Three Things Govern Our Study and Interpretation of the meaning and Relevance of Scripture
For Example Paul says women should not speak in church. By speak, it seems he is talking about the process of preaching or doing prophetic utterances. The context suggests that women were taking extraordinary roles of power in the church at that time and even though Paul is pulling back to a more traditional standard for women in worship, there is still considerable freedom and authority for women in his churches. In the work of Jesus and Paul, women come into the posibility of power and equality contrasting starkly with the semetic cultures and religions of the time. We use this movement to invite our church into seeing women, equal to men in power and opportunity in the church today. |
Homosexuality is only spoken of about seven times in the whole Bible, making it not a great concern and giving rise to speculation on many sides as to what other values presented in the Bible may be of much more consequence and which might influence one's decision about homosexuality in this day. For example:
Does Jesus love and acceptance for individuals outweigh the biblical condemnations?
Does the fact that Jesus pulls outcasts to him and build's the church on their discipleship influence how we think about homosexuals today?
Women, children, and people with handicappiing conditions were brutally, we would say abusively, treated in Jesus time and he works for them. Might the same be true today for homosexuals?
Another question that influences how we interpret the Bible is in context. Did the words mean what we think they mean? Is there a condition in the society that is being addressed that is different than ours. For example, one connection is made with the political and social uses for homosexulaity within the Greek and Roman worlds that was directly linked in politics to worship of the gods and the body. Might the condemnation of homosexuality really have been a way of condemning idolotry in a way not present in today's society.
However, one looks at the Bible, and its contexts and interpretations, the beginning of the study is looking at the texts. Here are reprinted the texts from the New Revised Standard Version.
Contents of this Site Direct References to Homosexuality
Scriptures which May Inform this Discussion |
1The two angels came to Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gateway of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them, and bowed down with his face to the ground. 2He said, "Please, my lords, turn aside to your servant’s house and spend the night, and wash your feet; then you can rise early and go on your way." They said, "No; we will spend the night in the square." 3But he urged them strongly; so they turned aside to him and entered his house; and he made them a feast, and baked unleavened bread, and they ate. 4But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both young and old, all the people to the last man, surrounded the house; 5and they called to Lot, "Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, so that we may know them." 6Lot went out of the door to the men, shut the door after him, 7and said, "I beg you, my brothers, do not act so wickedly. 8Look, I have two daughters who have not known a man; let me bring them out to you, and do to them as you please; only do nothing to these men, for they have come under the shelter of my roof." 9But they replied, "Stand back!" And they said, "This fellow came here as an alien, and he would play the judge! Now we will deal worse with you than with them." Then they pressed hard against the man Lot, and came near the door to break it down. 10But the men inside reached out their hands and brought Lot into the house with them, and shut the door. 11And they struck with blindness the men who were at the door of the house, both small and great, so that they were unable to find the door.
14 But in the prophets of
Jerusalem
I have seen a more shocking thing:
they commit adultery and walk in lies;
they strengthen the hands of evildoers,
so that no one turns from wickedness;
all of them have become like Sodom to me,
and its inhabitants like Gomorrah.
49This was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy. 50They were haughty, and did abominable things before me; therefore I removed them when I saw it.
6and if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction£ and made them an example of what is coming to the ungodly;£ 7and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man greatly distressed by the licentiousness of the lawless 8(for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by their lawless deeds that he saw and heard), 9then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trial, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment 10—especially those who indulge their flesh in depraved lust, and who despise authority.
7Likewise, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which, in the same manner as they, indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural lust,£ serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.
22While they were enjoying themselves, the men of the city, a perverse lot, surrounded the house, and started pounding on the door. They said to the old man, the master of the house, "Bring out the man who came into your house, so that we may have intercourse with him." 23And the man, the master of the house, went out to them and said to them, "No, my brothers, do not act so wickedly. Since this man is my guest, do not do this vile thing. 24Here are my virgin daughter and his concubine; let me bring them out now. Ravish them and do whatever you want to them; but against this man do not do such a vile thing." 25But the men would not listen to him. So the man seized his concubine, and put her out to them. They wantonly raped her, and abused her all through the night until the morning. And as the dawn began to break, they let her go. 26As morning appeared, the woman came and fell down at the door of the man’s house where her master was, until it was light.
