[SIZE=-1]You rationalized your thoughts and make logical sense out of it, so you certainly can't be told you are wrong for what you believe. Again, however, it would be up to how someone interprets it. Perhaps David and Jonathan didn't ACT upon their feelings. Who's to say? I'd have no idea as I didn't walk the earth back then. What I do know is :
1 Samuel 20:41
After the boy had gone, David got up from the south side of the stone and bowed down before Jonathan three times, with is face to the ground. Then they kissed each other and wept together - but David wept the most.(NIV)
Other translations have a different ending to the verse:
and they kissed one another and wept with one another, until David exceeded. (KJV)
and they kissed one another and wept with one another until David got control of himself. (Amplified Bible)
and they sadly shook hands, tears running down their cheeks until David could weep no more. (Living Bible)
They kissed each other and wept together until David got control of himself. (Modern Language)
They kissed each other and wept aloud together. (New American Bible)
Then David and Jonathan kissed each other. They cried together, but David cried the most. (New Century Version)
vThen they kissed one another and shed tears together, until Davids grief was even greater than Jonathans. (Revised English Bible)
and they kissed one another and wept with one another until David recovered himself. (Revised Standard Version)
How would a literalist interpret these scriptures? Certainly one could think there was some sort of homosexuality here, and perhaps just never acted on it. Again, I truly don't know. You may find it amusing..but whether it was the law or not..you think no one disobeyed the law in God's time...only now? That I think is amusing. No one is suggesting a passionate love affair between the two men..but certainly there was SOMETHING there rather than just two friends. If that were the case, it wouldn't have been any different than any relationships b/w two men, but these two were pointed out.[/SIZE]
If you want to know what the Hebrew scriptures mean ask Hebrew scholars not homosexuals with a highly biased agenda.
From the time of Moses, ca. 1200 BC, the Talmudic scholars interpreted the scriptures as condemning
ALL homosexuals acts; by
ALL persons, male and female; in
ALL places, under
ALL circumstance, at
ALL times,
NO exceptions.
The Talmudic scholars did
NOT even mention, and did
NOT limit the condemnation of homosexual acts to,
homosexual rape,
temple prostitution, pagan temples and/or religious activities!
Talmud -- Sanhedrin 54a
MISHNAH. HE WHO COMMITS SODOMY WITH A MALE OR A BEAST, AND A WOMAN THAT COMMITS BESTIALITY ARE STONED. . . . Our Rabbis taught:
If a man lieth also with mankind, as the lyings of a woman,29 both of them have committed on abomination:
they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them,]. . . [Note: All upper case appears in the original]
Sanhedrin 54b
This teaches the punishment: whence do we derive the formal prohibition? From the verse,
Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is an abomination.[sup]1[/sup] . . . whence do we know a formal prohibition for the person who permits himself thus to be abused?
Scripture saith: There shall be no sodomite of the sons of Israel:[sup]2[/sup] and it is further said, . . .
Now, he who [actively] commits pederasty, and also [passively] permits himself to be thus abused R. Abbahu said: On R. Ishmael's view,
he is liable to two penalties, one [for the injunction] derived from thou shalt not lie with mankind, and the other for [violating the prohibition,] There shall not be a Sodomite of the sons of Israel. . . .
for there shall be no Sodomite applies to sodomy with mankind. [sup]13[/sup] . . .
Talmud link
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Jewish Encyclopedia - Dog
The shamelessness of the dog in regard to sexual life gave rise to the name ("dog") for the class of priests in the service of Astarte who
practised sodomy ("kedeshim," called also by the Greeks κυναίδοι, Deut. xxiii. 19 [A. V. 18]; compare ib. 18 [17] and Rev. xxii. 15; see Driver ad loc.), . . .(see "C. I. S." i., No. 86).
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=415&letter=D
Jewish Encyclopedia - Chastity
(e)
The unnatural crimes against chastity, sodomy and pederasty, prevalent in heathendom, were
strictly prohibited (Lev. xviii. 22, 23; xx. 13, 15, 16; Deut. xxvii. 21).
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=386&letter=C
Jewish Encyclopedia - DIDACHE -
Dependence upon Jewish Custom.
2: "Thou shalt not commit adultery" (Ex. xx. 14). (This includes: "
Thou shalt not commit sodomy nor fornication.") "Thou shalt not steal" (Ex. xx. 15). . . .
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=341&letter=D
Jewish Encyclopedia - Crime
In three cases
the person on the point of committing a crime may be killed: where he pursues a neighbor in order to kill him;
where he pursues a male to commit sodomy;
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=301&letter=L
Jewish Encyclopedia - The 613 Commandments,: 3347-53.
Adultery,
sodomy, etc. Lev. Xviii. 7, 14, 20, 22, 23.
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=689&letter=C
The following citations document the interpretation by contemporary orthodox Jewish scholars.
"
We Can't Legitimate Homosexuality Halakhically" (
USCJ Review, Spring 2004): Joel Roth
The two verses in the book of (Leviticus (18:22 and 20:13) which deal with homosexuality are really quite clear, despite the efforts of some to call their clarity into question. (Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13 absolutely forbid homosexual intercourse between males. The Rabbis, in the Sifra (Aharei Mot 9:8), also understand the Torah to forbid lesbianism. The Torahs prohibitions, let it be clear, are against actions, like male homosexual intercourse, not against fantasies or attractions.
The Torah and the Rabbis do not distinguish between types of homosexuals in any way... The Rabbis were well able to conceive of monogamous and loving relationships between members of the same sex, and I quote in my paper the texts that prove this beyond reasonable question. But their words cannot possibly be read to imply that such monogamous or loving gay relationships are in a different halakhic [Jewish legal] category than any other relationships between members of the same sex. The prohibition is clear and total.
http://www.uscj.org/POINTRoth6331.html
Naomi Grossman, freelance journalist, states in her April 2001 article in
Moment Magazine, "
The Gay Orthodox Undergound":
"The Torah strictly forbids homosexual sex, and rabbis have consistently upheld that prohibition through the ages... The prohibition against homosexual sex comes from Leviticus: 'Do not lie with a male as one lies with a woman; it is an abhorrence' (18:22). In biblical times, the punishment for violating that code was clear. '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' (Leviticus 20:13). The Talmud extends the prohibition to lesbian sex [Hilchot Issurei Bi'ah 21:8]."
Official Orthodoxy makes no distinction between the sex act, which the Torah flatly prohibits, and homosexuality as a sexual identity. "Homosexuality is not a state of being in traditional Judaism; it's an act," Freundel says. "Desires are
not relevant."
http://members.aol.com/gayjews/moment.html
