Handout for What the Bible says (and doesn’t say) about Homosexuality

Opening prayer

Review of previous discussion

Role of tradition: stability, meaning, adaptation to context, change with new needs

Old Testament marriage traditions: various, fit into context, changed within the OT

Two previous changes

Council of Jerusalem: ending kosher laws, circumcision for gentile Christians

Abolition of slavery: change in consensus of how to read the Bible on slavery, with the calls to love, liberty and equality prevailing over slavery

A sense of scale        

Old Testament references

Genesis 19:1-8, the story of Sodom

Compare Jeremiah 23.14; Ezekiel 16.49-50; what was the “sin of Sodom” in these references?

Leviticus 18:22

Leviticus 20:13

v.22 You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination. NB: The Hebrew is V’et zachar lo tishkav mishk’vey eeshah toeyvah hee."        The first part of this verse is literally translated as "And with a male you shall not lay lyings of a woman" – an alternate translation is that two men shall not lie down on a woman’s bed.

"The seriousness of this idolatry in Hebrew eyes was compounded by the belief that 'to lie with a man as with a woman' violated the dignity of the male sex. Women were [considered] property but men were the direct image of God. To treat a man the way a woman was treated was to reduce him to property and, thereby, to violate the image of God. The issue was idolatrous activity which failed to acknowledge God's creation."

Compare  Leviticus 11:13-18; Deuteronomy 23:17-18; 1 Kings 14.24; Ezekiel 8.4-10; role of idolatry and change in how we regard “abomination”

New Testament references

1 Corinthians 6:9-10

Romans 1:26-27

1 Timothy 1:9-10 (another arsenokoites)

Jude 1:7

Arsenokoitai and Malakos: see below

The thorny problem of Arsenokoites – first recorded use is Paul

ajrsenokoivthß        from (730 - man) and (2845 - bed)

Arsenokoites        Phonetic Spelling ar-sen-ok-oy'-tace    Noun: Masculine

Dictionary definition: 1. one who lies with a male as with a female, sodomite, homosexual [but is this definition warranted? See table at the end]

King James Word Usage - Total: 2

abuser of (one's) self with mankind 1, defile (one's) self with mankind 1

NB: many Greek words for homosexual relations; Paul used none of them

What the Bible says about monogamous, faithful same sex relationships:

What context or framework for understanding do these passages suggest?

Leviticus 19.18                  Leviticus 19.34

1 John 4.7                        1 John 4.16

Galatians 5:19-23                Galatians 3.28

The few passages that in the past have been seen as prohibiting same sex relationships may not mean what they have been interpreted as meaning in the past. In either case, a broader understanding of the gospel call to love and liberty provides a new way to view monogamous, faithful same sex relationships.