Should the prohibitions of Leviticus be observed by Christians?

Biblical reflections* published on the site The Reformation Project (United States), freely translated by Giacomo Tessaro

Negative message: Leviticus prohibits male homosexual relations as an abomination: the prohibition is part of the moral law, not the ceremonial law.

Positive message: The prohibitions of Leviticus do not concern Christians; furthermore, they have their origins in culturally coded gender roles.

Leviticus 18:22 prohibits sexual relations between men, and Leviticus 20:13 prescribes the death penalty for those who violate the prohibition. But Christians never lived under Old Testament law.

– The Old Testament contains 613 commandments addressed to the people of God. In Leviticus we find rules on offerings, pure and impure foods, diseases, bodily secretions, sexual taboos and the behavior of priests.

– But the New Testament teaches that Christ's death and resurrection fulfilled the law, the many rules of which never applied to Christians. Romans 10:4 states “Now the end of the law is Christ”. Colossians 2:13-14 states that God “[he] forgave[ed] us all our sins, canceling the written document of our debt, the terms of which were unfavorable to us. He took it out of the way by nailing it to the cross.".

– “However, by calling it a new alliance, God has declared the first to be antiquated; now, what becomes old and grows old is close to disappearing" (Hebrews 8:13).

Certain prohibitions, such as the wearing of mixed fabrics, are part of ceremonial law; Now, isn't the prohibition of homosexual relations part of the moral law?

– According to some, all rules regarding sexual conduct still apply to Christians, but Leviticus also prohibits sexual intercourse during a woman's menstrual period (Leviticus 18:19), which most Christians today no longer consider sinful.

– According to others, define homosexual behavior as “abomination” is particularly apt, yet today we generally accept other abominations: lending money at interest (Ezekiel 18:13), burning incense (Isaiah 1:13), eating pork and rabbit, and shellfish (Deuteronomy 14:3- 21).

– Today we also accept some practices for which the death penalty applied, such as working on the Sabbath (Exodus 35:2) and lending money at interest (Ezekiel 18:13). The Old Testament does not distinguish between “moral” law and “ceremonial” law.

But Leviticus prohibits male homosexual behavior for a reason that has never changed: the complementarity between men and women, intended by God.

– As Hebrew scholar Saul Olyan and Judaism expert Daniel Boyarin write, Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13 specifically prohibit passive homosexual anal intercourse, not all homoerotic acts. That type of relationship was considered absolutely degrading for a man, because it made him take on a "feminine" and therefore socially inferior role.

– In one of his commentaries, the first-century Jewish philosopher Philo of Alexandria rails against pederasty, warning that males could suffer “for the affliction of being treated like women”. The active partner is “guide and teacher of the greatest of all evils, lack of masculinity and […] effeminacy”.

– The Talmud, a collection of rabbinic commentaries dating back to the first centuries AD, draws a distinction between anal intercourse and other sexual acts between men; only the first is prohibited by Leviticus according to the writers of the Talmud, who treat the other types of intercourse as separate types of sexual lust.

– Sexual relations between males were prohibited because they subverted patriarchal gender norms that sanctioned male domination over a society that devalued women.

– Many of the prohibitions of Leviticus find their origin in the need to construct distinctions between cultures and codes of purity.

Why doesn't Leviticus distinguish between active and passive roles?

– Leviticus 24:22a: “There shall be one law for you, for the stranger and for the citizen of the land”. According to Old Testament scholars Richard Elliott Friedman and Shawna Dolansky, this prohibition stems from the fact that “according to the thinking of certain cultures, relationships of that type could not fail to humiliate the passive partner and violate his equality before God”; consequently, both partners would have been found guilty.

– Leviticus does not talk about homosexual relations between women: this undermines the concept according to which homosexual relations between men are prohibited because they violate gender complementarity.

Does this mean the Bible is a misogynistic text?

– Certainly the norms of patriarchy inform Old Testament texts, but patriarchy was not exclusive to ancient Israel. However, it should be noted that, if the Old Testament law does not treat men and women in the same way, it is also true that in the same texts we find countercultural elements, such as the presence of leader women.

– Even in the New Testament we find women in positions of leadership, such as Lydia, Phoebe, Euodia and Syntyche.

– “There is no longer Jew or Greek; there is no longer slave nor free; there is no longer male or female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28).

– In Matthew 19:8 we read: “Because of the hardness of your hearts Moses permitted you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so”.

– John Piper writes: “There are some laws in the Old Testament that do not constitute God's will for every age, but rather are ways to best manage sin in that particular people and in that particular age”, and in fact this is how Christians view slavery and polygamy, and this is how we should view patriarchy as well.

– New Testament testimony distances Christians from patriarchy and brings them closer to gender equality (see Galatians 3:28); this means that the rules of Leviticus, with what they bring with them, do not apply to Christians.

The prohibition of sexual relations between males in Leviticus has its origins in patriarchal culture and its gender roles, which the New Testament helps us overcome.

* The biblical passages are taken from the Jerusalem Bible/CEI.

Original text: 7. The prohibitions in Leviticus don't apply to Christians.