Getting to Know You

One of the most contentious parts of modern-day religious life, particularly in Christianity, is the issue of homosexuality. Despite the fact that is is generally accepted that homosexuality is not a lifestyle choice but an actual part of one’s personal makeup (i.e., one is “born that way”) does not seem to matter. While some churches have come to accept homosexuals and most have “acknowledged” that it is not a choice, most Christian churches still condemn homosexuality.

As I have state before, it seems that the Christian Churches have decided that this is one of the writings of the Bible to take literally instead of apocryphally because it suits their purpose in this case. One of their most resonating stories of the Bible to justify the condemnation of homosexuality is the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. In fact, this story is so associated with “horrendous” homosexuality activity that in modern-day parlance male homosexuals have been referred to as sodomites. In fact, that term has even entered legal terminology in more than one statute.

The sad part is that, if you look at the offending passage, prior to the most modern translations, there is much room to disagree that they are even talking about homosexuality at all. In point of fact, logic says they are not.

While this is not the only reference to homosexuality in the Bible and some of them are not ambiguous. However, this is the most famous and the one I am addressing.

So let us look at the first seven verses of chapter 19 of Genesis (KJV):

1. And there came two angels to Sodom at even; and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom: and Lot seeing them rose up to meet them; and he bowed himself with his face toward the ground;
2. And he said, Behold now, my lords, turn in, I pray you, into your servant’s house, and tarry all night, and wash your feet, and ye shall rise up early, and go on your ways. And they said, Nay; but we will abide in the street all night.
3. And he pressed upon them greatly; and they turned in unto him, and entered into his house; and he made them a feast, and did bake unleavened bread, and they did eat.
4.  But before they lay down, the men of the city, even the men of Sodom, compassed the house round, both old and young, all the people from every quarter:
5. And they called unto Lot, and said unto him, Where are the men which came in to thee this night? bring them out unto us, that we may know them.
6. Lot went out at the door unto them, and shut the door after him,
7.  And said, I pray you, brethren, do not so wickedly.

For everyone’s edification the key verse is verse 5: “And they called unto Lot, and said unto him, Where are the men which came in to thee this night? bring them out unto us, that we may know them.” Where the issue is the use of the Hebrew word  ידע (yada), translated as “know” in the King James Version. That has been interpreted as have a “personal and close” relationship with an individual; a.k.a., sex. The problem with this is that there are 900 references of the Hebrew “know” in the Old Testament and only 13-14 of these refer to having carnal knowledge, which is 1.5%. IN other words, the odds are against any reference to “know” being about sex; unless there is compelling contextual evidence. And I must say; despite historical precedent, this does not pass the smell test.

Use a little logic on this as a minority of scholars have. Look at the passage and see what it says. I will phrase it just a little different without making any real changes: “And the said to Lot ” Where are the men who came here last night? Bright the out so we can question them.” Doesn’t sound like a homosexual rape fest to me, now does it? And I didn’t interpret a darned thing. I did not rework the words a single bit. But then again, I did not have an ulterior motive in interpreting more into this passage than was there.

As a person who has live and spent all of his live working to logical conclusions in the Information Technology profession, I cannot for the live of me reach any other conclusion than the one I just reached. I defy anyone to reach another conclusion that is not tainted by their traditional teachings.

Modern Coverup

I would be remiss if I did not address a modern coverup of the offending passage that can and will make this even more offensive as future generations will not see any ambiguity to the passage in question by a translation that presupposes current Christian doctrine with no regard to any issues of ambiguity. The New International Version of the Bible now translates Genesis 19:5 as “They called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them.” I have to tell you, this translation kind of sucks as far as I am concerned simply because they translated a key word that has multiple possible meaning and give it none ambiguity that the original Hebrew had -and- quite frankly uses a translation that supports church doctrine instead of Holy Scripture.

I personally had great hopes for the NIV when it first came out for clearing up ambiguities and mistranslations, while putting the scriptures into modern English. Now, with this one scripture, I see that we need to look askance to this version of the Holy Bible as well.