Is There a Consistent Teaching on Homosexuality in Scripture?

 Introduction

The purpose of this essay is to introduce readers to key Biblical texts to consider when answering the question, ‘Is there a consistent teaching on homosexuality in Scripture?’  The answer to this question is unquestionably ‘yes’, but this answer involves more than just the passages directly addressing the subject of homosexuality.  An answer that considers how Scripture is consistent in its treatment of homosexuality as a sin, more Biblical texts need to be brought into discussion.[1]

Old Testament

Genesis 1:27-28  So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.  ²⁸ God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth."

 

Genesis 2:18  Then the LORD God said, "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner." … Genesis 2:21-25   ²¹ So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh.  ²² And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.  ²³ Then the man said, "This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; this one shall be called Woman, for out of Man this one was taken."  ²⁴ Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh.  ²⁵ And the man and his wife were both naked, and were not ashamed.

 

Genesis 5:1-2 This is the list of the descendants of Adam. When God created humankind, he made them in the likeness of God.  ² Male and female he created them, and he blessed them and named them "Humankind" when they were created.

 

Gen. 19:4   But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both young and old, all the people to the last man, surrounded the house. 5 And they called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, that we may know them.” 6 Lot went out to the men at the entrance, shut the door after him, 7 and said, “I beg you, my brothers, do not act so wickedly. 

Leviticus 18:22 You shall not lie with a male (Septuagint: arsenos koitēn) as with a woman; it is an abomination.

 

Leviticus 20:13 If a man lies with a male (Septuagint: arsenos koitēn) as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall be put to death; their blood is upon them.

Leviticus 20.13 repeats 18.22 because in chapter 20 sins that require the death penalty are being listed.

Deuteronomy 22:5 A woman shall not wear a man's apparel, nor shall a man put on a woman's garment; for whoever does such things is abhorrent to the LORD your God.

Deuteronomy 22.5 is clearly not talking about style or some dressing up party!  The passage is warning against crossing gender boundaries.

 

Deuteronomy 23:17-18  None of the daughters of Israel shall be a temple prostitute; none of the sons of Israel shall be a temple prostitute.  ¹⁸ You shall not bring the fee of a prostitute or the wages of a male prostitute [in Hebrew, literally, ‘dog’] into the house of the LORD your God in payment for any vow, for both of these are abhorrent to the LORD your God.

 

Judges 19:22-24  While they were enjoying themselves, the men of the city, a perverse lot, surrounded the house, and started pounding on the door. They said to the old man, the master of the house, "Bring out the man who came into your house, so that we may have intercourse with him."  ²³ And the man, the master of the house, went out to them and said to them, "No, my brothers, do not act so wickedly. Since this man is my guest, do not do this vile thing.  ²⁴ Here are my virgin daughter and his concubine; let me bring them out now. Ravish them and do whatever you want to them; but against this man do not do such a vile thing."

 

1 Kings 14:24 there were also male temple prostitutes in the land. They committed all the abominations of the nations that the LORD drove out before the people of Israel.

Not simply prostitution, but homosexuality as well is in view—the sin of the nations driven out before Israel, as Sodom was already in the days of Abraham and Lot.

 

1 Kings 15:11-12 Asa did what was right in the sight of the LORD, as his father David had done.  He put away the male temple prostitutes out of the land, and removed all the idols that his ancestors had made.

 

2 Kings 23:7 He broke down the houses of the male temple prostitutes that were in the house of the LORD, where the women did weaving for Asherah.

 

Job 36:14 (NIV) They die in their youth, among male prostitutes of the shrines.

 

The NIV follows the Hebrew here.  The Greek Old Testament (Septuagint) deviates here, as does the NRSV.

 

Ezekiel 16:48-50  As I live, says the Lord GOD, your sister Sodom and her daughters have not done as you and your daughters have done.  ⁴⁹ This was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy.  ⁵⁰ They were haughty, and did abominable things before me; therefore I removed them when I saw it.

Ezekiel mentions various sins of Sodom, among which were the ‘abominable things’ that everyone knew (from repeated references to it) especially meant homosexual acts and practices.

Joel 3:2-3  I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat, and I will enter into judgment with them there, on account of my people and my heritage Israel, because they have scattered them among the nations. They have divided my land,  ³ and cast lots for my people, and traded boys for prostitutes, and sold girls for wine, and drunk it down. 

