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The purity laws in the Hebrew Bible have been used to clobber LGBTq people. Yet, in the case of at least one of these laws, recorded in Leviticus 18:22, there is greater depth of meaning than meets the eye from an easy, surface reading of the verse. However, because English translators of the verse have used the easy translation of […]
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Postcolonial, feminist, queer, and ethnic hermeneutics helps readers of the bible to develop a feminist sociology of biblical hermeneutics that subverts the ideology of universal truth within the biblical narrative. In her chapter, Convert, Prostitute, or Traitor? Rahab as the Anti-Matriarch in Contemporary Biblical Interpretations, feminist biblical scholar, Susanne Scholz identifies four main sociological clusters that underlie the biblical hermeneutics […]
Read moreRitual transitions in human life always involve festival attire. Commencements, birthdays, baptisms, weddings, and in liturgical Christian traditions: worship services. In Exodus 28 the story of flamboyant priests is encountered. This text expresses queerness on the basis of how detailed the descriptions for garments are in addition to precise instruction on rituals. This essay seeks to identify how Exodus 27-30 […]
Read more“You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.”[1] It is not a surprise that this verse seems to say that gay male sex is forbidden in the eyes of God. The dominant view of western Christianity forbids same-sex relations. This verse is one of the clobber passages that people cite from the Bible […]
Read moreScripture is filled with complex mysteries and modern scholars continue to struggle over the complexity of them. The story of David and Jonathan is one of those great mysteries of homoerotism in the bible. Since this infinity between the two happens prior to the philosophical era, it is difficult to describe or contend if the relationship between these two men […]
Read moreThere is hope in the struggle for faithful LGBTQ people to see themselves in the Holy texts that shape their churches and communities.[1] When people of faith ask, “where does authority come from for the direction of our journey,” in most mainline denominations the answer is: “From the Bible.”[2] This answer sounds reasonable from a Christian standpoint. The problem arises […]
Read moreA viscous attempt at rape. An immigrant family fleeing for their lives. Sulfur and fire raining down upon the unrighteous. With elements like these, it is not surprising that the story of the judgment and destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah found in Genesis 19 has arrested the attention of Scripture readers throughout the millennia. A surprising and unexpected interlude amid […]
Read moreThe obscure story of King Eglon and the Israelite deliverer, Ehud, found in Judges 3 can be read through a variety of hermeneutical lenses. The narrative begins, “The Israelites lived among the Canannites, the Hittites, the Ammorites, The Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites” and were sold into slavery because they “did what was evil in the sight of YHWH”. […]
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