Dear David Brider
The verses that are used to condmen same-sex sex are the verses which do condemn them.
Not necessarily. The verses in Leviticus only apply to male-male sex (assuming that to "lie with a man as with a woman" actually does apply to the sexual act), and even then may refer only to specific examples of that (e.g. in the context of shrine prostitution) rather than being a blanket condemnation. The exact word "arsenokoites" continues to be the subject of heated debate, but given that the literal translation of the component words simply work out to "male" and "many beds," a translation involving homosexual sex doesn't seem like the most likely correct rendering even if that
is how it's been traditionally translated.
Anyone can say the Bible is has been misinterpreted but the question is has it.
It's been misinterpreted all over the shop by all manner of people down the centuries, and not just in this particular issue.
The idea that same-sex sex is error is a historical fact, even the word in English has traditionally been Sodomy.
...which itself relies on the assumption that the sin of Sodom was actually homosexual sex. Which is unlikely.
your doubts are based on modern thinking that what the Bible says cant be right. This isnt interpretation but disbelief.
No, I have no problem with believing the Bible. I just want to make sure that what I'm believing is what the original authors actually intended, and not clouded over by a couple of millennia of potential misunderstandings. So if one interpreter says that a particular passage means X and another interpreter says it means ~X, then I want to be sure who's right, 'cos I don't want to believe something that's in error.
neither has love ever been misinterpreted until recent decades, the modern word love means all the descriptions and understandings described and defined in the Bible.
Not really sure what your point is here (it doesn't seem to relate to anything I wrote), but you do realise that there are (IIRC) four Greek words (and I'm not sure how many Hebrew words) translated as "love" in our modern Bibles? Which rather proves my earlier point - we need to be aware of what the author intended at any given point, and if that means digging a little deeper, checking out a couple of commentaries and some multiple translations (as well as possibly getting an understanding of Greek and Hebrew), then I'm all for that.
We can see what the understanding of same-sex sex throughout the Biblical testimony was that is was error...
Depending on the precise meaning and interpretation and translation of the texts in question.
...the only misinterpretation is that which is occuring now.
Well, I'm more inclined to think otherwise. But anyway, as long as we're both believing the same Bible, that's OK.
David.
Are homosexual acts wrong or not? What is your reasoning behind believing the way you do?
