You shall not sleep with a male as one sleeps with a female; it is an abomination. (Lev. 18:22 NASB)
If there is a man who sleeps with a male as those who sleep with a woman, both of them have committed a detestable act; they must be put to death. They have brought their own deaths upon themselves. (Lev. 20:13 NASB)
When these verses are considered in isolation, it seems at first glance to be fairly obviously stating that male homosexuality is an abomination and deserving of death. However, some scholars have noted that, in context, these passages appear to be part of a larger discourse condemning the cultic activities of the pagan Canaanites, and therefore they may be condemning specifically male cult prostitution. This is clearest from the context of Lev. 18:22:
You shall not give any of your children to offer them to Molech, nor shall you profane the name of your God; I am Yahweh. You shall not sleep with a male as one sleeps with a female; it is an abomination. Also you shall not have sexual intercourse with any animal to be defiled with it, nor shall any woman stand before an animal to mate with it; it is a perversion. Do not defile yourselves by any of these things; for by all these things the nations which I am driving out from you have become defiled. (Lev. 18:21-24 NASB)
Thus, because these actions are explicitly connected to cultic activity, and Lev. 18:22 is encompassed by condemnations of other pagan atrocities like infant sacrifice and bestiality, some have argued that the sin being referred to in Lev. 18:22 is specifically male cult prostitution, and “as one sleeps with a female” refers to the act of female cult prostitution. The second passage is likewise encompassed by condemnation of cultic activities like the sacrifice of infants to Molech (Lev. 20:2-5), mediums and spiritualism (vv. 6-8), sex with both a woman and her mother (v. 14), and bestiality (vv. 15-16), all of which are said to be the practices of the pagan Canaanites (vv. 22-23). For this reason, it is entirely possible (even probable) that Lev. 18:22 and 20:13 are condemning male cult prostitution specifically, and not all homosexuality in general.
However, there is another interpretation of these two passages which I, personally, find even more likely than the “male cult prostitution” interpretation. To understand this interpretation, we need to take a look at the original Hebrew of Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13. Just for reference, here is the usual translation of these passages:
You shall not sleep with a male as one sleeps with a female; it is an abomination. (Lev. 18:22 NASB)
If there is a man who sleeps with a male as those who sleep with a woman, both of them have committed a detestable act; they must be put to death. They have brought their own deaths upon themselves. (Lev. 20:13 NASB)
You may be surprised to learn this, but the parts of those two verses that I bolded are entirely an interpolation of the translator. The word “as” is not present in either the Hebrew or Greek (LXX) text at all. An entirely literal translation would, instead, look like this:
And you shall not lie with a male lyings of a female; it is an abomination. (Lev. 18:22)
The word which I translated “lyings of” above is mishkebe in the Hebrew, which is the masculine plural construct of the word shakab (meaning “to lie with”). The fact is, no one is entirely sure what this word actually means in this context. This specific form of the word is only found three places in the Old Testament; apart from Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13, it is only found in Genesis 49:4. Here is that verse:
“Uncontrolled as the waters, you [Reuben] shall not excel, because you went up lyings of your father, then you defiled it. He went up to my bed.”
Here, Israel curses his firstborn son Reuben because he previously had sex with his father’s concubine Bilhah (see Gen. 35:22). In this context, “lyings of your father” refers to one who had lain with his father: Bilhah, his father’s concubine. Thus, the word mishkebe must mean “one who sleeps with”, not “as one sleeps with.” If this word were translated consistently “as one sleeps with”, as it is translated in Lev. 18:22 and 20:13 in most Bible versions, we would have to conclude that Reuben “went up as one sleeps with your father,” then “defiled it.” But this is clearly a meaningless and ridiculous translation.
If we use Genesis 49:4 - the only other place where the word mishkebe is used - to translate Lev. 18:22 and 20:13, we would end up with the following translations:
And you shall not lie with a male, one who sleeps with a female; it is an abomination. (Lev. 18:22)
And if a man lies with a male, one who sleeps with a female, the two of them have committed an abomination. Surely they shall be put to death; their blood shall be upon them. (Lev. 20:13)
Thus, these verses are not condemning all male homosexuality indiscriminately. Rather, they are condemning the very specific action of a man having sex with another man who “sleeps with a female,” possibly referring to a heterosexual man having sex with another man, or else referring to adulterous homosexual sex [1]. This may have had some cultic significance at the time, explaining its inclusion in the condemnation of Canaanite paganism.
Paul’s “Sin Lists” and Homosexuality
Two more passages which are often used to support the condemnation of homosexuality are from Paul’s epistles, in his “sin lists” from 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 and 1 Timothy 1:9-10. Here are the passages in question:
Or do you not know that [the] unrighteous will not inherit [the] kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither male prostitutes, nor idolators, nor adulterers, nor malakoi, nor arsenokoitai, nor theives, nor greedy, nor drunkards, nor abusers, nor swindlers will inherit [the] kingdom of God. (1 Cor. 6:9-10)
...knowing this, that [the] Law is not set forth for righteous, yet for lawless, and unruly, for impious and sinful, for father-killers and mother-killers, for murderers, for male prostitutes, arsenokoitais, for enslavers, for liars, for perjurers, and if anything else is opposed to sound teaching. (1 Tim. 1:9-10)
I purposely left two words untranslated in the above passages: malakoi (the plural of Greek malakos) and arsenokoitai (the plural of greek arsenokoites). The word malakos literally means “soft,” and was often used in the ancient world to describe those who were “weak/soft in morals” or even “womanly,” and sometimes referred to men who had too much sex with women (the ancient equivalent of the word “womanizer”). It was also sometimes used to describe young male prostitutes who participated in the practice of pederasty. Overall, this word had a wide semantic range and we cannot be entirely sure of what it meant to Paul [2].
The second word, arsenokoites, is far rarer and most scholars believe that it was a neologism coined by Paul himself. This word literally means “male-bedder” and thus refers to some sort of sexual act which involves a male. One theory is that Paul coined this word from the Greek text of Leviticus 20:13 (LXX), which states “kai hos an koimethe meta arsenos koiten gynaikos.” If this is true, then Paul was probably condemning the same thing that the book of Leviticus condemns: lying with a man “who sleeps with a female” (whatever that may mean).
However, in my opinion, the way that this word is used in post-Pauline literature does not support this idea. The two earliest occurrences of arsenokoites (apart from Paul’s epistles) can be found in the Sybilline Oracles and the Acts of John, both of which link arsenokoites to forms of economic exploitation:
Do not steal seeds. Whoever takes for himself is accursed (to generations of generations, to the scattering of life). Do not arsenokoiten, do not betray information, do not murder. Give one who has laboured his wage. Do not oppress a poor man. Take heed of your speech. Keep a secret matter in your heart. (Make provision for orphans and widows and those in need.) Do not be willing to act unjustly, and therefore do not give leave to one who is acting unjustly. (Sybilline Oracles 2.70-77)
So also the poisoner, sorcerer, robber, swindler, and arsenokoites, the thief and all of this band, guided by your deeds you shall come to unquenchable fire... (Acts of John 36)
If we take the context to govern the meaning in these passages, we would have to conclude that arsenokoites refers to some form of sexual exploitation for economic gain. Both of these texts also have lists of sexual sins (in Oracles 2.279-282 and Acts of John 35 respectively) and yet arsenokoites is conspicuously absent from those lists. Another example of arsenokoites as exploitation may be found in Theophilus’ To Autolycus (1.2, 1.14), where it is listed with a number of other forms of economic and violent exploitation.
However, it would be incorrect to say that arsenokoites does not have a primarily sexual aspect. Polycarp, the first-century bishop of Smyrna, lists arsenokoites alongside other sexual sins like “male prostitutes” and “adulterers” in his epistle to the Philippians (5.3). Hippolytus describes a third-century heresy which claimed that the serpent of Eden, named Naas, seduced and raped Eve and Adam, “from whence has arisen adultery and arsenokoites” (Refutation of All Heresies 5.21). Eusebius, the fourth-century church historian, seems to indirectly equate arsenokoites with having a male lover (Preparation for the Gospel 6.10.25).
One of the more interesting uses of arsenokoites in ancient literature can be found in a sixth-century penitential attributed to John the Faster. This text describes arsenokoites as an action which can be performed regardless of gender (possibly anal sex), and is despised in all circumstances, though some more than others:
Likewise one must inquire about arsenokoitia of which there are three varieties. For it is one thing to get it from someone, which is the least serious; another to do it to someone else, which is more serious than having it done to you; another to do it to someone and have it done to you, which is more serious than either of the other two. For to be passive only, or active only, is not so grave as to be both... In fact, many men even commit the sin of arsenokoitia with their wives.
Here, arsenokoitai definitely cannot mean “homosexuality,” because it is something that can be done between a man and his wife. However, this text is probably too late to have any bearing on Paul’s meaning in his epistles.
Finally, one last clue as to the possible meaning of arsenokoites is the fact that, whereas this word was often grouped with “male prostitutes” and “adulterers” in early Christian texts (e.g., Polycarp’s Epistle to the Philippians 5.3), other texts from the same time period group “male prostitutes” and “adulterers” with “pedophiles/pederasts” [3] (e.g., Epistle of Barnabas 19.4; Didache 2.2). This suggests that arsenokoites was considered to have a meaning similar to “pedophile” or “pederast” in the first century.
So then, what is the meaning of arsenokoitai in 1 Cor. 6:9 and 1 Tim. 1:10? I don’t think we can really know for sure. There is quite a lot of ambiguity due to the fact that this word was first coined by Paul, and only appears in a handful of texts after him. However, the few texts in which it does appear suggest that it was some form of sexual activity connected to economic exploitation, probably related to the ancient practice of pederasty. Perhaps this word was used to refer to those who sold young male prostitutes for economic gain.
Unfortunately, modern translations do not acknowledge our uncertainty about the meaning of this word, and translate it simply as “homosexuals” [4] or, at best, “men who have sex with men,” without so much as a footnote informing the reader of the ambiguities of this word. This translation is entirely unwarranted — there are known Greek words which refer to male lovers (erastes and eromenos), so Paul would not have used entirely unrelated words like malakos and arsenokoites which have more nuanced meanings. However, ultimately, we simply don’t know exactly what Paul meant here, other than it was a sexual activity related to economic exploitation, and modern translations obfuscate this ambiguity when they translate it simply as “men who have sex with men.” Most modern readers of English translations have no idea of the nuances of this word.
It is also worth noting that, if Paul were condemning all homosexuality in these verses, that would go against one of the central messages of his epistles, which is that we are free from the Mosaic Law and are instead under the law of Christ. Under the law of Christ, the only commandment is to love one another (Rom. 13:8-10; Gal. 5:14) and any other commandment is merely “the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion” (Col. 2:23). So arbitrarily condemning homosexuality, which does not go against the commandment to love one another, would be entirely contrary to Paul’s message elsewhere. Instead, arsenokoites must describe some form of exploitative sexual activity which is rightly condemned as unloving.
Conclusion
With the Sodom narrative, we saw how modern readers often read their own prejudice against homosexuality into the text, even when there is no indication at all that homosexuality in general is being condemned. Likewise, in these four passages from Leviticus and Paul’s epistles, modern Bible versions translate the ambiguous words mishkebe and arsenokoitai in such a way as to make it appear that the Bible explicitly condemns homosexuality. However, the usage of these ambiguous words from elsewhere in the Bible and other ancient texts indicates that they did not refer to all male homosexuality in general, but instead to specific, exploitative forms of homosexuality (possibly pederasty). This is not at all comparable to consensual, loving homosexual relationships.
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[1] See this article for more support for this interpretation.
[2] For a more detailed discussion of the meaning of malakos, see here and here.
[3] Παιδοφθορησεις, lit. “child-corrupters”
[4] Translating this word as “homosexual” is certainly incorrect, even if it is taken to refer to homosexual men, since that implies that lesbians are being condemned alongside gay men. But lesbianism is not mentioned even once in the entire Bible.
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