Sexual Orientation Is NOT Mentioned In The Bible

Our understanding of sexual orientation as we know it today did not exist 50 years ago, much less in biblical times.  Only in 1973 did the American medical, psychiatric and legal professions begin to recognize that homosexuality is an orientation and not a choice, illness or crime.  See Psychiatry and Medicine . 

Sexuality is seldom discussed in the Bible.  The Bible view of the role of women as property, the absolute importance placed on having children to continue the family, the customs and demands related to marriage and inheritance and an obvious demonstration of male dominance and control can be seen vividly described in Genesis chapter 38.

In the Bible, all women were property that belonged to their father or husband.    Women were members of the covenant people of God only because of their relationship to their father, brother or husband.  Women could not carry circumcision, the "sign of the covenant," in their bodies.  The Old Testament does not include a belief in "heaven" or a future time of reward and continued life.  The only way a man could live on after his death was through his children ("seed").  No man was allowed to remain unmarried.  Old Testament Hebrew does not have a word for bachelor.

Marriage in the Bible was not based on romantic love but on a legal contract usually entered by parents on behalf of their children.  The average age for marriage in the time of Jesus was 14 for girls and 16 for boys.  Average life expectancy was only 25 years.  The Greek word for romantic love, EROS, is never used in the New Testament, though it was the most common word for love in the Greek speaking world.

To read bits and pieces of biblical material into present day culture is to misrepresent the Bible and to distort its message of God's love in Christ for all people in today's world.

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