Judgement here seems to be twofold: (1) for what the nations had done to Israel; and (2) for doing bad things—things illustrated by the extreme injustices of selling children.  One such sale of children is the selling of boys for prostitution.  This entails slavery, pederasty, child molestation, and homosexuality.  The context puts the emphasis on slavery, but the point is not limited to this: the extremes of the nations’ sins are illustrated in the extremes of the slavery to which they have subjected Israel.  The people have not only been enslaved but sold off, scattered, and separated from the land of Israel.  Boys are not only enslaved but enslaved for prostitution.  And girls are enslaved merely for the joy of a drink of wine.

These passages in the Old Testament show that homosexual acts and practices were uniformly condemned in Israel.  Homosexual acts were, as Leviticus 18 and 20 clearly state, sin.  Such an act even required the death penalty.  Homosexual acts could also be associated with other sins, such as pederasty, slavery, prostitution, and idolatry.  But this did not detract from its being a sin in itself.

New Testament

The following texts in the New Testament should be considered when discussing homosexuality.  They offer no critique of the OT texts that oppose homosexual acts and practices.  Rather, they affirm the same ethic.

Mark 10:6-9  But from the beginning of creation, 'God made them male and female.'  ⁷ 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife,  ⁸ and the two shall become one flesh.' So they are no longer two, but one flesh.  ⁹ Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate." (Parallel: Matthew 19.4-6)

The passages in Mark and Matthew are quoted in reference to divorce and remarriage.  They show that the creation story was accepted as definitive for sexual relationships and the meaning of marriage.  That story explains that marriage is between a man and a woman.  The obvious implication is that it is not between men and animals or people of the same gender.

The Jerusalem Council’s discussion about what to do with the Gentiles involves, I would argue, a reference to the Law in Leviticus.

Acts 15.19-29  Therefore I have reached the decision that we should not trouble those Gentiles who are turning to God, ²⁰ but we should write to them to abstain only from things polluted by idols and from fornication and from whatever has been strangled and from blood. ²¹ For in every city, for generations past, Moses has had those who proclaim him, for he has been read aloud every sabbath in the synagogues." ²² Then the apostles and the elders, with the consent of the whole church, decided to choose men from among their members and to send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. They sent Judas called Barsabbas, and Silas, leaders among the brothers, ²³ with the following letter: "The brothers, both the apostles and the elders, to the believers of Gentile origin in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia, greetings. ²⁴ Since we have heard that certain persons who have gone out from us, though with no instructions from us, have said things to disturb you and have unsettled your minds, ²⁵ we have decided unanimously to choose representatives and send them to you, along with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, ²⁶ who have risked their lives for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ. ²⁷ We have therefore sent Judas and Silas, who themselves will tell you the same things by word of mouth. ²⁸ For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to impose on you no further burden than these essentials: ²⁹ that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols and from blood and from what is strangled and from fornication. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell."

There is good reason to believe that this decision of the Jerusalem Council that lists four prohibitions for Gentile believers is based on the Leviticus Holiness Code.  First, the laws listed in the Holiness Code pertain not only to Israelites but also to the Gentiles in their midst (Lev. 17.12; 18.26; cf. 16.29; 19.10, 33-4).  Reference to Moses in Acts 15.21 suggests that the source for the decision goes back to the Mosaic Law.  But the Council’s decision is precisely against making the Gentile converts follow culturally Jewish laws.  Thus laws that had always pertained to Gentiles (v. 21), since the time of Moses to those now involved in the synagogues, are in view.  A number of times in the Mosaic Law one hears that the laws also apply to the foreigner (Ex. 12.19; 12.48f; 20.10; Lev. 24.22; Num. 15.14-16, 29f; 19.10; 35.15; Dt. 1.16; 5.14; 23.7f; 24.17-22; 27.19).  A number of the passages just cited relate to how the foreigner is to be given the same protection under justice as the Israelite.  Several of these passages state that there is one law for the Israelite and the foreigner.  Specific laws that are noted for the foreigner to follow along with the Israelites are keeping the Sabbath, uncleanness when touching the ashes of a sacrificed heifer, and acting high-handedly with regard to the law.  Some Laws are optional for the foreigner, such as offering a sacrifice or keeping the Passover (and this celebration requires the males to be circumcised).  But the foreigner must not work on the day of atonement. 

