Shaky Evidence: Bible's Condemnation of Homosexuality


The most often used passage about homosexuality from the Bible says roughly, "Man lying with man is an abomination."  It is reasonable to ask however, what if the Bible never said this?

A man who collects old Bibles says old Bibles said something different. What he found in older versions of the Bible was condemnation of older men having sex with boys.

As I have said here countless times, no one knows what the original authors wrote. Before the printing press all versions were copied from other copies. Scribes made changes they thought improved what was written. Hundreds of years of transcribing leaves us not knowing what the actual "word of God" said.

This man , Ed Oxford, collects copies of the Bible from the 1400's and 1500's. They are written  in European languages. Everyone of his copies referred to man/boy relationships. The man/boy relationships were dropped when a new company bought rights to a German version of the King James Bible and changed the translation from what it was previously, sex between men and boys, to condemning sex between grown men. The word "homosexuality" was written into the Bible where it had not been.

Ed Oxford also collects old Lexicans, the books discussing the Bible. He has studied one from 1483 most likely used by Martin Luther. It refers to man/boy relationships.

The passages from Leviticus 18:22, Leviticus 20:13 and 1 Corinthians 6:9 in the Bibles from hundreds of years ago all translated the word "arsenokeitai" to mean sexual exploitation of boys by men.

Can we conclude that if ancient writer actually used this word they meant men sexually exploiting boys? We don't even know if the word was used in the original writing, let alone what writers might have meant if they did use it.

It's best if we simply do not use the Bible as a historical source of moral wisdom.















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