"Same-Sex Marriage and The Bible" my critique

A tweeter follower @Holypause recently sent me a link via mentions to his blog where he attempts to interpret Matthew 8:5-13 as proof that Jesus was okay with so-called "gay-marriage."

@sacerdotus (@revsue) You are mistaken. The Bible supports committed homosexual relationships. See my blog bit.ly/QG0hoM
— Roger Sessions (@HolyPause) October 6, 2012

This is obviously not the case at all.  This is an eisegetical take on Scripture which is often done in an attempt to justify certain opinions.  The Bible unfortunately can be used to justify pretty much anything.  This happens when the original meanings of the text is misinterpreted.  In early American history, Slave-holders used Scripture to claim that owning slaves was moral and supported by God.  Pro-abortion advocates even use it to support contraception and abortion.  Homosexuals and their supporters are not far behind in this sophistry.

What does Scripture really say on so-called "Same-sex marriage?"

Well, those terms are not in Scripture.  However, the Bible does stress heterosexual marriage as the norm in nature and society.  As a matter of fact, the first couple God designed as the normative union that would bring fertility to the Earth and happiness to humanity was a heterosexual marriage.

We read in Genesis 1:27-28:

"So God created man in His image, in the image of God He created them; MALE and FEMALE He created them.  God blessed them, and God said to them 'Be fruitful and multiply..."   

It is clear here that God had a plan.  He specifically designed the human being to possess 2 distinct genders: male and female.  This design is set up so as to allow for reproduction - "be fruitful and multiply."

Moreover, this is not the only function this newly created species has.  In Genesis 2:18, it says,

"Then the Lord God said , 'It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner."   

Here we see that God did not intend for man to be alone but to have a 'helper and partner.'   The following verses (19-20) go as follows:

"So out of the ground the Lord God formed every animal of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name.  The man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every animal of the field; but for the man there was not found a helper as his partner."

After God sees that man is alone and that this state is not good, God begins creating other creatures and gives man the power to name them.  While naming them, man sees that these creatures are not compatible as a helper and partner.  This seems to not make sense since man has always used animals to toil the fields and the dog is often called "man's best friend" because of its loyalty.  That being said, why weren't these creatures God created suitable to help man or be his partner?

The reason is clear:  the helper and partner God wanted for man and what man sought was one he could relate to on his own level.  Non-human animals are great, but man cannot relate to them.  They do not reason or have the same mental faculties and abilities as man.  Therefore, they are not compatible.

So what happens next?

Genesis 2:21-25 says,

"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.  And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.  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.'  Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh.  And the man and his wife were both naked, and were not ashamed."

After no suitable partner and helper was found God creates woman from the side of man.  When man sees woman he is happy because she is of "his bone and flesh" or one of him.  In other words, man finally sees a creature that is just like him, a human, but of a different gender.  The text then goes off a bit and starts mentioning that this is the reason a man leaves his parents to be with his wife and both become one flesh.

Why did the writer stress this?  It is obvious that the marriage between a man and a woman is the sole valid union in the eyes of the creator who ordained it.  Think about it:  If other non-human animals were not compatible for man, then we can posit that man is not meant to marry or have sexual relations with them.   This is why bestiality is immoral.

Moreover, God could have created another man to be the partner and help of the man already existing.  However, God did not and instead chose to create a human of a different gender.  This new human caused great happiness and a sense of fulfillment in the man - "this at last."  In these verses God shows us the means and its end in regards to human relationships that are compatible with marriage.  So-called "gay marriage" is an affront to this design.

Homosexual couples cannot fulfill each other.  They cannot become one flesh nor truly become a whole.  It takes 2 halves to make one whole.  One cannot connect 2 wholes.  What I mean by this is that a man cannot fulfill another man because he is a 'whole' in regards to gender.  Human beings come in 2 genders: male and female.  Both are equally human but distinct separate halves within the species.  When together, they become a whole.

So what of Matthew 8: 5-13?   It says:

When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help. “Lord,” he said, “my servant lies at home paralyzed, suffering terribly.”
Jesus said to him, “Shall I come and heal him?”
The centurion replied, “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”
When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him,“Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith.  I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.  But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
Then Jesus said to the centurion, “Go! Let it be done just as you believed it would.” And his servant was healed at that moment.

