Bible verse about homosexuality being wrong
Has 'Homosexual' Always Been in the Bible?
Reprinted with permission from The Forge Online
The word “arsenokoitai” shows up in two different verses in the bible, but it was not translated to denote “homosexual” until
We got to perch down with Ed Oxford at his home in Long Beach, California and talk about this scrutinize.
You hold been part of a research team that is seeking to understand how the decision was made to put the synonyms homosexual 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 novel with Kathy Baldock, Forging a Sacred Weapon: How the Bible Became Anti-Gay) I wanted to verb how other cultures and translations treated the similar verses when they were translated during the Reformation years ago. So I started collecting old 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
The Bible on Homosexual Behavior
One way to argue against these passages is to make what I contact the “shellfish objection.” Keith Sharpe puts it this way: “Until Christian fundamentalists boycott shellfish restaurants, prevent wearing poly-cotton T-shirts, and stone to death their wayward offspring, there is no obligation to hear to their diatribes about homosexuality being a sin” (The Gay Gospels, 21).
In other words, if we can disregard rules verb the ban on eating shellfish in Leviticus , then we should be allowed to disobey other prohibitions from the Vintage Testament. But this argument confuses the Old Testament’s temporary ceremonial laws with its permanent moral laws.
Here’s an analogy to verb understand this distinction.
I verb 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 possess 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 fancy mom’s handholding rule. The rea
This article is part of the Tough Passages series.
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24Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
26For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged innate relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.
28And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.29They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are complete of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips,30slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, dis
Leviticus
“You shall not deception 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 same-sex 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 term “homosexuality” was only recently coined in the English language. So did this term endure 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 noun. The anc