The Roman Marriage Ban, Which Prohibited Serving Roman Soldiers From Legal Heterosexual Marriage,

May Have Encouraged Same Sex Relationships In The Roman Army.

According to Dr. Sara Phang, the Roman marriage ban, instituted by Augustus before the birth of Christ, lasted until AD 197, when Septimius Severus ended it.

Remember, our topic is the Roman Centurion and his pais.

We are exploring whether or not Matthew, Luke and the Holy Spirit, in Matthew 8:5-13 and Luke 7:1-10, intentionally used the Greek word pais with the meaning of “beloved or same sex lover.”

To support her assertions about the Roman marriage ban, Dr. Phang relies in part, on the Egyptian Cattaoui papyrus, a second century Greek document which summarizes seven trials held between AD 114-142.

In these trials, Roman prefects judged the marriages of Roman soldiers illegal because they sired children while in Roman service. Phang traces the Roman marriage ban through Greek and Latin papyri and clay tablets from Roman Egypt.

The Marriage Of Roman Soldiers, (13 BC-AD 235): Law And Family In The Imperial Army, Sara Elise Phang, Brill Academic Publishers, 2001, p. 2.

1. Many Roman soldiers were not Roman citizens, therefore they could be accorded fewer legal rights than Roman citizens. The Roman marriage ban denied soldiers the right to legal marriage while they served in the Roman army.

2. Marriage among soldiers was viewed as an expense which government need not subsidize. The Roman upper classes deplored heterosexual soldier marriage and the problems it caused the army, as feminizing the Roman legions. The Roman marriage ban was seen as a corrective measure against the feminization, which impeded effectiveness of the Roman army as a fighting unit. Thus, the Roman marriage ban for serving Roman soldiers.

3. The Roman marriage ban was seen as a way to restore discipline to the Roman legions after the turmoil of the Roman civil wars.

4. The Roman marriage ban symbolically differentiated between soldiers and civilians while emphasizing soldiers as the ideal of Roman manhood.

1. Sexual relationships with locals, both female and male.

2. Frequenting prostitutes both female and male.

3. Sexual relationships with slaves both female and male.

(Phang, The Marriage Of Roman Soldiers, Chapter Eight, Heterosexual Relations Outside Marriage, p. 229-261.)

Roth points out that Roman soldiers during the Republic habitually brought their personal slaves with them on campaigns. This behavior continued into the Roman Empire, during the ministry of Christ and at the time the New Testament was written.

Historical evidence indicates it was not unusual even for common soldiers, to bring personal slaves on Roman army campaigns. Tacitus, in AD 69, reports that Vespasian’s army of 60,000 soldiers also had more than 60,000 camp followers and slaves. (Complete Works Of Tacitus, 1942, Book II.87 History, March-August, AD 69).

In the early days of the Roman Republic, 510-27 BC, homosexual relationships were officially banned, although these bans were frequently ignored under the Republic and during the first and second centuries AD, when the Roman Republic had become the Roman Empire.

Because the Roman army needed soldiers, many noncitizens from conquered provinces became Roman soldiers. The low social standing of these noncitizens, the ban on legally recognized, heterosexual marriages for serving soldiers and classic Roman indifference to homosexuality at this time in history encouraged same sex relationships in the Roman army of the first century.

The Roman Empire of the first century was well acquainted with male sexuality.

At the time the New Testament was written, the Greek word pais was commonly used to describe one of the partners in a same sex relationship.

As an important part of the Roman Empire, Israel was exposed to Roman culture, with its Greek language and Greek sexual mores.

By the time Matthew wrote his Gospel, Greek civilization had, for six centuries, recognized sexual relationships between men. These relationships were celebrated in literature, art, law and social custom. Ceiling, floor and wall murals, vase paintings, carvings and statues, plays and poetry, even graffiti, depicted sexual relationships between men. In this cultural and historical setting Matthew and Luke used the Greek word pais to describe the partner of the centurion.

Real world citizens of the first century Roman Empire, in which Matthew and Luke put the Greek word pais in the mouth of the Centurion, would not have missed the idiomatic implications of pais.

Using pais when describing the servant of a Roman centurion in the first century is like saying:

Our Common Sense Conclusion

One does not have to be gay or theologically liberal to believe that Matthew, Luke and the Holy Spirit may have intended the story of the Roman Centurion and his pais as a lesson in how to treat those whom many view as social outcasts.

There are four popular analogies which are used to validate Gay Relationships as blessed by God. Click here to examine these four popular analogies.

Here is a real-life example of a prominent gay partnership in scripture - the amazing true love story of Jonathan and David is the greatest human love story in the Bible.

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.

What was a sodomite in the Bible? Was it a homosexual, as many conservative preachers insist or was a sodomite in the Bible always a shrine prostitute who worshipped the Canaanite fertility goddess?

Those who believe that the Centurion’s pais was only a servant and not the same sex partner of the gay 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.

You’ve read about the Roman marriage ban and how it impacts our discussion of The Gay Centurion. Click Here To Return To Gay Christian 101.com Home Page.

In Gay Christian 101: Spiritual Self-Defense For Gay Christians, I list 18 possible ways to interpret the Levitical Holiness Code, where it is alleged to deal with homosexuality.

4. Family Values in the Bible are so different from Traditional family values as taught by Focus On The Family that modern Christians would totally reject the "family values" practiced by Abraham and Sarah, Ruth and Boaz and many of the heroes of faith in the Old Testament.

Did you know that Christians are not required to keep the Old Testament Law to be right with God?