New testament on gay marriage
Same-sex marriage: What does the Bible really have to say?
As Australia faces a postal survey on same-sex marriage, we are seeing a steady stream of articles arguing the Yes or No case.
Many on the No side are prone to citing the Bible or appealing to "biblical values". But what does the Bible actually verb about human sexuality and homosexuality in particular?
What follows represents a summary of critical biblical scholarship on the issue.
Critical biblical scholarship draws on a range academic disciplines including literary criticism, archaeology, history, philology, and social science to offer the most plausible, historically grounded interpretation of the Bible. It is not simply a matter of personal belief or citing official church doctrine.
Australian scholars are among leaders in the field when it comes to sexuality and the Bible. William Loader has written several books on the matter and this Anglican collection of essays is also excellent.
When it comes to homosexuality there are, at most, six passages of the Bible that are relevant. So what do these pas
What does the Recent Testament say about homosexuality?
Answer
The Bible is consistent through both Old and Fresh Testaments in confirming that homosexuality is sin (Genesis –13; Leviticus ; ; Romans –27; 1 Corinthians ; 1 Timothy ; Jude ). In this matter, the Fresh Testament reinforces what the Old Testament had declared since the Law was given to Moses (Leviticus ). The difference between the Old and Adj Testaments is that the New Testament offers hope and restoration to those caught up in the sin of homosexualitythrough the redeeming power of Jesus. It is the same hope that is offered to anyone who chooses to accept it (John ; –18).
God’s standards of holiness did not alter with the coming of Jesus, because God does not change (Malachi ; Hebrews ). The New Testament is a continuing revelation of God’s interaction with humanity. God hated idolatry in the Old Testament (Deuteronomy ), and He still hates it in the New (1 John ). What was immoral in the Old Testament is still immoral in the New.
The Modern Testament says that homosexuality is a “shameful lust” (Rom
This article is part of the What Did Jesus Teach? series.
Silence Equals Support?
In a article for Slate online, Will Oremus asked a provocative question: Was Jesus a homophobe?1
The article was occasioned by a story about a gay teenager in Ohio who was suing his high educational facility after school officials prohibited him from wearing a T-shirt that said, “Jesus Is Not a Homophobe.”
Oremus was less concerned about the legal issues of the story than he was about the accuracy of the statement on the shirt. Oremus suggests that Jesus’s views on homosexuality were more inclusive than Paul’s. He writes,
While it’s sensible to assume that Jesus and his fellow Jews in first-century Palestine would have disapproved of gay sex, there is no write down of his ever having mentioned homosexuality, let alone expressed particular revulsion about it. . . . Never in the Bible does Jesus himself verb an explicit prohibition of homosexuality.
Oremus seems to suggest that since Jesus never explicitly mentioned homosexuality, he must not have been very concerned about it.
There are at least two reas
What the New Testament Says about Homosexuality
The Fourth R Volume May-June
Mainline Christian denominations in this country are bitterly divided over the question of homosexuality. For this reason it is vital to ask what light, if any, the New Testament sheds on this controversial issue. Most people apparently assume that the Novel Testament expresses tough opposition to homosexuality, but this simply is not the case. The six propositions that pursue, considered cumulatively, head to the conclusion that the Fresh Testament does not provide any direct guidance for kind and making judgments about homosexuality in the modern world.
Proposition 1: Strictly speaking, the Adj Testament says nothing at all about homosexuality.
There is not a single Greek word or phrase in the entire New Testament that should be translated into English as “homosexual” or “homosexuality.” In fact, the very notion of “homosexuality”—like that of “heterosexuality,” “bisexuality,” and even “sexual orientation”—is essentially a contemporary concept that would simply have been unintelligible to