What Does the Bible Say About Gay?

(Leviticus 18:22 and Leviticus 20:13)

Abomination: What does it mean?

Exercise: 613 laws (Mitzvot)

• There are 613 laws the Mosiac law commands that we obey. How many are you guilty
of? (http://www.templesanjose.org/JudaismInfo/Torah/613mitzvot.htm)
• Is eating milk with meat really as bad as incest? Why do we pick a few of these to be
important, and not others?
• What kinds of sin does breaking these laws imply?
o Moral sin is produced by rebellion against God. As New Testament Christians,
these are the sins we’re familiar with.
o Ceremonial uncleanliness is caused by contact with a forbidden object or by
engaging in a behavior which might be quite acceptable to non-Hebrews, but
which was forbidden to the Children of Israel.
 Like the Amish being opposed to technology or vegetarians not eating
meat: not a moral objection, but a lifestyle choice.
 These were not necessarily minor sins; some called for the ancient
Israelite to be executed or expelled from the tribe – but they are confined
to Israelites.
• Leviticus 18:22 and Leviticus 20:13 call homosexual sex an “abomination.” What is an
abomination? Is it as bad as it sounds?

Definitions:
(http://www.searchgodsword.org/enc/isb/view.cgi?number=T84)

Three distinct Hebrew words are translated as "abomination," or "abominable thing." These are
things or practices abhorrent to Yahweh, and opposed to the ritual or moral requirements of His
religion. They denote different degrees of abhorrence or loathsomeness.
• sheqets or shiqquts: It expresses generally a somewhat less degree of horror or
religious aversion than [to`ebhah], but sometimes seems to stand about on a level with it
in meaning. It is generally linked to food and animals.
o In Dt 14:3, for example, we have the command, "Thou shalt not eat any
abominable thing," as introductory to the laws prohibiting the use of the unclean
animals, and the word there used is [to`ebhah]. But in Lev 11:10-13,20,23,41,42;
Isa 66:17; and in Ezek 8:10 sheqets is the word used and likewise applied to the
prohibited animals.
o Sheqets is often used parallel to or together with to`ebhah of that which should
be held as detestable, as for instance, of idols and idolatrous practices (see
especially Dt 29:17; Hos 9:10; Jer 4:1; 13:27; 16:18; Ezek 11:18-21; 20:7,8). It is
used exactly as [to`ebhah] is used as applied to Milcom, the god of the
Ammonites, which is spoken of as the detestable thing sheqets of the Ammonites
(1 Ki 11:5).
• Piggul: It is used in the Hebrew Bible only of sacrificial flesh that has become stale,
putrid, tainted (see Lev 7:18; 19:7; Ezek 4:14; Isa 65:4). Driver maintains that it occurs
only as a "technical term for such state sacrificial flesh as has not been eaten within the
prescribed time," and, accordingly, he would everywhere render it specifically "refuse
meat."
• To’ebah: The word most used for this idea by the Hebrews and indicating the highest
degree of abomination is to`ebhah, meaning primarily that which offends the religious
sense of a people.
o “The Hebrew word translated ‘abomination’ does not usually signify something
intrinsically evil, like rape or theft (discussed elsewhere in Lev), but something
which is ritually unclean for Jews, like eating pork or engaging in intercourse
 during menstruation, both of which are prohibited in these same chapters. It is
used throughout the OT to designate those Jewish sins which involve ethnic
contamination or idolatry and very frequently occurs as part of the stock phrase
‘the uncleanness of the Gentiles... Lev 18 is specifically designed to distinguish
the Jews from the pagans among whom they had been living, or would live…”
(Boswell,100)
o “Abomination” is that which offends the religious sense of a people: The word
implies not “it is wrong” (universal), but “it is wrong for us” (communal).
• Like the Amish being opposed to technology or vegetarians not eating
meat: not a moral objection, but a lifestyle choice.
• This explains the more obscure laws that we no longer obey (hair cutting,
dietary laws, mixed fabric, etc.)
o It is to be noted that, not only the heathen idol itself, but anything offered to or
associated with the idol, all the paraphernalia of the forbidden cult, was called an
"abomination," for it "is an abomination to Yahweh thy God" (Dt 7:25,26).
To`ebhah is even used as synonymous with "idol" or heathen deity.