The issue has been brought up on whether or not this centurion and his servant were a homosexual couple.  @holypause writes:

The Greek word used to describe the servant was pais,a term typically used to refer to a male concubine. But Jesus didn't care if the servant was a pais or not. Jesus blessed the man and he was cured. 

Based on this, the conclusion is made that since Jesus healed the "partner/male concubine" of a "gay centurion" and did not condemn them, then therefore Jesus is pro-gay marriage.

This is far from the truth and eisegesis at best.

The word "pais" can mean different things such as a young child (male/female) an attendant and servant.  Any Greek lexicon specifically states this.  The text on the centurion and his servant is connected to Jesus.  Isaiah 52:13-53:12 speaks of the suffering servant who will free Israel of its sins.  Remember, the Gospel of Matthew was specifically written to target the Jews by telling the story of Jesus in a way they could understand it.  The word "pais" is also used in Acts 3:13 which describes Jesus as the "servant of God."  Does this mean that Jesus was the "gay lover" of God?  No, of course not.  St. Peter just like in Matthew's Gospel was connecting Jesus to the text in Isaiah 52.

Were the centurion and his servant a gay couple?  Absolutely not.

Remember, Jesus was among Jewish people.  Many of which were extremely conservative when following the Law (Old Testament).   If the centurion and his servant were a gay couple, then Jesus would have had to resurrect them both and not heal the servant because the Law called for the death of homosexuals.

Leviticus 20:13 says:

“‘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."

Obviously this was not the case because both were alive - the servant was extremely ill.  Had they been a homosexual couple, the Pharisees at the time would have called for their death just like that of the woman caught in adultery in John 8:1-11.

Nowhere in the Bible is homosexuality or anything related to it condoned.  I repeat: NOWHERE.

Jesus was clear on what constitutes a natural conjugal relationship, see Matthew 19:4-6

"Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh' ? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”

Notice He is specific on the distinction of genders, 'male and female.' Moreover, He highlights that both become 'one flesh,' meaning that both can procreate. Homosexual couples cannot become 'one flesh.'
 

@sacerdotus I'm looking forward to your analysis of my many errors. Don't confuse what you hate (or fear) with what God hates.
— Roger Sessions (@HolyPause) October 6, 2012

In response to the above tweet, God is clear on what He hates. I do not hate nor fear anything. I am merely following His word, not inferences regarding it.


Read how God feels about it:

Gen. 19:24-28
Gen 13:13; 18:20
Gen 19:5
Lev. 18:22, 29
Lev. 20:13
Deut. 22:5
Rom. 1:26
Rom. 1:27
1 Cor 6:9
1 Tim. 1:10
Jude 7
Jude 5-7
2 Peter 2:4-6

The Talmud:

"The earth quakes on account of the sin of homosexual acts. God said, ‘You made your genitals throb in an unnatural act. By your life, I shall shake the earth on account of the

The Church Fathers (early Christians):

"You shall not commit fornication; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not be a corrupter of youth." Letter of Barnabas 10 (A.D. 74).

"You shall not be a corrupter of boys, nor like unto such." Letter of Barnabas 10 (A.D. 74).

"You shall not commit murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not commit pederasty, you shall not commit fornication, you shall not steal, you shall not practice magic, you shall not practice witchcraft, you shall not murder a child by abortion nor kill one that has been born." Didache 2:2 (A.D. 90).

"[W]e have been taught that to expose newly-born children is the part of wicked men; and this we have been taught lest we should do anyone harm and lest we should sin against God, first, because we see that almost all so exposed (not only the girls, but also the males) are brought up to prostitution. And for this pollution a multitude of females and hermaphrodites, and those who commit unmentionable iniquities, are found in every nation. And you receive the hire of these, and duty and taxes from them, whom you ought to exterminate from your realm. And any one who uses such persons, besides the godless and infamous and impure intercourse, may possibly be having intercourse with his own child, or relative, or brother. And there are some who prostitute even their own children and wives, and some are openly mutilated for the purpose of sodomy; and they refer these mysteries to the mother of the gods." Justin Martyr, First Apology 27 (A.D. 151).

