Does the Bible prohibit homosexuality? By that I mean, if you pick up the book and read various passages do you find an explicit condemnation of homosexual practices? Remember, this was a book written long ago by God (we believe), so it is possible that there could be a “slight” conflict between its contends and modern politically correct culture. Simply read chapter 18 of Leviticus, if you dare. Do it at night, under the bed, with a torch so no-one sees you, including spy cameras. Generally, the liberals agree that the Bible does condemn homosexuality and say, “well, too bad for the book, as gay practices are correct and good.” Ok, I will not discuss that, suffering from intellectual cowardice. However, there is another approach to this debate, which rejects the common assumption here, that the Bible, especially Leviticus, does condemn homosexuality:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/21/opinion/sunday/bible-prohibit-gay-sex.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fopinion
The reference is to a theological paper by Idan Dershowitz, “Revealing Nakedness and Concealing Homosexual Intercourse: Legal and Lexical Evolution in Leviticus 18,” Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel, vol. 6, 2017, pp. 510-526. I managed to find a pre-print version on the net. The argument seems to be that some earlier document from which Leviticus was rewritten did approve of male-to-male sexual penetration. Don’t be offended for any primary school kid would have heard about that. The author discusses in detail the uses of the expression “uncover nakedness.” As well, various ancient Near Eastern texts are examined, which as I read it, basically went along the lines of Leviticus 18 as we know it, so wouldn’t that undermine the Harvard academic’s case? I could not find proof of the claim that the existing manuscript is a historical homophobic construction, which could mean that the author is wrong, or that I am simply out of my depth here. However, this guy is not, and he offers a refutation:
http://www.gopusa.com/?p=50901?omhide=true