The laws listed in Lev. 17-18 are of special interest for the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15.  Lev. 17.10 states that anyone, including the alien, who offers sacrifices that are not to the Lord should be cut off—a prohibition of idolatry.  Lev. 17.12 states that no alien among the Israelites shall eat blood.  Lev. 18.13 stipulates that any animal killed for food must have its blood poured out so that the blood is not consumed.  Finally, Lev. 18.26 says that they are not to commit any of ‘these abominations’.  The abominations that had just been listed included various sexual sins, for which the Canaanites had been removed from the land.  These four commands in Lev. 17-18, each with an explicit prohibition for the resident aliens as well as the Israelites, cover the same four prohibitions in the letter in Acts 15.29, and they appear in the same order.  It should, finally, be noted that, included in the list of sexual sins in Lev. 18 is the prohibition against homosexuality (Lev. 18.22).  Thus the decision in Acts 15 entails the continuing relevance of the Mosaic Law for Gentile Christians on certain matters, including sexual immorality.  And included in sexual immorality is an explicit prohibition of homosexuality.

The lengthiest discussion of homosexuality in the New Testament appears in the following passage.

Romans 1:24-32  Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the degrading of their bodies among themselves,  ²⁵ because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.  ²⁶ For this reason God gave them up to degrading passions. Their women exchanged natural intercourse for unnatural,  ²⁷ and in the same way also the men, giving up natural intercourse with women, were consumed with passion for one another. Men committed shameless acts with men and received in their own persons the due penalty for their error.  ²⁸ And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind and to things that should not be done.  ²⁹ They were filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, covetousness, malice. Full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, craftiness, they are gossips,  ³⁰ slanderers, God-haters, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, rebellious toward parents,  ³¹ foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.  ³² They know God's decree, that those who practice such things deserve to die-- yet they not only do them but even applaud others who practice them.

Rom. 1.27 has several words of interest, the first two noted here suggesting uncontrolled sexual desire and passion and the third an act that is itself considered shameful: ‘and in the same way also the men, giving up natural intercourse with women, were consumed (exekauthēsan, from ekkaiō) with passion (en tē orexei) for one another. Men committed shameless acts (asxēmosunēn) with men and received in their own persons the due penalty for their error.’  Thus both the idea of uncontrolled sexuality and a particular act that is shameful are in view.  The ‘due penalty for their error’ has been understood as a painful condition due to anal intercourse or to some sexually transmitted disease.  The notion of punishment could otherwise be that of God’s condemnation for their sinful acts.  Jewish thought involves the notion that the penalty of sin pursues the sinner (cf. Wisd. 14.30f; Jn. 9.1).

Another important passage that addresses homosexuality appears in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians.  The NRSV translation will be quoted first, but the Greek must be considered in order to understand what Paul has in mind.

1 Corinthians 6:9-11 Do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived! Fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, male prostitutes, sodomites, [malakoi oute arsenokoitai, literally, ‘neither soft (effeminate) men nor homosexuals’]  ¹⁰ thieves, the greedy, drunkards, revilers, robbers-- none of these will inherit the kingdom of God.  ¹¹ And this is what some of you used to be. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.

 The last two Greek words of verse 9, malakoi oute arsenokoitai, ‘soft men and men having sex with one another’ (to offer a literal translation), have been variously translated.  The English Standard Version (2002) has translated this phrase as ‘nor men who practice homosexuality,’ that is, the two terms are taken together.  The New International Version has ‘nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders,’ and the Today’s New International Version has ‘male prostitutes nor practicing homosexuals.’  The term malakos means ‘soft’, and it carries clear connotations of effeminacy (‘male prostitute’ is too limiting).  

The term translated ‘sodomites’ in the NRSV, above, is arsenokoitai, which corresponds to the phrase arsenos koitēn in Lev. 20.13 (LXX).  Paul seems to have coined the single term from this Septuagint reference, and so he is arguably affirming this Old Testament law for Christians, not just using the Old Testament lexically. 

 We find another interesting passage later in the same epistle:

1 Corinthians 11:14-15  Does not nature [physis] itself teach you that if a man wears long hair, it is degrading to him,  ¹⁵ but if a woman has long hair, it is her glory? For her hair is given to her for a covering.

