science of the mind which inclines as it will. . . . And the spirit of truth testifies to all things and brings all accusations" (Kee 1983, 800). In some of these passages, moreover, the "evil spirit" is explicitly defined as sexuality and opposed by a "good spirit" that is anti-sexual: "And the spirits of error have no power over him [the genuine man], since he does not include feminine beauty in the scope of his vision" (Kee 1983, 803). "For the person with a mind that is pure with love does not look on a woman for the purpose of having sexual relations'' (Kee 1983, 827).
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Other passages in this same text, however, seem to prefigure the later rabbinic dialectical understanding of sexuality. The following extract comes closer to the later doctrine, though it still maintains the separation between the good and evil sides and does not yet understand them as inextricably identified:
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 | | And now give heed to me, my children, concerning the things which I saw during my time of penitence, concerning the seven spirits of deceit. For seven spirits are established against mankind, and they are the sources of the deeds of youth. And seven other spirits are given to man at creation so that by them every human deed (is done). First is the spirit of life, with which man is created as a composite being. The second is the spirit of seeing, with which comes desire. The third is the spirit of hearing, with which comes instruction. The fourth is the spirit of smell, with which is given taste for drawing air and breath. The fifth is the spirit of speech, with which comes knowledge. The sixth is the spirit of taste for consuming food and drink; by it comes strength, because in food is the substance of strength. The seventh is the spirit of procreation and intercourse, with which come sins through fondness for pleasure. For this reason, it was the last in the creation and the first in youth, because it is filled with ignorance; it leads the young person like a blind man into a ditch and like an animal over a cliff.
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| | In addition to all is an eighth spirit: sleep, with which is created the ecstasy of nature and the image of death.
With these are commingled the spirits of error
. First the spirit of promiscuity resides in the nature and the senses. A second spirit of insatiability, in the stomach.
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| | (Kee 1983, 78283)
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Although, to be sure, this text maintains a structure of opposing sets of spirits, nevertheless, it emphasizes that the two sets are commingled and indeed recognizes sexual desire as problematic but nonetheless belonging per se in the first set, among the "seven other spirits [which] are given to man at creation so that by them every human deed [is done]." The power of sexual desire, however, is such that it can lead the unsuspecting young
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