cristiano said:
Leviticus 18 clearly talks about sexuality, or illicit sexual practices that is detestable for God, as it's said in the text, in more than one verse of this chapter (in fact, all the chapter if I'm not wrong), and not about idolatry.
This argument willfully ignores the previous verse:
"You shall not offer any of your offspring to be immolated to Molech, thus profaning the name of your God. I am the LORD." - Leviticus 18:21
The plain fact that Leviticus 18 is clearly divided between taboos against incest and idolatry, and it makes little sense to go on a multiverse tirade against sexual practices and then separate it with one clearly idolatrous prohibition. The ancient Hebrew clearly shows a problem with the traditional anti-gay interpretation of Leviticus 18:22, and I don't need to repeat myself, as I've thoroughly explained my reasoning previously in this thread.
In case you don't believe me, here's a footnote on another supposedly anti-gay passage, 1 Corinthians 6:9:
"Do you not know that the unjust will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor boy prostitutes nor sodomites nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor robbers will inherit the kingdom of God." - 1 Corinthians 6:9
The Greek word ["malakos"], translated as boy prostitutes, may refer to catamites, i.e., boys or young men who were kept for purposes of prostitution, a practice not uncommon in the Greco-Roman world. In Greek mythology this was the function of Ganymede, the "cupbearer of the gods," whose Latin name was Catamitus. The term ["arsenokoitai"] translated Sodomites refers to adult males who indulged in homosexual practices with such boys. See similar condemnations of such practices in Romans 1:26-27; 1 Tim 1:10.
This is not my interpretation. This is an actual footnote in one of my Bibles. This ends up being a particularly useful footnote, because it essentially wipes out all the anti-gay passages, including Leviticus 18. This is because the nonsense word, "arsenokoitai," corresponds to the Septuagint translation of Leviticus 18; and since this footnote has clearly linked this to both idolatry and pederasty, as I mentioned repeatedly, this is merely confirmation that Leviticus 18:22 is a condemnation of an idolatrous practice with no wider intention beyond that. This should be obvious, however, merely by the fact that the preceding verse is clearly about an idolatrous practice.
As an aside, that footnote also links idolatry and pederasty directly to Romans 1:26-27, which we also had an argument over earlier.
And we're back to square one. The best argument you can seem to make to me is that I'm supposed to trust that your interpretation of what the Bible says is correct, even though I have made a thorough argument to the contrary, corroborated even by an outside Biblical footnote.
In your first post of this discussion, you called me bigot, "christian pharesee", fundamentalist, and offended me. But I might not call you "false prophet", because:
"If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also".
And that's why I say I'm sorry about it and apologize to you and Jesus, the author of this biblical lesson.
I'm sorry, but this strikes me as "false modesty." I think you really do believe me a "false prophet," as evidenced by the fact that you said it repeatedly. I'm not sure I believe your apology.
In terms of calling you a "fundamentalist," well, that's about as much of an "insult" as calling someone a "Republican." Your interpretation of the Bible is clearly what one would call "fundamentalist." Since you have not told us your specific Christian denomination, your words are the best I can go by here.
And in terms of you being a "Christian Pharisee," I've explained my reasoning for it. It was not meant to be an insult, as much as a warning. The Pharisees of Jesus' time were self-righteous and believed that they had the Bible correct down to the letter. The sheer fact of the matter is that, when push came to shove, they were unable to recognize the Messiah right in front of them. And now 2,000 years later, Christians seem to have fallen into the same trap: self-righteousness (cloaked in false modesty) and an inflexible self-assuredness that their interpretation of the Bible is correct. To put icing on the cake, as I mentioned before, the Book of Revelation is almost exactly what the Pharisees believed would happen for the Messiah's first coming, in spite of the fact that it was wrong the first time around. For whatever reason, these beliefs were repackaged into a "Second Coming," and slightly altered to become the Book of Revelation.
In other words, can you say with 100% certainty that you're not falling into the same trap that the Pharisees fell into?
(Note that this is not meant to be an insult to Jews in this forum. This distinction obviously matters only to Christians.)
Melon
