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Evan Askey

John Murphy

Sexual Orientation and Morality 3990 MW

19 February 2011

“The Problem of Homosexuality as a Sin”

In 1978 New International Version of the Bible published what many thought to

be the most up to date translation of the Bible, using vocabulary that was never before

seen in the Biblical text. Perhaps the most pressing issue is with the translation was the

use of the term homosexual. The term homosexual was coined in 18th century being not

understood and demands questions; what is Homosexual? Does it apply to family love, or

is it specific to sexual acts? Which is a sin, or are they both? But another more pressing

problem exist itself, where does the translation come from? The problem with the

argument against homosexuality is that the bible doesn’t explicitly oppose

homosexuality, instead it condemns homogenital acts as an abomination, and the text

often concerning homosexuality does not deal with homosexuality in general.

To understand where many believe the problem to come there are key terms and

passages that need to be identified and defined, and for this possibly the oldest and

closest to the original translation is the King James Version and thereby should be used to

understand as close as the original intent of the authors. The passages that are essential

are I Corinthians 6:9-10: “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom

of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate,

nor abusers of themselves with mankind” and Leviticus 20:13 “If a man also lie with
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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.” The terms key to define

are;“effeminate”, “abusers of themselves with mankind”, “abomination”, each comes

from the original Hebrew translations, which, in it’s original context, contained a

different meaning.

The first passage, I Corinthians 6:9, comes from Paul’s letter to an individual

about who will not inherit the Kingdom of heaven. He writes that the “effeminate” will

not go to Heaven; this is translated from the original Hebrew word “malakoi”. Malakoi is

understood as a male that is obsessed with vanity. To Paul this vanity is a form of

idolatry, which is most definitely a sin. The use of the word effeminate also brings up the

problem of Women, if the translation is correct then women would have no chance at

going to Heaven, and to over half the population, this isn’t ideal. The other problem is

that Paul had already mentioned pornoi, which is a type of fornicator mainly a male

prostitute. Eliminating most other possibilities the best translation for this passage would

be a weak-willed person, sexual or otherwise, not specific to homosexuals. Even though

he is referring to a specific type of weak willed homosexual male obsessed with vanity,

the passage is not specific to a homosexual person who is effeminate, but it refers to a

person of weak moral nature, using them as an example.

The next translation is “abusers of themselves with mankind” This comes from

the word arsenokoitai, which was really coined by Paul, a hybrid

translation of male and bedder. To many it refers explicitly to

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homosexuals because of its direct translation, but it is completely

ambiguous. The New Revised Standard Bible refers to arsenokoitai as

male prostitutes. This is most likely the intention, when the original

translation was written there was an intrinsic link between male

prostitutes, sex and extortion, and so in a similar way it is understood

that the translation is talking about a very specific for of homogenital

acts, and ignoring the general idea of homosexuality.

Perhaps the most famous of all is and Leviticus 20:13. This is considered

a knockout blow against homosexuality in conservative Christian thought. The problems

with this passage are vast. First there is no mention of lesbianism, next the passage is not

specifically about sin, but holy and abominations, and finally is who the passage was

written for. The direct translation is “with a male you shall not lie with the

lyings of a woman” this specifically mentions only men having sex with

other men. This is probably due to the patriarchal order that the bible

was written in, there was no real concern for women because there

was no penetration involved. Another odd part of the passage is the

word abomination. An abomination is not always a sin, an abomination

is a type of “to’evah” or uncleanliness. The Israelites were obsessed

with the idea of setting themselves apart, this is known as the holiness

code. It was a code to set them apart from the Canaanites and certain

Fertility cults that were popular with the gentiles. The idea of

homosexuality as an abomination is not specifically to say that it is a

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sin, but it is something to be avoided, like trimming a beard, or eating

swine. It’s how a pre-scientific society set themselves apart form the

“unholy”. The last parts of the Leviticus passage states that those

committing this abomination will be given the death penalty. This is in

no way making a statement about the severity of the situation, The

death penalty is used of a lot of things at the time, the fear of death

was to keep the fabric of society strong. It was to put people in their

place.

The main idea we can get from the Bible in its context is that

homosexuality was really of no great concern for those at the time.

The very few times it was mentioned it is in a very specific context.

The problem of homosexuality is more about idolatry and child abuse

than it is about males loving other males. It is a gentile sin, and a

prescientific solution to a sin thought to be unclean. Taking a much

closer look at the Bible, there is almost nothing that makes

homosexuality one of the greatest of sins, at worst it is an

abomination, but then again so is shaving.