioned in the Calvinist tradition have typically set extremely high standard of behavior."


title: Religious views on masturbation

text: The traditionalist Calvinist pastors of the United Protestant Church of France (EPUdf), believe that masturbation is a sin, stating, "Masturbation...is not one of the prohibitions of God, so it can not be said that the Bible clearly defines masturbation as a sin. However, the Bible unquestionably presents the place of sexual life in the context of a committed and faithful couple (see Matthew 19:12). And it exhorts us to have our actions and thoughts meet this ideal. The masturbatory practice and the thoughts that may accompany it obviously do not correspond to this ideal, and are in this sense sin. Of course, we do not always answer the perfection to which God calls us...but to seek perfection is the call of the Christian, to give glory to God (1 Corinthians 6:20) because this is our vocation as men created in the image of God, and the way of life for today and in the perspective of eternity. Masturbation is not the act of an accomplished Christian, called to live the blessing of marriage and to fulfill his partner in this setting (1 Corinthians 7:5)."


title: Religious views on masturbation

text: In contrast, a more liberal strand of EPUdf thinking is represented by the L'Oratoire du Louvre in Paris. According to its website, this parish believes that masturbation is not sinful, providing that the act is not done in a spirit of rebellion against God and providing that it does not become addictive.


title: Religious views on masturbation

text: In Switzerland, the liberal Calvinist theologians Michel Cornuz, Carolina Costa and Jean-Charles Bichet have all said that masturbation is not a sin, provided that the use of pornography is not involved.


title: Religious views on masturbation

text: In a 1991 report on human sexuality, the Presbyterian Church (USA) declared that "churches need to repudiate historically damaging attitudes toward masturbation and replace them with positive affirmations of the role of masturbation in human sexuality."


title: Religious views on masturbation

text: The Tenth Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia which is affiliated with the more conservative Presbyterian Church in America argues, in contrast with the PC USA, that masturbation is a sin.


title: Religious views on masturbation

text: The Protestant Church in the Netherlands' Doctor G. A. van Ginkel stated, when asked if it was sinful to masturbate if you are unmarried and you are fantasising about an unmarried girl, "What is all-important is that you see your body as not of yourself. Your life belongs to the Lord! Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. God hates uncleanness. That may sound harsh, but God's Word speaks clearly when it comes to that. It would be best if you could project your desire in sincere love and faithfulness to her that God gives you!...But there's a problem there. You do not have her. You are not married. And maybe you do not want a woman out of God's hand at all!? You want to project your sexual fantasy on an unmarried woman. In your mind "do it" with her. Focused on yourself. However understandable, this is not a good solution...You seek biblical legitimacy and believe it to be in the fact that the Bible does not speak about self-gratification. (The passage about the sin of Onan does indeed have nothing to do with self-gratification.) But the Bible does speak out about a holy and God-focused life. Paul writes to the church in Corinth: All that you do, do it to the glory of God. Thinking of this Word alone, you have no biblical legitimacy for your sexual projections. Pray for God on your side, with whom you may live life to the honor of His Name. This includes your sexual life! This is desirable!"


title: Religious views on masturbation

text: The American conservative Calvinist website, Reformed Answers, argues that masturbation is only sin if it entails lustful fantasies for someone other than the person's spouse: "...if an act of masturbation expresses the sin of lust, then that act of masturbation can be condemned as sinful. But this argument cannot condemn acts of masturbation that do not give expression to the sin of lust." The site notes that masturbation can only be opposed on moral grounds, not natural ones: "Some argue that masturbation is wrong on the basis of nature. That is, in a fashion similar to the argument based on Onan's sin, they argue that God did not design the human body and reproductive system to work in this manner, that God's general revelation in nature condemns the practice. This is a tenuous argument at best. In fact, there is some evidence to the contrary. For example, many human beings learn to masturbate without ever having been taught it or having heard about it. It would seem to be their "natural" impulse. Moreover, human beings are naturally equipped with the necessary body parts to accomplish masturbation (unlike most animals). It could be argued on these bases that it is natural. Moreover, most Protestants reject the idea that what is natural is necessarily what is good—especially in light of our "sin nature." This is simply a poor ground on which to base the argument against masturbation."


title: Religious views on masturbation

text: The American Reformed author Jay E. Adams argues that "masturbation is clearly wrong since it constitutes a perversion of the sexual act", citing 1 Corinthians 7:3-4 to support his argument.


title: Religious views on masturbation

text: Another American, Puritan Publications' C. Matthew McMahon, argues, "...if any form of sin is a product of lust, then it is an evil and wicked action. If a man masturbates while watching a sensual movie, then he has sinned. When masturbation grows out of a sense of this need for physical release due to unclean thoughts, it is sin. This is easily understood and biblically undeniable...Self-love, turning to lust, is at the heart of masturbation...Instead, the Christian man must set in motion an attitude of holiness and purity, instead of uncleanness and defilement. When he does this, he then "practices what he preaches." Though he says that holiness is right and good, he has to live that way as well. The question arises and must be answered "Is masturbation itself condemned?...Is it, in and of itself, a sin? I am biblically persuaded that masturbation...can only be achieved through lust"


title: Religious views on masturbation

text: McMahon also states, "The need for a Biblical treatment of lust and masturbation is necessary. Satan has conveniently disguised this "awful" topic as something that ought not to be mentioned, and never to be preached. The church's response to this is a deafening silence...The topic of lust may sometimes be alluded to, but never developed into the precise "doctrine" of the Bible's teaching on lust and masturbation, which really develops into a study on the fruit of the Spirit (love to Christ more than "self", and self-control)...Since we are in desperate need for Biblical teaching on this subject, we turn to the church to teach us what it means to be sexually pure. But, Christian men who struggle with this sin have little practical help from their local church."


title: Religious views on masturbation

text: What is clear is that Calvinists oppose "sexual touching" (including mutual masturbation) between unmarried parties, even if they are engaged to each other. This is because it is a form of fornication.


title: Religious views on masturbation

text: Historically, in 1948, a writer for the Church Times could still say, "Masturbation is condemned by all Christian moralists because it implies the solitary and essentially individualistic use of sexual activities intended to be used in association. It disregards the truth that with these powers God provides physiological means for exercising them in a joint and common act."


title: Religious views on masturbation

text: In 1945, an Archbishop's Commission was appointed to study the issue of artificial human insemination. The resulting report, published in 1948, "discusses the legitimacy of masturbation in this context and concludes that although masturbation impairs the natural unity of the sexual act, its use as a last resort is justifiable. 'The act which produces the seminal fluid, being in this instance directed towards the completion (impossible without it) of the procreative end of the marriage, loses its character of self abuse. It cannot in this view, be the will of God that a husband and wife should remain childless merely because an act of this kind is required to promote conception.'"


title: Religious views on masturbation

text: In his letter to a Mr Masson dated 6 March 1956, C.S. Lewis writes: "For me the real evil of masturbation would be that it takes an appetite which, in lawful use, leads the individual out of himself to complete (and correct) his own personality in that of another (and finally in children and even grandchildren) and turns it back; sends the man back into the prison of himself, there to keep a harem of imaginary brides...Masturbation involves this abuse of imagination in erotic matters (which I think bad in itself) and thereby encourages a similar abuse of it in all spheres. After all, almost the main work of life is to come out of our selves, out of the little dark prison we are all born in. Masturbation is to be avoided as all things are to be avoided which retard this process. The danger is that of coming to love the prison."


title: Religious views on masturbation

text: The conservative Anglican Diocese of Sydney believes that masturbation "can help us find sexual release when we cannot control our desire nor satisfy it through a marital relationship and in this sense it can be helpful." However, the Diocese notes that it can become associated with sin if it leads to either the consumption of pornography or to looking lustfully at people in real life in order to fuel fantasies. They warn that either of these can, in turn, suck someone into a cycle that cannot be controlled. The site goes on to note, "Jesus condemns looking at women or girls in order to lust after them. (Matt 5:28) So perving...which lots of 17 year old guys would treat as normal, is a sin and offends God. It's easy to get sucked into a cycle which fuels sexual desire to the point where it can't be controlled...When masturbation leads to unhelpful sexual thinking and lust you are sinning and need to do something about it. Make the conscious, aggressive decision to look somewhere else, or go somewhere else, or turn the computer off or whatever it takes! Jesus promises that when we are being tempted, he'll give us a way out. (1 Cor 10:13). Ultimately I think that it is much better to resist the temptation to masturbate." (The 1998 Lambeth Conference's Resolution I.10 says that the use of pornography is sinful and includes it in a list of the forms of sexual activity inherently contrary to the Christian way of life. Masturbation itself is not mentioned in the resolution at all, either in positive or negative terms.)


