Homosexuality, the Holiness Code, and Ritual Pollution: A Case of Mistaken Identity

Abstract

The Holiness Code in Leviticus contains a well-known list of illicit sexual practices. Two infamous Levitical verses (18.22 and 20.13) have been widely interpreted as forbidding and calling for punishment for carnal relations between two adult males and have even influenced modern legislation regarding homosexuality and marriage equality in many countries. It is the suggestion of the author that the verses do not in fact refer to homosexual acts at all, but instead should be interpreted as forbidding and calling for punishment of the act of two males sharing simultaneously the bed of a single woman, which in the context of the Holiness Code and its other statutes aims at prohibiting the creation of offspring whose patronage is unclear and form is abominable, which in turn would lead to the ritual pollution of the Promised Land.