Homosexuality in the first letter to the Corinthians and in the first letter to Timoteo

Reflections of Bishop Gene Robinson*, Washington Post (United States), 8 December 2010, freely translated by Erika P.

Finally, we pay our attention to the two other letters of Paolo, one addressed to Timothy and the other to the Christian community of Corinthian, passages that are used today to condemn homosexuality.
A look more attentive to those identified as "prostitutes" and "sodomites" (in the translation of the Bible) makes serious questions relating to the identity of the people of which we are talking about in these steps.

In the letter to the Corinthians, among the list of those who will not inherit the kingdom of God, Paul uses two Greek terms: Malakoi Arsenokoitai. The first is a Greek term of common use which means "soft" and elsewhere in the scriptures it is used to describe a garment.

Nowhere is used to describe a person in the scriptures. The first church seems to have interpreted him as a person with a "soft" or weak morality.
Later, those who practice masturbation, or "those who abuse themselves" would come to be translated (and to be translated as).

In our times, being the most commonly accepted masturbation, this word has often been used to denote homosexuals.
All that we actually, based on the facts, know about this word is that it means "soft".

The Greek term arsenokoitai is even a bigger mystery. In fact, this term is not found anywhere in the scriptures and there are not even documentation of its use in any other contemporary text. We have nothing, both inside and outside the scriptures, which guides us towards its meaning.

When such a mysterious word appears in an ancient text, the translator must do something about it. Even with words of common understanding, a translator must choose which English word best communicates the meaning of the word in question.

In the case of a totally unknown term like Arsenokoitai, the danger of producing a bad translation is greater.

Many translators have chosen to take the two words together, interpreting the Greek word "soft" as the partner who, in an anal relationship between men, receives and interpreted Arsenokoitai as the active partner. This is, in the best case, speculation.

Others hypothesized that this receiving/active relationship has relevance with a practice (which would have been known to Paolo) in which an older man took "under his wing" uno -adolescent, taught him how the world went and used it sexually.

If this were its true meaning, we would all condemn such a practice as an abuse on minor! Nobody is claiming to accept a similar practice.
The same coupling of words is used in Paolo's first letter to Timoteo, and no further light is thrown on its meaning.

Whatever its meaning, there is no reason to believe that homosexuals, as we mean them in our day, are the target of Paul's condemnation.

However, we can understand the prejudice and the sprinkle that are derived from the ambitious, if erroneous, translations of these terms: depending on the translation, the terms "pervert", "sodomita" and even "homosexual" have been used.

If a believer without suspicions takes the Bible and reads the word "homosexual" in one of these passages, the reader believes that Paul means what we mean today with that term and the condemnation of homosexuals seems unequivocally clear.

The fact is that we can simply make speculations about what Paul intended using these words.

What we know is that when the meaning of a word or a passage is not clear, the prejudices of the translator come into play in the choice of the words used to translate the non -known meaning of the Greek.

Do we really want to base our condemnation of an entire group of people on an unreliable translation of a non -known Greek term? A reasonable person, not to say a compassionate Christian, would not do it.

In conclusion

Whatever you want to do these seven "texts of terror," it is clear that they must not be used to condemn homosexuality as we know it today.

Simply, the Bible does not answer the questions that we are asking us about men and women who are affectively oriented towards people of the same sex. Taken in their context, these texts turn to situations and come from mentality different from ours.

Let me explain to me. I am not saying that the Bible speaks in a positive way of intimate and sexual relationships with the same sex.

All these seven steps are negative. They simply do not answer the questions that we ask the modern mentality on psycho-sexual relationships.

However, in the scriptures we insist on compassion towards our neighbor, on the reference to empathy and justice for the marginalized, and examples of honesty, solidarity and love appear in every relationship.

Therefore, I would say that the Holy Scriptures constitute a great and durable guide for us in relation to the management of our relationships, between us, whether they are with strangers, friends, or intimate and longtime partners.

But a total condemnation of love relationships between gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transsexuals? No!

Read the salient biblical passages below:

First letter to Corinthians 6, 9-11

Or do you not know that the unjust will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not delude yourself: neither immoral, nor idolàtri, nor adùlteri, nor effeminate, neither sodomites, nor thieves, neither avari nor drunkards, nor mistial, nor birds of prey will inherit the kingdom of God.
And such were some of you; But you have been washed, you have been sanctified, you have been justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.

First letter to Timoteo 1.8-11

Of course, we know that the law is good, if one uses it legally; I am convinced that the law is not made for the right, but for the unfair and rebels, for the emppi and sinners, for the sacrilegons and the profanators, for the parricide and matricides, for the killers, the fornicators, the perverts, the traffickers of men, the false, the perjust and for everything else that is contrary to the healthy doctrine, according to the gospel of the glory of the beon god. entrusted.

* This is the fifth of a series of articles of reverend V. Gene Robinson, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire (United States) and Visiting Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress, Washington DC, who examine the biblical texts traditionally used to face the question of homosexuality starting from a religious perspective (Jewish and Christian).

Original text: Homosexuality in I Corinthians and I Timothy