title: Religious views on masturbation

text: John Wesley, founder of Methodism, as quoted by Bryan C. Hodge, believed that "any waste of the semen in an unproductive sexual act, whether that should be in the form of masturbation or "coitus interruptus", as in the case of Onan, destroyed the souls of the individuals who practice it". Wesley considered masturbation an unacceptable way to release "sexual tension". Like his contemporaries, he believed that many people had become badly sick and even died because of "habitual masturbation". He argued that "nervous disorders, even madness, could be caused by another form of bodily excess – masturbation." He wrote his "Thoughts on the Sin of Onan" (1767), which was reproduced as "A Word to Whom it May Concern" in 1779, as an attempt to censor a work by Samuel-Auguste Tissot. In that document, Wesley warned about "the dangers of self pollution", these being the bad physical and mental effects of masturbation, records many such cases along with the treatment recommendations.


title: Religious views on masturbation

text: The Uniting Church in Australia teaches that "masturbation is an important part of childhood and adolescent discovery and sexual development. It should not be stigmatised." However, the Church has long been wracked by controversies and divisions over sexuality. "The Church's Interim Report on Sexuality...was released in May 1996. It became arguably the most explosive document in the UCA's short history. The report was bound to be controversial for some given it spoke positively about the ordination of homosexual ministers, suggested pre-marital sex was not 'living in sin' and described masturbation as a "natural sexual activity (which) can be a positive experience". Not only did it attract much debate from within the Church but also from the mainstream media, which covered it – and the fallout – extensively. In the following months "Crosslight" [the Uniting Church's magazine] was flooded with letters of complaint about the report and its authors...The Church received more than 8000 responses to the report with almost 90 per cent – representing the views of 21,000 members – negative."


title: Religious views on masturbation

text: During the debates, former Assembly of Confessing Congregations chair Rev Dr Max Champion "argued that any proposal to change the Church's current position...needed to be grounded in theology, something he did not believe had occurred...Dr Champion said he believed there had been a shift in thinking from some within the Church who had moved away [from Biblical positions]...to arguing for diversity to be the main theological base."


title: Religious views on masturbation

text: A Church of Christ in Tulsa, United States, has also taken the view that "Masturbation is not mentioned in the Bible and isn't the same thing as sexual immorality. The historical church has had difficulty explaining this practice, but there is no good reason to lump it with sexual immorality and heap guilt on single people in particular...For most males and females, masturbation is a natural part of self exploration. However, masturbation can program us to think sex can be done alone. Coupled with pornography, we get two steps away from married sexual love...The warning is for masturbation not to become an obsession that impacts your conscience, future sex life, and leads you into fantasizing with pornography."


title: Religious views on masturbation

text: A Swedish Pentecostal pastor, Christian Mölk, also says that the Bible does not explicitly mention masturbation as a sin. He notes that Onan's sin was about failing to do his duty under the Levirate law mentioned in Deu 25:5-6. Under this law it was "the closest brother's duty to ensure that his family survived by marrying the widow. When Onan "spilled his seed on the earth," it means that he refused to get a seed to his brother and instead utilized his brother's widow for his own sexual pleasure." He goes on to note that another text which is sometimes invoked is Matthew 5:27-30. Here, he says, Jesus is simply warning that it is not only wrong to cheat in one's action but also that it is wrong to cheat in one's heart. Therefore a person should not look with lustful intent at someone else's wife. He says these texts are not about masturbation and that the Bible does not explicitly mention that masturbation is a sin.


title: Religious views on masturbation

text: Another Swedish Pentecostal, Christer Åberg, has written about the practice on a Welsh language site. He states, "First of all, nowhere is masturbation discussed in the Bible...But is masturbation a sin? As I understand it, it is not a sin. The answer is "no." But it can lead to sin, so, therefore, I think one should be careful with it. I mean if a guy masturbates and fantasizes with desire for a girl, it will be wrong...It's really like everything: It's not a sin to drink alcohol, but it can lead to sin if you drink yourself drunk. Nor is it a sin to dance, but it can lead to sin, etc., etc. The Bible says that "Everything is legal to me, but not everything is beneficial. Everything is granted to me, but I will not let anything take power over me." (1 Corinthians 06:12)." In a follow-up article, he wrote, "Some time ago, I wrote an article about masturbating and surprised some. I wrote that it was not too bad to masturbate, but it could lead to sin. Maybe the best advice in today's society is to help with masturbation. I think of an article in the Expressen newspaper about a "masturbation competition". This is a clear example that it can open you up to an evil influence, and lead you to sin. We live in a time when it is important to lead a clean and devoted life to Jesus Christ. For you, live near Jesus so that you do not risk going wrong. And then you will have no interest to try the things of this "good" world."


title: Religious views on masturbation

text: The Texan Pentecostal pastor and church founder, Tom Brown, has written on the subject of "Is Masturbation a Sin?", stating that "Masturbation has been around for a long time, and since God does not clearly condemn it, I would not be too bothered with it, either. Masturbation is practiced far more than adultery or fornication, yet God is practically silent on the issue. This ought to tell you that God is not overly concerned with it...However, let me caution you against addiction to masturbation. Just like most things, masturbation can turn into an addiction...Paul said, "'Everything is permissible for me'—but I will not be mastered by anything" (1 Cor 6:12). This includes masturbation. Also, you should never use pornography to masturbate...Concerning single people, I have no advice other than a prohibition [on] pornography."


title: Religious views on masturbation

text: He goes on to note, "If a believer uses masturbation to alleviate sexual temptation, that's far better than actually being tempted to commit fornication or adultery. I would rather have a man masturbate than go to a prostitute...Another thought, if masturbation is sinful, then you would expect there to be bad health consequences to it, such as found in adultery, homosexuality, and fornication (diseases for one thing). Instead, research has found that masturbation serves to release sexual tension."


title: Religious views on masturbation

text: A 2011 article in "Canadian Mennonite" magazine notes that Anabaptists, such as Mennonites, have always historically had a sex-negative attitude but goes on to state that "Masturbation is one of the most common sexual experiences across the spectrums of age, culture, partnered and single life situations, and genders...Finding pleasure in our own God-given bodies can be good...[but]if it draws someone away from God, then for God's sake, don't do it. But we ought to release the stranglehold of guilt formerly associated with the practice of self-pleasuring." (The article also argues that Anabaptists should commit themselves to avoiding pornography for a wide variety of reasons).


title: Religious views on masturbation

text: Southern Baptist Convention cleric David Platt in the "Baptist Press" declared that masturbation "goes against the design of God" and that "God designed sex to be relational; masturbation is lustful". The Baptist publication characterized masturbation as "isolating, noncommittal and self-centered."


title: Religious views on masturbation

text: In 1960, the British Friends Home Service published a pamphlet on marriage that was read and approved on both sides of the Atlantic that stated that "Masturbation as a child is healthy, but not as an adult." However, four years later, in 1964, the Quaker physician, Dr. Mary Calderone, argued for the emerging view that masturbation was a normal useful means for "relieving natural tension in a healthy and satisfying way."


title: Religious views on masturbation

text: More recently, Quakers, while formulating a testimony on sexual intimacy, have noted that "one possibility for a testimony of intimacy is a pronatalist position that is focused on the imperative to have children. This is a long-standing position of the Roman Catholic Church and a teaching that has considerable sway among many Protestant Evangelicals...In this teaching, [the] main purpose [of sex] is procreation...In this pronatalism, masturbation is...wrong, as is contraception, but there are no clear scriptural texts against these practices. Their prohibition is taken to follow from the central teaching that the purpose of sex is the creation of legitimate offspring...For several reasons, Friends are likely to feel uncomfortable with this pronatalist framing of the morality of intimate relationships.


title: Religious views on masturbation

text: For many Friends, the most serious objection of all...would be pronatalism's steadfast focus on increasing the population. With seven billion human beings alive today on planet Earth, further population increase should hardly be the predominant emphasis informing relationships of intimacy. Yet the central warp thread of this teaching is the urgency of procreation."


title: Religious views on masturbation

text: In 1994, members of the Christian Medical Fellowship debated in a journal article whether or not masturbation is a sin.


title: Religious views on masturbation

text: The Australian non-denominational Christian teen sex education website, "Boys Under Attack", argues that masturbation is not a sin, provided that it does not become addictive, does not involve the use of pornography and is done alone, not with another person or group of people. The site refers to teachings by James Dobson and an American Lutheran pastor on the matter.


title: Religious views on masturbation

text: Journalists for Ekklesia, a Nigerian non-denominational magazine, argue that masturbation is a sin: "Masturbation (sex with self or auto sex) is usually carried out with the intention of releasing tension and getting sexual satisfaction without "sinning" with another person. Apart from the fact that it violates a basic rule of lovemaking which is genital union, masturbation is often in response to a sexual fantasy. That sexual fantasy could be borne out of exposure to pornographic materials. We learn from Philippians 4:8 on how we are to use our minds. Within that context, masturbation qualifies to be called a sin...Finally, as with every other sin, masturbation leads to spiritual weakness and loss of intimacy with God."


