How Modern Media Repeats Ancient Objectification

How Modern Media Repeats Ancient Objectification


In today’s world, sex scenes in movies and pornography are often dismissed as harmless entertainment or “artistic expression.” But if we step back and evaluate them through the lens of biblical anthropology, it becomes clear: modern media frequently treats human beings exactly the way ancient cultures did—as objects, not as image-bearers.


While we might assume we've progressed morally, Scripture and culture both testify to a repeating pattern: when people are stripped of their dignity and used as tools for pleasure, power, or profit, we return to the same ethical decay seen in some of the Bible’s darkest stories.


Ancient Objectification: The Bible Doesn’t Hide It


The Bible, especially the Old Testament, shows us a raw picture of human societies where people—especially women and the vulnerable—were often treated as property, war spoils, and commodities:


Exodus 20:17 lists a wife alongside a man’s house, servant, and ox—showing her legal status as property.


Deuteronomy 21:10–14 permits taking captive women in war and using them as wives.


Judges 19 recounts a horrific tale where a concubine is thrown to a violent mob, raped, and dismembered.


Leviticus 27 literally assigns monetary value to men, women, and children. 


Polygamy, concubinage, and slavery—including sexual slavery—were culturally normalized in ancient times.


These stories are not endorsements. They’re cautionary. The Bible includes them to expose what happens when sin dehumanizes—when God’s image in others is ignored, and people become instruments for others’ use.



Modern Objectification: Film and Porn Are Doing the Same Thing


Our media is saturated with scenes that commodify the body. Nudity, sex scenes, and pornography are often framed as freedom, art, or honesty—but at the core, they carry the same disease as the ancient world. Actors are reduced to body parts. Storylines use sex to sell tickets, views, or subscriptions. Pornography treats people as products, not persons—consumed, discarded, and devalued. Even mainstream film often frames women and men as objects of lust, not whole persons with stories, dignity, and souls. Just like the concubine of Judges 19, people today are used up and left empty. And just like the female captives in Deuteronomy, their consent is often coerced or glossed over in the name of drama or aesthetics.


We’ve Just Sanitized It


The disturbing part? We’ve normalized this objectification with lighting, music, and high-definition polish. Unlike the raw brutality of ancient texts, today’s objectification is wrapped in cinematic beauty and romanticism. But the spiritual result is the same. Our hearts grow numb to human worth. Lust replaces love. People become consumable.


Jesus Offers a Better Way


Jesus didn't objectified anyone. He looked at the woman caught in adultery (John 8) and restored her dignity, not her shame. He sat with the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4) and gave her identity, not exploitation. He never stripped people for entertainment—He clothed them in mercy. As followers of Christ, we are called to see others as sacred, not as screens or silhouettes. To view sex not as spectacle, but as a covenantal act of mutual self-giving, not consumerism.


What Can We Do?


Reject entertainment that commodifies others. If it dehumanizes, it desensitizes.

Honor people in body and soul. Whether onscreen or in real life, we reflect God's image best when we treat others as more than bodies.

Call out cultural lies. Sex without dignity isn't freedom—it's a return to slavery.


Conclusion


From ancient Israel to modern Hollywood, the temptation to objectify humans for personal gain has never gone away. The Bible doesn't shy away from showing us the consequences. And the gospel calls us to something higher: a world where people are not used—but loved, honored, and restored.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ezekiel 38-39 has been fulfilled in the book of Esther-Quick Reference

Ezekiel 38-39 has been fulfilled in the book of Esther-Quick Reference ***The Jews’ victory caused 75,310 people (Esther 9:10, 15, 16). This corresponds with the enemy deaths in Ezekiel 38-39. ·          Esther 9:10 10 the ten sons of Haman son of Hammedatha, the enemy of the Jews. But they did not lay their hands on the plunder . ·          Esther 9:15-16 15 The Jews in Susa came together on the fourteenth day of the month of Adar, and they put to death in Susa three hundred men , but they did not lay their hands on the plunder . 16 Meanwhile, the remainder of the Jews who were in the king’s provinces also assembled to protect themselves and get relief from their enemies . They killed seventy-five thousand of them but did not lay their hands on the plunder. ·          Ezekiel 39:11 11 “‘On that day I will give Gog a burial place in Israel, ...
Read more

Ezekiel 40

Image
INTRODUCTION Picture yourself as a Jew in the exile. You lost your home, your family, and even questioning your faith in the midst of God’s promises. You are traumatized and broken by the events that have transpired. All hope seems loss. Then Ezekiel the Priest says that you will inherit a new Temple and a new land with more responsibility added to you. More responsibility that you couldn’t fulfill the first time, which is why you are exiled in the first place. And get this, it is all invisible. This would have not gone well for Ezekiel by simply telling the Jews their inheritance was invisible. However, that’s not the case. Thankfully, our God is very descriptive about the measurements and dimensions of the Temple. We have a basis to compare the old Temple and old land to these new promises. Since the Jews were involved in the construction, they would be familiar with the size of the Temple and the land. When Ezekiel was telling the Jews about these measurements, it blew their mind...
Read more

A Preterist Postmillennial Commentary-Revelation 1-11 (PPC)

Image
Revelation 1 Setting: 65-66AD/during the reign of Emperor Nero. V1-3: God the Father uses His Son, Jesus to reveal the last days of the Old Covenant. Jesus' angel (the Principle of agency)  shares the Father's message to John.   V4: This letter is to the seven churches in Asia Minor. Not the entire modern world. The seven spirits can be the seven fold nature of the Holy Spirit’s presence at all seven churches in Asia Minor (See Revelation 5:6, Zechariah 4:1-6, Isaiah 11:2-3). Alternatively, it can just be seven messenger spirits. V5: Jesus' titles are listed in order to express his supremacy over His New Covenant Creation and love for his Elect. V6: The Acknowledgement of Christ’s blessing over his Elect. V7: Imagery from Daniel 7:13-14 and Zechariah 11:12-13 is used in order to demonstrate Christ's exalted power-given by God the Father. Jesus is the  ruler of Heaven and Earth. He pronounces judgment and execution on the Unfaithful Jews. There are no T...
Read more