The corrections are: the proper rendering of these two contentious verses…

Thank you for your patience and understanding.

I do not bother trying to expose the vagaries of especially the Book of Leviticus.

Jesus the Christ brought one new law, that of unconditional non-judgemental love. love again not as an emotion but as an action verb. Don’t tell me that you love me, show me by being kind, thoughtful, generous, forgiving, patient, all of the fruit of the Holy Spirit that St. Paul talks about. did you ever read the New Testament in its entirety? Yes, I have read every verse of every book in the entire Judeo-Christian Bible book? Well, have you, punk? Go ahead, make my day.

By the boo, did it ever seep into your little trap door shut mind that the one you worship as a god incarnate, was in fact a Jewish man? probably not as most of you here probably didn’t either.

Wher was he born? Beth-Lechem which does mean in Hebrew; House of Bread. No mystery, no mystification. Let the dross fall from your eyes and do get some understanding, you judgemental cunt.

Andy B.

Both Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13 – yes I am very familiar with these two verses. Inquiring of Jewish schalors about these verses from the Hebrew to the English, I was assured time and again that there is definitely misrendering of the meaning in both these verses. That is right. Literal rendering of Lev 18:20 is very awkard and should actually read: “No man shall lie with another man ‘as in the lyings of a woman.’ The expression, “as in the lyings of a woman” is only used only one or two other times in scripture in Tanach. In that other context, its use indicates that it refers to the rape of a woman by a male aggressor. Therefore the proper rendering of both verses Leviticus 18:20 & 20:13 are about male rape of a man and must rendered as follows: “No man shall rape another man, this too is abomination in the eyes of the Lord.” Sum total!!!! Male of men is also distasteful and unacceptable to the Lord.

The final invective of 20:13 is more condemmning. In this case both the male aggressor and his unwilling male victim are condemned even the same expression is used: “as in the lyings of a woman” is a Hebrew expression that is expressly about male male rape. Nothing more. It is not a condemnation of all same-sex love or sexual activity.

Although, Leviticus 20:13 condemns both the male rapist and his male victim to death, the redeeming feature of these verses is that there is no final weight of judgement added in that this part is missing and it is very significantly absent: “So says the Lord your God.” It is missing and therefore this uncharitable condemnation cannot be taken as sanction by God himself but is a human made decision, therefore nothing but a human made prejudice that can be altered because it is not an injunction sanctioned by God: the usual statement that indicated that this is a pronouncement made by God – So says the Lord – is very conspicuously absent.

Now what I have just presented to you is the Jewish scholarly traddition of expounding on THEIR scriptures using a type of mishnaic and midrashic discussion about their scripture. Tanach and all of the additional books of Old Testament belong exclusively to Jews. The O.T. belongs exclusively to Jews and are only on loan to all of you Christians who do a very poor job of both understanding this and respecting it. You don’t understand a verse or passage in O.T.? Ask a respected Jewish scholar to comment on their own scriptures, see what answers you get. The types of answers that you do get from a Jew about their scriptures will no doubt make you very uconfortable.

I am not a Jew but to understand their sacred texts better I did immerse myself in the Jewish frame of mind to understand their scriptures from their perspcetive. anmd to understand scripture better as a whole. I am a biblical scholar of some note, as well as having formal theological training in a Christian format that I no longer adhere to. Nonetheless, the knowledge that I have acquired based onJewish studies is relaible as well as verifiable for those who are not blinded by the ridiculous notion that the whole book was qritten by one deity. Men wrote the many books of this larger collection of Judaica. Maybe even a few Jewish women scholars contributed to writing these books. The most important feature to recognise about these books is not that they were supposedly written by an imaginary god but they are really nothing mjore than a historical account somewhat accurate about how a ragtag group of people way back around 2,160 BCE following an odd man named Avram leaving from an ancient city called Ur eventually after long struggles formed a nation called Israel. If you read this book thinking that it is a mystery, then you simply will not understand it. If you do not recognise that the whole of O.T. As long as you blindly believe that this book is a mystery written by dog(sic – intentional) and cannot be understood, you have condemned yourself to hell right here on earth. No, you have condemned us all to hell right here on earth. Christians give up your evil ways, Your God and saviour did say in his own words: “Judge not and you too shall not be judges.” So who are you to judge. I’m just pointing the finger, not judging. But if the shoe should fit…

Now, I would like to congratulate Bishop Robinson and his husband/partner.