title: Religious views on masturbation

text: In the 1940s, Evangelical sex advice books advised against masturbation, considering it a very serious sin, but such warnings disappeared from the books during the 1960s, "because evangelicals who noticed that the Bible said nothing directly about masturbation believed that they had made a mistake to proscribe it." Also, they considered that masturbating is preferable to falling into "sex and drugs and rock 'n' roll".


title: Religious views on masturbation

text: One of the most prominent American evangelical leaders, James Dobson, has stated: "Christian people have different opinions about how God views this act. Unfortunately, I can't speak directly for God on this subject, since His Holy Word, the Bible, is silent on this point." He also stated: "The Bible says nothing about masturbation, so we don't really know what God thinks about it. My "opinion" is that He doesn't make a big issue of it." He also stated "Despite terrifying warnings given to young people historically, it does not cause blindness, weakness, mental retardation, or any other physical problem. If it did, the entire male population and about half of females would be blind, weak, simpleminded, and sick."


title: Religious views on masturbation

text: Others make a distinction between masturbation and sexual fantasy. Richard D. Dobbins proposes that it is permissible for teenagers to fantasize about their future spouse during masturbation.


title: Religious views on masturbation

text: Garry H. Strauss, a psychologist counseling the students at Biola University in the United States, wrote that there is no mention of masturbation in the Bible, therefore masturbation is permissible, but pornography and sexual fantasies are not permissible.


title: Religious views on masturbation

text: Two Evangelical scholars, Alex W. Kwee and David C. Hooper, addressed the issue in an academic paper. They note that "The Bible presents no clear theological ethic on masturbation...Of the many aspects of human sexuality that we address in our work, masturbation ranks as the most misunderstood for the lack of open, rational dialogue about this topic within the Christian community...Within evangelical frameworks of sexual ethics...there has never been a well-defined theological ethic of masturbation, in contrast to the ethics of pre-marital sex, marriage, and divorce that are worked out from foundational Christian anthropological assertions about gender, sexuality, and their relationship to the imago Dei...Masturbation falls thus within the proverbial grey area of evangelical sexual ethics."


title: Religious views on masturbation

text: They go on to note that "we find that the questions that Christian young people ask about masturbation can be reduced to two essential queries. Christian youth want to know whether masturbation is "right or wrong" (i.e., what is the "correct" moral stance to take based on what the Bible says?), and whether masturbation is "normal" (i.e., what can we say about the psychological dimensions of masturbation?)"


title: Religious views on masturbation

text: Answering the first question, they note that "The Bible does not directly address masturbation, leaving Christians to articulate a moral stance from various scriptures that in our view cannot support a deontological prohibition of masturbation...Today the general consensus in the Christian community is that Genesis 38:6-10 is irrelevant to masturbation. Modern readers of course understand Onan's act not as masturbation but as coitus interuptus. The technical designation of the act, however, is unimportant compared to the ethical violations manifesting through the act. The interpretive context for Genesis 38:6-10 is found in the ancient Israelite law (Deuteronomy 25:5-10)...Whatever his reasons for not consummating intercourse, Onan was punished for violating a specific Hebrew law and for failing in his covenantal duty to his deceased brother. Onan was judged for undisclosed but probably exploitative intentions...and certainly for his callous repudiation of his traditional obligations of familial care and responsibility."


title: Religious views on masturbation

text: They state also that "Our...objection to using Matthew 5:27-30 as a basis for the blanket condemnation of masturbation is that such an interpretation can only be supported by de-contextualizing this passage from Jesus' overall message...[and]...proper contextual interpretation of Leviticus 15:16-18 would therefore support the view that masturbation in and of itself is morally neutral."


title: Religious views on masturbation

text: They note that "There is a moral difference between masturbation done in the presence of pornography or the phone sex service (inherently selfish and exploitative mediums), and masturbation as the sexual expression of a fuller yearning for connectedness, i.e., connectedness that is not primarily sexual", concluding that "Scripture does not directly address masturbation, giving rise to guilt-inducing misconceptions about a behavior that is extremely salient to unmarried college-aged Christian men whose value system leads them to eschew pre-marital sex".


title: Religious views on masturbation

text: The American Evangelical scholar, Judith K. Balswick, in her book, "Authentic Human Sexuality: An Integrated Christian Approach", argues that "Masturbation can be a healthy, enjoyable way for a person without a sexual partner to experience sexual gratification."


title: Religious views on masturbation

text: Another American Evangelical writer, James B. Nelson, notes in his book, "Embodiment: An Approach to Sexuality and Christian Theology", that "The physiological intensity typical in masturbatory orgasm frequently surpasses that of intercourse, and relational fantasies usually accompany the act in compensation for the absence of the partner", implying this is a gift from God for those who lack a spouse.


title: Religious views on masturbation

text: In the book, "Singles Ask: Answers to Questions about Relationships and Sexuality", by Howard Ivan Smith, the Fullerton Evangelical theologian Archibald Hart is quoted as saying that, "I do not believe that masturbation itself is morally wrong, or...sinful."


title: Religious views on masturbation

text: Masturbation is seen as forbidden by some evangelical pastors because of the sexual thoughts that may accompany it. However, evangelical pastors have pointed out that the practice has been erroneously associated with Onan by scholars, that it is not a sin if it is not practiced with fantasies or compulsively, and that it was useful in a married couple, if his or her partner did not have the same frequency of sexual needs.


title: Religious views on masturbation

text: The Jehovah's Witnesses teach that masturbation is a habit that is a "form of uncleanness", one that "fosters attitudes that can be mentally corrupting".


title: Religious views on masturbation

text: On many occasions spanning over a century, leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) have taught that adherents should not masturbate as part of obedience to the code of conduct known as the law of chastity. The LDS Church places great emphasis on the law of chastity, and a commitment to following these sexual standards is required for baptism, receiving and maintaining a temple recommend, and is part of the temple endowment ceremony covenants devout participants promise by oath to keep. While serving as church president, Spencer W. Kimball taught that the law of chastity includes "masturbation...and every hidden and secret sin and all unholy and impure thoughts and practices." Before serving full-time missions, young adults are required to abandon the practice as it is believed to be a gateway sin that dulls sensitivity to the guidance of the Holy Ghost. The first recorded public mention of masturbation by a general church leader to a broad audience was in 1952 by apostle J. Reuben Clark, and recent notable mentions include ones in 2013 and 2016.


title: Religious views on masturbation

text: Though rhetoric has softened and become less direct, the majority of Mormons' views are at odds with those of top church leaders. However, the prohibition on masturbation remains in place, though its enforcement and the opinions of local leadership vary. During regular worthiness interviews LDS adherents—including teenagers—are required to confess of any sexual sins like masturbation to church leaders in order to be deemed worthy to participate in the sacrament and temple rites. They are sometimes asked specifically about their masturbation habits.


title: Religious views on masturbation

text: Ellen G. White, one of the founders of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, in the mid-19th century said she had spiritual visions from God that gave her guidance on the Christian life. She warned against overly-stimulating foods, sex, and masturbation, which she referred to as "solitary vice." She warned her followers of her visions of disfigured humans and the consequences of masturbation not only destroying one's life, but preventing access to Heaven when Jesus comes in the first resurrection. She said that masturbation was the cause of many sicknesses in adults from cancer to lung disease. White even stated that masturbation claimed many sinners' lives prematurely. She believed that one's diet had a direct correlation with one's urge to masturbate. She said that a healthy diet consisting of fruits, vegetables, wheat breads, and water would lead to a diminished urge to masturbate and thus would lead to a healthier and more fulfilling life. To ultimately produce a guide for future generations she said solitary vice was the cause of hereditary insanity, cancer, and other deadly diseases; clearly appealing to parents to protect their children by not engaging in solitary vice.


title: Religious views on masturbation

text: The United Church of God, an Armstrongnite church, believes that "sexual love is the supreme expression of love between a husband and wife and that only this use of the sexual organs glorifies or reflects God's design and purpose." The church also says that, according to 1 Corinthians 6:16,18, any sexual activity outside of marriage is sinful and that according to Matthew 5:27-30, sexually arousing thoughts alone are enough for a person to be guilty of such sin. The church encourages its members to "guard and control their thoughts, as well as their actions."


title: Religious views on masturbation

text: In Islam, masturbation () is forbidden or makruh (discouraged) according to the majority of scholars' opinions. However, a minority viewpoint within some Islamic schools of thought permits masturbation as an alternative to "zina" (fornication), or if one is unable to marry. Bathing ("ghusl") is compulsory after any kind of seminal discharge whether through sexual intercourse, masturbation, or nocturnal emissions (wet dream).


title: Religious views on masturbation

text: Maimonides stated that the Tanakh does not explicitly prohibit masturbation. On the matter of masturbation, the biblical story of Onan is traditionally interpreted by Jews to be about the emitting sperm outside of the vagina and condemnation thereof, applying this story to masturbation, although the Tanakh does not explicitly state that Onan was masturbating. By virtue of Onan, traditional Judaism condemns [male] masturbation.