1 Cor. 11.2-16 is speaking against the confusion of genders in appearance and in worship.  Regarding the word ‘nature’ in v. 14, some understand ‘conventional’.  After all, men can grow long hair.  There were even people, such as the Parthians, with long hair in the first century.  While writing at the end of the 2^nd century, Clement of Alexandria discusses ethnic groups in which the men had long hair (The Instructor).  Thus an alternative interpretation needs to be considered: Paul does indeed mean ‘natural’, not ‘conventional’, here.  He does not intend to suggest that men cannot grow long hair or that the convention of long-haired men is not accepted in the 1^st century.  Rather, he is associating long hair with effeminacy, and it is the latter that he considers ‘against nature’.  For such an understanding, one can find support in texts cited elsewhere in this book on how effeminacy is unnatural and how it is described, among other things, in terms of men attending to their long hair.

1 Thessalonians 4:3-8  For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality;  ⁴ that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor,  ⁵ not in the passion of lust (pathei epithumias) like the Gentiles who do not know God;  ⁶ that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you.  ⁷ For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness.  ⁸ Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.

One might understand ‘wrong his brother’ as a reference to adultery.  But the text might equally be a reference to homosexuality, and the connection between not knowing God and homosexual acts in this passage are echoed in Rom. 1.18ff and Eph. 4.18-19.  Also, the word translated as ‘body’ in v. 4 is actually the word ‘vessel’ (skeuos).  With reference to 2 Sam. 21.5, one can see that it is very possible that ‘vessel’ is being used as a euphemism for sexual organ.  Paul is probably referring to how sexual sin, including homosexuality, is a matter of being out of control, and one can harm others through such sin.

The last passage from Paul’s letters to consider contains a direct reference to the sin of homosexuality.

1 Timothy 1:8-11  Now we know that the law is good, if one uses it legitimately.  ⁹ This means understanding that the law is laid down not for the innocent but for the lawless and disobedient, for the godless and sinful, for the unholy and profane, for those who kill their father or mother, for murderers,  ¹⁰ fornicators, sodomites [arsenokoitais], slave traders, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to the sound teaching  ¹¹ that conforms to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which he entrusted to me.

The term translated in the NRSV as ‘sodomites’ in v. 10 is the same unique term mentioned in 1 Cor. 6.9-11 (discussed above).  Its appearance here is most appropriate, for Paul has the Law in view (v. 8), and it is in Lev. 18 and 20 that the two words that Paul combines into one appear beside each other.

In the last New Testament passages to consider, the reference to Sodom clarifies that the sin of the city particularly in view (and there were many) was sexual (not inhospitality or violence), and the 'unnatural lust' or 'lust of defiling passion,' we know from Genesis 19, was homosexuality.

Jude 7  Likewise, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which, in the same manner as they, indulged in sexual immorality [ekporneusasai] and pursued unnatural lust [apelthousai opisō sarkos heteras], serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.

2 Peter 2.6-10 ... if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; 7 and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked 8 (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard); 9 then ethe Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials,4 and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, 10 and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority.

These texts present a uniform position on the issue of homosexuality that is also consistent with the Old Testament texts.  Homosexual acts and practice are considered sin characteristic of the life believers have left behind.  To continue in it means exclusion from the Kingdom of God and the punishment of eternal fire.  It is a most heinous sin, twisting God’s intent in creation for sex between a husband and wife.  There is simply no deviation from this perspective in all of Scripture.

Some General Terms for Sexual Immorality

Given that Scripture uniformly opposes homosexual acts and practices, other passages that speak more generally of sexual immorality may be cited as additional texts opposed to homosexuality.

We might add to our list of texts explicitly referring to homosexuality a large number of passages that do not explicitly mention homosexuality but use general terms for sexual desire, excess, and sin.  Several from the New Testament will be noted here (this list is by no means exhaustive) to make this point.  The reason that general terms can be used is that what constituted sin would have been known to the author and the readers.  Any sexual sin that was recognized as sin, such as adultery or homosexuality, would be understood as a legitimate illustration of the general sin.  Thus it is wrong simply to ‘count’ the number of times ‘homosexuality’ is specifically mentioned in the Bible and limit the discussion to those texts.  The numerous passages using general terms must also be considered.

The word porneia and cognates (porneuō, pornos) are used for various types of sexual immorality.  The context sometimes clarifies which is in view, and the form pornē refers specifically to female prostitutes.  In the New Testament, the term is used 52 times in 49 verses.  A number of these would cover the prohibition against homosexuality, since this was considered a prime example of sexual immorality or ‘fornication’ for Jews and Christians.  Each use of this term needs to be considered with reference to the possibility that homosexuality is a part of what would be in view (only four are noted here: Mt. 15.19; Acts 15.20; Eph. 4.18-19; Eph. 5.3).