Homosexuality as an Abomination

Context: Deity Worship

• The Bible cannot mean to us what it never meant to them. For us to discover why
“homosexuality” was an abomination, we must look at the context in which these verses
were written.
o Holiness Code: Lev 18:1-3 – “do not do as they do in Egypt.” These laws
answered the question: “what must we do to be set apart from our pagan
neighbors?”
o Lev 18:22: context: Lev 18:21 – Molech worship
o Lev 20:13: context: Lev 20:2-5 & 23 – Molech worship
o The overall context is pagan religious worship (esp to Molech and Ashoreth), not
homosexuality. God was opposed to ANYTHING that resembled pagan worship
– this is why he was protecting them from the customs of Egypt.

Molech and Ashtoreth

(http://www.gaychristian101.com/Molech.html)

Molech
• Molech was the national deity of the Ammonites, a fire god commonly worshipped
throughout the ancient near East and North Africa, by Canaanites and Philistines,
Arameans, and Semitic peoples and later, Phoenicians. He required child sacrifice.
Offering a child sacrifice to Molech involved burning the child in a fire kindled in the belly
cavity of the metal idol.
o The image of Moloch was a human figure with a bull's head and outstretched
arms, ready to receive the children destined for sacrifice. The image of metal was
heated red hot by a fire kindled within, and the children laid on its arms rolled off
into the fiery pit below. In order to drown the cries of the victims, flutes were
played, and drums were beaten; and mothers stood by without tears or sobs, to
give the impression of the voluntary character of the offering.
(http://bibleencyclopedia.com/search--molech)
o Ahab (and other negative OT Kings) were said to have let their children “pass
through the fire.” This is a reference to Molech worship.

Ashoreth
• Ashtoreth was the fertility goddess consort of Molech and was the goddess of war and
fertility.
• While Molech represented the male principle of life and reproduction, Ashtoreth
 represented the female principle of fertility.
• Ashtareth is mentioned 12 times in the Old Testament. That towns were named after the
fertility goddess indicates that her worship was already widespread when the children of
Israel entered the land.

Molech and Ashoreth Worship

• The sexual relationship between these false gods set the example for unbridled
sensuality among their worshipers. Anal sex between male and male worshipers and
male and female worshipers was viewed as an offering to the goddess. Ashtoreth’s male
followers worshiped her by offering their seed to the fertility goddess, through anal sex
with other men.
• Ashoreth Poles: phallic symbols
• Question: if the Levitical laws are about consentual homosesual relationships, why aren’t
Lesbians mentioned?
o One of the reasons Lev doesn’t mention Lesbian sex is because woman/woman
sex was not an element of deity worship.

Conclusion:
• It offended the religious sense of a people, not the moral sense. It wasn’t wrong because
it was homosex. It was wrong because it was connected to idol worship.
o As a jealous God, Yahweh forbid idol worship and everything associated with it.
Throughout the OT, the Jews are condemned for turning to other gods (the
golden calf, in Babylon, etc.). God wanted his people to be distinct from their idol
worshiping neighbors. The Levitical condemnation of homosexuality is a
condemnation of homosex in the context of worshiping idols (esp. Molech and
Ashoreth), not committed loving relationships.
• The context clearly shows that the Levitical code was not referring to committed,
monogamous homosexual relationships.

