What Does the Bible Say About Gay? (Romans 1:18-32)
Who are “they” and why did God give “them” over?Introduction:
•
Who is Paul talking about in Romans 1:18-32?
o
We assume that Paul is talking about homosexuals in Romans 1, buthomosexuals don’t show up until later in the passage. The actual characters areintroduced earlier.
o
“The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godless andwickedness of
men who suppress the truth by their wickedness
…” (v. 18)
•
The key question, then, are:
o
What made them wicked?
o
How did they suppress the truth?
•
To find the answer, we must explore:
o
Literary Context (writing style)
o
Cultural Context (pagan deity worship)
o
Language issues (“natural relations”)
Literary Context
Paul is a tricky writer.
One of the problems with interpreting Romans is that Paul is a verycomplicated writer. Until you figure out how all the pieces fit together, Romans is like reading apuzzle.
•
Paul’s Writing Style
In order to answer these questions (what made them wicked? how did they suppress thetruth?), we must understand Paul’s writing style.
o
Modern readers/writers are used to communicating in a linear style. Every idealeads directly into the next in a “logical” progression:
A
→
B
→
C
→
Conclusion
o
Ancient Writers (especially poets) used parallelism where ideas mirror each other to either build or show the contrast between ideas.
A
→
B
→
A
¹
→
B
¹
→
A
²
→
B
²
→
Conclusion
Example:
•
Tom rode his bike all the time. (A)
•
Regina liked to follow him. (B)
•
Tom rode his bike to the store. (A
¹
)
•
Regina followed him on her bike. (B
²
)
•
When they got to the store, Tom and Regina shared a Coke. (C)
o
Couplets in Romans 1
They exchanged the glory of the immortal God (v 23)…Therefore God gave them over (v. 24).
They exchanged the truth of God for a lie (v. 25)…Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts (v 26).
The women exchanged natural relations… in the same way the men (v26b)…he gave them over to a depraved mind (v 28)
They exchanged the glory of God (A)
→
God gave them over (B)
→
They exchanged the truth of God (A
¹
)
→
God gave them over (B
¹
)
→
The woman exchanged natural relations (A
²
)
→
God gave them over to adepraved mind (B
²
).
o
The problem with our interpretation is that we focus on the
result
(lust, etc.)before we look at the
cause
:1. They exchanged the glory of God2. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and
worshiped and served created things
.
3. They exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones.
4. All of these culminated in them not thinking it was worthwhile toretain the knowledge of God. (v 28) This denial of god was thecause of him giving them over – not homosexuality.
•
Within the first two parallels, we see that God gave them over toevil behaviors because of certain actions they took ("exchangingthe glory of God for images", and then worshipping and servingcreated things rather than the creator). However, God did notgive them over because of the exchange itself, but because of actions taken as a result of the exchange. In the third parallel,they exchanged natural relations for those that are againstnature.
However, it was not those exchanges that causedGod to give them over. Those exchanges resulted in theaction of verse 28, "they did not think it worthwhile to retaina knowledge of God", which is what caused God to givethem over.
It was not the sexual behavior that caused God togive them over, but it was the fact that they abandoned their belief in God that caused Him to give them over.
Question:
What does this culmination sound like
(exchanging the glory of God, exchanging truthfor a lie, exchanging the natural for the unnatural, and not retaining the knowledge of God)
?
Answer:
Idolatry. (c/c Leviticus discussion of “abomination” as a condemnation of idol worship.
Cultural Context: Cult of Cybele
(www.jeramyt.org/papers/paulcybl.html)
•
Prominence:
In Rome, the Cybele/Attis temple was built in the heart of the city on one of the Seven Hills of Rome. Cybele’s image was printed on Roman coins and two major city-festivals (the Day of Blood and the Megalensia) were organized around Cybele and Attis. A statue of Cybele presidedover most of the public games. The popularity and power of the goddess religions during the timeof Paul’s ministry gave him a readily available target to use in his description of people who fallaway from God.
