The Bible and homosexuality

The Bible refers to sexual practices that may be called "homosexual" in today's world, but the original language texts of the Bible do not refer explicitly to homosexuality as a sexual orientation. The Bible is interpreted by officials in some denominations as condemning the practice. In the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, however, the extent to which the Bible mentions the subject and whether or not it is condemned, has become the subject of debate.

Passages in the Old Testament book Leviticus that prohibit "lying with mankind as with womankind" and the story of Sodom and Gomorrah have historically been interpreted as condemning homosexuality, as have several Pauline passages. Other interpreters, however, maintain that the Bible does not condemn homosexuality, saying that historical context suggests other interpretations or that rare or unusual words in the passages may not be referring to homosexuality.

Leviticus 18 and 20
Chapters 18 and 20 of Leviticus, which form part of the Holiness code, contain the following verses:
 * Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is an abomination. (Leviticus 18:22 KJV)
 * If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them. (Leviticus 20:13 KJV)

The two verses have historically been interpreted by Jews and Christians as blanket prohibitions against homosexual acts.

References to Sodom and Gomorrah in the Bible
The story of Sodom and Gomorrah in the Book of Genesis does not explicitly identify homosexuality as the sin for which Sodom was destroyed, but the passage has historically been interpreted within Judaism and Christianity as a punishment for homosexuality due to the statement that the men of Sodom wished to rape the angels sent to retrieve Lot. In fact, this interpretation became so prevalent that the name Sodom became the basis of the word sodomy, still a legal synonym for homosexual and non-procreative sexual acts, particularly anal or oral sex.

On the other hand, in the Book of Ezekiel 16:49-50 the specific sin for which Sodom was destroyed is identified as arrogance, apathy towards the poor, and "detestable things", and this interpretation may be alluded to by Jesus in Matthew 10:14-15 when he tells his disciples that the punishment for houses or towns that will not welcome them will be worse than that of Sodom and Gomorrah.

In Jude 1:7 the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah are stated to have given themselves "up to sexual immorality and perversion."

David and Jonathan and Ruth and Naomi
The account of the friendship between David and Jonathan in the Books of Samuel has been interpreted by traditional and mainstream Christians as a relationship of platonic love, but has been interpreted by some liberal authors as being of a sexual nature. The story of Ruth and Naomi is also occasionally interpreted in this way.

Romans 1
(26) Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. (27) In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion. This passage has been debated by some twentieth and twenty-first century interpreters both in terms of its relevance today and in terms of its actual prohibition. While Christians of all denominations have historically maintained that this verse is a complete prohibition of all forms of homosexuality,    some twentieth and twenty-first century authors contend the passage is not a blanket condemnation of homosexuality at all.

Still others have argued that Paul's writings must be considered fallible, due in part to the positions (or lack thereof) that he takes on slavery and women.

Other Epistles
In the context of the broader immorality of his audience, Paul of Tarsus wrote in the First Epistle to the Corinthians,

Do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived! Fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, malakoi, arsenokoitai, thieves, the greedy, drunkards, revilers, robbers, none of these will inherit the kingdom of God. And this is what some of you used to be. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God. (1 Corinthians 6:9-11)

The word arsenokoitai (ἀρσενοκοῖται) has challenged scholars for centuries, and has been variously rendered as "abusers of themselves with mankind" (KJV), "sodomites" (YLT), or "men who practice homosexuality." Greek ἄῤῥην / ἄρσην [arrhēn / arsēn] means "male", and κοίτην [koitēn] "bed," with a sexual connotation: Paul's use of the word in 1 Corinthians is the earliest example of the term; its only other use is in a similar list of wrongdoers given (probably by the same author) in 1 Timothy 1:9–10:

Now we know that the law is good, if one uses it legitimately. This means understanding that the law is laid down not for the innocent 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, fornicators, arsenokoitai, slave traders, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to the sound teaching that conforms to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which he entrusted to me. (1 Timothy 1:8–10)

Later Christian literature used the word to mean variously prostitution, incest or rape without any single clear meaning – Patriarch John IV of Constantinople, in a passage dealing with coercive and non-procreative sex, speaks of "...many men who commit the sin of arsenokoitia with their wives". Other scholars have interpreted malakoi and arsenokoitai as referring to weakness and effeminacy, or to the practice of exploitative pederasty.

Matthew 8; Luke 7
In Matthew 8:5-13 and Luke 7:1-10, Jesus heals a centurion's servant who is dying. The Greek term "pais", which often had a sexual connotation, used for the servant, and the fact that he is described as "valued highly" by the centurion, have led some modern commentators to suggest a homosexual relationship between the two, while others interpret "pais" merely as a boy servant rather than a male lover and read nothing else into "valued highly".

Matthew 19:12
In Matthew 19:12, Jesus speaks of eunuchs who were born as such, eunuchs who were made so by others, and eunuchs who choose to live as such for the kingdom of heaven. This passage has been interpreted as having to do with homosexual orientation; Clement of Alexandria, for instance, wrote in his commentary on it that some men, from birth, are naturally averse to women and should not marry.

Acts 8
The Ethiopian eunuch, an early gentile convert encountered in Acts 8, has been described as an early gay Christian, based on the fact that the word "eunuch" in the Bible was not always used literally, as in Matthew 19:12. Commentators generally suggest that the combination of "eunuch" together with the title "court official" indicates a literal eunuch - not a homosexual - who would have been excluded from the Temple by the restriction in Deuteronomy 23:1.

