Bible study guide challenges translations
CHRISTIAN bookshops are refusing to stock copies of a new Bible study guide that challenges standard New Testament translations that describe gay sex as sinful.
Mainstream Christian churches claim practising homosexuality is a sin based on several biblical verses and stories.
In 1 Corinthians 6:9 and Timothy 1:10 Paul sets out examples of Jewish law including admonitions against fornication, idolatry and drunkenness, as well as the much disputed word "arsenokoites" which has been taken to mean homosexuality.
But in her study guide, Dr Nyland says the word has been wrongly assumed to mean homosexual. Its range of meanings includes one who anally penetrates another, whether female or male, a rapist, a murderer, or an extortionist. When used with the meaning anal penetrator, it does not apply exclusively to males, Dr Nyland says.
The word does not appear in any Greek literary source until the poets of the imperial period, when the Greeks wrote at length on male-male sexual relationships. The reference in Romans, and the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, were about angels having sex with humans, and not about homosexual acts, she says.
Most New Testament translations are based on a lack of understanding of Greek word meaning and context, and disregard academic research, which shows passages in earlier translations are wrong, she says.
Mainstream Christian churches claim practising homosexuality is a sin based on several biblical verses and stories.
In 1 Corinthians 6:9 and Timothy 1:10 Paul sets out examples of Jewish law including admonitions against fornication, idolatry and drunkenness, as well as the much disputed word "arsenokoites" which has been taken to mean homosexuality.
But in her study guide, Dr Nyland says the word has been wrongly assumed to mean homosexual. Its range of meanings includes one who anally penetrates another, whether female or male, a rapist, a murderer, or an extortionist. When used with the meaning anal penetrator, it does not apply exclusively to males, Dr Nyland says.
The word does not appear in any Greek literary source until the poets of the imperial period, when the Greeks wrote at length on male-male sexual relationships. The reference in Romans, and the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, were about angels having sex with humans, and not about homosexual acts, she says.
Most New Testament translations are based on a lack of understanding of Greek word meaning and context, and disregard academic research, which shows passages in earlier translations are wrong, she says.
Comments