Leviticus 18:22
You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.
Leviticus 20:13
If a man lies with a male as with a woman both of them have committed an abomination; they shall be put to death, their blood is upon them.
This is the fourth in a series on the Bible and homosexuality. In the previous post I discussed the references to homosexuality in Leviticus. I argued that these references are informed by ancient Jewish notions of purity. However, this purity notion is distinct from the notion of sin. Rather impurity is meant as a construction of the origin of life and creation and is employed to exalt God who is pure and perfect. Now I will continue the discussion on these verses in Leviticus.
The purity notion of the ancient Jews, refers to what is considered ‘original’, or from the beginning, but also as ‘undiluted’. I explained the first impurity notion in the previous post. Now I would like to turn to the second component of purity in Leviticus: purity is undilutedness.
In fact this undilutedness component is closely related with the purity as origin notion. The assumption of a beginning of things, a creator God, a beginning of time, inevitably raises the question how the pristine, undiluted state of creation was.
Ancient Jews seem to have a rather strong feeling for what is original and what is not. The division between original (pure) and unoriginal (diluted) is not necessarily based on what we would find evidence today. Rather, ancient Jewish originality notions seem to be tentatively informed. For example, a fish should have scales, so a shark impure and should not be consumed. Similarly, men should be the penetrating partner in sex, not the receiving partner. Men should not wear woman’s clothes. Animals should have cleft hooves, therefore camel are impure. Clothes should be made out of one material, so one should not wear clothing woven with two different threads.
What constitutes impurity is therefore the mixing of original elements of creation. What is mixed: materials, roles, animal characteristics, is therefore impure.
Interestingly, the homosexual references in Leviticus are only restricted to penetrative sex between men, it does not, for instance, include mutual masturbation, or lesbian sex. Homosexuality in this instance is impure because of the idea that homosexuality is not original (see previous post), but also because penetrative sex between men dilutes the perceived roles of men and women. A man should be the giver, the penetrating party in sex; the woman should be the receiver. Notice that, lesbian sex is not penetrative, in Jewish religious tradition, sex between women was not considered ‘real sex’, but ‘rubbing’. This explains the absence of a reference to lesbian sex throughout the Old Testament, and even in the New Testament there is only one reference. In the days of Leviticus, 6th century BCE, polygamy, that is marriage with multiple women was common practice. This also adds to perception that intimacy between women within one marital partnership is ‘pure’ and does not dilute the original notion of matrimony.
In sum, Leviticus refers to penetrative sex between men, as a notion of impurity by the dilution of sexual roles. This notion is informed by ancient Jewish ideas of how the world should be, rather than by sin (also see previous post.
Leviticus,
Bible,
homosexuality,
gay,
sex
The average ecological footprint in the US is 9.6 and in the EU is 4.8. In other words, we probably need more than four planet earths to sustain ourselves without depleting resources for future generations. As a an environmental politics researcher, I have to admit that I too have a considerable footprint. In spite of barely eating meat, driving no car, and sharing a house; my ‘gains’ are more than offset by the amount of travelling I need to do. Just as I was about to think that zero net impact is impossible, I learned about No-Impact-Man Colin Beavan.
By the way, I am not too supportive of a Dutch Olympic adventure, or any Olympic Games for that matter. The costs are usually frickin' high. And what's so green about megalomaniac project development and humongous passenger kilometers? Some say sports bond; then why all the nationalist fuss? Do Olympic Games really lead to peace on earth? - Russia invaded Georgia on the opening day of the Beijing Games!
A French study shows that a quarter of all suicide attempts among men are related to homosexuality. With women, some 10% of suicide attempts are homosexuality related.
I am not sure how to continue the series I started about 'Critiques of Christianity'. Since, I am often misunderstood when I criticise. I criticize to try to make things better, not to break-down and to tred on the Church. Rather, I believe in the potential of the gospel as a relevant message in our times. However, the current representation of the gospel by the Church and Christian politics fall short. I do not expect perfection, however, whether Christendom has anything to add to today's world remains a pressing question. Let me therefore continue to pose a couple of questions.