title: Religious views on masturbation

text: Seeking bodily pleasure is only considered condemned for those who dedicate themselves to chastity. There are no references in Hindu religious texts to suggest that masturbation itself desecrates sexual purity. For those who are dedicated to chastity, this sin is absolutely minor, and can be absolved either by taking a bath, or by worshiping the Sun, or by saying three prayers.


title: Religious views on masturbation

text: The most used formulation of Buddhist ethics are the Five Precepts. These precepts take the form of voluntary personal undertakings, not divine mandate or instruction. The third precept is "to refrain from committing sexual misconduct". However, different schools of Buddhism have differing interpretations of what constitutes sexual misconduct.


title: Religious views on masturbation

text: Buddhism was advanced by Gautama Buddha as a method by which human beings could end dukkha (suffering) and escape samsara (cyclic existence). Normally this entails practicing meditation and following the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path as a way to subdue the passions which, along with the skandhas, cause suffering and rebirth. Masturbation (Pali: "sukkavissaṭṭhi") is accordingly seen as problematic for a person who wishes to attain liberation. According to a lecture by Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche, it is important to abstain from "sexual intercourse, including masturbation, any action that brings an orgasm and so forth, because this results in a rebirth." He clarifies: "Generally, the action that is the opposite of the precept brings the opposite negative result, takes us further from enlightenment, and keeps us longer in samsara."


title: Religious views on masturbation

text: Shravasti Dhammika, a Theravadin monk, cites the "Vinaya Pitaka" in his online "Guide to Buddhism A to Z", and states the following:


title: Religious views on masturbation

text: His opinions regarding non-Buddhists notwithstanding, the Buddha did encourage his serious disciples to limit their sexual behaviour or to embrace celibacy. Indeed, emphasis on chastity in Buddhism is strong for bhikkhus and bhikkhunis (renunciates), who vow to follow the rules of the Vinaya. Not only are monastics celibate, but they also take more and stricter vows in order to conquer their desires. In the Theravadin tradition, masturbation is also stressed as being harmful for upāsakas and upāsikās (lay devotees) who practice the Eight Precepts on Uposatha days, leading a more ascetic lifestyle that does not allow for masturbation. Indeed, masturbation is explicitly not characterised as sexual misconduct in the mahāyāna "Upāsakaśīla sūtra":


title: Religious views on masturbation

text: Nevertheless, some contemporary writers on Buddhism suggest that masturbation is essentially harmless for a layperson.


title: Religious views on masturbation

text: The act of masturbation is known as Shoeythra Gunaah, or Shoithra-gunah, which can also be used to refer to onanism.


title: Religious views on masturbation

text: The Zoroastrian holy book "Avesta", with its stress on physical cleanliness, lists voluntary masturbation among the unpardonable sins that one can commit. This view was supported by James R. Russell. The Verses 26-28 of Fargard VIII, Section V of the "Vendidad" state


title: Religious views on masturbation

text: Masturbation is also considered a Drujih-i-Buji which is caused by the menstrual discharge of a woman if proper precautions are not followed. Thus also enumerated in the Expiatory prayer of Dasturan Dastur Adarbad Mahrespand fall under Drujih-i-Buji. A right knowledge of Drujih-i-Buji and of the ill-effects is said to save young boys of the age of puberty from the fangs of masturbation.


title: Religious views on masturbation

text: In the story of Jamshid and Taxmoruw (Tahmuras) preserved in a Parsi rivayat, Ahriman is shown to be a masturbator.


title: Religious views on masturbation

text: Some teachers and practitioners of Traditional Chinese medicine, Taoist meditative and martial arts say that masturbation can cause a lowered energy level in men. They say that ejaculation in this way reduces "origin qi" from dantian, the energy center located in the lower abdomen. Some maintain that sex with a partner does not do this because the partners replenish each other's qi. Some practitioners therefore say that males should not practice martial arts for at least 48 hours after masturbation while others prescribe up to six months, because the loss of Origin Qi does not allow new qi to be created for this kind of time.


title: Religious views on masturbation

text: Some Taoists strongly discouraged female masturbation. Women were encouraged to practice massaging techniques upon themselves, but were also instructed to avoid thinking sexual thoughts if experiencing a feeling of pleasure. Otherwise, the woman's "labia will open wide and the sexual secretions will flow." If this happened, the woman would lose part of her life force, and this could bring illness and shortened life.


title: Religious views on masturbation

text: Wicca, like other religions, has adherents with a spectrum of views ranging from conservative to liberal. Wicca is generally undogmatic, and nothing in Wiccan philosophy prohibits masturbation. On the contrary, Wiccan ethics, summed up in the Wiccan Rede "An it harm none, do as thou wilt", are interpreted by many as endorsing responsible sexual activity of all varieties. This is reinforced in the "Charge of the Goddess", a key piece of Wiccan literature, in which the Goddess says, "all acts of love and pleasure are my rituals".


title: Original equipment manufacturer

text: An original equipment manufacturer (OEM) is generally perceived as a company that produces non-aftermarket parts and equipment that may be marketed by another manufacturer. It is a common industry term recognized and used by many professional organizations such as SAE International, ISO, and others.


title: Original equipment manufacturer

text: However, the term is also used in several other ways, which causes ambiguity. It sometimes means the maker of a system that includes other companies' subsystems, an end-product producer, an automotive part that is manufactured by the same company that produced the original part used in the automobile's assembly, or a value-added reseller.


title: Original equipment manufacturer

text: When referring to auto parts, OEM refers to the manufacturer of the original equipment, that is, the parts assembled and installed during the construction of a new vehicle. In contrast, aftermarket parts are those made by companies other than the OEM, which might be installed as replacements after the car comes out of the factory. For example, if Ford used Autolite spark plugs, Exide batteries, Bosch fuel injectors, and Ford's own engine blocks and heads when building a car, then car restorers and collectors consider those to be the OEM parts. Other-brand parts would be considered aftermarket, such as Champion spark plugs, DieHard batteries, Kinsler fuel injectors, and BMP engine blocks and heads. Many auto parts manufacturers sell parts through multiple channels, for example to car makers for installation during new-vehicle construction, to car makers for resale as automaker-branded replacement parts, and through general merchandising supply chains. Any given brand of part can be OEM on some vehicle models and aftermarket on others.


title: Original equipment manufacturer

text: Microsoft is a popular example of a company that issues its Windows operating systems for use by OEM computer manufacturers via the bundling of Microsoft Windows. OEM product keys are priced lower than their retail counterparts, especially as they are purchased in bulk quantities, although they use the same software as retail versions of Windows. They are primarily for PC manufacturer OEMs and system builders, and as such are typically sold in volume licensing deals to a variety of manufacturers (Dell, HP, ASUS, Acer, Lenovo, Wistron, Inventec, Supermicro, Compal Electronics, Quanta Computer, Foxconn, Pegatron, Jabil, Flex, etc.). These OEMs commonly use a procedure known as System Locked Pre-installation, which pre-activates Windows on PCs that are to be sold via mass distribution. These OEMs also commonly bundle software that is not installed on stock Windows on the images of Windows that will be deployed with their PCs (appropriate hardware drivers, anti-malware and maintenance software, various apps, etc.).


title: Original equipment manufacturer

text: Individuals may also purchase OEM "system-builder" licenses for personal use (to include virtual hardware), or for sale/resale on PCs which they build. Per Microsoft’s EULA regarding PC manufacturers and system-builder OEM licenses, the product key is tied to the PC motherboard which it is initially installed on, and there is "typically" no transferring the key between PCs afterward. This is in contrast to retail keys, which may be transferred, provided they are only activated on one PC at a time. A significant hardware change will trigger a reactivation notice, just as with retail.


title: Original equipment manufacturer

text: Direct OEMs are officially held liable for things such as installation/recovery media, and as such were commonly provided until the late-2000s. These were phased out in favor of recovery partitions located on the primary storage drive of the PC (and available for order from the manufacturer upon request) for the user to repair or restore their systems to the factory state. This not only cut down on costs, but was also a consequence of the gradual obsolescence and phasing out of optical media from 2010 onward. System builders also have a different requirement regarding installation media from Direct OEMs.


title: Original equipment manufacturer

text: While a clean retail media of Windows can be installed and activated on these devices with OEM keys (most commonly using the SLP key that's embedded in to the system firmware already), actual OEM recovery media that was created by the PC manufacturer (not system-builder, nor retail Windows versions) typically only works on the PC model line that was designed for it. For example, a recovery disc/USB for a Toshiba Satellite P50-B will only work on that model, and not a Satellite S55T.


title: Original equipment manufacturer

text: OEMs rely on their ability to drive down the cost of production through economies of scale. Using an OEM also allows the purchasing company to obtain needed components or products without owning and operating a factory.