Matthew 15:19 For out of the heart come evil intentions, murder, adultery (moicheia), fornication (porneia), theft, false witness, slander.

 Here we know that ‘porneia’ does not mean ‘adultery’ because the term preceding it specifically means ‘adultery’.  It is therefore used as a general term for sexual immorality in Mt. 15.19.

Acts 15:20 but we should write to them to abstain only from things polluted by idols and from fornication (tēs porneias) and from whatever has been strangled and from blood.

The list of things forbidden Gentile Christians appears to be taken from the Leviticus Holiness Code (Lev. 17ff), which includes a list of sexual sins.  One of these is homosexuality (Lev. 18.22 and 20.13).

Probably the term has its general sense in Eph. 5.3 as well:

Ephesians 5:3 But fornication (porneia) and impurity of any kind, or greed, must not even be mentioned among you, as is proper among saints.

 Another passage with several general terms for sexual sin appears in Ephesians:

Ephesians 4:18-19 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of their ignorance and hardness of heart.  ¹⁹ They have lost all sensitivity and have abandoned themselves to licentiousness, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.

Regarding this passage, note the following:

(1) The idea of progressive faltering in this text is reminiscent of the argument in Rom. 1.18ff.  A darkened understanding leads to an insensitivity to what is right, and this leads to various sins, including sexual immorality.  A similar argument can be found in the Apocryphal book of Wisdom, chapters 13 and 14

(2) Three terms are used in Eph. 4.19 that refer to or include sexual immorality:

• aselgeia: debauchery, licentiousness, sensuality.  See also: Mk. 7.22; Rom. 13.13; 2 Cor. 12. 21; Gal. 5.19; 1 Pt. 4.3; 2 Pt. 2.2, 7, 18; Jude 4.
• akatharsia: uncleanness, impurity, immorality, etc.  See also: Mt. 23.27; Rom. 1.24; 6.19; 2 Cor. 12.21; Gal. 5.19; Eph. 4.19; 5.3; Col. 3.5; 1 Th. 2.3; 4.7.
• pleonexia: greediness, insatiableness, covetousness.  See also: Mk. 7.22; Lk. 12.15; Rom. 1.29; 2 Cor. 9.5; Eph. 5.3; Col. 3.5; 1 Th. 2.5; 2 Pt. 2.3, 14.

Passions Out of Control:

In Rom. 13.13, we find three terms referring to passions out of control.

… let us live honorably as in the day, not in reveling (kōmos) and drunkenness, not in debauchery (koitē) and licentiousness (aselgeia), not in quarreling and jealousy.

The three Greek terms (kōmos, koitē, aselgeia) can suggest sexual immorality.  The first term could also refer to excessive feasting and so captures the idea of one’s passions being out of control.  The term appears again in Gal. 5.21, where the ESV and NIV translate it as ‘orgies’ and the NRSV translates it as ‘reveling’.  The term appears in 1 Pt. 4.3 in a list of sins that begins with licentiousness (aselgeia) and passions, continues with three terms (including kōmos) that suggest excessive partying (the other two terms mean drunkenness, drinking parties), and concludes with lawless idolatry.  In Rom. 1, Paul’s reason for choosing homosexuality as the sin to highlight is precisely because it illustrates an extreme, a turning away from the way God created things to be.  In Jewish references to Sodom (as we see in thesis *), homosexuality represents an extreme sin.  Thus, while kōmos is a general term, it is a term that could well be used in reference to homosexual acts and practices. 

The second term simply means ‘bed,’ and so, as in English, it can refer to sexual acts done in bed.  In the Greek Old Testament, one finds the phrase ‘to know the bed of’ as a way of speaking of sexual intercourse.  The third term, aselgeia, means licentiousness, sensuousness, lewdness or debauchery.  It appears again in sin lists in Mk. 7.22; 2 Cor. 12.21; Gal. 5.19; Eph. 4.19 (‘they gave themselves over to licentiousness’); 1 Pt. 4.3; 2 Pt. 2.2, 7, 18; and Jude 4.  In 2 Pt. 2.7, the term is used to describe the sin of Sodom.  Here, a general term of excessive ‘lawlessness’ in sexual matters is fitting in a description of homosexuality

Another term translated ‘debauchery’ is asōtia:

Ephesians 5:18 Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery (asōtia); but be filled with the Spirit…. 

