The Bible on Homosexuality
The Origin of Sexuality and of Homosexuality
Human sexuality, along with a pleasing sexual imperative, is introduced at the very beginning of the Bible story. Mankind was created with gender. Gender was created with purpose.
Ge 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. 28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it:
Compliantly, in the narrative, Adam “knew” his wife and she conceived a son, and then another, and then a third. And though we don’t have details about differing sexual orientations before the flood[1], it is certain that only heterosexuals were on the Ark.[2]
Ge 7:7 And Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons’ wives with him, into the ark, because of the waters of the flood.
Obviously the origin of same-sex attractions significantly predated its rise to the epic proportions apparent in Sodom four centuries after the flood. However rare gay practice must have been at its beginning, we find men and boys (na’ar) from “every quarter” of Sodom involved in the assault on Lot’s home.
How did homosexual practice come into existence? The Bible teaches that it rose as part of a judgment on those that invented idolatry. As they abandoned the true worship of Jehovah, their willful ignorance[3] was judged by God by a two-step process. First, God let them slide into same-sex practice. Then He permitted a “due penalty” (sexually transmitted diseases?) to take its toll.
For although they knew God, they … exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. 24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. 26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another[4], men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. 28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. Romans 1:20-28, ESV.
Same-sex Attraction and Sodom
As we have already mentioned, four centuries was long enough to lead to a wholesale adoption of unnatural sexual experiences. Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities of the same plain, were particularly guilty of immorality. And more particularly, they were pursuing satisfaction of “unnatural” sexual desires, Jude’s word for gay desires.
Jude 1:7 just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire. ESV
Some persons have denied that gay lifestyles ought to be fingered as the leading evil of Sodom. They quote Ezekiel as pointing to a different collection of sins. “They were proud, obese, and lazy”, say they, “and unconcerned with social justice.” To this I would reply that Ezekiel is not arguing with Jude and Moses.
Rather, Ezekiel exposes another path to homosexuality. It was a sinful self-indulging environment, something akin to our western idea of prosperity, that led to the rise of Sodom’s violent gay mobs.
Ezekiel 16:49 Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. 50 And they were haughty, and committed abomination before me: therefore I took them away as I saw good.
Someone says, “How do you divine sexual orientation from the word ‘abomination’”? That is a good question. The convergence of all three lines of evidence points to this conclusion. Those evidences are the story (below), Jude’s phrase “unnatural desire,” and the use of the same Hebrew word in the catalogue of sexual abominations (Leviticus 18.)
In the story Lot entertains angels unawares. We pick up the story after their meal:
Genesis 19:4 But before they lay down, the men of the city, even the men of Sodom, compassed the house round, both old and young, all the people from every quarter: Ge 19:5 And they called unto Lot, and said unto him, Where are the men which came in to thee this night? bring them out unto us, that we may know them.
Their evil serves to demonstrate the moral character of the urban center.
Moses, who authored the story of Sodom, also very directly connects Ezekiel’s word for “abomination” with homosexual practice in the catalogue of sexual perversions, Leviticus 18. There to’ebhah (abomination) is first used for what God abhors. (Earlier references are to what Egyptians abhor).
There God’s abhorrence of perverse sexual sin is offered as a leading reason why God expelled the Canaanites from their land.
Le 18:22 Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination. 23 Neither shalt thou lie with any beast to defile thyself therewith: neither shall any woman stand before a beast to lie down thereto: it is confusion. 24 Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things: for in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out before you: 25 And the land is defiled: therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants. 26 Ye shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments, and shall not commit any of these abominations; neither any of your own nation, nor any stranger that sojourneth among you: 27 (For all these abominations have the men of the land done, which were before you, and the land is defiled;) 28 That the land spue not you out also, when ye defile it, as it spued out the nations that were before you. 29 For whosoever shall commit any of these abominations , even the souls that commit them shall be cut off from among their people. 30 Therefore shall ye keep mine ordinance, that ye commit not any one of these abominable customs, which were committed before you, and that ye defile not yourselves therein: I am the LORD your God.
Le 20:13 If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.
When you considering these passages, when you think of Jude’s statement that the Sodom dwellers were pursuing “strange flesh,” when you read the Genesis story itself, it is not hard to identify Sodom’s notable sin. In view of these things there can be no reasonable doubt regarding the meaning of the “abomination” of Sodom mentioned in Ezekiel 16:50 as the immediate cause of their destruction.
Gender Confusion and Egyptian Habits
Deuteronomy identifies other abominations: idolatry (and such associated practices as burning infants in the fire), eating of unclean meats, profits from prostitution, experimental divorce[5] and defective offerings.
Additionally, Deuteronomy forbids prostitutes and “sodomites.” The ESV renders the word as “male cult prostitutes.” Regardless of the version, the word denotes homosexual ritual sex. And it is forbidden.
De 23:17 There shall be no whore {margin: sodomitess} of the daughters of Israel, nor a sodomite of the sons of Israel. 18 Thou shalt not bring the hire of a whore, or the price of a dog[6], into the house of the LORD thy God for any vow: for even both these are abomination unto the LORD thy God.
