How the bible became anti gay
Author Kathy Baldock and Ed Oxford, a fan of Baldock&#;s work turned co-sleuth, are heads down in research mode at the Yale Sterling Memorial Library in New Haven, Conn. They are deep in the archives, and when I say profound, I mean they have already been through roughly 60, documents. The award-winning documentary The Mistranslation That Shifted Culture can construct even slogging through files look riveting. They are hunting for any commentary on why the word “homosexual” was added to the Bible.
You read that right. The synonyms “homosexual” was not always in the Bible. It first appears relatively recently, in the Revised Standard Version (RSV) published in The RSV translation committee had voted to combine the Greek words malakoi (soft or effeminate) and arsenokoitai (men who have sex with men, typically in an exploitative context) and translate them as “homosexual.” This of course had disastrous consequences for 2SLGBTQ+ people. But the RSV got it wrong. Using “homosexual” in 1 Corinthians , a verse about sexual assault, was a mistranslation. An error.
Back at the archives
Ed Oxford is a gay Christian, a graduate of Talbot School of Theology, and a researcher in how the Bible has been weaponized against LGBTQ people. His first book written with Kathy Baldock, Forging a Sacred Weapon: How the Bible Became Anti-Gay, will be released in
The [Greek] pos arsenokoitai shows up in two diverse verses in the Bible, but it was not translated as &#;homosexual&#; until We got to sit down with Ed Oxford at his home in Long Beach, California and talk about this question.
You hold been part of a research team that is seeking to understand how the decision was made to place the word &#;homosexual&#; in the Bible. Is that true?
Ed: Yes. It first showed up in the RSV translation. So before figuring out why they decided to exploit that word in the RSV translation (which is outlined in my upcoming book with Kathy Baldock, Forging a Sacred Weapon: How the Bible Became Anti-Gay) I wanted to see how other cultures and translations treated the same verses. So I started collecting Bibles in French, German, Irish, Gaelic, Czech, Polish… you name it. Now I’ve got most
Has 'Homosexual' Always Been in the Bible?
Reprinted with permission from The Forge Online
The synonyms “arsenokoitai” shows up in two adj verses in the bible, but it was not translated to mean “homosexual” until
We got to sit down with Ed Oxford at his home in Long Beach, California and talk about this question.
You own been part of a research team that is seeking to understand how the decision was made to set the word homosexual in the bible. Is that true?
Ed: Yes. It first showed up in the RSV translation. So before figuring out why they decided to use that word in the RSV translation (which is outlined in my upcoming publication with Kathy Baldock, Forging a Sacred Weapon: How the Bible Became Anti-Gay) I wanted to see how other cultures and translations treated the similar verses when they were translated during the Reformation years ago. So I started collecting adj Bibles in French, German, Irish, Gaelic, Czechoslovakian, Polish… you name it. Now I’ve got most European major languages that I’ve composed over time. An
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Confused how two groups of church-goers can have such conflicting views about whether it's OK to be gay?
Both sides of the debate about homosexuality in the church, which threatens to split the worldwide Anglican church, grip their views sincerely and after much study. So how can their views be so contradictory?
The Bible makes very few mentions of homosexuality - lesbianism isn't mentioned at all in the Old Testament - and as the examples below show, interpretations of the verses that do exist differ hugely.
Following each of the verses below is a brief illustration of what a hardline pro- and anti-gay position might be. (Most Christians contain views somewhere in between these two stances.)
An illustration of the division can be seen by what either side might exclaim about the friendship in the Antique Testament between David and Jonathan. One verse reads: "I grieve for you, Jonathan my brother; dear and delightful you were to me; your adore for me was wonderful, surpassing the love of women."
| PRO-GAY A pro-gay position might be that this is a clear i |