Being Gay, Being Christian by Dr Stuart Edser

Author:Dr Stuart Edser
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Religion/Christian Education Children & Youth
ISBN: Being Gay| Being Christian
Publisher: Exisle Publishing Pty Ltd
Published: 2008-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

A word study

The original Bible was not, of course, written in English, let alone the early 1600s Jacobean English of the King James Bible, but in an ancient language, Hebrew. We have seen how fundamentalists typically quote the King James Version so that they can use the extraordinarily powerful word ‘abomination’ when describing so-called gay sex. However, the original Hebrew word for abomination in this Leviticus text about male-male sex is the word, transliterated into our alphabet, toevah. This word has a strict meaning, is used very selectively in the Hebrew Bible and, according to Ellens, derives its meaning from the cultic rituals of the cultures of the Near East. It is not an everyday term, but a technical term, meaning ‘to abhor’ something for religious reasons, and when used in the Old Testament refers chiefly to idolatry.

As Ellens notes, verses such as Deuteronomy 7: 25 and 27: 15, 2 Kings 23: 13, Jeremiah 16: 18 and Ezekiel 14: 6 all refer to idols as being ‘an abomination to the Lord your God’. Leviticus 18 (which is our focus), Deuteronomy 12: 29–31, 13: 14, 17: 4, 18: 9, 2 Kings 16: 3, 21: 2, 2 Chronicles 33: 2, Ezekiel 5: 9 and 11, and Malachi 2: 11 all refer to idolatrous behaviour as being an abomination. The word toevah is used in all these texts, associated with heathen religious rituals and idols. Ellens points out that not only was the explicit practice of heathen religious ritual an abomination, but so was anything remotely connected with it, such as the eating of unclean animals and other unclean food.

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