How significant are the prohibitions of same-gender behavior in Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13?

How significant are the prohibitions of same-gender behavior in Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13? Are these passages limited to Israel’s purity code and her separation from the surrounding gentile nations, or are they universal?

The Revisionist Answer

The context limits the prohibitions to the cult or religion of Israel, as shown by the use of the word abominable (Heb. toʿeba, Gk. bdelygma).
These regulations belong solely to the purity laws applied to Israel in the Old Testament and have no on-going value as moral standards. These passages are never quoted in the New Testament as part of the Christian ethic.
Establishment of the death penalty for violators does not help determine whether the texts apply to the modern world. The texts have no relevance.

The Biblical Answer

Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13 clearly describe homosexual behavior, with the second passage calling for the death penalty. The words abomination or detestable occur in both passages. Among the vices listed in the two chapters, this is the only one singled out as an “abomination,” and this use occurs twice. It speaks to severity and provides a link to Ezekiel 16:50, where the prophet identifies Sodom’s sin as an “abomination” (see pp. 43–45 for an extended treatment of this term).
As a whole, Leviticus 18–20 forms a special section within Leviticus that transcends Israel’s cult or ritual. In significance the text approaches Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5, where the Ten Commandments occur. These texts are universal in scope. No mention is made of sacrifice, ritual, or ceremony, as in the rest of Leviticus. The sins of this section, commonly referred to as the “Code of Holiness,” are child sacrifice, religious prostitution, spiritism and consulting mediums, cursing parents, adultery, incest, bigamy, homosexuality, and bestiality. None of these are limited to Israel’s own purity code.

Other considerations support their universal significance. The New Testament cites Leviticus 19 as a universal code. Jesus cites Leviticus 19 as universal (Matt. 5:33, 43; 19:19; 22:37–40), as do Paul (Rom. 10:5; 13:8–10; 2 Cor. 6:14ff.; Gal. 3:12; 5:14), Peter (1 Peter 1:14–16), and James (2:8). Frequently they cite the “second commandment”: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (19:18). Surely they saw this section as embodying universal standards of morality. The prohibitions of Leviticus 19 repeat or reflect on the Ten Commandments, including prohibitions of stealing, lying, deceiving, swearing falsely, and cursing (19:11–12).

Although some instructions and prohibitions of chapters 18 and 20 are limited to Israel (distinguishing clean and unclean animals and having sexual relations with one’s wife during her menstrual period), most are not. The context itself distinguishes limited, cultic prohibitions from universal prohibitions. The reader is able to discern which laws are universal. 

In addition, the similarity of these chapters to the Ten Commandments and the New Testament’s applications of this section warrant consideration of most of these rules as valid. Prohibitions of homosexuality elsewhere in the Old Testament, ancient Judaism, the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha, and in the New Testament also justify the interpretation that the prohibition is universal.

Application of the death penalty in 20:13 must be a factor in our consideration. It raises homosexuality from the level of a simple social or civil concern to the category of a crime against society (see pp. 47–59, 63).


De Young, J. B. (2000). Homosexuality: Contemporary Claims Examined in Light of the Bible and Other Ancient Literature and Law (pp. 282–283). Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications.