What exactly do the Old Testament manuscripts say about homosexuality?
Genesis:
Creation and marriage:
The Creation account in Genesis: “So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” (Genesis 1:27-28, NKJV)
God blessed the heterosexual marriage and established the creation of humans on two pillars – male and female. The same was in the covenant renewal with Noah in Genesis: ” But I will establish My covenant with you; and you shall go into the ark you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you. And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female” (Genesis 6:18-19, NKJV) Here God preserved His creation by the sanctification of male and female in the Ark.
Jesus, the incarnated God, the only begotten son, confirmed this in Matthew: “And He answered and said to them, Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female” (Matthew 19:4, NKJV). We see how the scriptures are in perfect harmony as the completeness of the one holy God from Moses’ time writing the Torah to the disciples of Christ. This assures us that the teachings of the scriptures are the truth, and the truth is preserved from Cultural developments.
Indeed, when God wishes to specify that something is temporal or “culturally conditioned,” He does so. For example, the ceremonial aspects of the Law of Moses that were instituted in the Old Testament are rescinded in the New Testament. From this, we may conclude that if God’s prohibitions against homosexuality were restricted to specific times or practices and no longer relevant, God would certainly have told us so in the New Testament. So, what else does the Old Testament say about homosexuality?
Sodom and Gomorrah:
“Now before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both old and young, all the people from every quarter, surrounded the house. And they called to Lot and said to him, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may know them carnally.” So Lot went out to them through the doorway, shut the door behind him, and said, “Please, my brethren, do not do so wickedly! See now, I have two daughters who have not known a man; please, let me bring them out to you, and you may do to them as you wish; only do nothing to these men, since this is the reason they have come under the shadow of my roof.” And they said, “Stand back!” Then they said, “This one came in to stay here, and he keeps acting as a judge; now we will deal worse with you than with them.” So they pressed hard against the man Lot and came near to break down the door. But the men reached out their hands and pulled Lot into the house with them, and shut the door. And they struck the men who were at the doorway of the house with blindness, both small and great so that they became weary trying to find the door. (Genesis 19:4-11, NKJV).
Derrick Sherwin Bailey argues that the verb “to know” is not a reference to sexual intercourse. He argues that the word occurs 943 times in the Old Testament and yet is only used a dozen times to refer to sexual intercourse. context. Indeed, only about a dozen usages of yada “to know” in the Bible refer to sexual intercourse. However, in its immediate context (Genesis 19:5) yada “to know” can mean nothing other than sexual intercourse. A word’s meaning is determined not only by definition and priority but also by general context.
How come Lot desperately proposes a lesser evil (heterosexual rape) in place of a greater evil (homosexual rape). Why would a father offer his daughters to be raped if the Sodomites were merely violating social custom by making an impolite request to evaluate the strangers’ character? The fact that Lot refers to his daughters’ virgin status indicates he understood the sexual content of the request and therefore offered a sexual bribe. Notice also that the men were not interested in the women; they refused Lot’s offer and angrily demanded their lusts be satisfied by what they thought were men. Also, “in verse 8 the same verb [yada] with the negative particle is used to describe Lot’s daughters as having ‘not known’ a man. The verb here obviously means ‘have intercourse with.’” Clearly, yada refers to sexual intercourse.
The same interpretation was done in the New Testament in the Epistle of Jude “As Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.” (Jude 1:7, NKJV). Assuring that the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah was sexual. Christian and Jewish tradition confirm the interpretation of the scriptures, Philo, a Jew of Alexandria (25 BC to AD 45), noted that in Sodom “the men became accustomed to being treated like women.”
Leviticus:
Leviticus holds some strong declarations: “You shall not lie with a male as with a woman. It is an abomination” (18:22), and “If a man lies with a male as he lies with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination. They shall surely be put to death. Their blood shall be upon them” (20:13, NKJV).
Critics claim that these Old Testament passages do not condemn homosexuality itself on a moral basis but rather male cultic prostitution or “ritual impurity” associated with Canaanite idolatry. The argument is that because the idolatrous Canaanite religious practices that Leviticus condemns ceased thousands of years ago, they cannot logically apply to “loving, committed homosexual relationships” today. Thus, homosexuals argue these verses “are historically interesting but have no contemporary relevance because of their setting in the rules for cultic purification. The claim is certainly wrong because when God wants to specifically mention the practices of cultic prostitutes, He does so, as in Deuteronomy 23:17 ” There shall be no whore of the daughters of Israel, nor a sodomite of the sons of Israel.”
And yet:
Even though the Old Testament forbids homosexuality, the Bible does not describe homosexuality as a “greater” sin than any other. All sin is offensive to God. Without Christ, we are lost, whatever type of sin has entangled us. According to the Bible, God’s forgiveness is available to the homosexual just as it is to the adulterer, idol worshiper, murderer, and thief. God promises the strength for victory over sin, including homosexuality, to all those who will believe in Jesus Christ for their salvation.
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