Quote:
Originally Posted by Juls
I read the article too, and my question is what does this mean ".....and none of these verses refer to homosexual orientation as it's understood today."
What does "as it's understood today" mean
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Juls, in the twenty-first century we have come to understand that persons ARE homosexual (or gay) That is that we are a particular KIND of human beings characterized by emotional and sexual attractions to members of our own sex. Because of this it is possible for us to refer to someone as being A gay person or A homosexual.
In ancient times the assumption was that everyone was heterosexual but that certain people, for whatever reason, decided to act in this perverse way and have sex with people of their own sex. So they were not considered to be something different they were considered to be DOING something different.
This is a major change in the way we think. So any Biblical translation or interpretation that implies the notion that people ARE homosexual (rather than DOING homosexual things) is an "anachronism" or something that is out of place in time. and its a distortion of the original meaning of the text.
For instance, Paul says in Romans 1 that people are "given up" to unnatural lusts for persons of their own sex as a result of idolatry. They are idolatrous and so God "gave them up" to these desires. It is not so much a sin as it is the consequence of sin. This sort of makes sense in the context of ancient Rome where the illegal cult of Bacchus was popular. The rite of initiation into the cult of Bacchus (for both men and women) included being penetrated anally by the priest of the cult. You can see why Paul would draw a connection between homosexuality and idolatry. But that was his world and not ours. We understand that people emerge into puberty with their sexual orientation already established and that it is pretty much immutable