Come not at your wives. Compare 1 Samuel 21:4, 1 Samuel 21:5; 1 Corinthians 7:5. A similar obligation lay on the Egyptian priests (Porphyr. De Abstin. 4.7); and the idea which underlies it was widespread in the ancient world The subject is well treated, from a Christian point of view, by Pope Gregory the First, in his answers to S. Augustine's questions (Bode, Hist. Eccl. 2.).
HOMILETICS