Homosexuality and Leviticus
The Tabernacle, Camp, & c. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Revisionist interpreters devote considerable attention to passages in the Law that even more clearly address homosexual practice. Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13 relate, “You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female; it is an abomination.… If there is a man who lies with a male as those who lie with a woman, both of them have committed a detestable act; they shall surely be put to death. Their bloodguiltiness is upon them.” Boswell , Edwards, Countryman, Nissinen, and others admit that, in Boswell’s words, “homosexual acts per se are mentioned.”75 Yet, they conclude that this passage is irrelevant for anyone except Old Testament Jews. Even Jesus and Paul considered the Levitical laws to be irrelevant under the new dispensation, such authors maintain. The laws concern ceremonial uncleanness rather than inherent evil; they concern ritual uncleanness, ethnic contamination, ancient societal taboos, or idolatry. The point...
