What are your opinions regarding the verses of Leviticus towards homosexuality?

Question

To prove homosexuality is detestable many quote from the following:

"If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads." (Leviticus 20:13)

However I noticed from reading more verses around the quote regarding seperate things that are detestable?

"If a man sleeps with a woman who is a slave girl promised to another man but who has not been ransomed or given her freedom, there must be due punishment. Yet, they are not to be put to death, because she had not been freed." (Leviticus 19:20)

"Do not cut the hair at the sides of your head or clip the edges off of your beard." (Leviticus 19:27)

(Levitius 19:5-8) "After a sacrifice, eaten upon the third day will make you seperated from your very people?"

Abnd the regards towards the consumation of shellfish, and lobster?

Why of all these things is homosexuality frowned upon when it is not stated to begin with?

How are we to say the reference was not towards male prostitution itself?

Answer 1

Have you read any Terry Pratchett? There is a wonderful god named Nuggin in Pratchett's pantheon. Nuggin seems to think that his job as a god is to create "abominations" which are forbidden to his worshippers.

They're all very arbitrary and consist of things like the color blue and other such innocuous things.

He reminds me very much of Leviticus.

Answer 2

Interpretation that Leviticus has remained a staple for both Jewish and Christian commentators, albeit for different reasons, from the second century B.C. to the present day. Remember when Leviticus was composed, during the time when Moses summoned forth a new community, on the other side of the plains of Moab. Remember that the past generations of Jews had been captive in Egypt and had never seen anything but life as slaves. So when they came upon the traditions and religous customs of the the people of Moab freedom was something new to them.The ritualistic religous practices of the pagans were centered around sex and penis worship. In short, the entire text of Leviticus needs to be taken as a whole, not piece by piece in order to understand that its intent was warn the Jews away from the ritualistic sex practices practiced by the pagans and not specifically meant for any one person, it was meant to remind the Jews to stay steady in their faith and to realize that all are sinners and the biggest sin of all was that of pride thinking that any one person was better than another, for that postition is G-ds alone.

Answer 3

Homosexuality is condemned in a long list of activities that were practiced by the Canaanites. Dietary restrictions, for example, are meant to keep the Israelites from forming covenants with the inhabitants of Palestine. I think there is very good reason to assume that the ban on homosexuality was meant to keep the Israelites from practicing the ritual prostitution seen among the Canaanites. That would explain why it was considered an 'abomination,' along with such mundane offenses as eating shellfish.

Answer 4

Many of the verses in the bible are conflicting. If a person is a true Christian, they should only take into account the New Testament, because Jesus came to rip the veil of the past and present. The new testament and old conflict about many subjects. Besides, if they were true Christians, wouldn't they just take the words of Jesus alone and forget the rest?
I have found that many Christians pick and choose which verses of their bible to believe in. They pick and choose those that fit the subjects they feel uncomfortable with and then project their dislikes onto others by quoting bible verses.
My opinion is: read the new testament. If you agree with Jesus words, really work to live by them, otherwise keep your ideas to yourself.
What about all the verses that tell us to love, be non-judgmental, worship in secret, not eat certain foods, etc? So many are hypocritical by their attitude of "do what I say, not what I do" and quoting things that they have not researched.

Answer 5

I was raised Catholic, and later when my family realized that I was a lesbian--they disowned me some what.

The problem is this: We are reading the Bible from a modernized Western standpoint, obviously our society is not exactly cohesive with the Bible's standards.

Obviously eating shellfish is not a severe sin, and I also believe that all sins are equal in God's eyes. Although they may differ in severity, they all receive the same punishment if one does not repent for their sins.

To me, God does not punish. Christian are ideally supposed to "love the sinner-hate the sin." Which is often twisted into "Hate the sinner and the sin"

My advice is anyone would be to form your own relationship with God, and disregard the "rules" of the Bible. You know what is right and what is wrong. And if you are a good person...then you will eventually be rewarded by whatever you believe in.

Answer 6

Of the few things in the Bible about homosexuality, this one is definitely the weaker argument. Oddly, though, the most popular. Weird.

Answer 7

I think you have a point. The problem people have with interpreting versus, is that they do not take all of the verses into consideration. Also, they see only what they want to see.

Answer 8

there is a rather more famous quote from the bible that says "keep thy sabath day holy" ie go to mass, and a hell of alot of people dont do that. If they detest homosexuality because of the above quote, then hey're hypocritical, and I never listen to hypocrytes.

Answer 9

For a balanced view on what Leviticus says about homosexuality, visit this link.

http://www.religioustolerance.org/hom_bibl.htm

Answer 10

Below is a kick *** link to an analysis of how "homosexuality" has been translated into the Bible.


My opinions is that contemporary mainstream "christian" discourse on homosexuality are based on out of context translations and mistranslations.

I am not lumping all christians into this category, I am stating it as attached to contemporary mainstream christian discourse itself. Again, link below.