27In the morning her master got up, opened the doors of the house, and when he went out to go on his way, there was his concubine lying at the door of the house, with her hands on the threshold. 28"Get up," he said to her, "we are going." But there was no answer. Then he put her on the donkey; and the man set out for his home. 29When he had entered his house, he took a knife, and grasping his concubine he cut her into twelve pieces, limb by limb, and sent her throughout all the territory of Israel.
There is a great deal of scholarship that suggests that the sins of this passage in Judges and the Sodom and Gomorrah story is not homosexuality, but the crucial sin of inhospitality. The horror may not be the sexual action, but the threatening of a guest. References to these primary works in the letters, Ezekiel, and Jeremiah and such, seem much more concerned with the sexuality of the act than with the hospitality sin.
1The LORD spoke to Moses, saying:
2Speak to the people of Israel and say to them: I am the LORD your God. 3You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt, where you lived, and you shall not do as they do in the land of Canaan, to which I am bringing you. You shall not follow their statutes. 4My ordinances you shall observe and my statutes you shall keep, following them: I am the LORD your God. 5You shall keep my statutes and my ordinances; by doing so one shall live: I am the LORD.
6None of you shall approach anyone near of kin to uncover nakedness: I am the LORD. 7You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father, which is the nakedness of your mother; she is your mother, you shall not uncover her nakedness. 8You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s wife; it is the nakedness of your father. 9You shall not uncover the nakedness of your sister, your father’s daughter or your mother’s daughter, whether born at home or born abroad. 10You shall not uncover the nakedness of your son’s daughter or of your daughter’s daughter, for their nakedness is your own nakedness. 11You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s wife’s daughter, begotten by your father, since she is your sister. 12You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s sister; she is your father’s flesh. 13You shall not uncover the nakedness of your mother’s sister, for she is your mother’s flesh. 14You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s brother, that is, you shall not approach his wife; she is your aunt. 15You shall not uncover the nakedness of your daughter-in-law: she is your son’s wife; you shall not uncover her nakedness. 16You shall not uncover the nakedness of your brother’s wife; it is your brother’s nakedness. 17You shall not uncover the nakedness of a woman and her daughter, and you shall not take£ her son’s daughter or her daughter’s daughter to uncover her nakedness; they are your£ flesh; it is depravity. 18And you shall not take£ a woman as a rival to her sister, uncovering her nakedness while her sister is still alive.
19You shall not approach a woman to uncover her nakedness while she is in her menstrual uncleanness. 20You shall not have sexual relations with your kinsman’s wife, and defile yourself with her. 21You shall not give any of your offspring to sacrifice them£ to Molech, and so profane the name of your God: I am the LORD. 22You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination. 23You shall not have sexual relations with any animal and defile yourself with it, nor shall any woman give herself to an animal to have sexual relations with it: it is perversion.
24Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, for by all these practices the nations I am casting out before you have defiled themselves. 25Thus the land became defiled; and I punished it for its iniquity, and the land vomited out its inhabitants. 26But you shall keep my statutes and my ordinances and commit none of these abominations, either the citizen or the alien who resides among you 27(for the inhabitants of the land, who were before you, committed all of these abominations, and the land became defiled); 28otherwise the land will vomit you out for defiling it, as it vomited out the nation that was before you. 29For whoever commits any of these abominations shall be cut off from their people. 30So keep my charge not to commit any of these abominations that were done before you, and not to defile yourselves by them: I am the LORD your God.
1The LORD spoke to Moses, saying: 2Say further to the people of Israel:
Any of the people of Israel, or of the aliens who reside in Israel, who give any of their offspring to Molech shall be put to death; the people of the land shall stone them to death. 3I myself will set my face against them, and will cut them off from the people, because they have given of their offspring to Molech, defiling my sanctuary and profaning my holy name. 4And if the people of the land should ever close their eyes to them, when they give of their offspring to Molech, and do not put them to death, 5I myself will set my face against them and against their family, and will cut them off from among their people, them and all who follow them in prostituting themselves to Molech.
