Does Leviticus Say Gays are Detestable and Must be Killed?

As a child, I knew the Bible said, “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.” (Exodus chapter 22 – KJV). Yet we knew where some witches lived; it was less than a mile from our house. We were afraid of them and avoided them, and I wondered why no one killed them as we were supposed to.

We might ask the same thing about Leviticus chapter 20:

If a man has sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They are to be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.

What is your answer?

Leviticus 18 and Cultural Preservation

We already examined the the story of Sodom, and I concluded that it was all about violence and rape; it had nothing to do with same-sex attraction.

But, at first, Leviticus chapter 20 seems pretty clear that sex between two men is detestable and must be punished by death. But it is not so clear as one might think. We have to consider the context for this drastic command.

The book of Leviticus is a collection of rules about sacrificial ritual, ceremonial uncleanness, and Israelite culture. The major goal of those rules was to avoid assimilation into the cultures around them by having distinctive cultural practices.

Leviticus chapter 18 is a long list of sexual prohibitions with specific reference that these things were practiced among the Egyptians and the Canaanites. One of those prohibitions states:

Do not have sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman; that is detestable.

Chapters 18 and 20 both use this word ‘detestable’. To us ‘detestable’, and the King James equivalent ‘abomination’, sounds like something so morally revolting that we can hardly imagine it. But the summary to chapter 18 tells us why these things are detestable:

Everyone who does any of these detestable things—such persons must be cut off from their people.

Keep my requirements and do not follow any of the detestable customs that were practiced before you came and do not defile yourselves with them. I am the Lord your God.

These rules were not moral directives; they were prohibitions against Israel adopting practices of surrounding cultures. These practices were detestable because they represented foreign culture.

Some of the rules seem quite arbitrary. The next chapter includes:

Do not plant your field with two kinds of seed. Do not wear clothing woven of two kinds of material…Do not cut the hair at the sides of your head or clip off the edges of your beard.

Israel was to be culturally separate from their neighbors.

Leviticus 20 and the Punishments

Leviticus chapter 20 provides appropriate punishments for infraction of these rules. Among the punishments we find:

If a man has sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They are to be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.

In addition we find:

• Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death. (Do we advocate this?)
• If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife—with the wife of his neighbor—both the adulterer and the adulteress are to be put to death. (Do we advocate this?)
• If a man marries both a woman and her mother, it is wicked. Both he and they must be burned in the fire. (Polygamy is okay, but not with both a mother and her daughter. Do we advocate this?)

The summary to chapter 20 explains the reason for these rules and punishments:

You must not live according to the customs of the nations I am going to drive out before you. Because they did all these things, I abhorred them…I am the Lord your God, who has set you apart from the nations.

You must therefore make a distinction between clean and unclean animals and between unclean and clean birds…You are to be holy to me because I, the Lord, am holy, and I have set you apart from the nations to be my own.

These rules were to set the Israelites apart from the other nations. It was a matter of cultural preservation—a matter of identity. As believers, we do not feel compelled to observe them.

There is little interest among us in rules like distinguishing between clean and unclean animals, but for some reason the passages on same-sex relationships are singled out as ammunition for absolute rejection of gays.

Gays vs. Temple Prostitutes

The word used for ‘man‘ as a sexual partner is not the normal word for man. It likely means religious prostitute, so that both the word ‘man’ and the word ‘detestable’ are associated with pagan religion. Having sex with a male temple prostitute, as other nations did, was prohibited.

Deuteronomy chapter 23 makes a similar point:

No Israelite man or woman is to become a shrine prostitute…because the Lord your God detests them both.

So it seems that prohibitions against Israelites having sex with another man specifically relate to the male temple prostitution practiced by surrounding cultures. It has nothing to do with gay partners in relationship.

Next time we will talk about the remaining Old Testament passage used to condemn gays—have you heard of Adam and Steve?

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