title: Original equipment manufacturer

text: Some companies mistakenly use the title OEM when referring to Custom Machine Builders, Systems Integrators, and other companies that design and build custom factory automation. Two such companies include Keyence and Omron.


title: Sol Invictus

text: Sol Invictus (, "Unconquered Sun"), sometimes simply known as Helios, was long considered to be the official sun god of the later Roman Empire. In recent years, however, the scholarly community has become divided on Sol between traditionalists and a growing group of revisionists.


title: Sol Invictus

text: In the traditional view, "Sol Invictus" was the second of two entirely different sun gods in Rome. The first of these, "Sol Indiges", or "Sol", was an early Roman deity of minor importance whose cult had petered out by the first century AD. "Sol Invictus", on the other hand, was a Syrian sun god whose cult was first promoted in Rome under Elagabalus, without success. Some fifty years later, on 25 December AD 274, the Roman emperor Aurelian did succeed to establish the cult of "Sol Invictus" as an official religion, alongside the traditional Roman cults.


title: Sol Invictus

text: Although the Syrian origin of Sol Invictus is undisputed in the traditional view, there has never been consensus on "which" Syrian solar deity he was: Some scholars opt for the sky god of Emesa, Elagabalus, while others prefer Malakbel of Palmyra. There was general agreement that, from Aurelian to Constantine I, Sol was of supreme importance, until Constantine abandoned Sol in favor of Christianity. The last inscription referring to Sol Invictus dates to AD 387, and there were enough devotees in the fifth century that the Christian theologian Augustine found it necessary to preach against them.


title: Sol Invictus

text: In the revisionist view, there was only one cult of the Sun God in Rome, continuous from the monarchy to the end of antiquity. This was a Roman god who was simply called Sol. There were at least three temples of the Sun god in Rome, all active during the Empire and all dating from the earlier Republic. They claim that there was never a separate solar deity named "Sol Invictus".


title: Sol Invictus

text: "Invictus" ("unconquered, invincible") was an epithet utilized for several Roman deities, including Jupiter, Mars, Hercules, Apollo, and Silvanus. It had been in use from the 3rd century BC. The Roman cult to Sol is continuous from the "earliest history" of the city until the institution of Christianity as the exclusive state religion. Scholars have sometimes regarded the traditional "Sol Indiges" and "Sol Invictus" as two separate deities, but the rejection of this view by S. E. Hijmans has found supporters.


title: Sol Invictus

text: An inscription of AD 102 records a restoration of a portico of Sol in what is now the Trastevere area of Rome by a certain Gaius Iulius Anicetus. While he may have had in mind an allusion to his own "cognomen", which is the Latinized form of the Greek equivalent of "invictus", ἀνίκητος ("anikētos"), the earliest extant dated inscription that uses "invictus" as an epithet of Sol is from AD 158. Another, stylistically dated to the 2nd century, is inscribed on a Roman phalera (ornamental disk): (""I glorify the unconquerable sun, the creator of light."") "Augustus" is a regular epithet linking deities to the Imperial cult.


title: Sol Invictus

text: Sol Invictus played a prominent role in the Mithraic mysteries, and was equated with Mithras. The relation of the Mithraic Sol Invictus to the public cult of the deity with the same name is unclear and perhaps non-existent.


title: Sol Invictus

text: According to the "Historia Augusta", Elagabalus, the teenaged Severan heir, adopted the name of his deity and brought his cult image from Emesa to Rome. Once installed as emperor, he neglected Rome's traditional State deities and promoted his own as Rome's most powerful deity. This ended with his murder in 222. The "Historia Augusta" equates the deity Elagabalus with Jupiter and Sol: "fuit autem Heliogabali vel Iovis vel Solis sacerdos", "He was also a priest of Heliogabalus, or Jove, or Sol". While this has been seen as an attempt to import the Syrian sun god to Rome, the Roman cult of Sol had existed in Rome at least since the early Republic.


title: Sol Invictus

text: The Roman "gens Aurelia" was associated with the cult of Sol. After his victories in the East, the Emperor Aurelian thoroughly reformed the Roman cult of Sol, elevating the sun-god to one of the premier divinities of the Empire. Where previously priests of Sol had been simply "sacerdotes" and tended to belong to lower ranks of Roman society, they were now "pontifices" and members of the new college of pontifices instituted by Aurelian. Every pontifex of Sol was a member of the senatorial elite, indicating that the priesthood of Sol was now highly prestigious. Almost all these senators held other priesthoods as well, however, and some of these other priesthoods take precedence in the inscriptions in which they are listed, suggesting that they were considered more prestigious than the priesthood of Sol. Aurelian also built a new temple for Sol, which was dedicated on 25 December 274, and brought the total number of temples for the god in Rome to (at least) four. He also instituted games in honor of the sun god, held every four years from 274 onwards.


title: Sol Invictus

text: The identity of Aurelian's Sol Invictus has long been a subject of scholarly debate. Based on the "Augustan History", some scholars have argued that it was based on Sol Elagablus (or Elagabla) of Emesa. Others, basing their argument on Zosimus, suggest that it was based on the Šams, the solar god of Palmyra on the grounds that Aurelian placed and consecrated a cult statue of the sun god looted from Palmyra in the temple of Sol Invictus. Forsythe (2012) discusses these arguments and adds a third more recent one, based on the work of Steven Hijmans. Hijmans argues that Aurelian's solar deity was simply the traditional Greco-Roman .


title: Sol Invictus

text: Emperors portrayed on their official coinage, with a wide range of legends, only a few of which incorporated the epithet , such as the legend , claiming the "Unconquered Sun" as a companion to the Emperor, used with particular frequency by Constantine. Statuettes of Sol Invictus, carried by the standard-bearers, appear in three places in reliefs on the Arch of Constantine. Constantine's official coinage continues to bear images of Sol until 325/326. A solidus of Constantine as well as a gold medallion from his reign depict the Emperor's bust in profile twinned (jugate) with Sol Invictus, with the legend


title: Sol Invictus

text: Constantine's triumphal arch was carefully positioned to align with the colossal statue of Sol by the Colosseum, so that Sol formed the dominant backdrop when seen from the direction of the main approach towards the arch.


title: Sol Invictus

text: Berrens (2004) deals with coin-evidence of Imperial connection to the Solar cult. Sol is depicted sporadically on imperial coins in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD, then more frequently from Septimius Severus onwards until AD 325–326. appears on coin legends from AD 261, well before the reign of Aurelian.


title: Sol Invictus

text: Connections between the imperial radiate crown and the cult of Sol are postulated. Augustus was posthumously depicted with radiate crown, as were living emperors from Nero (after AD 65) to Constantine. Some modern scholarship interprets the imperial radiate crown as a divine, solar association rather than an overt symbol of Sol; Bergmann calls it a pseudo-object designed to disguise the divine and solar connotations that would otherwise be politically controversial but there is broad agreement that coin-images showing the imperial radiate crown are stylistically distinct from those of the solar crown of rays; the imperial radiate crown is depicted as a real object rather than as symbolic light.


title: Sol Invictus

text: Hijmans argues that the Imperial radiate crown represents the honorary wreath awarded to Augustus, perhaps posthumously, to commemorate his victory at the Battle of Actium; he points out that henceforth, living emperors were depicted with radiate crowns, but state "divi" were not. Hijmans believes this implies that the radiate crown of living emperors is a symbolic link to Augustus. His successors automatically inherited (or sometimes acquired) the same offices and honours due to Octavian as "saviour of the Republic" through his victory at Actium, piously attributed to Apollo-Helios.


title: Sol Invictus

text: Furthermore, radiate crowns were not solely worn by emperors: The wreaths awarded to victors at the Actian Games were radiate.


title: Sol Invictus

text: The Philocalian calendar of AD 354, part VI, gives a festival of on 25 December. There is limited evidence that this festival was celebrated before the mid-4th century. The same Philocalian calendar, part VIII, also mentions the birth of Jesus Christ, stating that the "Lord Jesus Christ was born eight days before the calends of January" (that is, on December 25).


title: Sol Invictus

text: Since the 12th century, there have been speculations that the near-solstice date of 25 December for Christmas was selected because it was the date of the festival of , but historians of late antiquity make no mention of this, and others speculate Aurelian chose December 25 to shadow early Christian celebrations already on the rise.


title: Sol Invictus

text: According to some historians, Christmas was set to December 25th because it was the date of the festival of Sol Invictus. This idea became popular especially in the 18th and 19th centuries.


title: Sol Invictus

text: The charioteer in the mosaic of Mausoleum M has been interpreted by some as Christ. Clement of Alexandria had spoken of Christ driving his chariot across the sky. This interpretation is doubted by others: "Only the "cross-shaped" nimbus makes the Christian significance apparent", and the figure is seen by some simply as a representation of the Sun with no explicit religious reference whatever, pagan or Christian.


