Homosexuality and t he Bible

Interesting  - from the Martin Luther German Bible of 1534   Leviticus 18:22

 Du sollst nicht beim Knaben liegen wie beim Weibe; denn es ist ein Greuel. 

Translation

22 You shall do not lie with boys as with women; for it is and abomination

 Notice men or homosexual is not mentioned.  The issue was child molesters, not homosexuality when Leviticus was written and inspired.

Leviticus 20:13  same Bible

13  Wenn jemand beim Knaben schläft wie beim Weibe, die haben einen Greuel getan

und sollen beide des Todes sterben; ihr Blut sei auf ihnen.

 Translation

13 If anyone sleeps with boys as with women, they have committed an abomination

and shall both die; their blood be upon them. Again boys, no men, not homosexual, none of that.

 Another often-quoted scripture is 1 Corinthians 6:9 

9   Wisset ihr nicht, daß die Ungerechten das Reich Gottes nicht ererben werden? Lasset euch nicht

verführen! Weder die Hurer noch die Abgöttischen noch die Ehebrecher noch die Weichlinge noch

die Knabenschänder

 

9   Don't you know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Don't let yourself seduce! Neither the fornicators, nor the idolaters, nor the adulterers, nor the sissy, nor the boy molesters

Boy molesters, not Homosexual.

Gutenberg Bible is the same.   This goes back also to the translation of other older copies of the Bible

Even if malakoi doesn’t necessarily refer to same-sex behavior, doesn’t the fact that Paul places it next to the term arsenokoitai make that meaning more likely?

The term arsenokoites (the singular form) comes from two Greek words: arsen, meaning “male,” and koites, meaning “bed.” Those words appear together in the Greek translation of Leviticus 20:13, leading some to speculate that Paul coined the term arsenokoites in order to condemn same-sex behavior.

But as New Testament scholar Dale Martin has written, “The only reliable way to define a word is to analyze its use in as many different contexts as possible.”

After Paul’s apparent coinage of the term, most subsequent uses of it in ancient literature appear only in lists of vices. As Martin has shown, those contexts indicate that the word likely relates to sexual or economic exploitation. So while that may involve same-sex behavior, it would be exploitative forms of it, not loving relationships.

But isn’t it possible that Paul used malakoi and arsenokoitai together to condemn both the active and passive partners in male same-sex relations?

There were many word pairs in common use in ancient literature to describe both the active and passive partners in male same-sex relations—words like erastes and eromenos, for example. Malakoi and arsenokoitai, however, were not used as a pair by other ancient writers.

Moreover, even if Paul had intended to condemn both partners in male same-sex relations, it’s critical to remember the major gap between same-sex behavior as it was practiced in ancient societies—where it was based on status, power, and lust—and committed same-sex unions today.

Some Bible translations render malakoi and arsenokoitai as “homosexuals,” but that term wasn’t even coined until 1869 in German and 1892 in English

Still more disturbing is 

Now, the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, is, according to the National Council of Churches, the “authorized revision of the American Standard Version, published in 1901, which was a revision of the King James Version, published in 1611.”

This is important to know, because the actual word “homosexual” appears for the first time on February 11, 1946, in the Revised Standard Version. In it, their translation of 1 Corinthians 6:9, they substitute the word “homosexual” for the Greek words “malakoi” and “arsenokoitai.”

America is still the only country in the World that requires the Bible printers to use the word "Homosexuals" and not the actual accepted translated words.  

This gives me a lot of pauses when the Extreme right of Christians condemn anything.    I understand and accept that this might be repugnant to a wide swath of Christians, but to force a change and reinterpretation of the Bible to fit a specific agenda is wrong, sinful, and not Christian at all.

This is just my humble opinion.  There are so many other parts that are used to preclude those of communities that are outside the mainstream that the National Council of Churchs has decided needed to be changed in the Bible to exclude them.  This is why we should change our thinking to follow Jesus and his teaching and not worship him.   Following his teachings mean inclusion, harmony compassion, and understanding.  Those are four of the hardest things for us humans to do.  It is far easier to Worship someone as it does not require us to give up our hate and our desire to exclude others.