LEVITICUS AND SAME-SEX SEX: A REVIEW

In “The Secret History of Leviticus,” Idan Dershowitz tries to make the case that Leviticus, the third book of the Hebrew Bible, didn’t originally include any prohibitions against homosexuality. Instead, these laws represent later editorial changes or additions to the text:

• Like many ancient texts, Leviticus was created gradually over a long period and includes the words of more than one writer. Many scholars believe that the section in which Leviticus 18 appears was added by a comparatively late editor, perhaps one who worked more than a century after the oldest material in the book was composed. An earlier edition of Leviticus, then, may have been silent on the matter of sex between men. (nytimes.com)

We would think that, in order to make such a claim, Dershowitz has produced earlier copies of Leviticus where the teachings against homosexuality weren’t included. However, no such copies exist.

How then does he make such an outrageous claim? He knows that such claims will be readily received in the present cultural climate seeking to justify homosexuality, especially biblically. (So far, scholars lack the courage to make such claims about the Qur’an.)

On what does Dershowitz base his claim? “Clues” in the only textual readings available:

• This editor’s decision to neutralize old laws by writing new glosses, instead of deleting the laws altogether, is serendipitous: He left behind just enough clues for his handiwork to be perceptible.

Were there subsequent editors? Contrary to Dershowitz, this claim rests only on popular conjecture.

Do other scholars, those who have translated Leviticus into English, recognize such “clues?” Evidently, not yet. Even liberalized contemporary translations seem to be unaware of such “clues.” Let’s start with the Contemporary English Version (British Edition) 2012:

• It is disgusting for a man to have sex with another man. Anyone who has sex with an animal is unclean. Don't make yourselves unclean by any of these disgusting practices of those nations that I am forcing out of the land for you. (Leviticus 18:22-24)

Same-sex relations are associated with bestiality. Some have tried to justify homosexuality by arguing that these prohibitions pertained only to Israel. However, this passage makes it clear that it pertained to ALL the nations.

Now, let’s take a look at the Good News Bible (Anglicized Version):

• “No man is to have sexual relations with another man; God hates that. No man or woman is to have sexual relations with an animal; that perversion makes you ritually unclean. Do not make yourselves unclean by any of these acts, for that is how the pagans made themselves unclean, those pagans who lived in the land before you and whom the LORD is driving out so that you can go in.” (Leviticus 18:22-24)

In short, I was unable to find one English translation that recognized Dershowitz’ “clues.”

Why does the New York Times honor such alleged “clues?” I have many clues!