Leviticus Passages

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Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13

This is the only biblical passage that specifically mentions a male-on-male sexual act, and it makes its point in a roundabout way. A literal translation from the original Hebrew would read, With a male you shall not lie the lyings of a woman. What “lie the lyings” refers to is lying down, or going to bed to have sex. So, there is no doubt this is referring to male-on-male sex. There is no hint of lesbian sex in this passage, so only the guys are in trouble here. Sounds pretty straightforward, doesn’t it? But to understand what it means to us today, first we have to understand what it meant in its own time and place.

Leviticus 20:13 gives the punishment for someone who “lies the lyings of a woman.” It says that this is an abomination and the offenders should be put to death. What is so bad about this action that it warrants the death penalty? We can get an idea by looking at other things receiving the same punishment. Here’s a list of offenses that are also abominations. As you read this list, remember that if one of them applies to you, you are an abomination to the Lord.

The section of scripture that Leviticus comes from is known as the Jewish Holiness code. According to Jewish belief, Israel was God’s chosen people. They were in a unique, contractual relationship with God. God said, I will be your God and I will do ‘A’, ‘B’, and ‘C’ for you; You will be my people and will do ‘D’, ‘E’, and ‘F’ for me. Part of the ‘D’, ‘E’, and ‘F’ section of the covenant for the Jews was to remain different from the people around them. They were not supposed to be like anyone else; they were to dress differently, act differently, and especially worship differently. When other people looked at them, they should instantly be able to say, “those Jews have it going on, their God is powerful! Unlike my God who just sits there and seems to act randomly.” It was to be unmistakable that Yahweh (God’s name) was on their side.

As the Israelites moved into the promised land, part of being different meant not participating in the religious practices of the people who already lived there. Think about it. You are a farmer. All you know is how to plant a little crop, keep your sheep and goats alive and eke out an existence for your family. The rest of your tribe moves into a foreign land and gets rid of most of the people but not all of them. There you are, living in a totally different place, you plant your crop the way you know how, but it dies — what’s wrong? You conclude, “God must be angry.” But your Canaanite neighbor planted their crop and it flourished. So you go over to them to find out what they did to get such a good crop. The Canaanite says, “First of all, you make this sacrifice to this god at this time of year, pat your head and rub your tummy at the same time, hug a tree and sing kum-bah-ya.” (OK, I don’t know exactly what all the religious rituals were. The point is they could have been anything.)

The next year you give it a try, and lo and behold you get a great crop! You are hooked. God knew this was going to happen, so right up front God said, “Don’t get sucked into the religious practices of the people around you. I’m your God. Trust me alone and worship only me.”

What exactly were these forbidden practices? The Hebrew text portrays some of them as fertility rites. These ceremonies allegedly involved sexual rituals that were thought to bring blessings. During these rituals, entire families and groups of families — husbands, wives, mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters, cousins — all might have sex with one another. Any wonder why God might say, “Don’t do that?” Other forbidden practices included having sex with a menstruating woman, and child sacrifices to the god Molech. All of these things are also abominations listed in this holiness code, and anyone participating in them was to be cut off from the people.

So this is a prohibition against male-on-male sex for religious reasons, not sexual or moral reasons. The concern here is keeping Israel distinct from the Gentiles. Homogenital sex is forbidden because it’s associated with Gentile identity and it departs from the Jewish understanding of how things should be.

What exactly is an “abomination?” One preacher says, “An abomination is something that makes God want to vomit.” That sounds bad, but if we look at what the word meant to the ancient Hebrew mind, we see something different. Leviticus 20:25-26 captures the meaning pretty well:

You shall therefore make a distinction between the clean animal and the unclean, and between the unclean bird and the clean; you shall not bring abomination on yourselves by animal or by bird or by anything with which the ground teems, which I have set apart for you to hold unclean. You shall be holy to me; for I the Lord am holy, and I have separated you from the other peoples to be mine.
From this passage we get the idea that “unclean” and “abominable” mean pretty much the same thing. An abomination is a violation of the purity rules that governed Israelite society and kept the Israelites different from the other peoples. We don’t really know the exact reason for the Jewish purity and holiness code. That has been lost to us through the sands of time, but we do know there was a clear distinction made between clean and unclean. It appears that the distinction was between characteristics.

Something either had the characteristics that were considered “good,” or “clean,” or it didn’t. If it did have the clean characteristics, mixing it with something that was unclean, or did not have those same characteristics, was forbidden. When it came to animals, this was pretty easy to understand: it either has a cloven hoof and chews the cud or it doesn’t (Lev. 11:3-4).

But what about people? What about objects? What about sex? The ancient Hebrew mind also had very particular ideas about men and women. A woman was to be penetrated and man was the one to do the penetrating. In fact, the Hebrew word for woman, “naqeba,” means “orificebearer” (as if there were no orifices on the male body), but the only orifice that mattered was the one that brought children — the woman’s. The fundamental image of a woman was someone who was there to serve the man in sexual intercourse.

For a man to sexually penetrate another man, as in anal intercourse, was to mix and confuse the standards of maleness and femaleness. It was to use a male in the function of a female. This mixing of kinds, this confusing of accepted gender roles, is what Leviticus 18:22 forbids, but not other kinds of male-male sex. In the ancient Hebrew mind, penetrative sex with another man disrupted the ideal order of things and thus was unclean, taboo, forbidden; it was an abomination.

The Hebrew word that is translated into the English word “abomination” is toevah. This word can mean uncleanness, impurity, dirtiness or taboo; that which is culturally or ritually forbidden. This is important when you know that there is another Hebrew word, zimah, which refers to something that is wrong in and of itself, an injustice or sin. This means Leviticus is not saying that for a man to lie with another man is a sin. Instead, it is saying for a man to “lie the lyings” of a woman is a ritual violation, an uncleanness. It is something “dirty.”

All of this is backed up by the very first Greek translation of the Old Testament. There were several Greek words that could have been used if the intent was to say this action was a wrong, a sin, or an evil practice, but none of those words are used. Instead, the Greek word that was used means “a ritual offense.”

All the evidence points to Leviticus 18:22 forbidding male-on-male intercourse because of its cultural and religious implications. Leviticus says nothing about the morality or immorality of homogenital acts. Evidently this was not a concern in the Hebrew Testament.

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