Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Peter Kirk"<peter_kirk AT sil.org>]

Dear Jim,

I appreciate your sensitive handling of this subject and would like to 
take the same tone. But I wonder why (on the purely Hebrew language 
level) you restrict this passage to married men. While verse 12 must 
apply to a married (or widowed) man, and verse 10 may be taken as 
such, presumably verses 11, 15 and 17-21 apply also to unmarried men - 
or can you give a good reason why they do not?

Peter Kirk


______________________________ Reply Separator 
_________________________________
Subject: Re: Leviticus 20:13
Author:  <jwest AT Highland.Net> at Internet
Date:    20/01/2000 15:32


At 01:54 PM 1/20/00 -0500, you wrote:

>This verse against homosexuals is appropriated in Rabbinical Jewish 
>teachings and is supposed to be the "end all be all" to questions of 
>homosexuality and its sinful nature. However, I saw an interview with a 
>Biblical History professor at Harvard Theology(his name slips my mind) who 
>was disputing the Hebrew of the verse. He was saying something to the 
>effect of the verse being mistranslated, out of context, "before its 
>time," etc.

this passage has to do with sexual relations that are outside the bounds of 
marital relations.  in fact, taking into account the context, it is not a 
prohibition of homosexuality per se but a prohibition of sexual conduct (of 
any sort) extramaritally.  In other words, sex with someone besides the 
marriage partner is here prohibited (other sections of leviticus talk about 
the limits and boundaries of the marriage partner).
it does not, however, speak to or about premarital or nonmarital relations.
i realize we often interpret it in that light- but i think that is 
eisegetical.

>
>Can anyone shed some light on this? What would be the best translation of 
>the verse, and does it expressely forbid a man->man sexual relationship? 
>

It forbids man to man relations when one of the men is married. 
At least thats the way i see it.
So please dont anyone accuse me of anything here.  I am merely stating what 
i believe to be the correct exegetical procedure and not offering a moral 
judgement on a lifestyle (which in any event would be QUITE out of place 
here since we none of us are the moral judges of any other).

Best,

Jim

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Jim West, ThD
jwest AT highland.net
http://web.infoave.net/~jwest



---
You are currently subscribed to b-hebrew as: Peter_Kirk AT sil.org
To unsubscribe, forward this message to 
leave-b-hebrew-14207U AT franklin.oit.unc.e
du
To subscribe, send an email to join-b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu.