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PART 2 - Page 4 of 34
5 types of male same-sex sexual activity that existed in Biblical times in the Greco-Roman world
A World where Pederasty and Other Forms of Man-Boy Sex was a way of life

I have concluded from my readings (See Bibliography on page 31 or click here) that there were basically 5 types of male same-sex sexual activity that existed in Biblical times in the Greco-Roman world that the Apostle Paul would have known about and where a large number of Jews lived.  The first thing that you will notice from this list is that most of the sexual behavior on the list is between men and boys. According to Lloyd deMause as he writes in Foundations of Psychohistory on page 50:
 

The child in antiquity lived his earliest years in an atmosphere of sexual abuse. Growing up in Greece and Rome often included being used sexually by older men. The exact form and frequency of the abuse varied by area and date.

In Crete and Boeotia, pederastic marriages and honeymoons were common. Abuse was less frequent among aristocratic boys in Rome, but sexual use of children was everywhere evident in some form. Boy brothels flourished in every city, and one could even contract for the use of a rent-a-boy service in Athens. Even where homosexuality with free boys was discouraged by law, men keep slave boys to abuse, so that free-born children saw their fathers sleeping with boys.

So you will not be surprised to note that 2 adult males living together of more or less the same age are not on the below list.  This practice was unknown in ancient times. It must be emphasized that it is generally believed that these 5 kinds of sexual activities did not exist in ancient Israel as these practices were culturally taboo:

1) Pederasty or paederasty (The love of boys) - The voluntary (on the part of both participants) sexual use of free-born (not slaves) beardless adolescent boys by adult males. The adult male assumed the active sexual role, while the younger boy was always in the passive role. According to Wikipedia, “In Athens, Greece the older man was called ‘erastes’, and he was to educate, protect, love, and provide a role model for his beloved. His beloved was called ‘eromenos’ whose reward for his lover lay in his beauty, youth, and promise.” “And in the ancestral law in ancient Sparta, same-sex relationships were mandated with youths who were coming of age for all adult men, so long as the men eventually took wives and produced children.” There is some disagreement about the nature of such relationships. Was it chaste or sexual? Ideally it was supposed to be chaste. But there is much evidence that the sexual element was very common. In our society today we judge this as wrong because it is considered an abusive relationship due to the inequality, impermanence and dehumanization involved.

2) Boy slave prostitution - Boys who were slaves (also called pet-boys) would be involuntarily forced to provide sexual services for their masters or even their master’s friends. According to Dr. Ralph Blair, “The desired boys were prepubescent or at least without beards so that they seemed like females.” As noted above, there is evidence that there were even brothel houses filled with boys for the purpose of sex. Sometimes these boys were even castrated to prolong their youthful appearance. The most famous example of this is what the Roman Emperor Nero (37 - 68 AD) is reported to have done to one of his beautiful slave-boys named Sporus, who happened to resemble his much beloved wife who had died. According to Suetonius, a prominent Roman historian and biographer, Nero castrated the boy and actually tried to make a woman of him; and he married him with all the usual ceremonies, including a dowry and a bridal veil, took him to his home attended by a great throng, and treated him as his wife.

3) Male prostitution - Adolescent boys and young men (today called call-boys, boy toys, rent-boys or hustlers) voluntarily took on the role of passive women for money. They were known for shaving off any unattractive body hair and were well-coiffured and perfumed.

4) Cult prostitution - Both male and female prostitutes were used in the fertility rites or “sacred sexual orgies” of the pagan religions of Israel’s neighbors in Old and New Testament times. These rites or rituals were part of ceremonies that involved worshiping images of created things or sometimes even of themselves rather than the Creator himself. God has made known repeatedly throughout the Bible that He abhors this practice.  Click Here to read Deuteronomy 23:17 on Page 30 of the Longer Footnotes where cult prostitution is specifically mentioned. 

5) Male-on-male Rape and Sodom and Gomorrah. One example of male-on-male rape is what conquering armies inflicted on the conquered, the aim of which was to humiliate to the extreme, reducing the conquered male to the role of a lowly passive woman, who was considered little better than a slave. Another example is what individual men or groups of men or gangs did when they wanted to hurt and humiliate men they didn’t like. Clearly this practice was not driven by sexual desire, but by brutality and hatred. Many scholars have concluded that this violence and humiliation, male-on-male gang rape, is what the men of Sodom attempted to do to the 2 strangers (angels) in the Sodom and Gomorrah story in Genesis 19.  In other words, the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah was the attempted male-on-male gang rape or extreme lack of hospitality [1], not homosexuality. If all the males in the street were homosexuals, the Lord wouldn’t have had to destroy the city to make it disappear. It would have disappeared on its own for lack of offspring in just a couple of generations. Also, it appears that Lot viewed the men in the street as at least bisexuals, not homosexuals, otherwise why would he offer his own two daughters in place of the 2 strangers (angels). We need to remember here that God had already decided to destroy Sodom previous to this story. So whatever the reason for the city’s destruction, it didn’t have anything to do with the specific sin described in this story at that later time. Also remember that Jesus himself pointed out that the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah was lack of hospitality (Luke 10:10-12): ¹⁰"But whatever city you enter and they do not receive you, go out into its streets and say, ¹¹Even the dust of your city which clings to our feet we wipe off in protest against you; yet be sure of this, that the kingdom of God has come near. ¹²I say to you, it will be more tolerable in that day for Sodom than for that city. (NASB)  Jesus never said anything about homosexuality, ever.

John McNeill, a gay former Jesuit priest, notes in The Church and the Homosexual (1976, 1993) how the modern rediscovery that Sodom was destroyed for inhospitality, not homosexuality per se, presents us "with one of the supremely ironic paradoxes of history. For thousands of years in the Christian West the homosexual has been the victim of inhospitable treatment. Condemned by the Church, he [or she] has been the victim of persecution, torture, and even death. In the name of a mistaken understanding of the crime of Sodom and Gomorrah, the true crime of Sodom and Gomorrah has been and continues to be repeated every day."[2]

What Was The Sin Of Sodom as recorded in Ezekiel?
In Ezekiel 16:49,50 (NIV) it says, "Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy. They were haughty and did detestable things before me. Therefore I did away with them as you have seen".

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Footnotes:
[1] In Lot’s day, hospitality (offering strangers the warmth and protection of one’s roof) was a nearly sacred concept because the notion of hotels was unknown. And any refusal to grant hospitality was considered an extreme breach of the social contract.
[2] McNeill, John J., "The Church and the Homosexual", Boston, Beacon Press, 1976, 1993, page 50. Paragraph taken from "Homosexuality and The Bible: Sodom: An Ancient Story Refashioned" By Bruce L. Gerig
 

Click for Page 5 - Difficult to Understand and Ambiguous Scriptures
                             Malakoi and Arsenokoitai Have Been Translated To Mean Many Different Things Over The Centuries

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