Homosexuality or Idolatrous Sex?
"You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination*." ~ Leviticus 18:22
"If 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." ~ Leviticus 20:13.
These verses do seem to be "crystal clear"- however, verses don't always say what they seem to say on the surface.
Read the following verses and you'll see what I mean:
"Your male and female slaves are to come from the nations around you; from them you may buy slaves. You may also buy some of the temporary residents living among you and members of their clans born in your country, and they will become your property." ~ Leviticus 25:44-45
"Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear..." ~ Ephesians 6:5-9 Also see 1 Timothy 6:1-2, and 1 Peter 2:18, and Colossians 3:22-4:1.
Did you even know those passages were in the bible? How do you think christians justified slavery during the civil war?
Rembert Trulcuk correctly states that Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13 "refer not to homosexuals, but to heterosexuals
who took part in the ba'al fertility rituals..."
We cannot read Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13 out of the proper context:
"The Lord spoke to Moses saying 'Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: I am the Lord your God. According to the doings in the land of Egypt, where you dwelt, you shall not do; and according to the doings in the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you, you shall not do; nor shall you walk in their ordinances. You shall observe My judgments and keep my ordinances to walk in them: I am the Lord your God. You shall therefore keep my statues and my judgments, which if a man does, he shall live by them: I am the Lord. ...'" ~ Leviticus18:2—5
The context is practices of the Canaanites. The homosexual acts in Leviticus were part of the "doings in the land of Canaan".
The Canaanites used homosexual rituals to worship Molech, or Ba'al. Their belief was that the fertility of the land depended upon Molech, Ba'al, having sex with the Goddess of erotic love, Astoroth.
In the Canaanite temples, [religious] prostitutes played the role of Astoroth while the customer/ worshipper played the role of Molech.
But, the Astoroth-prostitutes were actually young males. These young males would dress up as women, wearing effeminate clothing and even masks of Astoroth. Their customers were ALSO males. These males lied with males as though they were females! This is what Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13 are referring to.
It's actually quite simple. We cannot conclude from a condemnation of temple prostitution that all homosexuality is wrong.
But there's more....
As I said, these rituals were used to worship Molech. The word translated into "abomination" is toevah and refers to taboo, usually idolatry. It is used in Leviticus for anything that is religiously unclean or associated with idol worship. This means that Leviticus is saying the male-male sex acts are being used as worship.
In Isaiah 44:19; Ezekiel 7:20, 16:36; and Jeremiah 16:18 "toevah" specifically means "idol" (cf. Deut. 7:25-26). 2Ch. 34:33 also appears to be using "toevah" to mean "idol". Exodus 8:26 uses "toevah" to refer to the idols of the Egyptians. Deuteronomy 7:25 uses "toevah" to refer to the gold and silver on graven images of other Gods (see also Deut. 7:26). Deut. 12:31 refers the enquiring of other Gods as "toevah". Deut. 13:14 says searching for other gods is "toevah". Deut. 18:11 says being a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer is "toevah". Deut. 23:18 says using the services of a temple prostitute is "toevah". Deut. 27:15 says making a graven image before God is "toevah". Deut. 32:16 says "strange Gods" are "toevah. 1Kings 14:24 says sex with temple prostitutes (who use sex as worship) is "toevah". 2Kings 21:11 says "sin with idols" is "toevah".
Rev. Matthew L. Howard sums up well by saying "This word is used elsewhere throughout the Hebrew Scriptures to describe behaviors that are considered "unclean" because of their association with forbidden cultic practices"
The LXX. (Greek Old Testament - 250 BC.) translates "tovevah" in Lev. 18:22 and 20:13 as "bdelygma"—which means ritual or cultic impurity.. The Jews of the pre-christian era did not view Leviticus as condemning homosexuality in itself, but homosexuality in the context of ritual or cultic impurity.
This hits you even more when you realise that there was a word that could of been used to condemn the actual gay sex. The word to refer to acts which are wrong in and of themselves is "zimah" which was not used..
Leviticus is thus NOT saying that the male-male sex acts are wrong IN AND OF THEMSELVES... Leviticus is saying the male-male sex acts are wrong because they are being used as a form of worship to Pagan Gods.
In fact just one verse prior to the first alleged anti-gay verse, Lev. 18:21, forbids dedicating your children to serve molech as religious prostitutes, as does Lev. 20:2!
But there's still more....
As I said the prostitutes were young males dressed as women and wore masks of astoroth... but, the young males were usually boys; if you look at the original Hebrew, in lev. 20:13 the first word for male is "iysh" and the second word is "zakar".. the text reads "if a iysh lies with a zakar as with a woman..." This might of been to show a difference in age.