•
Story:
(http://ancienthistory.about.com/cs/nemythology/a/cybeleattis.htm)
Cybele was the “Great Mother,” goddess of nature and wild animals.The story goes that when Cybele, one of Zeus' would-be sex partners, rejected him, Zeuswouldn't take "no" for an answer. While his victim slept, Zeus spilled his seed on her. In duecourse, Cybele gave birth to Agdistis, a hermaphroditic demon so strong and wild the other godsfeared him. In their terror they cut off his male sexual organ. From its blood sprang an almondtree.The river Sangarius had a daughter named Nana who ate the fruit of this almond tree. As a result,Nana became pregnant and delivered a child which she tried to kill by exposing it to the cold. Butinfant death was not to be the child’s fate. Instead, reared by area shepherds, the boy soonbecame healthy and handsome -- so handsome his grandmother Cybele fell in love with him.The boy, whose name was Attis, was unaware of the love Cybele bore him. In time, Attis saw theking of Pessinus' beautiful daughter, fell in love, and wished to marry her. The goddess Cybelebecame insanely jealous. As revenge for her not returning her love, she drove Attis (her grandson) mad. Running crazy through the mountains, Attis stopped at the foot of a pine tree.There Attis castrated and killed himself.
Attis' flesh would have decayed had not Zeus stepped in to assist Cybele in the resurrection of Attis. A yearly ritual was performed to purify the body of the dead Attis. The priests -- referred toas Galli or Gallae -- were emasculated in emulation of Attis. A pine tree is chopped down,covered with violets and carried to the shrine of Cybele on Mt. Dindymus. There Attis is mournedfor 3 days. Then, when Cybele brings him back to life, there is a wild and joyful celebration.
•
Priests:
The priests and priestesses of Cybele, were called galli. Their goal was to transcend gender inorder to become more like Attis (the father God, son/lover of Cybele) and Cybele (the mother goddess). Attis was castrated and Cybele was a virgin. In order to become more like their gods,all galli voluntarily castrated themselves, and were involved in ritual sexuality with theworshippers that would come to the temple.The Romans had difficulty accepting the gender-variant nature of the galli activities (crossdressing and castration), and Roman citizens were prohibited from becoming galli, primarilybecause of their repulsion of emasculation.
The Jews would have had obvious difficulty with this, as it was a rebellion from their ideaof holiness. (gender confusion and holiness discussion from Leviticus notes)
•
Practices:
During their annual festival, the Day of Blood, the galli would wander the streets in full cross-dress: amulets, flowing robes, make-up, depilated bodies and long hair dyed blond. They woulddance in a frenzy with tambourines and flutes, often with knives or swords, with which they wouldcut their arms, letting blood to help them tell fortunes for the people who would give them money.In both the Greek and Roman sources, gender-variant, frenzied and orgiastic festival behaviorsare described, continuing at least up to the 4th century CE. Most of the Christian invectives focuson their gender-variant sexual behaviors, as encompassed in the pagan rituals.
o
Firmicus describes the behavior as of the galli using language reminiscent of Paul’s attacks in Romans 1:
In their very temples one may see scandalous performances,accompanied by the moaning of the throng: men letting themselves behandled as women, and flaunting with boastful ostentatiousness thisignominy of their impure and unchaste bodies. They parade their misdeeds in the public eye. … Next, being thus divorced frommasculinity, they get intoxicated with the music of flutes and invoke their goddess to fill them with an unholy spirit so that they can ostensibly predict the future to fools. What sort of monstrous and unnatural thing isall this? They say they are not men, and indeed they aren't; they want to pass as women.
(Firmicus, The Error of Pagan Religions, 4.2)
o
Lucretius in the 2nd century CE describes them:
The Galli come: And hollow cymbals, tight-skinned tambourines resound around to bangings of their hands; the fierce horns threaten with araucous bray; The tubed pipe excites their maddened minds in Phrygianmeasures; they bear before them knives, wild emblems of their frenzy.
(The Nature of Things, 2.611)
o
Juvenal, in the 1st century CE, describes a similar scene:
There's the Good Goddess, whose rites and mysteries scarcely are secrets, not when the flute music stirs the pelvis, and there they come sweeping, carried away by the horns and the wine, Priapus's maenads, tossing their manes and howling, craving, in absolute frenzy, the beast with two backs, the gymnastics of lust, and their limbs fairly oozing passions unmixed wine.
(Satire 6.315ff)
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