The Relevance of the Old Testament

I have spent a lot of time in my own head and in books of world religions. The one that fascinated me most, though, is obviously Christianity. It is not because of my location in the world(known to most as the “bible belt”), but rather the fact that it is the largest religion in the world. That fact alone gives it my interest. So, with that interest in hand, I began to read, and research, and scrutinize.

The focus of my most recent study was homosexuality and its nature in the bible. What I instead came across was the idea that the half of the bible I was staring at, namely the Old Testament, was actually quite irrelavant to the argument against homosexuality.

If not even for the paradoxes and nonsensical phrases filling Old Testament alone, the Old Testament is called “Old” for a reason. But before I go on about that, allow me to illustrate the irrelevant nature of the Old Testament with evidence; as is only fair.

Leviticus 18:22 (God speaking to Moses) “Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind: it is an abomination.”

This is an outright protestation against homosexuality, yes? What you don’t realize is that the word in Hebrew that abomination comes from actually means unclean. It wasn’t even a sin, you just weren’t supposed to do it. I know, confusing. But if you don’t understand, let me demonstrate with an earlier verse:

Leviticus 11:10-11 (God speaking to Moses and Aaron) 10“And all that have not fins and scales in the seas(shellfish), and in the rivers, of all that move in the waters, and of any living thing which is in the waters, they shall be an abomination unto you.” 11“They shall even be an abomination unto you; you shall not eat of their flesh, but ye shall their carcasses in abomination.”

These two verses state that not only eating shellfish is an abomination, but having dead ones in your possession at all. If abomination means sin then a person could actually go to hell for the possession of shellfish. However, that is not what the word worked. You could be punished for infractions on these abominations; you could even be made an outcast, but it did not send you to hell.

So, shellfish and homosexuality are on the same level Christians? No, you certainly don’t think so and neither would I. I believe shellfish to the much worse offense. (No offense to any shellfish reading this.)