Why did the Old Testament ask for the death penalty for homosexuality?
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| English: Death penalty = crime from the state, Fete de l'Humanité 2004 (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
The form of punishment, namely death, called for in chapter 20 is significant in arguing for universality. The use of damages rather than fines emphasizes that the biblical legal system is basically a system of civil law upon which various criminal law features have been added. Many offenses, according to Wenham, “are regarded as torts: wrongs against individual private citizens for which the injured party has to seek redress on his own initiative through the courts.”109
In general, the type of penalty imposed provides a criterion between civil and criminal law, although Scripture views all of life as under God, so all wrongdoing is sin. Monetary compensation suggests a civil offense, whereas corporal punishment suggests a crime (actions that the state forbids and seeks to stop by punishment).110 This distinction at least suggests that Leviticus 20 has universal, rather than circumstantial, application.
The only way that homosexuality, a deliberate sin, could be forgiven was by confession and repentance and the sacrifices of the high priest on the Day of Atonement. On this day, the sanctuary was cleansed, as were all the people and the land. The homosexual offender could not offer a personal sin offering, since he had sinned deliberately, “with a high hand.”
In addition to the death penalty, homosexual offenders suffered a second penalty. They were to be “cut off” (kārat) in light of 18:29. Ancient Near Eastern usage suggests that the karet penalty was a conditional divine curse of extinction, obliterating the sinner and the sinner’s progeny from any place in Israel. The means for carrying out this curse are not explicit in Scripture. A person might die prematurely, remain childless, or even be killed. Donald Wold sides with the rabbinic view that the karet was a divine, not a human, punishment, involving the sinner’s place in the afterlife. Such offenses as homosexuality, incest, and bestiality are offenses outside human jurisdiction. They are against God and are punishable only by Him. The sinner might be acquitted by God pending his atonement for repentance, confession of sin, and faith in the efficacy of the atonement for sin made on the Day of Atonement once a year. Only when the sanctuary was cleansed was release from guilt and full forgiveness available.111
The karet penalty argues for the severity and universal immorality of homosexuality. We shall see that the penalty carries over into the New Testament.
Even the possible euphemistic allusions to homosexuality in Deuteronomy 22:30 and 27:20 support the contention that homosexual prohibitions of chapters 18 and 20 are universal. The phrase “uncovering his father’s skirt” corresponds to “it is your father’s nakedness” in Leviticus 18:7 and 20:11. The language is reminiscent of Genesis 9:21ff., where Ham, the son of Noah, committed sin, perhaps homosexual rape, against his father.112 God pronounces judgment on Ham’s son, Canaan, and it is the land of Canaan that God judges for homosexuality and other vices in Leviticus 18 and 20. The tie of incest with homosexuality in Genesis 9 sets the model for Leviticus 18 and 20, where these two vices predominate. If these are allusions to homosexuality, then the universal setting of Genesis 9 with its negativity associated with the sin of Ham reinforces the universality of the later denunciation of homosexuality in Israel.
De Young, J. B. (2000). Homosexuality: Contemporary Claims Examined in Light of the Bible and Other Ancient Literature and Law (pp. 54–56). Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications.