One other gender-oriented “abomination” is mentioned by Moses. That is the act of cross-dressing.
De 22:5 “A woman shall not wear a man’s garment, nor shall a man put on a woman’s cloak, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the LORD your God.
Think about this question: Why would cross dressing be particularly evil? How this would be immoral is difficult to conceive unless one accepts the idea that a confusion of gender roles is abhorrent to God. Weighty are the implications as they relate to homosexuality.
Leviticus’ larger prohibition against homosexuality, already mentioned above, is found in a section of the Torah that deals with many types of sexual sins. That section is introduced with a prohibition of the evils that Egypt committed (Leviticus 18:3). Did these practices include homosexual activity as the chapter goes on to forbid? One of the more respected Jewish historians (Moses Maimonides) thought so. He summarize an ancient midrash on Leviticus 18:3.
For women to be [married] with one another is forbidden, as this is the practice of Egypt, which we were warned against: "Like the practice of the land of Egypt ... you shall not do" (Leviticus 18:3). The Sages said [in the midrash of Sifra Aharei Mot 8:8–9], "What did they do? A man married a man, and a woman married a woman, and a woman married two men."[7]
Sodom II and Homosexuality in the Time of the Kings
Seven centuries after fire destroyed Sodom, history largely repeated itself in an Israeli town of Benjamin. Again travelers are hosted. Again the host is assaulted by would-be gain rapists with a same-sex preference. But no angels are there, so a victim dies at the hands of the mob. The narrative ends with the near extinction of the entire tribe of Benjamin.
God authorized and empowered this massacre of those who protected the wrong-doers. See Judges 19-20. Only a few hundred Benjamite males survived the war. The genocidal solution to the Benjamite abomination assured that the particular perversion would come to a dead end.
Nevertheless, less than two centuries later, homosexual activity appears again. The Bible again reminds us that it had been homosexual religious rituals that warranted the expulsion of the original inhabitants of Canaan.
1 Kings 14:22 And Judah did evil in the sight of the LORD, and they provoked him to jealousy with their sins which they had committed, above all that their fathers had done. 23 For they also built them high places, and images, and groves, on every high hill, and under every green tree. 24 And there were also sodomites <qadesh> in the land: and they did according to all the abominations of the nations which the LORD cast out before the children of Israel.
Two of the next three generations sought to remove the homosexual prostitutes from the land. Asa “took away the sodomites <qadesh> out of the land,” and his son removed “the remnant of the sodomites <qadesh> which remained in the days of his father Asa.” 1 Kings 15:12; 22:46.
Much later, the last good king of Judah again took up this work of removing abominations that threatened national stability. Josiah removed the “houses of the sodomites” that were in the vicinity of the temple. But it appears he was unable to uproot the gay practitioners from the nation generally.
2Ki 23:7 And he brake down the houses of the sodomites <qadesh> that were by the house of the LORD, where the women wove hangings for the grove.24 And there were also sodomites in the land: and they did according to all the abominations of the nations which the LORD cast out before the children of Israel.
Josiah’s children witnessed Babylon’s complete victory over the forces of Judah and the scattering of the people. The heathen had been cast out of the land for abominations earlier. Now Judah was cast out for its abominations. The two that are mentioned repeatedly throughout their history were idolatry and ritual homosexuality.
Paul on Homosexuality
When the remnant of the captivity returned to Jerusalem under Ezra and Nehemiah, the idolaters (and apparently, the homosexuals) were not among them. Even in Jesus’ day, idolatry was yet despised by the Jews. And there is no record of homosexual interest of any type in Judah while Jesus was teaching. His frequent allusions to marriage are always to the union of a man and of a woman.
But the state of things in Judea differed a great deal from the state of things in the larger sphere of Rome. In the empire itself idolatry was everywhere prevalent. And sources outside of scripture confirm what we find implicitly in Paul’s writings, that homosexual practice also abounded.
This simple contrast, between the sexual orientation of Judeans and the sexual orientation of Roman persons, illustrates the connection between the religion of God and the sexual experience. Where His religion prevailed monogamous heterosexuality did also. Where paganism prospered, sexual immorality of every kind existed. Every list of serious sins in the New Testament includes one or more references to sexual evils.
In his letter to the Romans, the apostle addresses the joint origin of homosexual attractions and idolatry. (See the first portion of this article.)
But he first contrasts the practical outworking of the gospel (Romans 1:16-17) with the guilty practice of “unrighteousness” by those that “hold the truth.” He warns the Roman believers that God is known in this world by the character of those that profess to believe in Him. And, accordingly, God’s wrath is kindled against wicked professed Christians. (Romans 1:18-19).
Even heathen, however, have enough evidence in nature of God’s power and existence to make them accountable for their moral choices. They should cherish what they can learn about God. Otherwise, their choices will lead them to greater darkness (idolatry) even while they think they are being enlightened. (Romans 1:20-23.)