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Homosexuality and the Scriptures
Arlene Robbins

Chapter 1 |  2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | Afterward | Bibliography

Chapter Two:
Who Is The Law For?


"If there is a man who lies with a male as those who lie with a woman, both of them have committed a detestable act; they shall surely be put to death...." Leviticus 20:13 (New American Standard)

The two references in Leviticus are the only direct references to homosexuality in the Old Testament. (And if one were to look at it narrowly, it really only applies to male Jews, sincle only males are addressed, and since Christians consider themselves in a state of grace, not under the law -- or why then do they eat shellfish and pork?)

Just as in the case of Sodom and Gomorrah, one must look at the cultural setting in which Letivicus was written, the words used, and the context to truly understand what the Scripture is talking about.

Here, as in many other places in both parts of the Scriptures, the cultural and contextual condemnation is of idolatry. Passages denouncing other forms of cultic worship surround both Levitical references.








Leviticus 18:21 reads: Neither shall you give any of your offspring to offer them to Molech.... The verses which follow 18:22 read: Also you shall not have intercourse with any animal to be defiled with it, nor shall any woman stand before an animal to mate with it.... Do not defile yourselves by any of these things; for by all these the nations which I am casting out before you have become defiled. Apparently (see George Edwards, Gay/Lesbian Liberation: A Biblical Perspective, page 64) this practice was tied in to an Egyptian ram cult.

Other scriptures which specifically forbid male cultic prostitution, (Deuteronomy; 1 Kings 14:24, 15:12:, 22:46, 2 Kings 23:7), use the same word as is used in Leviticus 18 and 20.

The word "abomination" is also key to understanding the context. In Hebrew, the word "to 'evah," (abomination) is almost invariably linked to idolatry. In the passages from which both verses are taken, God tells Moses to tell the people not to follow the idolatrous practices of the people around them, people who sacrificed their children to Molech, or who masturbated into the fire to offer their semen to Molech, for example. Chapter 20 starts off with the same warning.

"To 'evah" also means "something which is ritually unclean," not something evil in itself, like rape or theft. Eating pork or having sex during menstruation are ritually unclean.

The Levitical laws, then, had to do with keeping the Jewish people separate from common -- and apparently attractive -- practices used in worshipping idols so that they would worship the true God.