Since i am also a religious historian, you all should know that the very first Believers who followed the teashings of Jesus called the Christ, did bless and fully accept same-sex couples as meant-to-be, as soul-mates, sacred other, finally in the Jewish tradition of besheret. If you were meant-to-be, gender was no longer an issue. Jesus the Christ did say that all of the old Laws of Moses had been fulfilled so that the old laws of eye for eye and tooth for tooth, of retribution and revenge were no longer to be observed. Yeshua ben-Yosef, whom you all still call Jesus the Christ, said himself that he brought a new set of laws based on the spirit of reconciliation, of forgiveness – How many times should I forgive someone who has given me offence? Seven times. Yeshua son of Yosef answers: You must forgive not seven times but seven times seventy?” Do not make the error of interpreting this literally also, not just 490 times (7 X 70 = 490). this number indicates an ifinity of times in Hebraic thinking. Jesus the Christ brought a new law of unconditional love, never, condemning, never judgemental, never mean or hateful. But what can we expect from dumbass right wing Christians who do the exact opposite of what their Lord and God commands. No all of those passages in the pseudo-Jewish Christian testament that speak of forgiveness, unconditional love, totally ignored because of such mindless statements: I am saved, Jesus is my Lord!! If you think that that is all you have to say to get to your imaginary heaven, then you right-wing Christian have already condemned yourselves to an eternity of suffering.

Yeshua ben-Yosef v’ Miryam min Beth-Lechem v’ Yirushalayim, whom you mistakenly call Jesus the Christ, was a total lover of humankind. You moralising, judgemental and condemning self-righteous jackasses that actually call yourselves chriatians are heinous, and not of Him at all; not at all.

You condemn yourselves to your own imaginary hell every time. Personally, I rejoice every time that I hear your own condemnations from your own mouths. I don’t even have to do it for you.

B.A. Religious Studies, maybe it’s only a B.A. but all of the additional studies qualifies me for an M.A. and PhD in the same subjects, biblical exegesis, theological discourse.

Finally, all of you self-righteous Chrisitans, being self-righteous, the very thing that your God and Savior said you should do, is one of the seven deadly sins, and you are all going right straight to hell where you all belong with your crazy screwed ideas about being saved. I will laugh all of the way. You all think you’re saved; you’ve all condmned yourselves to eternal suffering in hell.

Don’t worry though, because there is no such thing as hell or heaven for that matter. But you won’t find that out until after you die.

To Cardenas: take the time to read this and understand that your knowledge and understanding of scripture is sorely perverted and completely off base. Good luck. I do hope that you learn more about the real Jewish man, mystic, seer, prophet, master astrologer and New Age motivational speeker called Yeshua ben-Yosef v’ Miryam. This means Jesus son of joseph and Mary. It is in transliterative Hebrew. Not a son of god, not a god incarnate. As “ha Moshi’ach” – this means that he is the one who is “anointed with the oils”, Yesua ben-Yosef was a man, just a man, but a very gifted man.

More homeletics on a different subject later.

Andy B.

We do not seek the approval of the church, nor do we seek your personal approval what we want is the same fundamental rights our parents and their parents have, and what our founding fathers wanted for all American Citizens. The “Church” claims that marriage should be sanctified, however the sanctity of marriage has been thrown out the window long before we asked for it. When an annulment is granted by church for any other reason besides death it has belittled itself and their core values. Furthermore any church that refuses to make open its doors to all God’s children should not call itself a God fearing church thus not a church at all. Do not continue to twist God’s words to benefit your organization, and spread hate throughout his world. You are meant to spread his love and teach of his ways, not put your own spin on biblical text.
- Unifyhouston.org