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The Gay Centurion - The Day Jesus Blessed A Gay Relationship A Gay Centurion Comes Out To Jesus.The use of pais in this social and historical context leads some to believe that the story of the Roman centurion and his pais in Matthew 8 and Luke 7 tells the real story of the day Jesus met and blessed a gay man. Although this understanding of the text is controversial, it is important for us to discuss and understand it in our conversation about the Bible and homosexuality. As we begin our study of this true story about a gay Centurion, from Matthew 8:5-13 & Luke 7:1-10, it is important to remember that we are two thousand years removed from these events. For that reason, traditionalists cannot prove their contention, that the centurion and his pais-servant, were not same sex lovers. It is equally impossible to prove to everyone’s satisfaction, that this was a gay centurion and his pais-beloved-gay lover. If we cannot prove, to everyone’s satisfaction, that this story is about a gay centurion, why bother discussing this controversy? The short answer is that scripture is important and what we believe, based on scripture, is important. For centuries, the organized church has insisted gay people are never presented in the Bible, in a positive light.Many Christians refuse to believe that God would include a positive story about a gay Centurion in the Bible. In recent centuries, many openly gay Christians have been excluded from the spiritual life of the church. Our goal is to examine the available evidence. If the evidence and a faithful, believing approach to scripture supports the understanding that this story is about a gay centurion and his pais-same sex lover, that dramatic fact should be public knowledge.
The Roman Emperor Augustus instituted a ban on heterosexual marriage for serving Roman soldiers, before the birth of Christ. The Roman marriage ban lasted until AD 197, when Septimius Severus ended it. This ban may have encouraged same sex relationships in the first century Roman Army. Does cultural, historical and textual evidence support our belief that the centurion and his pais were lovers in committed, same sex partnership?Those who believe that the Centurion’s pais was only a servant and not the same sex partner of the homosexual Centurion, cite Greek lexicons to prove their case. Since most Biblical Greek lexicons do not mention beloved or same sex lover as possible meanings of pais most nongay Christians insist same sex lover could not possibly be the meaning of pais. Is there cultural, historical and linguistic evidence which indicates that beloved or same sex lover is the probable meaning of pais in Matthew and Luke’s story of the centurion?
What Was The Meaning Of "pais" In The First Century Context?Many languages use idiomatic expressions. Pais conveyed the idiomatic meaning of same sex lover. The idiomatic meaning of words derives from the way a particular culture uses a word. Idiom refers to a way of using words that is natural to native speakers of a language but which does not convey the literal meaning of the words. An idiomatic expression uses a word in a way different than its literal meaning.
Those are idiomatic expressions with a meaning different from the literal meaning of the words used.Just so, the Greek word pais carried an idiomatic meaning for native Greek speakers for many centuries prior to Matthew writing his Gospel. That well-known, widely recognized idiomatic meaning was "beloved or same sex lover." That Matthew and Luke possibly used pais with the meaning of same sex lover raises the interesting possibility that Jesus met and blessed a gay centurion who was honest enough to tell Jesus he was gay. Remember, in our story, the Centurion uses the word pais to describe his sick "servant." He is an utterly honest man and refuses to insult Jesus by asking for healing under false pretences. The gay Centurion openly admits to Jesus that he is a gay Centurion by using the Greek word pais to describe his servant. What would you do, in Jesus' place?What if you were in Jesus' place and the gay Centurion came to you, asking healing for his pais-beloved-partner? Would you get in his face and tell him "You're going to roast in hell like a marshmallow if you don't stop being gay?" Would you tell him "Sure I'll heal your partner if both of you promise to join Exodus International and become Ex-Gay."? Or would you do like Jesus did and simply heal the beloved partner of the gay Centurion and affirm his remarkable faith in God? What Did The Word "pais" Mean To Ancient Greek Speaking People?
Thucydides, 460-400 BC, writes of Agathon, 445-400 BC, the pais, same sex lover of Pausanias, King of Sparta, in History of the Peloponnesian War. Their relationship began when Agathon was 18 and continued for twenty years. Eupolis, a playwright, 446-411 BC, references Agathon, an exceptionally good-looking man who, in his late teens, was the paidika or pais of Pausanias. Their same sex relationship continued to flourish when Agathon was in his thirties.
Plato, 360 BC, in his Symposium, refers to the beloved and lover relationship, mentioning beloved eighteen times.
Callimanchus, 305-240 BC, Greek poet and Chief Librarian of the famed Alexandrian library, wrote about the pais as same sex lover in his literature.  Ancient Alexandria (in Egypt) was a cosmopolitan city of Jews, Egyptians, Greeks and Romans, a prosperous trade center for East and West. Its library encouraged the mingling of different cultures and spiritual traditions. For a time Alexandria was the greatest center of learning in the ancient world. Alexandria was also the center of pagan mysticism and the birthplace of the most celebrated schools of gnosticism. The Alexandrian library was the most famous library of the ancient world. It was part of a complex called the Alexandrian Museum (or Temple of the Muses). The library and museum were founded in the 3rd century BC and maintained by a long succession of Ptolemies (rulers of ancient Egypt). An auxiliary library was established about 235 BC in the Serapeum, a temple dedicated to the god Serapis. The Alexandrian library systematically collected the knowledge of the ancient world and at its peak is estimated to have held 400,000 to 700,000 scrolls and papyri. In AD 272 the Alexandrian museum and main library were destroyed in the civil war under the Roman emperor Aurelian.
Plutarch, in Life of Pelopidas, written AD 75, tells of the Sacred Band of Lovers, men who lived in intimate pairs. Pelopidas was Captain of the Sacred Band.
That someone would use the Greek word pais to describe a gay Centurion would certainly not surprise the men we've listed. Why does this factual information surprise so many modern Christians? In ancient Greece, the word pais was widely used and widely understood as referring to someone in a same sex relationship. It was not unusual for Roman Centurions and Roman soldiers to have male servants with whom they had a sexual relationship. Remember that Roman Law prohibited heterosexual marriage for serving Roman soldiers in the first century AD. From an historical perspective, a gay Centurion or a Centurion in a same sex relationship is not an unusual thing. Remember that the Bible deals with the culture as it finds it. In the first century, referring to a Centurion's servant as his 'pais' was like saying, "He's a hairdresser in San Francisco!"Those words, either in the Greek idiom of the first century or the American idiom of the twenty first century, convey information about one's sexual orientation. Every Greek speaking person in the first century understood what pais meant when used in the context of a Centurion's slave.We conclude that God can and does bless loving homosexual relationships like the one between a gay Centurion and his pais-beloved, as long as those relationships are within the Biblical moral framework - committed, faithful, noncultic. These Links contain additional helpful information.
Jesus identified the sin of Sodom and it was not homosexuality. I am saying that the Holiness Code was aimed at Israel, in a specific place, the land of Israel, in a specific time period, while Israel was in the land, living under the Law. And what some Christians wrongly interpret as a universal prohibition of all gay relationships is, in reality, a prohibition of shrine prostitution in worship of the Canaanite fertility goddess. You’ve read about the Gay Centurion. Click Here To Return To Gay Christian 101.com Home Page. Did you know that Christians are not required to keep the Old Testament Law to be right with God?
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