title: Sol Invictus

text: The traditional image of the Sun has also been used in early Jewish prophecy, poetry, and art. Psalm 19, begins "The heavens proclaim the glory of God, the firmament proclaims his handiwork", and likens the Sun to a bridegroom, to a warrior, and to the Torah.


title: Sol Invictus

text: An Aggadic legend found in tractate Avodah Zarah 8a contains the talmudic hypothesis that Adam the first established the tradition of fasting before the winter solstice, and rejoicing afterward, which festival later devolved into the Roman Saturnalia and Calenda.


title: Sol Invictus

text: A mosaic floor in Hamat Tiberias presents David as Helios surrounded by a ring with the signs of the zodiac. As well as in Hamat Tiberias, figures of Helios or Sol Invictus also appear in several of the very few surviving schemes of decoration surviving from Late Antique synagogues, including Beth Alpha, Husefa, all now in Israel, and Naaran in the West Bank. He is shown in floor mosaics, with the usual radiate halo, and sometimes in a quadriga, in the central roundel of a circular representation of the zodiac or the seasons. These combinations "may have represented to an agricultural Jewish community the perpetuation of the annual cycle of the universe or ... the central part of a calendar".


title: RSVP

text: RSVP is an initialism derived from the French phrase Répondez s'il vous plaît, literally meaning "Respond, if you please", or just "Please respond", to require confirmation of an invitation. The initialism "RSVP" is no longer used much in France, where it is considered formal and old-fashioned. In France, it is now more common to use "Réponse attendue avant le ...", meaning "[Your] answer is expected before ...". In addition, the French initialism "SVP" is frequently used to represent "S'il vous plaît" ("Please").


title: RSVP

text: The phrase "RSVP, regrets only", – or "Regrets only", is a popular modern variation that implies "if you do not reply, that will be taken as an acceptance." More specifically, if most invitations can be assumed to be accepted, a "regrets only" RSVP will reduce the communication required by both the host and their guests. The phrase "Regrets only" refers to the assumption that a declination will be worded with some variation of "We regret we cannot attend ...".


title: RSVP

text: Before sending the RSVP invitation, the host may mail out a "save the date" card to advise the date and location of the celebration. This may be used when the event will be held a considerable time in the future and/or in a distant location to allow for travel plans -- such applies to weddings, christenings, or any other important events.


title: RSVP

text: In recent years, digital RSVPs have become common, particularly for wedding invitations. In this context, the initialism seems to have loosened its tie to its original meaning. Some writers incorrectly use the phrase "Please RSVP", which is a case of RAS syndrome or a pleonasm.


title: Elektra (character)

text: Elektra Natchios (, ) is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Frank Miller, the character first appeared in "Daredevil" #168 (Jan. 1981). She is a love interest of the superhero Matt Murdock / Daredevil, but her violent nature and mercenary lifestyle divide the two, before she ultimately becomes the second Daredevil in 2020.


title: Elektra (character)

text: The character is a highly trained assassin of Greek descent who wields a pair of sai as her trademark weapons. Elektra is one of Frank Miller's best-known creations, and has appeared in numerous modern storylines even though Marvel had originally promised not to revive the character without Miller's permission. She has also appeared as a supporting character of the X-Men's Wolverine and in other series and mini-series, as well as adaptations for the screen.


title: Elektra (character)

text: Jennifer Garner portrayed Elektra in the films "Daredevil" (2003) and "Elektra" (2005), while Élodie Yung portrayed the character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe television series "Daredevil" and "The Defenders".


title: Elektra (character)

text: Created by Frank Miller, Elektra first appeared in "Daredevil" #168 (January 1981). Miller initially based the character's appearance on Lisa Lyon, a female bodybuilder. Miller originally intended this issue, which was essentially a filler story, to be Elektra's only appearance, but she instead became a frequently appearing villain in "Daredevil" until her death in issue #181 (April 1982). She was resurrected shortly after, but the story contained a narrative note which indicates that Daredevil must never encounter her again.


title: Elektra (character)

text: After over a decade's absence, she reappeared in "Daredevil" #324–327 (Jan.–April 1994), and went on to a brief stint as a supporting character in "Wolverine" (in #100–106). "Daredevil" writer D. G. Chichester recounted that he and editor Ralph Macchio had discussed the character's return several times:


title: Elektra (character)

text: This upset Frank Miller, who claimed that Marvel had previously promised him that the character would not be used in any publication. She has since appeared in two eponymous ongoing series and several mini-series.


title: Elektra (character)

text: Elektra was born on the island of Cyprus, near the Aegean Sea, to Hugo Kostas Natchios and his wife Christina. She had an older brother named Orestez.


title: Elektra (character)

text: Two contradictory accounts of her family history have been given. In "Elektra: Root of Evil" #1–4 (March–June 1995), Christina is killed by assassins hired by Orestez, while in "Elektra" #18 (1995), she is killed by an insurrectionist during the Greek Civil War. In both accounts, she gives premature birth to Elektra just before dying.


title: Elektra (character)

text: When nine-year-old Elektra was assaulted by kidnappers, the men were all killed by Orestez, who had grown into an accomplished martial artist after leaving home. Orestez advised his father that Elektra needed to learn self-defense. Hugo hired a sensei to teach her the martial arts.


title: Elektra (character)

text: In "" #1 (Aug. 1986), the adult Elektra has vague memories of being raped by her father as a five-year-old. Years of counseling and medication had convinced her this was a false memory, but the doubt remained. Elektra grew up close to her father but was plagued by dark visions and voices with no known source. She occasionally reacted to them with self-harm. Her father eventually sent her away to psychotherapy to become more stable. It was uncertain whether Elektra actually became more stable or merely appeared to be.


title: Elektra (character)

text: Hugo Natchios eventually served as a Greek ambassador to the United States. Nineteen-year-old Elektra attended Columbia University in New York City. There, Elektra began dating classmate Matt Murdock.


title: Elektra (character)

text: A year later, Elektra and her father were kidnapped by terrorists. A rescue attempt by Matt went wrong, and Hugo Natchios was gunned down. Elektra lost faith and hope. She quit Columbia and returned to China to study martial arts. Stick, a member of the benevolent organization called the Chaste, recognized the darkness in her soul and attempted to train her himself, but she ultimately sided with the Hand, a sect of mystical ninja who trained her as an assassin. She later broke away from them and became an independent agent, and in this role she again encountered Matt Murdock, who was now active as Daredevil. She defeated Daredevil in her mission to kill the criminal Alarich Wallenquist. However, she failed her assignment, and Daredevil had to save her from being killed by Eric Slaughter, revealing his secret identity to her in the process. Although the pair worked together to fight the Hand, they also came into conflict frequently.


title: Elektra (character)

text: She soon became the chief assassin in the employ of New York City's premier crime lord, the Kingpin. She attempted to kill Daredevil after he tried to stop her from terrorizing Ben Urich. The Kingpin then assigned her to kill Matt Murdock's partner, Franklin "Foggy" Nelson. When Nelson recognized Elektra as Matt's college girlfriend, she was unable to kill him.


title: Elektra (character)

text: Elektra was fatally stabbed by Bullseye with one of her own sai in a battle over which of them would be the Kingpin's assassin. Elektra managed to crawl to Daredevil's house before dying in his arms as Bullseye watched the two, hidden among a crowd that had gathered to see what was going on. Later, members of The Hand stole her body and attempted to resurrect her. Daredevil, with the assistance of Stone, a member of Stick's order, intervened, defeating The Hand ninja. Daredevil then tried to revive Elektra himself. Although his attempt failed, it did have the effect of purifying Elektra's soul. Elektra's body subsequently disappeared, as did Stone.


title: Elektra (character)

text: Later, Stone somehow resurrected Elektra and then sent her to aid the X-Man Wolverine, at a time when he had been physically and mentally regressed to a bestial form. She helped retrain him to the point where he could think and vocalize as a human once more, and spent time with him thereafter as he returned to his normal form, including taking him with her on a return to her ancestral home.


title: Elektra (character)

text: Some time after her partnership with Wolverine ended, it was revealed that when Elektra was resurrected by Stone, Elektra's evil aspect had been physically split apart from her in its own body as a consequence of the ritual performed by Daredevil. Her darker half, calling itself Erynys (), fought Elektra and was killed by her, thus returning the dark side to Elektra's soul.


title: Elektra (character)

text: She was hired by Nick Fury to assassinate Saddam Abed Dassam, the leader of Iraq who was in league with HYDRA, and retrieve the Scorpio Key from them. Fury hired her as a way to avoid accountability in global political circles. Along the way HYDRA tried to hire her, an offer she refused. They then set the Silver Samurai on to her and it appeared she killed him though he appeared alive and well in other comics. When she eventually obtained the Key, she refused to give it to Fury, believing that he could not be trusted with such a powerful weapon. She instead gave it to the police officer who had killed her father stating that he had a debt to her and he would not let her down.