"All honor to that king of the Scythians, whoever Anacharsis was, who shot with an arrow one of his subjects who imitated among the Scythians the mystery of the mother of the gods . . . condemning him as having become effeminate among the Greeks, and a teacher of the disease of effeminacy to the rest of the Scythians." Clement of Alexandria, Exhortation to the Greeks 2 (A.D. 190).

"[According to Greek myth] Baubo [a female native of Elusis] having received [the goddess] Demeter hospitably, reached to her a refreshing draught; and on her refusing it, not having any inclination to drink (for she was very sad), and Baubo having become annoyed, thinking herself slighted, uncovered her shame, and exhibited her nudity to the goddess. Demeter is delighted with the sight--pleased, I repeat, at the spectacle. These are the secret mysteries of the Athenians; these Orpheus records." Clement of Alexandria, Exhortation to the Greeks 2 (A.D. 190).

"It is not, then, without reason that the poets call him [Hercules] a cruel wretch and a nefarious scoundrel. It were tedious to recount his adulteries of all sorts, and debauching of boys. For your gods did not even abstain from boys, one having loved Hylas, another Hyacinthus, another Pelops, another Chrysippus, another Ganymede. Let such gods as these be worshipped by your wives, and let them pray that their husbands be such as these--so temperate; that, emulating them in the same practices, they may be like the gods. Such gods let your boys be trained to worship, that they may grow up to be men with the accursed likeness of fornication on them received from the gods." Clement of Alexandria, Exhortation to the Greeks 2 (A.D. 190).

"[A]ll other frenzies of the lusts which exceed the laws of nature, and are impious toward both [human] bodies and the sexes, we banish, not only from the threshold but also from all shelter of the Church, for they are not sins so much as monstrosities." Tertullian, Modesty 4 (A.D. 220).

"[God forbid the Jews to eat certain foods for symbolic reasons:] For that in fishes the roughness of scales is regarded as constituting their cleanness; rough, and rugged, and unpolished, and substantial, and grave manners are approved in men; while those that are without scales are unclean, because trifling, and fickle, and faithless, and effeminate manners are disapproved. Moreover, what does the Law mean when it…forbids the swine to be taken for food? It assuredly reproves a life filthy and dirty, and delighting in the garbage of vice…Or when it forbids the hare? It rebukes men deformed into women." Novatian, The Jewish Foods 3 (A.D. 250).

"[T]urn your looks to the abominations, not less to be deplored, of another kind of spectacle…Men are emasculated, and all the pride and vigor of their sex is effeminated in the disgrace of their enervated body; and he is more pleasing there who has most completely broken down the man into the woman. He grows into praise by virtue of his crime; and the more he is degraded, the more skillful he is considered to be. Such a one is looked upon--oh shame!--and looked upon with pleasure…nor is there wanting authority for the enticing abomination…that Jupiter of theirs [is] not more supreme in dominion than in vice, inflamed with earthly love in the midst of his own thunders…now breaking forth by the help of birds to violate the purity of boys. And now put the question: Can he who looks upon such things be healthy-minded or modest? Men imitate the gods whom they adore, and to such miserable beings their crimes become their religion." Cyprian of Carthage, Letters 1:8 (A.D. 253).

"Oh, if placed on that lofty watch-tower, you could gaze into the secret places--if you could open the closed doors of sleeping chambers and recall their dark recesses to the perception of sight--you would behold things done by immodest persons which no chaste eye could look upon; you would see what even to see is a crime; you would see what people embruted with the madness of vice deny that they have done, and yet hasten to do--men with frenzied lusts rushing upon men, doing things which afford no gratification even to those who do them." Cyprian of Carthage, Letters 1:9 (A.D. 253).

