Homosexuality and Romans 1
May 11, 2015May 11, 2015 J. R. Daniel Kirk Over the past few weeks I have been taking occasional soundings into questions surrounding homosexuality in the ancient world. Just to clarify what has not been clear to some: it is obvious to me that Paul did not approve of (some sort of) same-sex coupling. The question I have been probing is what did he not approve of, and why? I regularly hear that the things Paul stood against were pederasty and temple prostitution . In a couple of previous posts ( here and here ) I questioned whether these forms of same-sex relations existed, and/or might have otherwise been the object of Paul’s scorn. Last week I took up a third possible target for Paul’s same-sex polemic: slave sex . This was a ubiquitous reality in Rome. And, it was built on a system of social hierarchy that was deeply embedded in not only “pagan” Greco-Roman culture, but also early Judaism and nascent Christianity. Jewish and Hellenistic A couple of people have pushed ...