title: Elektra (character)

text: HYDRA and The Hand joined forces, killing off various heroes and resurrecting them into their possessed warriors, including the X-Man Wolverine, who became their killing machine. Based on her relationship with Logan and her ties to the Hand, Nick Fury hired Elektra to lead the mission, paying her in excess of $200,000, more money in one day than the (then) yearly salary of the President of the United States. She worked to stop Wolverine from killing others as well as to try to turn him back to his normal self. During a fight with The Hand, Elektra was killed and resurrected as a Hand warrior, eventually becoming their leader. Along with the X-Man Northstar and other superhumans killed and resurrected by the Hand, Elektra attacked Nick Fury, injuring him badly and causing the destruction of a S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier.


title: Elektra (character)

text: Thanks to S.H.I.E.L.D., Wolverine eventually came to his senses and wanted revenge. During a fight with Elektra, she mentally spoke to him, using new abilities given to her by the Hand. She explained that being killed by The Hand was all part of a plan she had from the beginning. She explained that she had been resurrected by The Hand and infiltrated the organization, making them believe they had been successful in resurrecting her as a brainwashed warrior. She told him that they would take The Hand and HYDRA down together. They fought off many ninjas and were victorious. Gorgon, however, attacked Elektra and threw off her mental blocks, enabling him to read her thoughts and see where Fury was being treated for his injuries (he also discovered that the Vatican also hired her, to kill him). Gorgon teleported, with Elektra, to kill Fury. When they arrived, Elektra ordered the S.H.I.E.L.D. soldiers to attack. Gorgon used his power on her neck and she collapsed. Wolverine eventually used Gorgon's own powers against him, defeating him.


title: Elektra (character)

text: In an email to Kitty Pryde, Nick Fury told her that Elektra had survived, but was missing and was probably in Eastern Europe, creating her own militia group, which she intended to be her own version of The Hand. He also told Kitty that Elektra was no threat ... so far. It was unknown where Elektra really was or what her plans were, but it was during the time following the destruction of the helicarrier that she was abducted by Skrulls and replaced with an imposter.


title: Elektra (character)

text: She resurfaced to help Daredevil with a situation with the Kingpin. The crime lord, in exchange for his freedom, offered the FBI irrefutable evidence that Matt Murdock was Daredevil.


title: Elektra (character)

text: It was revealed that Elektra actually helped Kingpin gain all the needed information back when she was Daredevil's enemy, and she returned because she felt an obligation to help Matt out of the trouble for which she felt responsible. It was also revealed by the Black Widow that Elektra is now the leader of The Hand.


title: Elektra (character)

text: Daredevil meets up with Elektra, the Black Widow, and the new White Tiger in front of the building that holds the "Murdock Papers" (the evidence Kingpin was talking about). They intended to retrieve the papers before the FBI could get there, but were suddenly attacked by Bullseye. Daredevil and Elektra fought the villain and, after a lengthy and bloody battle, won. However, Daredevil was suddenly shot by Paladin (who was working for FBI operatives) and was left bleeding profusely in Elektra's arms. Elektra then takes Matt to the Night Nurse, but insists that The Hand should cure him. Black Widow appears and objects. While Elektra and Black Widow fight, The Hand heals Matt Murdock.


title: Elektra (character)

text: Outside the Night Nurse's medical office, reporters and police gather. Elektra then jumps out the side window, along with The Hand to drive off the police and FBI. She gets in a quarrel with Luke Cage, and quickly exits the scene at Matt's request.


title: Elektra (character)

text: Elektra seemingly reappears, appearing to be corrupted by the Hand. She kills, resurrects, and imprisons the vigilante Maya Lopez, intending to use her as a weapon. The New Avengers rescue Lopez and she ends up stabbing Elektra to death. However, upon her death it is revealed that "Elektra" is actually a Skrull in disguise; its death indicates that the Skrulls have become undetectable to even the heightened senses of New Avengers members Spider-Man, Wolverine, and Doctor Strange. The corpse is given to Iron Man by Spider-Woman.


title: Elektra (character)

text: "The Mighty Avengers" #16 reveals that Elektra was selected to be replaced by a Skrull imposter named Siri. She was targeted by several Skrull impostors while staying in Japan, however, Elektra fought and killed most of these Skrulls (including Siri), before being blindsided and severely beaten by a Super Skrull manifesting Invisible Woman's invisibility and Colossus' organic steel armor. A Skrull named Pagon took Elektra's place since Siri was killed by Elektra. Pagon's death was planned all along, being their major "reveal" of their intent to take over the world's superheroes.


title: Elektra (character)

text: The real Elektra was revealed to be alive upon one of the Skrull Ships and was released during the final battle between the heroes and the Skrulls. Iron Man immediately orders her held in protective custody at S.H.I.E.L.D.


title: Elektra (character)

text: Being the only Skrull captive showing signs of experimentation and torture, Elektra finds herself weakened by multiple injuries. Norman Osborn orders her studied and monitored to obtain information as to why this was the case.


title: Elektra (character)

text: Paladin breaks into H.A.M.M.E.R. (formerly S.H.I.E.L.D.) headquarters intending to kill Elektra for $82 million. She overpowers Paladin and chokes him by spitting her broken tooth down his throat. She forces him to surrender the keys to her to escape. Before leaving the cell, she murders the interrogator who was torturing her for info. She finally makes her escape after taking down several H.A.M.M.E.R. operatives and manages to reach Matt Murdock's office to raid his stash of first aid supplies. After being confronted by Foggy Nelson, she collapses from extensive blood loss due to her injuries.


title: Elektra (character)

text: Elektra wakes up handcuffed to a hospital bed in the Night Nurse's clinic. The nurse explains that she bound Elektra for her own safety, although the ninja easily frees herself. Their conversation is interrupted when a hit woman named Nico breaks in and attempts to kill both of them. Elektra sends Nico flying out the window then arms herself with the ninja's weapons while telling the Night Nurse to escape. Elektra jumps into the alley and battles Nico, only to find that another hit man named Carmine is also attempting to kill her with a sniper rifle from a rooftop. She manages to defeat Nico while evading Carmine's shots and obtains some clues from Nico as to why she was being targeted for assassination. On the rooftop, Carmine is murdered by Bullseye (in the guise of Hawkeye), who was sent by Norman Osborn to kill Elektra.


title: Elektra (character)

text: Elektra climbs to the top of the building to confront the third assassin, only to be taken aback when she discovers that he is Bullseye. Although initially hesitant, she stands her ground and faces her killer. The two begin to fight when Nico manages to reach the rooftop to check on Carmine. Bullseye attempts to kill her with a drug laced arrow, but she is saved by Elektra (who accidentally gets the drugs on the arrow in her system in the process). Bullseye then kicks the seemingly sedated Elektra off the building, but she manages to land safely. Bullseye follows and confronts her on the street, attempting to kill her with her own sai, much like their first encounter. However, this time Elektra outmaneuvers him and stabs him through the back with one of his own arrows. Nico once more interrupts the fight, attempting to shoot a fleeing Bullseye, then confronting a heavily drugged, helpless Elektra. H.A.M.M.E.R. agents enter the fray and shoot Nico, but are ambushed and killed by Wolverine before they can finish Elektra off.


title: Elektra (character)

text: After escaping H.A.M.M.E.R., Wolverine reveals to Elektra where Nico ran, and Elektra tries to confront the problem head on and peaceably end the conflict. Arriving at the Blackhawk crash site, she discovers that Agent Brothers, a former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, was the one who put a price on her head. Brothers claims that she was responsible for killing hundreds of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents during the . Elektra, having no memory of the incident, denies the accusations and urges both Brothers and Nico to go in peace, stating that it was her Skrull impostor who was responsible for the incident. However, Norman Osborn then appears, and reveals that Elektra was in fact abducted after the Helicarrier attack, although she has no memory of this because she had used a mind trick to "forget" her resurrections and the incidents surrounding them to prevent the Skrulls from accessing them during her abduction. Norman taunts Elektra to undo this mind trick, and Elektra obliges. It is then revealed that Elektra is actually guilty of the accusations. She then proceeds to kill both Nico and Brothers.


title: Elektra (character)

text: Elektra was involved in an incident with the Red Hulk, X-Force, a new villain called the Red She-Hulk and a few other well known mercenaries such as Deadpool and the Punisher.


title: Elektra (character)

text: In "Shadowland" storyline, Stick tries to convince Elektra to help stop the Hand from corrupting Matt. However she refuses, because she wanted him to be cold-hearted just like her out of spite for him. She reconsiders when she witnessed the broadcast of Daredevil killing Bullseye. She joins the Hand so she can gain intel on the Shadowland fortress to help the super heroes infiltrate it. Later upon rejoining the Hand, Elektra visits Daredevil and Typhoid Mary at Bullseye's grave intending to resurrect him. She then helps sneak the super heroes into the building, to stop Daredevil from resurrecting Bullseye. A fight erupts and just when Elektra tried to reach out to Matt, the Demon of the Hand finally possesses him. Once he defeats all of the super heroes, Iron Fist used his chi energy on the demon to help heal Matt's soul. While that was happening, Elektra entered Matt's mind to encourage him fight the evil presence of the demon. Matt killed himself to stop the demon from causing any more chaos. Elektra later resurrected him.


