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The Bible and homosexuality

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Direct references to homosexual activity in the Bible are relatively few.[1] Traditional Jewish and Christian societies have interpreted these passages as moral imperatives forbidding all forms of homosexual activity. Modern biblical scholarship tends rather to attempt to understand them within the context of the societies which produced them.

Hebrew Bible/Old Testament

Main article: Homosexuality in the Hebrew Bible

Leviticus 18 and 20

Chapters 18 and 20 of Leviticus, which form part of the Holiness code, contain the following verses:

Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is an abomination.(Leviticus 18:22 KJV)
If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.(Leviticus 20:13 KJV)

The two verses have traditionally been interpreted by Christians as blanket prohibitions against homosexual acts.

Traditional Jewish sources view these verses as prohibitions against anal sex between males.

Possible references

The story of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis has traditionally been interpreted within Christianity as a punishment for homosexuality; Judaism regards it as a story about the need for hospitality.

Jesus spoke of the punishment of Sodom in telling the disciples as he was sending them out what would happen to towns which did not welcome them. Matthew 10:14-15 and Luke 17: 10-12.

The Hebrew Bible uses the word kedeshah for prostitute. The meaning of the male form kadesh or qadesh is not entirely clear.[2] Some translations imply a male cultic attendant, apparently with some sexual implication. The account of the friendship between David and Jonathan in the Books of Samuel, depicted by traditional and mainstream religious interpretation as a relationship of platonic love, has been interpreted by some secular writers as being of a sexual nature.[3][4]

Passages from the New Testament

Main article: Homosexuality in the New Testament

Romans 1

(26) Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. (27) In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.

However, it says in verse 27, "In the same way...", which is a comparative phrase, meaning that the women in verse 26 practiced unnatural relations in the same way that the men in verse 27 did, through homosexuality. This passage is also debated, both in terms of its relevance today and in terms of its actual prohibition.[5] In terms of relevance, some argue that Paul's writings must be considered fallible because of his support for slavery and the oppression of women. [by whom?] Others argue that the passage is not a blanket condemnation of homosexuality at all. [by whom?]

Other Epistles

In the context of the broader immorality of his audience, Paul of Tarsus wrote in the First Epistle to the Corinthians,

Do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived! Fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, arsenokoitēs, thieves, the greedy, drunkards, revilers, robbers, none of these will inherit the kingdom of God. And this is what some of you used to be. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God. (1 Corinthians 6:9-11)

The word arsenokoitēs (ἀρσενοκοίτης) has challenged scholars for centuries, and has been variously rendered as "abusers of themselves with mankind" (KJV), "sodomites" (YLT), or "men who practice homosexuality." Greek ἄῤῥην / ἄρσην [arrhēn / arsēn means "male", and κοίτην [koitēn] "bed," with a sexual connotation": there is no evident reason for Paul to choose this word to signify homosexuality, as Greek has the word androkoitēs for this meaning. It is likely that arsenokoitēs is taken from the Septuagint (LXX) reading of Leviticus 20:13 where the root forms (Greek ἄῤῥην / ἄρσην [arrhēn / arsēn] and κοίτην [koitēn] both appear. Paul's use of the word in 1 Corinthians is the earliest example of the term; its only other use is in a similar list of wrongdoers given (probably by the same author) in 1 Timothy 1:9–10:

Now we know that the law is good, if one uses it legitimately. This means understanding that the law is laid down not for the innocent but for the lawless and disobedient, for the godless and sinful, for the unholy and profane, for those who kill their father or mother, for murderers, fornicators, arsenokoitēs, slave traders, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to the sound teaching that conforms to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which he entrusted to me. (1 Timothy 1:8–10)

In 35 A.D., the secular philosopher Philo wrote that arsenokoitēs referred to "temple prostitution". Later Christian literature used the word to mean variously prostitution, incest or rape without any single clear meaning – Patriarch John IV of Constantinople, in a passage dealing with coercive and non-procreative sex, speaks of "...many men [who] commit the sin of arsenokoitia with their wives".[6] Other scholars have interpreted malakoi and arsenokoitēs as referring to weakness and effeminacy, or to the practice of exploitative pederasty.[7][8]

See also

References

  1. ^ David Hilborn (2002, p. 1)
  2. ^ Anderson, Ray Sherman (2001), The shape of practical theology: empowering ministry with theological praxis, InterVarsity Press, p. 267, ISBN 9780830815593
  3. ^ Boswell, John. Same-sex Unions in Premodern Europe. New York: Vintage, 1994. (pp. 135–137)
  4. ^ Halperin, David M. One Hundred Years of Homosexuality. New York: Routledge, 1990. (p. 83)
  5. ^ Interpretations of Romans 1:26-27 by Religious Liberals, Religious Tolerance
  6. ^ Boswell, John (1981). Christianity, social tolerance, and homosexuality: gay people in Western Europe from the beginning of the Christian era to the fourteenth century. University of Chicago Press. p. 364.
  7. ^ Scroggs, Robin (1983). The New Testament and homosexuality: contextual background for contemporary debate. Fortress Press. pp. 62–65, 106–109.
  8. ^ Berlinerblau, Jacques (2005). The secular Bible: why nonbelievers must take religion seriously. Cambridge University Press. p. 108.

Literature

External links

Texts and definitions

Essays

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