Hi everyone. This is my first post. I have been…
Hi everyone. This is my first post. I have been really digging into what scripture says regarding homosexuality. What I have concluded from studying the contexts and the actual words used before translation, that the specific sin is the sexual act. When reading of the cultures in New Testament times (and even OT times), I have read:
1. there was no ‘gay’ identity, as that did not come about til the 19th century or so.
1. Homosexual sex was considered a higher level of intimacy from heterosexual sex (as one understands the same gender better), which caused a typical man to want to achieve the highest intimacy. This happened in Roman culture and would explain Romans 1:25-29, where Paul talks about how men have abandoned natural relations for unnatural ones.
1. It was frowned upon to be the ‘feminine’ one in the sexual act, meaning that these men were probably not willing volunteers. So men in higher power would ‘take advantage’ of someone in a lower class or a servant, and a typical man would go to a male prostitute. This would explain in Sodom why all the men in that community wanted the angels, as they intended to gang-rape them and take advantage of foreigners (since they would not want to do this to one of their own).
Has anyone here done studies on this topic? If so, is this what you have been seeing? Else what have your findings been?
To clarify: Yes, sexual relations between the same gender is a sin/abomination/detestable. Scripture is clear on this and says it multiple times.
What I am looking for is if anyone has studied how the cultures in the time were regarding same-sex relations, as I think it was quite different from our culture today.