6If any turn to mediums and wizards, prostituting themselves to them, I will set my face against them, and will cut them off from the people. 7Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy; for I am the LORD your God. 8Keep my statutes, and observe them; I am the LORD; I sanctify you. 9All who curse father or mother shall be put to death; having cursed father or mother, their blood is upon them.
10If a man commits adultery with the wife of£ his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall be put to death. 11The man who lies with his father’s wife has uncovered his father’s nakedness; both of them shall be put to death; their blood is upon them. 12If a man lies with his daughter-in-law, both of them shall be put to death; they have committed perversion, their blood is upon them. 13If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall be put to death; their blood is upon them. 14If a man takes a wife and her mother also, it is depravity; they shall be burned to death, both he and they, that there may be no depravity among you. 15If a man has sexual relations with an animal, he shall be put to death; and you shall kill the animal. 16If a woman approaches any animal and has sexual relations with it, you shall kill the woman and the animal; they shall be put to death, their blood is upon them.
17If a man takes his sister, a daughter of his father or a daughter of his mother, and sees her nakedness, and she sees his nakedness, it is a disgrace, and they shall be cut off in the sight of their people; he has uncovered his sister’s nakedness, he shall be subject to punishment. 18If a man lies with a woman having her sickness and uncovers her nakedness, he has laid bare her flow and she has laid bare her flow of blood; both of them shall be cut off from their people. 19You shall not uncover the nakedness of your mother’s sister or of your father’s sister, for that is to lay bare one’s own flesh; they shall be subject to punishment. 20If a man lies with his uncle’s wife, he has uncovered his uncle’s nakedness; they shall be subject to punishment; they shall die childless. 21If a man takes his brother’s wife, it is impurity; he has uncovered his brother’s nakedness; they shall be childless.
22You shall keep all my statutes and all my
ordinances, and observe them, so that the land to which I bring
you to settle in may not vomit you out. 23You shall not follow
the practices of the nation that I am driving out before you.
Because they did all these things, I abhorred them. 24But I have
said to you: You shall inherit their land, and I will give it to
you to possess, a land flowing with milk and honey. I am the LORD
your God; I have separated you from the peoples. 25You shall
therefore make a distinction between the clean animal and the
unclean, and between the unclean bird and the clean; you shall
not bring abomination on yourselves by animal or by bird or by
anything with which the ground teems, which I have set apart for
you to hold unclean. 26You shall be holy to me; for I the LORD am
holy, and I have separated you from the other peoples to be mine.
27A man or a woman who is a medium or a wizard shall be put to
death; they shall be stoned to death, their blood is upon them.
There is no mention in the gospels about
Jesus addressing this issue at all. Some suggests the closeness
with which Jesus related to some of the disciples (such as the
"Beloved Disciple" and laying on their breasts, may
indicate some connection. Also, it is noted that Jesus quite
often accepted outcast groups into his following. But it could as
easily be said that if Jesus didn’t say or do anything about
this issue then he most likely was following the commonly
accepted practices of the day.
It could be said that Jesus took in outcasts and sinners and made them part of his inner team of disciples. But, there is nothing to suggest what he did if they kept up their sinning. So, if homosexuality was considered a sin by him, he almost certinaly would have allowed homosexuals access to his circle of teaching and friends, but we don't know whether he would condone that practice or whether he would expect a change. There are some people who are outcasts by society that Jesus allows into the inner circle and changes little. Women and children, Samaritans, even perhaps Romans were let in without having to change their behavior. However, the rich and the powerful, the woman caught in adultery are all sent away to change their lives. Zacheus can remain a tax collector, but he must stop abusing people. Both from historical work on Jesus, and in narrative work on the stories presented by the gospelers, we have indications that Jesus took in outcasts. But we have little information, either from story or from historical Jesus work, what he did next, or what he would likely do with homosexuals.
