Tim Barnett explains that the Bible describes homosexual behavior, even if it doesn’t use the word “homosexual.”
Transcript
Brandan: Do you know it’s quite literally impossible for the Bible to condemn homosexuality? Because the word “homosexual” and the concept of modern sexuality didn’t exist until the late 19th century. The Bible didn’t have the word “homosexual” in it until 1946, when the writers of the Revised Standard Version of the Bible placed that word in the Bible as the translation of a mysterious Greek word, arsenokoitai.
Tim: All right. Let’s just assume for the sake of argument that the biblical authors did not understand the concept of sexuality as we know it today and that they were completely unaware of loving, committed same-sex couples. It still wouldn’t matter. Here’s why.
The Bible explicitly describes and prohibits the act of homosexual sex, regardless of why people engage in it. Leviticus describes how “you shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female. It is an abomination.” And the book of Romans describes how “women exchanged the natural function for that which was unnatural” and “men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts.”
Notice that the words “homosexual” and “homosexuality” do not appear in these passages. Yet, the behavior described is clearly prohibited. So, even if the biblical authors didn’t understand the modern concept of homosexuality, and even if the biblical authors didn’t ever use the word “homosexuality,” that wouldn’t change the fact that the Bible still describes and condemns homosexual sex, the behavior itself.
By the way, the Apostle Paul does use a Greek word—arsenokoitai—which is a compound word that literally means “men who lie with males.” Now, the Bible translates the word wrongly, in my opinion, as “homosexuals,” but I think it’s better translated “men who have sex with males,” which, again, describes behavior, not attraction, and is consistent with Paul’s concern about the behavior itself.