A British church leader’s suggestion that the Bible might endorse gay relationships has raised fresh questions about the scriptural basis for Christian homophobia — and prompted a strong denial from some local churches.
The Guardian reported this week that the Anglican Bishop of Liverpool, James Jones, had apologised for objecting, with eight other bishops, to the appointment of gay cleric Jeffrey John as Bishop of Reading.
In the essay, Making Space for Truth and Grace, in A Fallible Church, Jones urges Anglicans to ‘acknowledge the authoritative biblical examples of love between two people of the same gender, most notably in the relationship of Jesus and his beloved [John] and David and Jonathanâ€.
The Guardian describes Jones as a ‘conservative evangelicalâ€.
Reacting, the international coordinator of evangelical umbrella group Christian Action Network, Taryn Hodgson, said: ‘Clear passages of scripture show that all forms of homosexuality are wrong and against God’s will.â€
Hodgson referred the Mail & Guardian to NGK minister and North West University lecturer Peet Botha, who said ‘the Bible consistently forbids romantic, sexual and marital same-sex relationships in explicit and implicit sanctions from Genesis through Revelationâ€.
There was not one example in the Bible or Jewish commentaries of a homoerotic relationship, he said.
The Vicar-General of the Anglican Church, Bishop David Beetge, was more cautious, saying his church was ‘still in the process of study and reflection on this issueâ€.
The story of Jonathan and (later king) David in the Old Testament book of Samuel hints in a different direction, recounting that they ‘made a covenant, because he [David] loved him as his own soulâ€. The word for ‘covenant†is used elsewhere in the Bible (Proverbs 2:17; Malachi 2:14) for a marriage covenant.
Later King Saul, Jonathan’s father, also offers David his daughter saying: ‘Thou shalt this day be my son-in-law a second time.†When Jonathan dies, David laments: ‘Thy love to me was wonderful, surpassing the love of women.â€
In Same-Sex Unions in Premodern Europe, historian John Boswell documents widespread same-sex marriages in classical times and during the first Christian millennium.
Ceremonies and prayers for such unions were given in church prayer books alongside heterosexual marriage ceremonies, called ‘Prayers for Union†and ‘The Order for Uniting Two Menâ€.
By the 9th century the opposition of church legislators to such unions was becoming more insistent — indicating their frequency. Yet they persisted into the 17th century and, in the Balkans, into the 19th century.
David and Jonathan were often invoked in such ceremonies as epitomising a loving male pair, as were the paired saints Serge and Bacchus.
In the stories of the latter and their martyrdom in about 300AD, they are presented as ‘undivided from each other†and are referred to as ‘the beautiful pair†in a 6th-century Greek hymn. The apostles Philip and Bartholomew had a similar role.
In the New Testament John is referred to consistently as ‘the beloved discipleâ€, while other disciples are not given this distinction. Christian iconography frequently showed John resting his head on Jesus’s shoulder or chest, in a pose of physical intimacy and mutual comfort.