Does the Bible condemn homosexuality?
Some interpreters maintain that the Bible does not condemn homosexuality, arguing any of several points:
 * 1) That the passages yield different meanings if placed in historical context, for instance the historical interpretation of Sodom's sins as being other than homosexuality;
 * 2) That there may be questions surrounding the translation of rare or unusual words in the passages that some interpret as referring to homosexuals;
 * 3) That both the Old Testament and New Testament contain passages that describe same-sex relationships;
 * 4) That loving and committed relationships are not condemned in the passages;
 * 5) That the New Covenant renders the Old Testament obsolete, and the golden rule asserts that condemning one for their sexual practices is unethical, as one would not want to be condemned for one's sexual orientation.

All of these statements are disputed by more conservative scholars, however.

Literature

 * Amsel, Nachum. Homosexuality in Orthodox Judaism.
 * Bahnsen, Greg L. 1978 Homosexuality: A Biblical View. ISBN 0-8010-0744-5
 * Bahnsen, Greg L. 1994 In the Shadow of Sodom: Does the Bible Really Say What We Thought About Homosexuality?
 * Biblical Studies Press 1996–2005 The NET Bible.
 * Boswell, John. 1980 Christianity, Social Tolerance and Homosexuality. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-06711-4
 * Brooten, Bernadette. 1998 Love Between Women: Early Christian Responses to Female Homoeroticism University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-07592-3
 * Brown, Driver, Briggs and Gesenius. Hebrew Lexicon entry for Dabaq. The Old Testament Hebrew Lexicon.
 * Brunson, Hal. 2007 Lesbos, Narcissus, and Paulos: Homosexual Myth and Christian Truth. ISBN 0-595-40596-7
 * Catholic Answers 2005 Early Teachings on Homosexuality, iuniverse, 2007.
 * Dover, Kenneth. 1978 Greek Homosexuality. Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-36270-5
 * Durns, John Barclay 2002 Lot’s Wife Looked Back. Journal of Religion and Society 4, p. 1–16.
 * Chapman, Patrick 2005 Homosexuals in the Bible: Jesus, John, the Centurion and the Slave?. Rainbow Journal Olympia, vol 2(1) (November 2005).
 * Crompton, Louis, et al. 2003 Homosexuality and Civilization. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press ISBN 0-674-01197-X
 * Elliott, John 2004 "No kingdom of God for softies? or, what was Paul really saying? 1 Corinthians 6:9–10 in context'" Biblical Theology Bulletin, Spring 2004.
 * Gagnon, Robert A. J. 2001 The Bible and Homosexual Practice. Abingdon Press. ISBN 0-687-08413-X
 * Greenberg, David 1988 The construction of homosexuality. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-30628-3
 * Halsall, Paul. and Catholicism: A Partially Annotated Bibliography''
 * Helminiak, Daniel 2000 What the Bible really says about homosexuality. Alamo Square Press. ISBN 1-886360-09-X
 * Hilborn, David. 2002 Homosexuality and Scripture. Evangelical Alliance.
 * Horner, Tom. 1978 Jonathan Loved David. Westminster Press. ISBN 0-664-24185-9
 * House of Bishops 1991 Issues in Human Sexuality. Church of England. ISBN 0-7151-3745-X
 * Howard, Kevin L. Paul's View of Male Homosexuality: An Exegetical Study. M.A. thesis (unpublished). Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. Deerfield, Illinois. June 1996.
 * Jennings, Theodore 2003 The Man Jesus Loved: Homoerotic Narratives From the New Testament. Pilgrim Press. ISBN 0-8298-1535-X
 * Johns, Loren 2004 Homosexuality and the Bible: A Case Study in the Use of the Bible for Ethics  (The Academic Dean of the Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary).
 * Koch, Timothy R 2001 Cruising as methodology : homoeroticism and the scriptures, In Queer Commentary and the Hebrew Bible, ed. Ken Stone, Pilgrim Press. ISBN 0-8298-1447-7
 * Martin, Dale. 1996 Arsenokoites and malakos: Meanings and Consequences, pp. 117–136. In Biblical Ethics and Homosexuality. Ed Robert Brawley. Westminster Press ISBN 0-664-25638-4.
 * Marston, Paul 2003 'Christians, Gays and Gay Christians'. Free Methodists.
 * McNeill, J. J. 1993 The Church and the Homosexual. Beacon Press. (4th edn.). ISBN 0-8070-7931-6
 * Nissinen, Martti. 1998 Homoeroticism in the Biblical World: A Historical Perspective. Augsburg Fortress Publishers. ISBN 0-8006-2985-X
 * Ostling, R. N. 2003 Book claims Jesus had homosexual relationship Chicago Sun-Times 29 May 2003.
 * Robinson, B. A. 1996–2005 What the Bible says about homosexuality. Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance.
 * Satlow, Michael 1995 Tasting the Dish: Rabbinic Rhetorics of Sexuality. Scholars Press. ISBN 0-7885-0159-3
 * Townsley, Jeramy 2003 All known references to arsenokoit*
 * West, Mona 2005 The Bible and Homosexuality. Metropolitan Community Church.
 * White, James and Neill, Jeffrey 2002 The Same Sex Controversy: Defending and Clarifying the Bible's Message About Homosexuality. ISBN 0-7642-2524-3
 * White, Mel 2011 What the Bible Says - And Doesn't Say - About Homosexuality.
 * Williams, Rowan 2002 ’The Body’s Grace’, in Eugene F. Rogers (ed.), Theology and Sexuality: Classic and Contemporary Readings, Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-21277-9