Romans 1:
18For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and wickedness of those who by their wickedness suppress the truth. 19For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20Ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made. So they are without excuse; 21for though they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their senseless minds were darkened. 22Claiming to be wise, they became fools; 23and they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling a mortal human being or birds or four-footed animals or reptiles.
24Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the degrading of their bodies among themselves, 25because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
26For this reason God gave them up to degrading passions. Their women exchanged natural intercourse for unnatural, 27and in the same way also the men, giving up natural intercourse with women, were consumed with passion for one another. Men committed shameless acts with men and received in their own persons the due penalty for their error.
28And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind and to things that should not be done. 29They were filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, covetousness, malice. Full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, craftiness, they are gossips, 30slanderers, God-haters,£ insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, rebellious toward parents, 31foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32They know God’s decree, that those who practice such things deserve to die—yet they not only do them but even applaud others who practice them.
1When any of you has a grievance against another, do you dare to take it to court before the unrighteous, instead of taking it before the saints? 2Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases? 3Do you not know that we are to judge angels—to say nothing of ordinary matters? 4If you have ordinary cases, then, do you appoint as judges those who have no standing in the church? 5I say this to your shame. Can it be that there is no one among you wise enough to decide between one believer£ and another, 6but a believer£ goes to court against a believer£—and before unbelievers at that?
7In fact, to have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded? 8But you yourselves wrong and defraud—and believers£ at that.
9Do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived! Fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, male prostitutes, sodomites, 10thieves, the greedy, drunkards, revilers, robbers—none of these will inherit the kingdom of God. 11And 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.
12"All things are lawful for me," but not all things are beneficial. "All things are lawful for me," but I will not be dominated by anything. 13"Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food,"£ and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is meant not for fornication but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. 14And God raised the Lord and will also raise us by his power. 15Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Should I therefore take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! 16Do you not know that whoever is united to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For it is said, "The two shall be one flesh." 17But anyone united to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. 18Shun fornication! Every sin that a person commits is outside the body; but the fornicator sins against the body itself. 19Or do you not know that your body is a temple£ of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own? 20For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body.
8Now we know that the law is good, if one uses it legitimately. 9This 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, 10fornicators, sodomites, slave traders, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to the sound teaching 11that conforms to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which he entrusted to me.
26Then an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Get up and go toward the south£ to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (This is a wilderness road.) 27So he got up and went. Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of her entire treasury. He had come to Jerusalem to worship 28and was returning home; seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah. 29Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over to this chariot and join it.” 30So Philip ran up to it and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah. He asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” 31He replied, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to get in and sit beside him. 32Now the passage of the scripture that he was reading was this:
“Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter, and like a lamb silent before its shearer, so he does not open his mouth. 33In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth.”
34The eunuch asked Philip, “About whom, may I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?”
35Then Philip began to speak, and starting with this scripture, he proclaimed to him the good news about Jesus. 36As they were going along the road, they came to some water; and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptized?”£ 38He commanded the chariot to stop, and both of them, Philip and the eunuch, went down into the water, and Philip£ baptized him.
39When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing.
One of the first converts to Christianity is a transgendered male. The Eunich has changed his gender in order to serve the sovereign of Eithiopia. Even in a cosmopolitan Jerusalem, it is likely that he would have been outcast among Jews and among early Christians. However, there is no indication that that is an issue for the author of Acts, and it is very likely that this story is added to explain the genesis of leadership in a very strong Eithiopian church very early in the first century. This would infer that the leadership of a very strong Christian community came from this sexual outcast which is as astounding as the fact that it looks like women began and led several, if not many, early Christian communities before a growing tradition will clamp down on these unusual practices and develop policies which keep women and others out of leadership roles.
The Gospel of John presents a number of critical problems identifying almost anything with Jesus himself. However, there is a clear image of a very intimate contact with his disciples. In a book and setting so strongly influenced by Greek culture, it is unlikely that these stories could be read at the time without some homosexual connotation. However, this connotation would be remarkably different from what we would read in today. I have not been able to find anything written on the connections of the Johanine community with the gymnasium and communities of men at that time. But even without these connections, Jesus contact with at least the Beloved Disciple is awfully intimate, even for that culture. But is this conclusive??
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