Where in leviticus does it talk about homosexuality
Why Care What Leviticus Says About Homosexuality?
Joe Heschmeyer:
Welcome assist to Shameless Popery, I&#;m Joe Heschmeyer. I long to talk today about the old law and what its role is for Christians. Is the Old Testament law still binding, the Law of Moses? So, historically people say there&#;s laws in the Law of Moses. That number is Maimonides, it&#;s kind of controversial whether that number is even accurate or not. But needless to speak, there are arguably hundreds, although the exact number may be debated. But hundreds of different rules and regulations, things that you should do or in many cases not do in the Statute of Moses. And the question becomes, for Christians, are we still bound by that? Are we bound by any of that? What&#;s its role? And now, that conversation historically has come up in a lot of different contexts. One of the first places it came up was, should we still circumcise converts to the faith?
Because that was a big deal. Another is, well, should we worship on Saturday or Sunday? But these days, if I had to guess the number one place this debate seems to come
Has 'Homosexual' Always Been in the Bible?
Reprinted with permission from The Forge Online
The synonyms “arsenokoitai” shows up in two diverse verses in the bible, but it was not translated to mean “homosexual” until
We got to sit down with Ed Oxford at his home in Long Beach, California and talk about this question.
You contain been part of a research team that is searching to understand how the decision was made to position the word gay in the bible. Is that true?
Ed: Yes. It first showed up in the RSV translation. So before figuring out why they decided to use that word in the RSV translation (which is outlined in my upcoming manual with Kathy Baldock, Forging a Solemn Weapon: How the Bible Became Anti-Gay) I wanted to see how other cultures and translations treated the matching verses when they were translated during the Reformation years ago. So I started collecting ancient Bibles in French, German, Irish, Gaelic, Czechoslovakian, Polish… you name it. Now I’ve got most European major languages that I’ve poised over time. An
Leviticus
“You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.”[1] It is not a surprise that this verse seems to say that gay male sex is forbidden in the eyes of God. The dominant view of western Christianity forbids gay relations. This verse is one of the clobber passages that people cite from the Bible to condemn homosexuality. This essay first looks at the various ways the verse is translated into the English Bible and then explores some of the strategies used to create an affirming interpretation of what this passage means for the LGBTQ community. More specifically, it presents the interpretation of K. Renato Lings in which Lev. refers to male-on-male incest.
While Lev. is used to condemn homosexuality, we must realize that the word “homosexuality” was only recently coined in the English language. So did this term exist in ancient Israel? Charles D. Myers, Jr. confirms that none of the prophets in the Hebrew Bible mention homosexuality.[2] He also contends that in ancient Israel same-sex relations were viewed as an ancient Near East issue. The anc
The Bible on Homosexual Behavior
One way to argue against these passages is to make what I ring the “shellfish objection.” Keith Sharpe puts it this way: “Until Christian fundamentalists boycott shellfish restaurants, block wearing poly-cotton T-shirts, and stone to death their wayward offspring, there is no obligation to attend to their diatribes about homosexuality being a sin” (The Gay Gospels, 21).
In other words, if we can disregard rules fancy the ban on eating shellfish in Leviticus , then we should be allowed to disobey other prohibitions from the Former Testament. But this argument confuses the Old Testament’s temporary ceremonial laws with its permanent moral laws.
Here’s an analogy to aid understand this distinction.
I think of two rules my mom gave me when I was young: hold her hand when I cross the street and don’t drink what’s under the sink. Today, I hold to follow only the latter rule, since the former is no longer needed to protect me. In fact, it would now do me more harm than good.
Old Testament ritual/ceremonial laws were love mom’s handholding rule. The rea