This illustrates the close connection between drunkenness, excessive feasting, and sexual immorality.  These terms capture the scene of a wild party, where excesses of all sorts are pursued.  Sexual excesses come in a variety of forms.  Homosexuality is considered an excess itself (with Sodom as the great example).  There is no Jewish or Christian text that accepts a place for homosexual acts and practices, or even marriage, and no text that tries to explain where homosexuality can become excessive sexual immorality.  Rather, homosexuality is itself an excess, sexual passion gone wrong.

Desire, Flesh

The word group ‘to desire’ (epithumein and cognates) occurs fifty times in the New Testament (not always as sinful desire, and not always as sexually sinful desire).  It functions in relation to the concept of ‘flesh’ (sarx) and cognates, which occurs one hundred and sixty times (not always as a moral term, of course): ‘flesh’ is the place of senses (taste, touch, smell, hearing, sight), the place of desire and passion.  (Because the term connotes immoral desire in moral passages, especially in Paul’s letters, it should not be translated as ‘sinful nature,’ as in the NIV.)

Galatians 5:24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

 

Colossians 3:5 Put to death, therefore, whatever in you is earthly: fornication (porneia), impurity (akatharsia), passion (pathos), evil desire (‘epithumian kakēn’), and greed (pleonexia) (which is idolatry).

 

2 Timothy 3:4 treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure (philēdonos) rather than lovers of God….

 

Titus 1:6 someone who is blameless, married only once, whose children are believers, not accused of debauchery (asōtia) and not rebellious.

Titus 3:3 For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions (epithumia) and pleasures (ēdonē), passing our days in malice and envy, despicable, hating one another.

 

James 1:14-15 But one is tempted by one's own desire (epithumia), being lured and enticed by it; then, when that desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and that sin, when it is fully grown, gives birth to death.

 

2 Peter 2:10 -- especially those who indulge their flesh in depraved lust (‘epithumia miasmou’), and who despise authority. Bold and willful, they are not afraid to slander the glorious ones…. 

Passages such as these clarify that the Biblical authors were able to use general terms for sexual sins because sexual sin was considered to be desire that is not checked.  Desire can find expression in ways that are simply wrong, and its excesses in non-Christian society are one major way in which society differs from God’s people.  Homosexuality, like adultery, is one sin among others where desire has gone unchecked and is misplaced.

Conclusion

This survey of Biblical texts in answer to the question, ‘Is there a consistent teaching on homosexuality in Scripture?,’ answers, ‘Yes.’  This should be no surprise—the Church has always said so until some in the West, riding the wave of cultural influence, have attempted to offer a different answer.  However, the main argument in favour of homosexuality in certain Western, liberal circles has shifted from questioning what the Biblical view is (since revisionist readings have failed) to offering a view over against Biblical teaching.  Some have simply rejected Biblical authority: why should the Church follow ancient views?  (They omit the discussion of canonical authority over the past 2,000 years!  The Bible is not held to be just some other book in our history by orthodox Christians; it is the very Word of God.)  More subtly, some have argued on the basis of undefined principles like ‘love’ that we should scrap concrete teaching in Scripture and come up with something new ourselves.  A recent, creative twist to this attempt to skirt Biblical teaching on this issue now argues that God Himself changes His mind![2] Such an argument has appeared before in a slightly different form.  In the 2^nd century, Marcion (treated by the Church as a heretic) suggested that the God of the Old Testament, full of law and judgement, was not the God of the New Testament, full of mercy and forgiveness.  The recent book by Richard and Christopher Hays (father and son) suggests they are the same God but God is changing His mind on sexual ethics.  Such an argument fails to impress and is, frankly, heretical.  Yet we can say here that Scripture maintains a consistent teaching on homosexuality—that is it a sin.  In fact, as Paul would say, it is a sin that represents as much a turning away from God as does idolatry (Romans 1.24-28), and those who do such things will not inherit the Kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 6.8-10).

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[1] For a more detailed discussion of this question by the author of this essay, as well as posing the question of consistency for the Church’s teaching throughout Christian history, see S. Donald Fortson and Rollin G. Grams, Unchanging Witness: The Consistent Christian Teaching on Homosexuality in Scripture and Tradition (Nashville, TN: B&H Academic, 2016).

[2] Christopher B. Hays and Richard B. Hays, The Widening of God’s Mercy: Sexuality within the Biblical Story (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2024).