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Pagan Practices - Scripture Links The Prohibitions Of The Holiness Code With Fertility Cult PracticesPagan practices involving same sex activity abounded in the fertility goddess religions of ancient Canaan. It is impossible to understand Leviticus 18:22 without first understanding Leviticus 18:3 and 21. Context is vitally important if we want to correctly interpret the Bible in the twenty first century.
Molech, a Canaanite fire god. Ashtoreth was his fertility goddess consort. God prohibited the worship of these false gods because such worship was abomination to God. Here are two verses nongay Christians love to use against gay people, especially gay Christians. "Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination." Leviticus 18:22. Notice that God carefully placed the prohibitions of Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13 in the context of Molech worship, 18:3 & 21 and 20:2-5 & 23 so we would know what kind of abomination God was talking about.
Molech Idol In A Grove. The Holiness Code prohibited sexual worship of the fertility goddess. That is why God placed the prohibitions of Lev 18:22 & 20:13 in the context of the worship of false gods like Molech and Ashtoreth. Fertility cults in ancient Canaan used same sex activity in worship rituals for many centuries before Israel entered the land.
Ashtoreth, the fertility goddess consort of Molech. This is an ancient Ashtoreth idol. Ashtoreth's male followers worshiped her by offering their seed to the fertility goddess, through anal sex with other men. That is the same sex religious activity God forbad Israel to practice in Lev 18:22 and 20:13.
Commenting on Leviticus 18:21, the NET Bible lists some possible meanings of the men with men prohibition in Lev 18:22.“It could refer to either human sacrifice or a devotion of children to some sort of service of Molech, perhaps of a sexual sort (cf. Lev 20:2-5; 2 Kgs 23:10, etc.). The following quotation from the NET Bible Translation indicates that the context is pagan practices involving prostitution in service to Molech (and by extension, Ashtoreth, Molech's fertility goddess consort, I Kings 11:5-7 & 33; II Kings 23:10). The NET Bible, Leviticus 20:2-5.“Any man from the Israelites or from the foreigners who reside in Israel who gives any of his children to Molech must be put to death... What Was God’s Purpose In Prohibiting Egyptian And Canaanite Fertility goddess Worship?Why would God command the children of Israel not to adopt the abominable pagan practices, the sexual, religious practices of Egypt and Canaan? One reason may be the cult of Isis and Osiris.In the beginning of time, ancient Egyptians believed Osiris ruled Egypt as King, with his sister Isis, as Queen. These brother and sister royals had an incestuous sexual relationship and eventually produced a son named Horus. Egypt is infamous in scripture, for her pagan practices and sexual sins: Leviticus 18:3 & 21 and 20:2-5 & 23; Ezekiel 16:26, 23:3, 20-21.
Rabbi Jacob Milgrom, Hebrew Scholar and author. According to Jacob Milgrom, in his 3000 page Anchor Bible Commentary on Leviticus, (Milgrom, Leviticus 17-22, pp. 1518-1519, 1539), incestuous sexual relationships involving father and daughter, brother and sister, nephew and aunt, uncle and niece were common in Egyptian society, even among non-royals. Moses, Aaron and Miriam were born into an incestuous, nephew-aunt relationship which originated in Egypt.“And the name of Amram’s wife was Jochebed, the daughter of Levi, whom her mother bare to Levi in Egypt: and she bare unto Amram Aaron and Moses, and Miriam their sister.” Numbers 26:59. Marriages between close family members were not prohibited for God’s people until after Israel left Egypt. When God gives Moses the Holiness Code, before Israel enters the land of Canaan, He carefully prohibits pagan practices, cultic practices, sexual practices which might encourage Israel to serve the fertility goddess.
Homosexuality in the twenty first century is not part of ancient Canaanite fertility goddess worship.
Molech Temple and Idol, with a large metal statute of the false god at the entrance. Offering a child sacrifice to Molech involved burning the child in a fire kindled in the belly cavity of the metal idol. In the Bible, God prohibited worship of Molech (and Ashtoreth, his fertility goddess consort), under the rubric of "Molech worship." If homosexual activity today involved fertility goddess worship, one could use Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13, to make a case that those particular sexual activities are wrong. But, a loving, faithful, committed, noncultic relationship between two women or two men has no correlation to the pagan practices and same sex activities intended, in ancient times, to placate and honour the fertility goddess.
Scripture cannot mean now, what it did not mean then.Because God and Moses were referring to the pagan practices and same sex activities of worshipers of the Canaanite fertility goddess, and not faithful, committed, non-cultic relationships between two women or two men, as we understand homosexual relationships today, that greatly affects our interpretation of this passage.Never forget. Scripture cannot mean now, what it did not mean then.If scripture was not referring to all faithful, committed, noncultic homosexual relationships then, scripture is not referring to all loving, committed homosexual relationships now. In plainer words, the prohibitions of Leviticus are not aimed at homosexuality as we understand it today. Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13 were aimed at stopping pagan practices related to the abomination of fertility goddess worship. Outlawing loving, faithful, committed, noncultic homosexual relationships as we understand them today, was not the purpose Moses or God had in mind when Leviticus was written. Pagan Practices Of Fertility Cults - That's What The Bible Prohibits.God and Moses intended to prevent Israel from adopting the pagan practices and illicit sexual worship of the Canaanite fertility cults. That was the problem Israel faced back then and that is the underlying reason for Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13.
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