Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13 - Part 1

My next few posts are going to be taken from a paper I wrote last fall and submitted as part of my M.A. in Biblical Studies requirements at Trinity Western University. I spent well over 4 months researching this paper. In addition to a very close examination of the biblical texts, I consulted many secondary sources which represent almost every position that has been taken on the meaning of these passages.

So, in this post, you'll find two of my Appendices (A & B) and my Bibliography. In Part 2, I will post the introduction to the paper, which is titled, "What is Actually Prohibited by the Law in Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13?" For those so inclined, whether curious or invested in the subject of homosexuality and the Bible,...Enjoy! 

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In Appendix A, I've included various translations of each verse done by committees of scholars and by individual scholars.

Committee Translations

Lev 18:22

·      Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination. (KJV)

·      Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination. (ASV)

·      Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind; it is abomination. (JPS, 1917)

·      Do not lie with a male as one lies with a woman; it is an abhorrence. (JPS, 1999)

·      You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination. (ESV)

·      You must not have sexual intercourse with a male as one has sexual intercourse with a woman; it is a detestable act. (NET Bible)

·      You are not to sleep with a man as with a woman; it is detestable. (HCSB)

·      Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable. (NIV, 1984)

Lev 20:13

·      If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them. (KJV)

·      And if a man lie with mankind, as with womankind, both of them have committed abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them. (ASV)

·      And if a man lie with mankind, as with womankind, both of them have committed abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them. (JPS, 1917)

·      If a man lies with a male as one lies with a woman, the two of them have done an abhorrent thing; they shall be put to death—their bloodguilt is upon them. (JPS, 1999)

·      If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them. (ESV)

·      If a man has sexual intercourse with a male as one has sexual intercourse with a woman, the two of them have committed an abomination. They must be put to death; their blood guilt is on themselves. (NET Bible)

·      If a man sleeps with a man as with a woman, they have both committed a detestable thing. They must be put to death; their blood is on their own hands. (HCSB)

·      If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads. (NIV, 1984) 

Individual Translations

Lev 18:22

·      And you shall not lie with a male like lying with a woman. It is an offensive thing. (Friedman, 2001)

·      And with a male you shall not lie as one lies with a woman. It is an abhorrence. (Alter, 2004)

·      Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable. (Hess, 2008)

Lev 20:13

·      And a man who will lie with a male like lying with a woman: the two of them have done an offensive thing. They shall be put to death. Their blood is on them. (Friedman, 2001)

·      And a man who lies with a male as one lies with a woman, the two of them have done an abhorrent thing. They are doomed to die. Their bloodguilt is upon them. (Alter, 2004)

·      If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads. (Hess, 2008)

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In Appendix B, I have included my own grammatical analyses and literal translations of these verses.

Lev 18:22

·      וְ – Conjunction: and, even, also, but

·      אֶ֨ת־ – prep: with, together with

·      זָכָ֔ר – MS noun of זָכָר: male (of humans or animals)

·       לֹ֥א– particle: no, not

·       תִשְׁכַּ֖ב– Qal, Impf, 2MS of שׁכב: to lie (down), to sleep

·       מִשְׁכְּבֵ֣י– MP Construct noun of מִשְׁכָּב: couches of, beds of, lyings of

·       אִשָּׁ֑ה– FS noun of אִשָּׁה: woman, wife, female 

·       תּוֹעֵבָ֖ה– FS noun of תּוֹעֵבָה: a disgusting thing, abomination, abominable

·       הִֽוא׃– 3FS pronoun: she, it

And with a male you will not lie beds (lyings) of a woman (wife, female). An abomination it [is].

Lev 20:13

·      וְ – Conjunction: and, even, also, but

·      אִ֗ישׁ – MS noun of אִישׁ: man, human, husband

·       אֲשֶׁ֨ר– Relative pronoun: who, which, what

·       יִשְׁכַּ֤ב– Qal, Impf, 3MS of שׁכב: to lie (down), to sleep

·       אֶת־– preposition: with, together with

·      זָכָר֙ – MS noun of זָכָר: male (of humans or animals)

·       מִשְׁכְּבֵ֣י– MP Construct noun of מִשְׁכָּב: couches of, beds of, lyings of

·       אִשָּׁ֔ה– FS noun of אִשָּׁה: woman, wife, female 

·       תּוֹעֵבָ֥ה– FS noun of תּוֹעֵבָה: a disgusting thing, abomination, abominable

·       עָשׂ֖וּ– Qal, Pft, 3CP of עשׂה: to do, make, create

·       שְׁנֵיהֶ֑ם– Masc, Dual, Construct of שְׁנַיִם (with 3MP Suffix): two of, both of (them)

·       מֹ֥ות– Qal, Inf Abs of מות: to die, perish

·       יוּמָ֖תוּ– Hophal, Impf, 3MP of מות: to put to death

·       דְּמֵיהֶ֥ם– MP Construct noun of דָּם (with 3MP suffix): blood of (them)

·       בָּֽם׃– Preposition (with 3MP suffix): with, at, on (them)

And a man (human, husband) who will lie with a male beds (lyings) of a woman (wife, female), has done an abomination. Both of them shall surely be put to death. Their blood [is] on them.

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Finally, for this post, I've included my Bibliography.

Alter, Robert. The Five Books of Moses: A Translation with Commentary. New York: W.

