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→Verse 23
====Verse 23====
====Verse 23: Bestiality====
"Neither shalt thou lie with any beast to defile thyself therewith: neither shall any woman stand before a beast to lie down thereto: it is confusion."
"Neither shalt thou lie with any beast to defile thyself therewith: neither shall any woman stand before a beast to lie down thereto: it is confusion."
"A law against unnatural lusts, sodomy and bestiality, sins not to be named nor thought of without the utmost abhorrence imaginable, Lev. 18:22, Lev. 18:23. Other sins level men with the beasts, but these sink them much lower. That ever there should have been occasion for the making of these laws, and that since they are published they should ever have been broken, is the perpetual reproach and scandal of human nature; and the giving of men up to these vile affections was frequently the punishment of their idolatries; so the apostle shows, Rom. 1:24."
"A law against unnatural lusts, sodomy and bestiality, sins not to be named nor thought of without the utmost abhorrence imaginable, Lev. 18:22, Lev. 18:23. Other sins level men with the beasts, but these sink them much lower. That ever there should have been occasion for the making of these laws, and that since they are published they should ever have been broken, is the perpetual reproach and scandal of human nature; and the giving of men up to these vile affections was frequently the punishment of their idolatries; so the apostle shows, Rom. 1:24."
=====Punishments=====
Related to Lv. 18 are punishments for these crime in Lv. 20. Three terms are used in that chapter for capital punishment,
*1. the clear command to "put to death" (Lev. 20:2,10-13,15,16,27; cf Lv. 19:20; 24:16,17,21,29) which is most often used for universal immutable grave sins, (Ex. 21:15-17,29) and not for ceremonial/purity laws, except for unholy presumption, (Ex. 19:12; Num. 1:51; 3:38) and for breaking the Sabbath; (Ex. 31:14,15; 35:2; Num. 15:35)
*2. "cut off", (Lv. 20:17,18) which is used to prescribe the punishment for ritual purity offenses, (Gn. 17:14; Ex. 12:15,19; 30:33; Lv. 7:20,21,25-27; 17:4,9,14; 19:8; 22:3; 23:29; etc.) but is rarely used by itself for grave moral sins, though it is sometimes used for the same sins which "put to death" is stipulated for, including of in Lv. 18
* "burnt with fire", (Lv. 20:14; cf. Lv. 21:9)
Male homosex is classified as a first tier offense requiring the death penalty, which stipulates that they shall “be put to death” (20:13).
J. P. Holding notes:
The punishments range from "worst to best", from death to expulsion to barrenness. This suggests that the crimes are in a "worst to best" range as well, and our verse of concern is smack in the middle - and one of those that gets the death penalty! The context, the structure of the commands, and the punishment together suggest that what we have here is a universal condemnation of all such behavior!<ref>http://www.tektonics.org/lp/lev18.html</ref>
The use of the term 'lie' (here and in Lev 18:22) without qualifying verbs such as 'seize and (lie)', along with equal punishment for both parties, and two motive clauses 'Both of them have
committed an abomination ... their blood is upon them', further evidences the unconditional and universal nature of the ban, and not simply against forcible homosexual intercourse as the Assyrians did, or with youths (as did the Egyptians).<ref>The Old Testament Attitude to Homosexuality Gordon J Wenham http://www.biblicalstudies.org.uk/article_attitude_wenham.html</ref>
This list of capital punishments is by no means complete, (cf. Ex. 21; Lv. 24; Dt. 27) nor is the death penalty mentioned more than once for every every capital crime in the Bible, especially as regards the meaning of "cursed" in Dt. 27:15-26.<ref>http://peacebyjesus.witnesstoday.org/Lv.18+20-Dt.27.html</ref>
The reason for the prevalence of the mention of a sin is not simply sue to its degree of wickedness, but as the law itself was "added because of transgressions" (Gal. 3:19) the condemnation of the most prevalent sins is repeated often, with the chief one, idolatry, being addressed over 100 times, and illicit heterosexual sex dozens of times, while rarer ones such as bestiality and extreme forms of incest are rarely mentioned.
Keil and Deitzch comment,
Sins mentioned under Nos. 1 [mother], 2 [stepmom], 3 [sister; half sister], 8 [daughter-in-law], and 10 [with a woman and her daughter, or a woman and her granddaughter] were to be followed by the death or extermination of the criminals (Lev_20:11-12, Lev_20:14, Lev_20:17), on account of their being accursed crimes (Deu_23:1; Deu_27:20, Deu_27:22-23). On the other hand, the only threat held out in the case of the connection mentioned under Nos. 6 [with an aunt, the sister of either father or mother], 7 [wife of an uncle on the father's side], and 9 [sister-in-law, or brother's wife], was that those who committed such crimes should bear their iniquity, or die childless (Lev_20:19-21). The cases noticed under Nos. 4 [granddaughter, the daughter of either son or daughter] and 5 [daughter of a step-mother] are passed over in ch. 20, though they no doubt belonged to the crimes which were to be punished with death, and No. 11 [two sisters at the same time], for which no punishment was fixed, because the wrong had been already pointed out in Lev_18:18.<ref>Keil and Deitzch</ref>
== See also ==
== See also ==