So what we have is a condemntion of sexual idolatry and pedersaty (man-boy sex).
Did you notice that no lesbians were mentioend in the text? This is because the Molech religion usually did not use women for their religous prostitution rituals. If God was referring to homosexuality in general he would of mentioned lesbiansm, God is not so careless and forgetful!
When a sin carries the death penalty it is of extreme importance to Yahweh to have it repeated again. All of the death penality crimes are repeated once again in Deauteronomy.. except one... guess which one....Deuteronomy does, however, condemn male temple prostitution, and calls it "to'evah".
Deut. 20:18 says the practices of the Hittites, and the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites are "toevah". Such practices were the sex rituals disucssed above.
Chapter 20 of Leviticus refers to practices of the people who were in the land before God's people. These practices were: "There were even male shrine prostitutes in the land; the people engaged in all the detestable [toevah] practices of the nations the LORD had driven out before the Israelites" (I Kings 14:24, NIV).
Royce Buehler puts it well by saying: "And we never once see a concrete example of a condemned homosexual act in the old testament which is not an act of temple prostitution. (unless you argue that the Sodomites must have been frowned on for their homosexuality, since we all know that rape-murder of angels is just fine with God). And here those nasty male temple prostitutes get kicked out again over in 2 Kings.
How come you never see Clark Kent and Superman at the same time? How come you never see a condemned homosexual act in the bible without being told that the actors were either idolaters, or actual male temple prostitutes?.
Could all this possibly, juuust maybe, be more than a wild coincidence? Are all those thousands of gay teenagers committing suicide over a stupid misunderstanding? Would it be all right to treat gay people as if they were ordinary human beings, and God wouldn't even get thundering mad? Comme un fou se croft Dieu, nous nous croyons mortels" (As a fool believes himself to be God, we beleive believe ourselves to be mortal)" ~ Royce Buehler ([email protected]) ~ Royce Buehler ([email protected])
Is all of this just a bunch of coincidences? If so, they are the most fantastic group of coincidences I've ever seen!
The meaning of Lev. 18:21 is "you may not dedicate your children to serve Molech as religious prostitutes."
The meaning of Lev. 18:22 and 20:13 is "you may not lie with a male temple prostitute... if you lie with a male temple prostitute you will be put to death".
Astoroth, just as Molech, is called "the toevah" (see 2Kings 23:13). She was the Goddess of erotic love and is often called the Queen of Heaven. She often presented with a lion and a cup that she offers to her lover. Lions, flowers and snakes are apart of her rituals. The flower lily is her emblem. The Romans called her "Astarte", the Assyrians called her "Ishtar" (from which derives our word "easter" which is celebrating HER!), and the Phoenicians her "Asherah". Astoroth worship is mentioned in Deuteronomy 16:21; Judges 2:13, 3:7, 6:28, 10:6; 1Samuel 7:3-4, 12:10, 31:10; 1Kings 11:5&33, 14:15&23, 15:13, 18:19; 2Kings 13:6, 17:10&16, 18:4, 21:3-7, 23:13-14; 2Chronicles 14:3, 17:6,19:3, 24:18, 34:3-4; Isaiah 17:8, 27:9; Jeremiah 17:2; and Micah 5:14.
Ba'al was the God of the land and its crops. He is usually depicted as a Bull. Ba'al is mentioned in Judges 2:11-13, 6:25-32; 1Samuel 7:4; 1Kings 16:31-32, 18:18&40, 19:18; 2Kings 3:2, 10:18-25, 11:18, 21:3, 23:4-5; 2Chronicles 24:7, 28:2, 33:3; Jeremiah 2:8&23, 7:9, 23:13; Hosea 2:13-17, 13:1.
Go to http://www.jeramyt.org/gay.html#Add4 for proof that David the giant killer was bisexual, showing that Leviticus did not condemn homosexuality otherwise David would of been stoned to death.
In the ancient world sex was strongly connected with religion. Sex with religious prostitutes was equal to worshipping a god, usually Ba'al/ Molech.
This was a major problem, even the people of Yahweh engaged in these sex rituals which equated them with idolaters. For example, In Genesis 30:14-17 Rachel tries to get some "love apples" from Leah so she can have sex with Jacob.
Religious prostitutes were even being housed in the temple of Yahweh ( II Kings 23:7)! Religious prostitutes impacted Israel greatly (Deut. 23:17-18; I Ki 14:22-24, 15:11-13, 22:45-46; 2 Ki 23:4-7)
I reccomend the following websites for more info on Leviticus: http://www.zuberfowler.com/levlaw.html and http://www.othersheep.org/clobber2.htm
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