W. Norton & Company, 2004. Kindle edition.

Amit, Yairah. “Judges.” Pages 355–391 in The Oxford Annotated Bible: New Revised

Standard Version With The Apocrypha. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.

Bird, Phyllis A. “The Bible in Christian Ethical Deliberation concerning Homosexuality:

Old Testament Contributions.” Pages 142–176 in Homosexuality, Science, and the “Plain Sense” of Scripture. Edited by David L. Balch. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2000.

Bottero, Jean. Mesopotamia: Writing, Reasoning, and the Gods. Translated by Zainab

Bahrani and Marc Van De Mieroop. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1992.

Bottero, Jan. Religion in Ancient Mesopotamia. Translated by Teresa Lavender Fagan.

Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2001.

Brettler, Marc Z. “Genesis.” Pages 7–80 in The Oxford Annotated Bible: New Revised

Standard Version With The Apocrypha. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.

Brown, Michael L. Can You Be Gay and a Christian: Responding with Love and Truth to

Questions about Homosexuality. Lake Mary, FL: Front Line, 2014.

Carden, Michael. “Genesis.” In The Queer Bible Commentary. Edited by Deryn Guest,

Robert E. Goss, Mona West and Thomas Bohache. London: SCM Press, 2006.

Friedman, Richard Elliott & Shawna Dolanksy. The Bible Now: Homosexuality, Abortion,

Women, Death Penalty, Earth. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011. Kindle edition.

Greenberg, Steven. Wrestling with God & Men: Homosexuality and the Jewish Tradition.

Madison, WI: The University of Wisconsin Press, 2004.

Gushee, David P. and Brian D. McLaren. Changing Our Minds: Definitive 3^rd Edition of

the Landmark Call for Inclusion of LGBTQ Christians with Response to Critics. Canton, MI: Read The Spirit Books, 2017.

Halperin, David M. “Homosexuality.” Pages 347, 351–354 in The Oxford Companion to

Classical Civilization. Edited by Simon Hornblower and Antony Spawforth. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.

Harding, James E. “Homophobia and Masculine Domination in Judges 19–21. The Bible

and Critical Theory 12.2 (2016): 41–74.

Hess, Richard S. Leviticus. The Expositor’s Bible Commentary (Revised Edition). Edited

by Tremper Longman III & David E. Garland. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2008. Kindle edition.

Hollenback, George M. “Who is Doing What to Whom Revisited: Another Look at

Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13.” Journal of Biblical Literature, Vol. 136, No. 3 (2017), 529–537.

Levenson, Jon D. “Genesis.” Pages 8–101 in The Jewish Study Bible: Tanakh Translation.

Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.

Levine, Baruch. Leviticus. The JPS Torah Commentary. Philadelphia: The Jewish

Publication Society, 1989.

Lings, K. Renato. “The ‘Lyings” of a Woman: Male-Male Incest in Leviticus 18:22?”

Theology and Sexuality, 15.2 (2009), 231–250.

Lings, K. Renato. Love Lost in Translation: Homosexuality and the Bible. Bloomington,

IN: Trafford Publishing, 2013. Kindle edition.

Loader, William. Making Sense of Sex: Attitudes towards Sexuality in the Early Jewish

and Christian Literature. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2013.

Matthews, Kenneth A. Genesis 11:27–50:26. The New American Commentary. Edited by

E. Ray Clendenen. Nashville: B&H Publishing Group, 2005.

Matthews, Victor H. “Hospitality and Hostility in Genesis 19 and Judges 19.” Biblical

Theology Bulletin, Vol. 22 (1992): 3–11.

Michaelson, Jay. God vs. Gay: The Religious Case for Equality. Boston: Beacon Press, 2011.

Milgrom, Jacob. Leviticus: A Book of Ritual and Ethics. A Continental Commentary.

Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2004.

Milstein, Sara J. “Saul, the Levite, and His Concubine: The ‘Allusive’ Quality of Judges

19.” Vetus Testamentum 65 (2015): 1-22.

Moster, David Z. “The Levite of Judges 19–21.” Journal of Biblical Literature, Vol. 134,

No. 4 (2015): 721–730.

Nissinen, Martti. Homoeroticism in the Biblical World: A Historical Perspective.

Translated by Kirsi Stjerna. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1998.

Olyan, Saul M. “And with a Male You Shall Not Lie the Lying down of a Woman”: On

the Meaning and Significance of Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13. Journal of the History of Sexuality, Vol. 5, No. 2 (1994): 179–206.

Roth, Martha T. Law Collections from Mesopotamia and Asia Minor. Writings from the

Ancient World. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 1997.

Schwartz, Baruch J. “Leviticus.” In The Jewish Study Bible, 203-280. Edited by Adele

Berlin and Marc Zvi Brettler. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.

Stewart, David T. “Leviticus.” In The Queer Bible Commentary. Edited by Deryn Guest,

Robert E. Goss, Mona West and Thomas Bohache. London: SCM Press, 2006.

Via, Dan O. and Robert A. J. Gagnon. Homosexuality and the Bible: Two Views.

Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2003.

Vines, Matthew. God and the Gay Christian. New York: Convergent Books, 2014.

Wenham, Gordon. Genesis 16–50. Word Biblical Commentary. Edited by Bruce M.

Metzger. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2000.

Westbrook, Raymond and Bruce Wells. Everyday Law in Biblical Israel: An Introduction.

Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2009.

Wold, Donald J. Out of Order: Homosexuality in the Bible and the Ancient Near East.

Austin, TX: Venus Moon Press, 2009.