title: Elektra (character)

text: During the "" storyline, Elektra was incarcerated for some unknown reason in Pleasant Hill, a gated community established by S.H.I.E.L.D. S.H.I.E.L.D. used the powers of Kobik to turn her into Sheriff Eva. During this time, she was in love with Absorbing Man's altered human form of an ice cream vendor named Henry. After Baron Helmut Zemo and Fixer started using a machine to turn all the inmates back to normal, Elektra was among those restored. She talked Absorbing Man out to harming the innocent lives at Pleasant Hill.


title: Elektra (character)

text: During the "Civil War II" storyline, Elektra applied to join S.H.I.E.L.D. in order to free her conscience of the deaths of the passengers of the crashed Black Hawk. She took the position of field director when Phil Coulson left the group. When Coulson was trying to interfere with Captain Marvel's plans to use Ulysses Cain's abilities to stop crime before it happens, Elektra discovered that Leo Fitz was Coulson's mole in her group which Maria Hill was alerted to. At the same time, she also reinstated Grant Ward into S.H.I.E.L.D. and placed an explosive collar on his neck to ensure his loyalty.


title: Elektra (character)

text: During Chip Zdarsky's run on "Daredevil", Elektra seeks out Murdock to help form an organization called The Fist in order to take down The Hand once and for all. Matt is not interested in this, so, to prove herself trustworthy to Matt, she takes up the mantle of Daredevil and protects Hell Kitchen while Matt is in prison.


title: Elektra (character)

text: Elektra's primary abilities are a strong knowledge of martial arts and weaponry. Elektra learned ancient martial arts of China, Siam, and Japan. She is a master combatant with the Okinawan sai, her usual weapon of choice. She is also highly skilled with the katana, daggers, three-section staff, and shuriken. She is a master of many Japanese combat forms including Ninjutsu, Aikido and Karate. Elektra is an Olympic-level athlete, strong in gymnastics and swimming, with a high level in athleticism, human strength, speed, stamina, agility, dexterity, reflexes and reactions, coordination, balance, and endurance. She is resistant to pain and extreme heat and cold. She is also able to keep to the shadows and move with such speed that she can remain unseen even in daylight.


title: Elektra (character)

text: Elektra also has the ability to "throw" her mind into those of others. For instance, she was able to track down her enemy, Ken Wind, by temporarily "borrowing" people's minds and acting through them while she hunted around for her prey. This temporary mind control enables her to metaphorically sniff out the psyche, or intent, of her targets. It saw extensive use during "", in which she was heavily reliant on only her ninja powers.


title: Elektra (character)

text: Elektra can communicate telepathically with individuals possessing similar levels of mental discipline, such as the Chaste. She mastered this ability during training with The Hand, which mentally links her to The Beast, the demigod of The Hand. She is able to shield her mind from others.


title: Elektra (character)

text: Lukas Shayo of "Screen Rant" asserted, "Her background makes her nature as a hero all the more interesting. Much like Matt Murdock used Daredevil to help cope with his doubts and guilt, Elektra used the mantle to prove that she was more than a mercenary. Desperate to prove that she was not all terrible, her need for redemption made her an extraordinary hero."


title: Elektra (character)

text: In the story "What If Elektra Had Lived?", penned by Frank Miller, Elektra's murder at the hands of Bullseye does not occur as Bullseye is cut down and killed while trying to escape from prison. Elektra spares Franklin Nelson's life, irritating the Kingpin, who swiftly orders her execution. After fighting off several assassination attempts, Elektra flees to Matt Murdock's brownstone home. Murdock initially wants to take Elektra into custody, but she warns him that with the Kingpin putting a bounty on her head, she will die at the hands of his agents if she is sent to prison. Murdock decides to flee New York with Elektra, putting up his home for sale and cutting off contact with Nelson. The couple are last seen enjoying a quiet sunset on a beach, far removed from society and seemingly happy.


title: Elektra (character)

text: In one of the universes visited by the Exiles, Elektra was one of the few remaining survivors in a world ravaged by HYDRA and their leader, Sue Storm. Elektra is shown to be the lover of Reed Richards, and is a key player in the revival of the inhabitants of that earth. Her abilities are identical to that of her mainstream version.


title: Elektra (character)

text: Elektra appears as one of the assassins of the Kingpin and is later hired by John Proudstar to bring down Luke Cage's "Avengers".


title: Elektra (character)

text: In the Marvel Mangaverse, Elektra is evil and works for the Hand. When she is first introduced she encounters Daredevil who at first refuses to believe that she was working for the enemy. After a tearful reunion they kiss and she says to him "You tried to save my soul once. Unfortunately there was nothing there worth saving" and then proceeds to cut him in half. Later, during her fight with Carol Danvers, she shows remorse for having killed him. Elektra thanks Carol when Carol cuts her in half with her own blades.


title: Elektra (character)

text: In the "Ultimate Fantastic Four" arc "Crossover", Elektra is seen among the zombie hordes preparing to attack Magneto, Mr. Fantastic, and the few living humans they are protecting. She is also among the zombies that attack (and infect) Frank Castle. The infected Wolverine from this incident travels to another Earth where he kills the human Elektra with his claws, impaling her through the stomach in the manner of Bullseye.


title: Elektra (character)

text: In the MC2 Universe (an alternate future primarily focused on the children of current Marvel superheroes), Elektra married Wolverine and the two had a daughter named Rina Logan, a.k.a. Wild Thing. Very little is said about the future of Elektra, although we do see that she is actively involved in parenting Rina. Additionally, it is shown that she is wealthy enough to have an "extra-dimensional" credit rating.


title: Elektra (character)

text: Elektra also has a cameo in Spider-Girl where she is hired by the Black Tarantula to be Spider-Girl's martial arts instructor. Though not knowing Spider-Girl's true identity, Elektra quickly surmises that she is the daughter of Spider-Man based on how she talks, fights and carries herself.


title: Elektra (character)

text: In the Mutant X Universe – an alternate world which was visited by the Earth-616 (mainstream Marvel Universe) Havok – Elektra (surname: Stavros), while still equally trained as a martial artist and assassin, is the nanny and bodyguard of Scotty Summers. Scotty is the son of that reality's Alex Summers and Madelyne Pryor. Elektra stays close to Scotty, protecting him from repeated assaults by his mother, the Goblin Queen, and her brainwashed allies. Following the disappearance of the Goblin Queen, she indulges in an affair with Havok. She seemingly dies near the end of the series, though Scotty reassures Alex that she will come back.


title: Elektra (character)

text: In the Ultimate Marvel universe, Elektra Natchios is a student at Columbia University who has a knack for martial arts and is a great fan of Bruce Lee. Her mother died of breast cancer when she was 6, and her father is trying to make money with a laundromat.


title: Elektra (character)

text: In this universe, she starts out as a sweet, innocent girl who cares deeply for her loved ones – so deeply that she is willing to go over dead bodies to help them. This trait starts her descent into becoming one of the most deadly assassins in the world.


title: Elektra (character)

text: There is a gap between the Elektra featured in "Ultimate Daredevil and Elektra" and "Ultimate Elektra" and the one shown in "Ultimate Spider-Man". In the first two arcs, she is a normal college student, but in the last arc – which is set a few years later – she has become the Kingpin's right hand and is a villainess. She is hired by an unknown person to kill a Latverian terrorist, but Spider-Man prevented her from doing it. She is shown in this universe as a highly dangerous and skilled killer, and was able to take down the likes of Hammerhead, Black Cat, Moon Knight, and Spider-Man easily. She was later put into a coma when Moon Knight threw one of his crescent blades at her, hitting her in the head when she was about to kill Black Cat.


title: Elektra (character)

text: A more "realistic" version of Elektra appears in the "PunisherMAX" series, from Marvel's "MAX" imprint. This version of the character is Japanese: the Hand lends her services as a bodyguard to the Kingpin, especially to protect him from the Punisher. She also becomes the Kingpin's lover. It is revealed that Elektra was secretly hired by Kingpin's ex-wife Vanessa in order to assassinate him for failing to prevent the murder of their son Richard. It is also revealed that she is in a lesbian relationship with her. Elektra eventually has a final confrontation with the Punisher in order to save Vanessa. She manages to seriously wound the Punisher, but is shot several times and left permanently incapacitated. Later, a representative from the Hand has one of his men finish her with a sword.


title: Elektra (character)

text: In addition to her signature appearances in "Daredevil", Elektra starred in three series produced by her creator, Frank Miller:


title: Elektra (character)

text: An alternate version of Elektra starred in the following series set in the fictional Ultimate Marvel Universe: