copied it into plaintext + my own info below from study groups iâve attended:
Okay, so, strictly speaking, the infamous Leviticus 18:22 does say âforbidden.â Hereâs the thing:
1) The word translated as âforbiddenâ is âtoevah.â While that translation isnât⊠wrong, itâs sort of like saying âMcMansionâ means âreally big house.â There are a lot of connotations in that word. The specific issue with toevah is that we ⊠sort of âŠ.. donât know anymore exactly what it meant. Based on context, it seems likely that the word referred to something ritually forbidden. This part of Torah was written not only as a guide for future generations, but also to say âso, look around, see your neighbors? DONâT DO THAT.â Thus, if we interpret âtoevahâ to mean something thatâs forbidden to do as a ritual before G-d, then the verse says nothing whatsoever about Adam and Steve and their two kids and their dog-itâs saying you shouldnât have sex with another man in the Temple as a sacrifice.
2) Following the same âthis is ritually forbiddenâ logic of toevah, this verse may also be interpreted as âdonât do sex magic,â which was a thing in. Like. A lot of fucking cultures at the time.
3) Hebrew is a highly gendered language, and the grammatical gender in this verse is really really weird. One of the âmenâ in this verse is given female grammar. Why? Who fucking knows, man, this isnât the only grammatical oddity in Torah. (There are also places where G-d is referred to as plural, and also as female.) One suggestion is that this is a way of creating a diminutive-that is, that the verse should be read as âa man should not lie with a boy.â Now, itâs worth noting that modern secular scholarship has concluded the written Torah was written down around the 6th century BCE, and most non-Orthodox Jewish scholars are like âyeah, all things considered, that sounds pretty legit.â
Do you know what else was happening around the 6th century BCE? What laypeople tend to mean when they say âancient Greeceâ was happening.
Do you know what happened a lot in that time period in Greece? Dudes forming relationships with younger boys, like ages 10-15, and using them for sex in exchange for financial gifts, mentorship, etc. While we donât know just how young some of these younger boys may have been, we do know some were prepubescent. In light of this, and also something I mentioned under the first point-âsee your neighbors? DONâT DO THAT,â if this verse is interpreted to say âa man should not lie with a boy,â then itâs pretty clearly âmy dudes, my fellows, my lads, donât be fucking pedophiles.â
4) Because of the grammar I mentioned in #3, itâs also possible that âshould not lie with a man as with a womanâ is actually referring to a place, not an abstract personhood: a man shouldnât have sex with another man in a womanâs bed. In the time period, a womanâs bed was sort of like-that was her place, her safe sanctuary. It was also a ritually holy place where babies were made. By having sex in her bed, youâre violating her safe space (and also introducing a man who may not be a male relative, thus forcing her into breaking the laws of modesty). If this verse is read this way, then it should be taken to mean âdonât sexually violate a womanâs safety and modesty.â
5) And as an offshoot of #4, this may be a second verse relating to infidelity. Which womanâs bed is any random dude in 600 BCE most likely to have access to? His wifeâs. But laws were administered differently based on whether the person they pertained to was slave or free, male or female, and so on-thus, a man committing adultery with a woman would be treated differently than man committing adultery with a man (especially because the latter would carry no chance of an illegitimate pregnancy).
So youâll note, there are a lot of ways to read this verse, and only a one-to-one translation with no cultural awareness produces âbeing gay is wrong, all of the timeâ.
(Youâll also notice the word âabominationâ is nowhere to be found. Thatâs like⊠a straight-up fiction created for who only knows what reason.)
the grammar of the sentence is really interesting.
(note: i have not marked grammatical gender bc im really bad at that. someone fluent in Hebrew feel free to swoop in and correct me. additional note: the nikkudot and trope symbols in the sentence below are not in the Torah, so itâs possible the phrase has been corrupted (more on that later).)
ŚŽŚÖ°ŚÖ¶ÖšŚȘÖŸŚÖžŚÖžÖŚš ŚÖčÖ„Ś ŚȘÖŽŚ©ŚÖ°ŚÖŒÖ·ÖŚ ŚÖŽŚ©ŚÖ°ŚÖŒÖ°ŚÖ”ÖŁŚ ŚÖŽŚ©ŚÖŒÖžÖŚ ŚȘÖŒŚÖ茹֔ŚÖžÖŚ ŚÖŽÖœŚŚŚŚŽ
⌌ŚȘÖŸŚŚŚš - and the male
⌌ ŚȘŚ©ŚŚ - do not lie with [him]
⌌©ŚŚŚ - lying (down), from lying down, from the bed of, my bed [typically translated: as (you) lie with; there is ambiguity in the phrase though]
⌌©Ś - woman [usually spelled ŚŚŚ©Ś esp in modern hebrew; the spelling ŚŚ©Ś can also mean a sacrifice/offering (different vowels but those arenât written in the torah so we get to fill it in!)]
âŚȘŚŚąŚŚ ŚŚŚ - it is toevah [literal meaning unknown; typically translated: illegal, forbidden, abomination]
you can see from the ambiguity of the translation where a lot of @prismatic-bellâs interpretation notes are based in. without vowels or punctuation, or clarifying words that would be added in modern hebrew, the intent of the phrase is unclear.
one interesting point is the use of âmaleâ ŚŚŚš rather than âmanâ ŚŚŚ©. an interpretation ive heard is that this is a prohibition against anal sex, in which case the translation would be: you arenât allowed to penetrate a man (as you would penetrate a woman) because that would cause ritual impurity.
this interpretation could come down to a number of related reasons including that itâs easier to get STIs from anal sex (and youâre doing it with someone other than your wife) and thus you need to be considered a health risk. semen and bodily discharge in general are ritually impure, as are infectious diseases, or contact with things that could cause disease (eg dead animals).
or that according to the torah youâre not supposed to masturbate either bc you should only cum in your wife. the latter especially doesnât make it particularly modern-view-of-sexuality-friendly but again it was written a pretty long time ago. our understanding of sex and sexuality has changed since then.
it could be a prohibition against cheating on your spouse, and as @prismatic-bell mentioned treated differently when youâre cheating with a man as compared to a woman.
i personally like #4 the bestâ it takes the interpretation of ŚŚ©ŚŚŚ ŚŚ©Ś to mean âin the bed of a woman/wifeâ and is a prohibition against taking action that would sexually violate another.
and to discuss one more common anti-gay misquoted torah section, the story of sodom and gomorrah (origin of sodomy) is about gang rape.
but above all, judaism allows almost every law to be broken if it protects a personâs dignity and security, and there is precedent for this in the torah. so next time someone tells you âthe bible says being gay is a sinâ you can respond that the bible also tells you to be nice to other people, asshat.
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