HOMOSEXUALITY AND THE BIBLE

LEVITICUS

 

Leviticus 18:22 (KJV)

Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind:  it is abomination.

 

Leviticus 18:22 (NIV)

Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable.

 

Leviticus 20:13 (KJV)

If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both have committed an abomination:  they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.

 

Leviticus 20:13 (NIV)

If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.

Some time ago, circulating over the internet was a so-called "open letter" to a conservative, homophobic radio talk-show host. The fact that she has a PhD and uses the honorific, Doctor, along with her name, said title gives her a certain air of credibility. She bases her very vocal condemnation of homosexuality on these verses in Leviticus. Using other passages also from Leviticus, the "letter" poses questions to the good doctor, questions similar to these: 

One readily can see how incongruent it would be to take certain verses of scripture out of context and try to apply them to today’s world. One must also question the validity of applying specific passages of scripture to a body of people while discarding the rest. If it would be ridiculous to try today to apply the strictures presented by Leviticus 1:5-9, 11:7 & 8, 11:12, 18:19, 19:19, 19:27, 21:16-20, 25:44, to mention just a few, what then justifies the application of 18:22 or 20:13? While we cannot "throw out the baby with the bathwater" as it were, we can be guided by the Ten Commandments in the Hebrew Scriptures, and by Jesus’ great commandments in the Christian. Jesus told us that all of the Hebrew law and teachings of the prophets could be incorporated into the Law of Love–love of God, love of neighbor, and love of self. Obviously, incestuous and adulterous relationships, as well as child molestation violate the Law of Love, but the sharing of love between two people who happen to be of the same gender does not. It is as simple as that.

On the other hand, is it really all that simple? The instruction is very clear:  a man must not lie with another man as he would with a woman, because it is abomination. If it is not a condemnation of homosexuality, what is it talking about and why is it there? We want this study to be thorough. Even though it is obvious that the captioned verses do not apply to today’s world, we must ask the question:  did these verses ever apply to any particular group of people or to anyone in general? Did these verses ever apply to homosexuals at any time in history? To answer these questions we must look at these verses in context. As you will see, as always happens when there is a discussion about what particular passages of scripture mean, scholars take different approaches to coming to understandings of what the scriptures mean. I will attempt to share the various approaches as I understand them.

First, we must realize that primitive people did not have a concept of homosexuality as it exists today. This was a patriarchal society, where men ruled and women were property. Engaging in sex was not generally about love and tenderness. Sex was the means of procreation, of course, and it could also be about sharing mutual pleasure. But sex was also an able weapon of domination. Victors after battles often forced themselves sexually on defeated foes to humiliate them. Owners could force themselves sexually on their male slaves in acts of domination. For a free man to lie with another free man within the tribe or community was to dominate him–to reduce him to the status of a woman–it would dishonor him, so one wasn't to do so.

The second thing we need to become aware of is that during the time of the Exodus, Moses assigned to the tribe of Levi the position of priest to the people (Exodus 32:29), and Leviticus was written as instruction to them.  According to the Abbington Bible Handbook, the book of Leviticus:

"…pertains to the work of the Levitical priests who guided the worship of the people of God. Chapters 17 to 26 were part of an older independent source now called the Holiness Code. Many of the laws of this code and the rest of Leviticus are ancient, some probably taken from Canaanite practice and transformed in their new setting. This great body of religious law and ritual served as a guide for priestly service in the postexilic temple."  (p. 101)

The first three verses of Chapter 18 tell us:  God said to Moses, "Tell the Israelites:  I am your God. You must not do as the people do in Egypt, where you used to live, and you cannot do what the people who live in Canaan do, where I am leading you. Don’t behave as they do." Verses six through eighteen offer a list of proscriptions against having sexual relations with various family members, and verse nineteen instructs the men not to engage in sexual relations with a woman during menses, while verse twenty prohibits sexual relations with married neighbors.

