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: : : Dear Friends, : : : I was asked to write a paper on Leviticus 18:22. : : : Do you have any suggestions for me? : [UPDATED ESSAY:] : Some scholars, such as David Wright, Stephen Carlson, etc. believe that Paul coined the word in reference to the Septuagint's translation of Leviticus 20:13, which reads: : "Kai hos an koimethe meta ARSENOS KOITEN gunaikos, bdelugma epoiesan amphoteroi; thanatousthwsan, enoichoi eisin" : Wow! There it is. Paul MUST have meant homouals IF he coined the word in reference to the LXX'S translation. There are two problems with this idea: : (1) Paul uses the word in a vice list. A vice list does not have a context so we can't depend on context to know what Paul meant. Paul uses it in such a way as to imply that everybody already knew what he meant. How would people know what he meant if he coined it in reference to the Septuagint?s translation of Leviticus 20:13? : : (2) Even IF Paul did coin the word in reference to Leviticus 20:13, there still is not a prohibition of all forms of homouality since Leviticus 18:22/ 20:13 only condemn Canaanite prostitution rituals. : "What?! That's absurd!" you may think to yourself. But it is actually quite simple. : "None of the daughters of Israel shall be a temple prostitute; none of the sons of Israel shall be a temple prostitute. You shall not bring the fee of a prostitute or the wages of a male prostitute into the house of the Lord your God, for both of these are abhorrent [Hebrew toevah] to the Lord your God." Deuteronomy 23:17-18 (NRSV) : The words translated into "temple prostitute" above were qadeshah and qadesh, respectively. Qadesha means literally "female holy one" while Qadesh means "male Holy one". : The author of Deuteronomy obviously didn't consider them to be "holy". He was using the name that the Canaanites, who were worshippers of Molech, had for temple prostitutes. In Canaan male temple prostitutes were called "male holy ones" because they had been dedicated to Molech, whose shrine at which they offered their ual services. : Temple prostitution played a vital role in the Canaanite religion of worshipping Molech. In the Canaanite religion, the fertility of the land depended upon Molech having with the love goddess Astoroth. The Canaanites, imitated this through prostitution in their worship rituals. The prostitute would play the part of Astoroth, while the customer/worshipper played the part of Molech. : However, the prostitutes playing Astoroth's role were not females, but instead were males... they would dress up as women, wearing elaborate Goddess vestments and Goddess masks on their faces. The customers/ worshippers were also males- Those males would lie with a male as if a female. : It seems almost too simple. For those who wish for further proof that Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13 forbid lying with one of Molech's temple prostitutes I have put together the following arguments: : A. CONEXT: Leviticus 18:2-5 says that practices following, including obviously the "homoual" acts in 18:22, were part of "the doings... of Canaan". Also see 19:26-29. : So the "homoual" acts in Leviticus 18:22. 20:13 were part of Canaanite rituals. Funny thing is, the only form of homouality used by the Canaanites in their rituals was that of transvestitic temple prostitution. : The end of chapter 20 says that those practices were labeled as "abomination" because they were the idolatrous practices of the Canaanites. : : B. THE DEATH PENALTY AND DEUTERONOMY: If you make a list of crimes in Leviticus in which the punishment is death, you will notice that all the death penalty crimes are repeated once again in the Old Testament, especially in Deuteronomy. : But homouality is not repeated there (nor anywhere else in the Old Testament), even though ALL of the other death penalty crimes are. However, Deuteronomy does mention male temple prostitution, and calls it toevah. : Here is the list: : Leviticus 20:3-5: Child sacrifice. This is repeated in 2Kings 16:3 and Deuteronomy 12:31. : Leviticus 20:6: Mediums and wizards. This is included in Deuteronomy's 'no other gods', 5:7 et al. : Leviticus 20:9: Cursing one's parents. This is repeated in Deuteronomy 27:16. : Leviticus 20:10: Adultery. Repeated in Deuteronomy 5:18, 22:22. : Leviticus 20:11: with father's wife. Repeated in Deuteronomy 20:20. : Leviticus 20:12 with child's spouse. Repeated in Deuteronomy 20:23. : Leviticus 20:13: Allegedly homouality in general. Not repeated anywhere else in the Old Testament. : Leviticus 20:14: : both daughter and mother. Repeated in Deuteronomy 20:23. : Leviticus 20:15: Man committing bestiality. Repeated in Deuteronomy 20:21. : Leviticus 20:16: woman commiting bestiality. Repeated in Deuteronomy 20:21 : : "Seven out of nine are repeated precisely in Deuteronomy - down to the details of which degree of consanguinity is involved in acts of . 