"[T]he mother of the gods loved [the boy Attis] exceedingly, because he was of most surpassing beauty; and Acdestis [the son of Jupiter] who was his companion, as he grew up fondling him, and bound to him by wicked compliance with his lust…Afterwards, under the influence of wine, he [Attis] admits that he is…loved by Acdestis…Then Midas, king of Pessinus, wishing to withdraw the youth from so disgraceful an intimacy, resolves to give him his own daughter in marriage…Acdestis, bursting with rage because of the boy's being torn from himself and brought to seek a wife, fills all the guests with frenzied madness; the Phrygians shriek, panic-stricken at the appearance of the gods . . . [Attis] too, now filled with furious passion, raving frantically and tossed about, throws himself down at last, and under a pine tree mutilates himself, saying, `Take these, Acdestis, for which you have stirred up so great and terribly perilous commotions.'" Arnobius, Against the Pagans 5:6-7 (A.D. 305).

"[H]aving forbidden all unlawful marriage, and all unseemly practice, and the union of women with women and men with men, he [God] adds: `Do not defile yourselves with any of these things; for in all these things the nations were defiled, which I will drive out before you. And the land was polluted, and I have recompensed [their] iniquity upon it, and the land is grieved with them that dwell upon it' [Lev. 18:24-25]." Eusebius of Caesarea, Proof of the Gospel 4:10 (A.D. 319).

"He who is guilty of unseemliness with males will be under discipline for the same time as adulterers." Basil the Great, Letters 217:62 (A.D. 367).

"If you [O, monk] are young in either body or mind, shun the companionship of other young men and avoid them as you would a flame. For through them the enemy has kindled the desires of many and then handed them over to eternal fire, hurling them into the vile pit of the five cities under the pretense of spiritual love. At meals take a seat far from other young men. In lying down to sleep let not their clothes be near yours, but rather have an old man between you. When a young man converses with you, or sings psalms facing you, answer him with eyes cast down, lest perhaps by gazing at his face you receive a seed of desire sown by the enemy and reap sheaves of corruption and ruin. Whether in the house or in a place where there is no one to see your actions, be not found in his company under the pretense either of studying the divine oracles or of any other business whatsoever, however necessary." Basil the Great, The Renunciation of the World (A.D. 373).

"[The pagans] were addicted to the love of boys, and one of their wise men made a law that pederasty…should not be allowed to slaves, as if it was an honorable thing; and they had houses for this purpose, in which it was openly practiced. And if all that was done among them was related, it would be seen that they openly outraged nature, and there was none to restrain them… As for their passion for boys, whom they called their 'paedica,' it is not fit to be named." John Chrysostom, Homilies on Titus 5 (A.D. 390]).

"[Certain men in church] come in gazing about at the beauty of women; others curious about the blooming youth of boys. After this, do you not marvel that [lightning] bolts are not launched [from heaven], and all these things are not plucked up from their foundations? For worthy both of thunderbolts and hell are the things that are done; but God, who is long-suffering, and of great mercy, forbears awhile his wrath, calling you to repentance and amendment." John Chrysostom, Homilies on Matthew 3:3 (A.D. 391).

"All of these affections [in Rom. 1:26-27]… were vile, but chiefly the mad lust after males; for the soul is more the sufferer in sins, and more dishonored than the body in diseases." John Chrysostom, Homilies on Romans 4 (A.D. 391).

"[The men] have done an insult to nature itself. And a yet more disgraceful thing than these is it, when even the women seek after these intercourses, who ought to have more shame than men." John Chrysostom, Homilies on Romans 4 (A.D. 391).

"And sundry other books of the philosophers one may see full of this disease. But we do not therefore say that the thing was made lawful, but that they who received this law were pitiable, and objects for many tears. For these are treated in the same way as women that play the whore. Or rather their plight is more miserable. For in the case of the one the intercourse, even if lawless, is yet according to nature; but this is contrary both to law and nature. For even if there were no hell, and no punishment had been threatened, this would be worse than any punishment." John Chrysostom, Homilies on Romans 4 (A.D. 391).

"[T]hose shameful acts against nature, such as were committed in Sodom, ought everywhere and always to be detested and punished. If all nations were to do such things, they would be held guilty of the same crime by the law of God, which has not made men so that they should use one another in this way." Augustine, Confessions 3:8:15 (A.D. 400).

"[Christians] abhor all unlawful mixtures, and that which is practiced by some contrary to nature, as wicked and impious." Apostolic Constitutions 6:11 (A.D. 400).