Some of the anti-homosexuality texts in the New Testament also have some missing context that isn’t really applicable to the homosexuality of today.
What was frowned upon in the age those texts were written was the ‘effeminizing’ effect of being submissive in sexual activity, which males in society of that time (in the Roman empire) were expected to be strong, hard, dominant penetrators (manly qualities), not weak-willed, soft, submissively penetrated (feminine qualities). Abandoning manly expectations in society for feminine sex acts was unforgivable. That expectation of social/sexual roles contributes to the homophobia and toxic masculinity today.
Another Greek word that has been difficult to translate is arsenokoitai, which has traditionally been translated as ‘homosexual’ (and used as a proof text for the Bible’s anti-homosexual stance), but later uses of the word seem to indicate it was ‘rape or sex by economic coercion, prostitution, or pimping’, which introduces an asymmetry of power of an abuser and the abused, which is far more problematic than homosexual activity.
This is a common misconception of modern people. The Romans didn’t value masculinity. They valued refinement. They were people who worked on farms, and did everything by hand, and fought in the legion. People like that don’t idealize masculinity. They saw themselves as being superior to other people not because of their masculinity but because of their culture and way of life.
People idealizing masculinity are mostly modern affluent males who never really struggled or worked for anything. They work in offices all day, so they pretend to care about sports or hunting to appear more masculine. They are anything but. They idealize masculinity because they lack it in so many ways.
The Romans also didn’t think there was anything weird if wrong with being homosexual. They had no concept of it being taboo, and just thought it was a normal thing that nearly half of humans were by nature. The Jewish worldview and their dislike of homosexuality and sexuality in general, hadnt came along until long after. Israel was just a backwater at the edge of their empire. It wasn’t until Christianity and Islam took over much of the world that people started to associate homosexuality with gender and masculinity and stuff.
Some of the anti-homosexuality texts in the New Testament also have some missing context that isn’t really applicable to the homosexuality of today.
What was frowned upon in the age those texts were written was the ‘effeminizing’ effect of being submissive in sexual activity, which males in society of that time (in the Roman empire) were expected to be strong, hard, dominant penetrators (manly qualities), not weak-willed, soft, submissively penetrated (feminine qualities). Abandoning manly expectations in society for feminine sex acts was unforgivable. That expectation of social/sexual roles contributes to the homophobia and toxic masculinity today.
Another Greek word that has been difficult to translate is arsenokoitai, which has traditionally been translated as ‘homosexual’ (and used as a proof text for the Bible’s anti-homosexual stance), but later uses of the word seem to indicate it was ‘rape or sex by economic coercion, prostitution, or pimping’, which introduces an asymmetry of power of an abuser and the abused, which is far more problematic than homosexual activity.
This is a common misconception of modern people. The Romans didn’t value masculinity. They valued refinement. They were people who worked on farms, and did everything by hand, and fought in the legion. People like that don’t idealize masculinity. They saw themselves as being superior to other people not because of their masculinity but because of their culture and way of life.
People idealizing masculinity are mostly modern affluent males who never really struggled or worked for anything. They work in offices all day, so they pretend to care about sports or hunting to appear more masculine. They are anything but. They idealize masculinity because they lack it in so many ways.
The Romans also didn’t think there was anything weird if wrong with being homosexual. They had no concept of it being taboo, and just thought it was a normal thing that nearly half of humans were by nature. The Jewish worldview and their dislike of homosexuality and sexuality in general, hadnt came along until long after. Israel was just a backwater at the edge of their empire. It wasn’t until Christianity and Islam took over much of the world that people started to associate homosexuality with gender and masculinity and stuff.