20:12 ( with a daughter-in-law) is not repeated precisely, but the same degree of consanguinity is forbidden in Deut. 20:23. Necromancy is not specifically forbidden again in Deuteronomy, but it is attested in a number of places outside of Leviticus 18/20, notably in I Samuel 14:32-35, which refers to the death penalty ociated with the practice." -- Royce Beuhler : : C. S: If the author was referring to homouality in general, then why isn't there a mention of s? The transvestitic temple prostitution rituals did NOT involve females, so it would make sense for him not to mention s if he did have [Molech's] temple prostitution in mind. : When the author prohibited bestiality he said "if a woman lies down with a beast" AND ALSO SAYS "if a man lies down with a beast". When the author mentioned bestiality he mentioned both human genders... why wouldn't he do the same in 18:22/20:13 if he meant homouality in general? : Furthermore, "Both men and women are forbidden to commit adultery, or with a parent, or with a parent-in-law. But, at least if the prosecution's theory is true, only males are forbidden to have with their own gender. If we ume the traditional theory, both of these silences are unexpected, and both break the pattern of the way the Bible treats equally serious sins. The silences present a puzzle. : On the defense theory, however, there are no curious silences to be explained. If what Leviticus 18/20 forbids is a specific idolatrous practice, then: : 1. it is a practice which is also specifically forbidden in Deuteronomy, just like all the other capital crimes, and : 2. the cult which indulged in the practice had males coupling with males, but not males coupling with females. : The data fit the defense theory like a glove; try to slip the same data onto the prosecution's theory, and these two unseemly holes, these two embarring silences, stick out like missing thumbs." -- Royce Buehler : Oh boy it certainly doesn't look good for the anti-homoual crowd right now, but there is still one more argument: : : D. ECHOES: "For they [Judah] also built for themselves high places, and pillars, and Asherim on every high hill and under every green tree; and there were also male cult prostitutes [qadeshim] in the land. They did according to all the abominations [plural of toevah] of the nations which the LORD drove out before the people of Israel." -- 1 Kings 14:23-24 : According to fundamentalists, Leviticus 18:22/20:13 prohibit homouality in general. If that were the case then one would expect the author of Kings to echo the themes of Deuteronomy 23 when the topic of temple prostitution came up. : But that isn't what happens. Instead, when the subject of temple prostitution comes up, the author of Kings echoes the specific themes of Leviticus 18:27-28: he calls the practices toevah and echoes the phrase "did all of the abominations/toevah", and said those practices were the practices of the former inhabitants who were driven out of the land for engaging in them. : The fact that temple prostitution made the author of Kings allude to Leviticus INSTEAD of Deuteronomy is quite strange, UNLESS he viewed the Leviticus pages as also referring to cult prostitution. : So Leviticus 18:22/ 20:13 are talking about a specific form of prostitution which involves males lying with males as if they are females. This fits in perfectly with the Canaanite prostitution rituals. : So IF we conclude that Paul coined the word in reference to the LXX it doesn't do a lot of good for the anti-gay view now does it? : In the LXX. ARSENOS KOITEN referred to a man who slept with a male temple prostitute. This is a nice fit since arsenokoitai appears after "oi" in Timothy which meant "male [temple]- prostitute". The next word is andropodistes which means "slave dealer" and "kidnapper". The three words could fit together and be translated as "male prostitutes, males who lie with them (arsenokoitai), and slave dealers who procure them." : In Corinthians "arsenokoitai" comes after "malakoi". Scholars do not know what Paul meant with this word. He could of meant boy-prostitutes. : There was a word Paul could of used had he wanted to refer to homouals. That word is homophilia. : In conclusion it is highly unlikely that Paul had homouals in general in mind. : There are other arguments that could be made, but they are inconclusive (like why the author used two different words for the male gender in 20:13- iysh and zaka. And also the word "abomination" was translated from toevah which almost always meant idolatry in the Torah) : ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: : Astoroth, just as Molech, is called "the toevah" (2Kings 23:13). She was the Goddess of erotic love and is often called the Queen of Heaven. She often presented with a lion and a cup that she offers to her lover. Lions, flowers and snakes are apart of her rituals. The flower lily is her emblem. The Romans called her "Astarte", the yrians called her "Ishtar" (from which derives our word "easter"), and the Phoenicians her "Asherah". Astoroth worship is mentioned in Deuteronomy 16:21; Judges 2:13, 3:7, 6:28, 10:6; 1Samuel 7:3-4, 12:10, 31:10; 1Kings 11:5&33, 14:15&23, 15:13, 18:19; 2Kings 13:6, 17:10&16, 18:4, 21:3-7, 23:13-14; 2Chronicles 14:3, 17:6,19:3, 24:18, 34:3-4; Isaiah 17:8, 27:9; Jeremiah 17:2; and Micah 5:14. : Ba'al, or Molech, was the God of the land and its crops. He is usually depicted as a Bull. Ba'al is mentioned in Judges 2:11-13, 6:25-32; 1Samuel 7:4; 1Kings 16:31-32, 18:18&40, 19:18; 2Kings 3:2, 10:18-25, 11:18, 21:3, 23:4-5; 2Chronicles 24:7, 28:2, 33:3; Jeremiah 2:8&23, 7:9, 23:13; Hosea 2:13-17, 13:1. : Religious prostitutes impacted Israel greatly (Deut. 23:17-18; I Ki 14:22-24, 15:11-13, 22:45-46; 2 Ki 23:4-7)

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