The Abomination in Leviticus: the lack of purity

Text taken from the book by Daniel A. Helminiak*, What the Bible Really Says About Homosexuality, Alamo Square Press, USA, 2000, freely translated by Luca C.

In the Jewish testament there is in fact a step in which sex between man and man is explicitly criticized. The Levitico 18-22 He says “You don't have to lie with a man like with a woman; it is abomination". Levitico 20:13 adds the punishment "If a man lies with a man like with a woman, both have committed an abomination; They must be sentenced to death". The Jewish text therefore cites only sexual intercourse between men, while those between women are not mentioned. How come ? According to the author, the answer is again to be found in the historical context in which the LEVITICA text has taken shape.

The death penalty!

The death penalty is undoubtedly a very severe punishment and Levitician prescribes it for numerous other shortcomings: 1) Cursing their parents, 2) adultery, incest, sex with animals.

1) Dark on their parents. Using historical analysis curse a parent at that time represented a crime against society. The Israelite society of the time was built around the concept of extended family, understood as clan or tribe. The slaves were subordinate to children, who in turn were subjected to parents, and his wife to the husband. The husband could still be subjected to his father and his head of the family was the oldest father and husband. The family therefore included people, animals, lands and properties and opposition to a parent represented a challenge to the social order.

2) The adultery for the Israelites of the time did not mean how the betrayal of trust today, but represented an illegitimate use of the property of a man. Adultery did not configure as much offense as a financial loss as explained as well as to possess a wife had paid its price to the father of the future bride, a price concerning its possibility of conceiving children, who would have represented Further properties and involved an growth of that man's luck! But what happened if another man had sex with a man's wife? Who could guarantee that the son she was born would really belong to her husband and was not the property instead of the other man who had known her?

3) Anal homosexual sex meant mixing the role of man with that of the woman, it was something impure how to mix two different types of seeds in the same field or weave a dress with two different fibers. All forbidden things at the time, because they meant spoiling the earth, considered sacred, and the loss of purity exposed to the risk of loss. The death penalty was therefore considered just because it has potentially meaning the earth of purity and the Israelites had had to fight harshly to obtain it. Anal sex between men also represented a challenge to the social order consisting of the division of roles between man and woman in the Jewish society of the time.

What is Abominio?

Levitico says it is an abomination for a man to lie with another man as he would do with a woman. But what did an Israelite mean to the time when he felt the word abominum pronounce? Levitico 20: 25-26: "You must therefore distinguish between pure and impure animal, between pure and impure bird, you do not have to bring abomination on yourself by contaminating yourself with any animal, bird or anything else that fills the earth and that I have separated from you considering it impure.
You must be sacred to me, because I am holy, and I chose you among others so that you are mine". It is evident from the text that Abominio is synonymous with impure. An abomination is, therefore, a violation of the rules of purity that ruled the Israelite society and maintained the Israelites separated from the other people.
Some animals were thought to be cleaned and therefore they could be eaten; And for several reasons certain other animals (pigs, camels, etc ...) was considered impure and inedible. In the same way, some practices were prohibited, such as sowing in the same field two different types of seeds or weave a dress with two different genres of fiber (Levitico 19:19 Detteunomio 22:11)

* Daniel A. Helminiak, author of “What the Bible Really Says About Homosexuality, He has achieved Boston College and the Andover Newton Theological School a doctorate in systematic theology, and another in pedagogical psychology in Austin at the University of Texas. For 28 years he served the Roman Catholic Church as a priest. The association of the United States LGBT Catholics is currently a member of dignity.