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Homosexuality and biblical interpretation (view source)
Revision as of 00:35, April 24, 2009
, 00:35, April 24, 2009→Daniel and Ashpenaz
Thus the assertion that Daniel 1:9 is more reasonably rendered as “mercy and engaged in physical love” is not reasonable, and is unwarranted, and demonstrates for traditionalists the extremes which pro-homosex polemicists can go to in attempting to force text into passages it does not belong in.
Thus the assertion that Daniel 1:9 is more reasonably rendered as “mercy and engaged in physical love” is not reasonable, and is unwarranted, and demonstrates for traditionalists the extremes which pro-homosex polemicists can go to in attempting to force text into passages it does not belong in.
==1 and 2 Kings:
More Old Testament examples which are seen as extreme attempts to read homosex into Scripture where it is not warranted, are the stories of Elijah and Elisha raising dead boys to life, as well as the story of King Jehu inviting Jehonadab to join him in battle. Attempts to use these to favor homosex are fairly unique, but as [[Wikipedia]] and likely some others yet offer them as a viable possibilities, so they are included here.
In 1 Kings 17:1-24 is the story of Elijah raising a dead boy to life, and in 2 Kings 4:8-37 a similar story is recorded of Elisha, who through received Elijah a two-fold portion of [[the Holy Spirit]], doing the same. In the first instance, Elijah, having told wicked King Ahab that (by the judgment of God) it would not rain until he said, was told by God to proceed to a widows women's residence, through whom God would sustain him during that time of drought. The women had a son, and was blessed with food due to her faith and obedience in this matter, but it came to pass after some time that the widow's son died. In response to the women's cry for her son, Elijah carried him up into a loft and laid him upon his own bed, and made earnest intercession to God. He then stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried unto the LORD, and said, O LORD my God, I pray thee, let this child's soul come into him again. And the LORD heard the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived". (Kg. 17: 19-22) He then returned the boy to his mother, who now had more assurance that Elijah was a man of God and a true prophet.
In the second instance, a man and his wife had made a "prophets chamber", thought to be a type of annexed room, used for the custom of housing strangers<ref> Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown</ref><ref>Adam Clarke, LL.D., F.S.A., (1715-1832); Jdg. 3:20</ref> at their house for the traveling prophet Elisha to stay in as needed. After a time Elisha sought to find out what he could do in response, with the answer being that the women was childless, and with an old her husband. Elisha then told her that she would shortly have a child, and which came to pass. The child grew, but one day cried to his father about his head, and shortly thereafter died on his mother's knees. The women herself then laid her child upon the bed of the prophet, and journeyed to where the prophet was staying. Upon perceiving his distress, Elisha told his servant Gehazi to lay his staff upon the face of the child, and which he went and did, but the child did not awaken. Elisha then went himself, and performed a resuscitation ritual (2Kg. 4:32-35), with the result being that "the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes." He then called for the grateful mother to take her son.
Koch<ref>A Homoerotic Approach to Scripture Timothy R.</ref> sees these as homoerotic, with the staff representing a reproductive organ and the sneezing of the boy meaning ejaculation. Traditionalists however, see such assertions as eisegetical extremism, being unwarranted on any ground. John Barclay Burns<ref>Associate Professor of Religious Studies, George Mason University</ref> call's Koch's conclusions "sheer fantasy", being a highly individualistic construction which is imposed on the text.
Besides the fact that Koch has an holy prophet engaging in premarital sex and pedophilia, which allowance is not shown to have any Scriptural basis, and is instead evidenced to be contrary to what is stated in this area, to be consistent with Koch's staff metaphor, Gehazi would have had to castrate Elisha first in order to first use the "staff." Elijah's raising of the dead boy also provides nothing viably erotic, which activity is something the Bible makes manifest elsewhere when it is such. While the resuscitation ritual would seem strange in today's world, many such acts were common in the ancient one, as we see by examples in Isaiah 20, Ezekiel 4, John 9:6. The context in both these stories is that of a holy prophet doing a miracle of mercy in raising the dead, not of having homosex. Jesus referenced Elijah's ministry to the widows as an example of showing mercy, (Lk. 4:25) and in Acts 20:10 the apostle Paul acted somewhat similar to the prophets in raising Eutychus up. Few if any other pro-homosex authors attempt to use these stories to favor their cause, and traditional exegesis manifest Kock's conclusions to without warrant, leaving them to be an example of an over-active homosexual imagination, and of such being forced into Scripture.
Another interpretation of Koch is that of 2 Kings 10:15-16, which he sees as a homosexual pick up. However, there is nothing erotic or homosexual in this story. In 2Kg. 9, Jehu was anointed king of Israel by Elisha, and is commanded to cut off all the house of wicked King Ahab, which he proceeds to do. On his mission to do so in Samaria, he meets with Jehonadab and inquires whether he has the same heart as him, and if so, to give him his hand. As he does so, therefore Jehu takes him with him to ride in his chariot.
The context quite obviously is that of a political alliance. Jehonadab is evidenced in the Bible as being an honorable man, and married, with children, (Jer. 35:6) and as such he would have assented to the destruction of the idolatrous family of Ahab, and thus he greeted Jehu. In response to Jehu's query as to his heart, Jonadab therefore gave Jehu his hand as a token of fellowship, as was a Biblical custom. (cf. Ezra 10:19; Ezek. 17:18; Gal. 2:9) For Jehu's part, Jehonadab's presence in the chariot would have likely given him favor among the people, and provide evident sanction to what he did.<ref>Dr. John Gill (1690-1771)</ref> The next verse proceeds to state that Jehu slew all that remained unto Ahab in Samaria, further showing that judgment of a wicked people was on Jehu's mind, not homosex. Here again, the idea that holy people would be engaged in homosex is seen to require imposing an external and wicked morality on the text, as well as an erotic imagination.
== See also ==
== See also ==