Is Homosexuality in the Bible?

Anachronistic Applications & Mistranslations

June 14, 2026

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Michele Scott,

M.A. Hebrew & Semitics, U. of WI-Madison

M.Div. Andover Newton/Yale Divinity

M.B.A. Mt. Mercy University

Pastor serving Olivet Presbyterian

& Christ Church Presbyterian

Cultural Contexts

Plato’s Symposium 385 – 370 BCE

Cultural Contexts

Plato’s Symposium - Androgyne

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The human figure was round, with two heads, four arms, two biological sexes, four legs.

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The male was born from the sun, the female from the earth and the androgyne from the moon.

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Cultural Contexts

Plato’s Symposium 385 – 370 BCE

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• “Homosexual” is an inappropriate and an anachronistic designation.
• “Bisexual,” is an inappropriate and an anachronistic designation as it suggests a middle ground between homosexuality and heterosexuality.
• There is some evidence to suggest that male-male relationships were more prevalent and more valued in the intellectual/elite circles that Plato writes about than among the people of Athens at large. Both males held equal social status.

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Culture & Gender

Hebrew Bible – 800 - 600 BCE

Genesis 2:23

• The second account of creation: the gender structure that lends itself to the view of ‘Adam and Eve’ being one, androgynous being.
• The gender dynamic projected is not defined by hierarchy, but by symmetry. Adam and Eve are “two identical halves that long for unity.”

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Cultural Contexts

Hebrew Bible – 800 - 600 BCE

Genesis 2:23

• There is a linguistic pun here. It is only here that the word for a male gains a gendered aspect, because אִישׁ  [ish] refers to an individual male, with moral and social responsibilities.
• אִשָּׁה [isha] refers to an individual female in relational or societal roles.
• Symmetry is inferred instead of hierarchy.

Cultural Contexts

Hebrew Bible – 800 - 600 BCE

Leviticus 18:22 – incest and adultery

• In context, just as a male is forbidden from having sex with his mother, his sister, or a married woman other than his wife, he is also forbidden from having sex with his father, his brother, or a married man.  (cite: Rabbi Ishmael 2^nd century, Upper Galilean rabbi)
• This is not pederasty despite Martin Luther’s translation from the Vulgate in 1523 CE.

Cultural Contexts

Hebrew Bible – 800 - 600 BCE

Leviticus 20:13 – social dominance & metaphysical contaminant on the land

• The male taking the ‘insertive’/active role is condemned but not the male taking the ‘receptive’/passive role i.e. ‘lying of a woman.’ (cite: Mark Stone)
• The male in the passive role is required to assume a subordinate role in social hierarchy to the other male as if he were a female. This is an abomination to debase another male. Both parties chose to participate.
• Cumulative abominations by members of Israel produce metaphysical contaminants.

Translations Change Meaning

Hebrew Bible—Translated into Koine Greek �285–247 BCE

Genesis 2:16

• The Septuagint misses the pun that Hebrew includes. Instead, Adam becomes a name and a gendered hierarchy is introduced as it states that the woman was taken from her man.
• As a result of this mistranslation, woman is a derivative of man and symmetry is lost.

Translations Change Meaning

Hebrew Bible—1^st Century CE

Genesis 2:16

• Philo of Alexandria (1^st century CE) believed in a continuum of gender where man was perfection and woman was an incomplete version of man. Although a person could identify only with one of two genders, they could rest anywhere on this continuum from man to woman, behaving in more masculine or feminine ways, regardless of their biological gender.

Translations Change Meaning

Hebrew Bible—1^st Century CE

• Though Philo had a “fluid concept of gender,” in an inherently hierarchical way.
• Philo associated gender traits with the state of the soul, where “feminine” traits such as passivity were associated with moral deficiencies. Philo named this ‘the feminizing disease’ if a male chose the receptive role. A form pathology.

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Translations Change Meaning

Hebrew Bible—Translated into Latin �4th century CE

• Unlike other Latin translations, Jerome’s Vulgate used the original language texts.
• Binary and moral hierarchy established in this translation.
• By the 13th century, however, Jerome’s Vulgate had become the versio vulgata, the common version, that would become the official Latin Bible of the Roman Catholic Church.

Is Homosexuality in the Bible?

• Pederasty described by Plato as common practice
• Catamite = pubescent boy
• Elite men would mentor a pre-adolescent boy (catamite) in politics and in social etiquette in exchange for sexual favors.

Is Homosexuality in the Bible?

1 Timothy 1:9-10

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• The Greek word is arsenokoitai (ἀρσενοκοῖται)
• “arsen” (ἄρσην), meaning “male,” & “koitē” (κοίτη), meaning “bed.”
• When combined, the phrase conveys “males who lie (in bed) with males,” pointing to a specific context of sexual activity between males.

Pederastic kissing on an Attic kylix  (5th century BCE)

Is Homosexuality in the Bible?

1 Corinthians 6:9

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• The Greek word malakoi refers to a person’s character instead of sexual identity.
• English translations translate the word as ‘male prostitute’
• 20^th century translations: both words as ‘sexual pervert’ of ‘homosexual’. This is anachronistic: a modern word for an ancient practice. Both Greek words denote action rather than identity, attraction or feelings.

Is Homosexuality in the Bible?

1 Timothy 1:9-10 (NRSVuE)  

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⁹ this means understanding that the law is laid down not for the righteous 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, ¹⁰ the sexually immoral, men who engage in illicit sex, slave traders, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to the sound teaching. 

Is Homosexuality in the Bible?

1 Corinthians 6:9 (NRSVuE)  

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⁹ Do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived! The sexually immoral, idolaters, adulterers, male prostitutes, men who engage in illicit sex.

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Is Homosexuality in the Bible?

1 Corinthians 6:9 (NRSVuE)  

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• The powerful were supposed to dominate the weak. Males were supposed to be dominant over females.
• Therefore, a lower-class male dominating a higher-class male or a catamite dominating his pederast would be a violation. Unlike the Hellenic/Greek period when both males were from the same socially elite class, the Hellenistic/Roman period required that the insertive male be a higher-class male.

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Is Homosexuality in the Bible?

Summary

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• Therefore, an ‘abomination’ would have been a lower-class male (who should be acting like the woman) dominating a higher-class male or a catamite dominating his pederast.
• Pederastic relationships in the Hellenistic/Roman period were characterized by inequality of age, social status and power between a young male/catamite/malakoi and an adult male/pederast/arsenkotai.*

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Is Homosexuality in the Bible?

Summary

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• Pederastic relationship was considered to be among the most noble relationships between males.
• Pederastic relationships fit the 1^st century concept of adultery since the pederast was married to a woman to produce progeny.*
• Paul was concerned with morally dubious relationships such as adultery.

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Is Homosexuality in the Bible?

Summary: Misuse of the Word

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• ‘The translation of the word “homosexual” is an

example of scholars reading their own culture into

a concept that was foreign to the Biblical period.’*

• ‘The use of the word “homosexual” is inevitably anachronistic; it uses a modern word for an ancient reality.’*

* Cite: Cristina Richie, “The (Mis)use of the Word ‘Homosexual’ in English Translations of the Bible,” Presented to the American Academy of Religion [AAR], New England Maritime Regional Conference, March 21, 2015.

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Is Homosexuality in the Bible?

Summary: Misuse of the Word

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• Homosexuality, understood as orientation and identity, is a relatively modern concept and is not a concept applicable to biblical writings and their cultural contexts.
• Therefore, biblical writings do not address homosexuality or same-sex, monogamous and loving relationships or same-sex attraction.
• Specific acts in specific contexts are addressed in biblical writings.

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