However, the theme appears to change from sexual relations with relatives and neighbors to idolatry, starting with verse 21 and including verses 22 and 23, which read:

Leviticus 18:21-23 (KJV)

21:  And thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Molech, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God:  I am the Lord.

22:  Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind:  it is abomination

23:  Neither shalt thou lie with any beast to defile thyself therewith; neither shall any woman stand before a beast to lie down thereto:  it is confusion.

Leviticus 18:21-23 (NIV)

21:  "Do not give any of your children to be sacrificed to Molech, for you must not profane the name of your God. I am your God."

22:  "Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable."

23:  "Do not have sexual relations with an animal and defile yourself with it. A woman must not present herself to an animal to have sexual relations with it; that is a perversion."

Who was Molech? In Leviticus, chapter 20, verses one to five we read: 

God said to Moses, "Say to the Israelites:  "Any Israelite or any alien who sacrifices any of his or her children to Molech must be put to death. The people of the community are to stone them. I will set my face against that man or that woman and I will cut them off from their people; for by sacrificing their children to Molech, they have defiled my sanctuary and profaned my holy name. If the people of the community close their eyes when those people give one of their children to Molech and they fail to put them to death, I will set my face against them and their family and will cut off from their people, both the perpetrators and all who follow them in prostituting themselves to Molech."

Who was Molech? Molech was a very popular, colorful, Ammonite fire god. Followers of Molech often would paint their bodies with flames. Note that chapter 19, verse 28, instructs the Israelites not to tattoo their bodies. Many of the men would trim their beards in patterns that looked like flames. Chapter 19, verse 27 instructs men not to similarly cut their hair or trim their beards.

Molech was a very demanding god, and one of the demands was child sacrifice. A child had to be burned to death on a regular basis in order to appease Molech. It was not unusual for pagan gods to demand human sacrifices. But the Hebrew religion was very different. God called the people to be set apart–to be different from their neighbors. While the pagan gods demanded human sacrifices, in the Hebrew religion the opposite would be true. God would be sacrificed for humanity. (Isaiah 53).

Remember that the first commandment, and according to Jesus, the greatest commandment is this:  Hear O Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is One! If this is the greatest commandment, then the greatest sin is idolatry. One must never do anything to dishonor God, so that sacrificing to Molech elicited the death penalty. As sad as it might seem today, the sin wasn’t so much the sacrificing of the children–it was the idolatry that was considered so evil, as we see in the last line above–those who prostitute themselves to Molech.

In keeping with the theme of idolatry with respect to verse 22, note the instruction above in verse three not to do what the people who live in Canaan do. Remember that the Hebrews were a nomadic people, while the Canaanites were agricultural. The Canaanite religion revolved around the fertility of the land, as well as of the people. The expression of that fertility in their religion involved going to the temple of the god or goddess and engaging in sexual activity with a (usually same sex) priest or priestess employed at the temple. So, verse 22 instructs the Hebrews not to lie with a man as a woman in a cultic sense, because it is toebah–it is abomination–it is idolatry.

In the same way, verse 23 instructs the people, and especially women, not to engage in sex with animals, because it was considered a form of idolatry. The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia notes: 

This anti-bestiality proscription may well have been formulated to distinguish the Israelites from the Canaanites, who are thought by some to have practiced a ritualistic copulation with beasts.
(Vol. 1, pp. 443)

Another point to note:  the word that the KJV translates confusion, in the Hebrew language it was tebel, which means mixture, unnatural. As we saw in the study of Jude/Sodom, the sin involved the mixture of different orders of creation.

In the KJV of Deuteronomy, 23:17 we find the following:  There shall be no harlot of the daughters of Israel, nor a sodomite of the sons of Israel.  The wording in modern translations, such as the NIV however, reads very differently:  No Israelite man or woman is to become a temple prostitute. What caused the wording to change? When did a sodomite (assumed by many churches to mean homosexual), become a temple–or cult–prostitute?

Unfortunately, the answer to that question will have to wait until next week.

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