Just an update on my earlier post regarding what the Bible does say about homosexuality (a fact-based post BTW). If you don't believe in the truth of the Bible, that's OK too. Once again, I'm just trying to clarify what it does say for those who are interested without casting a judgement.
The nuts-and-bolts rules section of Leviticus, Chapter 18 addresses sexual relations. It starts with "The Lord said to Moses" and then gets into it. After going through a long list of: don't sleep with your daughters, mothers, sisters, mother's sisters, etc. etc., we come to verse 22:
Quote:
Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman, that is detestable.
Do not have sexual relations with an animal and defile youreself with it. A women must not present herself to an animal to have sexual relations with it, that is perversion.
|
It then goes on to say that actions as included in the long list above were how the nations that God was going to displace (Philistines, Cannonites, etc) became defiled.
Regarding the translation of the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, the most recent "translations" that I'm aware of were compared with the "Dead Seas Scrolls" copies of the relevent texts, which are hundreds, if not 1000 years earlier then some of the earliest copies of "Old Testment" texts.* Since I don't read ancient Hebrew, I've had to make use of an English language translation done by Martin Abegg Jr, Peter Flint and Eugene Ulrich titled "The Dead Sea Scrolls Bible" which should be available at BN or Borders.
In regards to Genesis, Chapter 18, verses 1 through 20 were not found in the scroll fragments. Here's what was found, note that anything that is within [] can be infered based on the spacing and location on the scroll, and I've filled in here based other traditional texts, but was not explicitly found. The text in
Bold was found.
(starting with verse 20
Quote:
|
[And the Lord said, "Because of the cry of Sodom]and[Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grieveous I will go down now, and see whether] they have done as ba[dly as its outcry which is come] to me.[ And if not, I will know"]
|
The rest of chapter 18 that was found has the conversation where Abraham negotiates with God to try to save the two cities becuase of just a few rightious people. There is a gap in the scroll after verse 25. The scroll in question was found in cave 8 in Qumran.
There is an example of a possible update as a result of the Dead Seas Scrolls in verse 25, where Abraham is negotiating with God, which in traditional bibles reads...
Abraham speaking:
Quote:
|
Far be it from you to do such a thing -- to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike...
|
(New International Version translation)
Now the traditional Masoretic text of the Hebrew Bible reads the same verse this way (English translation):
Quote:
|
Far be it from you to do such a thing as this -- to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike...
|
The scroll from the 8th cave in Qumran has that same verse this way (English translation):
Quote:
|
[Far be it from you] to do t[his thing, to slay the the righteous with the wicked...
|
Note that the Dead Seas scrolls version of the verse explicity does not contain the words "such as". Are your eyes glossing over yet? Does the shear magnitude of the change in the text shake the very foundations of the Christian faith????
Nah.
That's a pretty average example of the changes resulting from "new translations" stemming from new, more ancient copies of the texts. dhoward, what "New Translations" are you referring to? It would be interesting to delve into changes you are describing.
* Trivia fact, do you know that prior to the "Dead Seas Scrolls", the oldest written copies of the "Old Testement" were not as old as the oldest writen copies of the "New Testement".