Other Theories:

Ritual Violation: Unclean (as opposed to something that relates to idol worship)
(From http://www.gentlespirit.org/homostudy5.html)

• Basic tenant: Instead of being to idol worship, homosexuality was connected to those
things that made you unclean (like eating pork, touching a dead body, etc.)
o Acts that went against the cultural norms in a way that one was considered
ritually unclean or imperfect, and thus unable to go to the temple and worship
God, are to’ebah. The idea is that you only take to God a perfect gift and, if you
are somehow imperfect, you can’t go to worship until you’ve “cleaned up.”
o That’s why someone who had touched a woman during her period couldn’t go to
the temple without getting stoned -- it was believed to make someone imperfect.
o Some feel that this verse refers to male-to-male intimacy as merely unclean, like
eating pork made someone unclean in Jewish religion. It is something dirty
ritualistically, just as was eating shellfish, mixing fibers, and similar laws which
Christians no longer consider binding on them.

Violation of Jewish Sexuality:

(From http://www.gentlespirit.org/homostudy5.html)

• The Jews had been told by God to populate the Earth. This was their mission – their
form of evangelism (hence the problem at Babel).
• Jews viewed semen as having a life-giving property. It was sacred because it fulfilled
their mission to populate the earth. Not understanding about eggs, they believed all
 semen needed to become a baby was a woman’s womb.
o Men who masturbated were unclean, because semen that could have become a
baby if put in a woman was wasted and fell on the ground (See Gen 38:6-10 -
Onan).
o Men who had wet dreams were unclean and we are told in Leviticus that a man
who had a wet dream had to go through a time of ritual purification before
entering the temple. They had to bathe and wait a day before they could come to
worship.
o Women weren’t allowed in the temple during their period -- that was the blood of
pregnancy, which could some day produce a child, which was spilling out of
them. This made them imperfect.
• Homosexuality was viewed as wrong because it prevented the Jews from carrying out
their mission.
o Ascetics would later pick up on this and say that all non-procreative sex was
wrong, including oral sex, sex during menstruation, and masturbation (see
“sodomite” discussion).

Violation of Identity
• “Lies with a man as with a woman” refers to the passive partner
o Being the passive partner was taboo: weakness and femininity (c/c Sodom
story) “[there was a] popular association of sexual passivity with political
impotence. Those who most commonly played the passive role in intercourse
were boys, women, and slaves – all persons excluded from the power structure.”
(Boswell 74)
o Gender Confusion: passive partner
(http://www.religioustolerance.org/sinhebrs.htm)
 Holiness required that an individual conforms "completely to the
class to which they belong." The Hebrews were instructed to
differentiate "...between the unclean and the clean [animals], and
between the beast that may be eaten and the beast that may not be
eaten."
• Don’t sow mixed seed, wear cloth with mixed thread, etc.
• Jews must only mix with Jews, Gentiles only with Gentiles, the
Priesthood must stay separate, etc.
• To be a man acting as a woman violates this.
 Holiness also required that a person not engage in more than one
fundamental role. This is usually in the context of incest (cannot be both
sibling and sexual partner, father and sexual partner, etc.) To be a man
acting as a woman violates this.
• According to Jacob Milgrom, (Milgrom, Leviticus 17-22, pp.
1518-1519, 1539), incestuous sexual relationships involving
father and daughter, brother and sister, nephew and aunt, uncle
and niece were common in Egyptian society, even among non-
royals. Moses, Aaron and Miriam were born into an incestuous,
nephew-aunt relationship which originated in Egypt. (Exodus
6:20)
• Marriages between close family members were not prohibited for
God’s people until after Israel left Egypt. When God gives Moses
the Holiness Code, before Israel enters the land of Canaan, He
carefully prohibits pagan practices, cultic practices, sexual
practices which might encourage Israel to serve the fertility
goddess.
o Weakness of this idea: The phrase “man who lies with another man as with a
woman” seems to be referring to the active partner – which would be the one
actively participating in sex with a shrine prostitute. This seems to be
referring to a man who lies with another man in the context of idol worship.
(Foreshadow of 1 Cor and 1 Timothy)