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Here are some of the interpretations I've heard: - It only refers to anal sex. Oral is fine.
- Male to male anal sex was used as a religious ritual in the pre-Judaic religions in Canaan. Much of the rules in that section of Leviticus are about drawing a contrast between their practices and what's right to be done in Judaism. Sex in a non-ritual context (which was unheard of at the time) would be fine.
- Anal sex isn't the problem. Rather, at the time male to male sex was only ever a form of rape and/or domination. For instance, priests and vestal virgins, old Greek men and their apprentices, conquering soldiers and their captives, etc. At the time there was no concept of a healthy, equal homosexual relationship, but that should be considered fine now.
Biblical scholars are creative in their interpretations. Those enough for you?  |
I understand that, but it's still "People are put do death", and does it really matter how many people (if any) it's about? It's still putting people to death, it's like one the most hostile things you can do. That was my point. The sentence, not the criteria.
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Except that few religions (rhetoric aside) treat their books as literal truth. I'll give you the example of Judaism: Mainstream Orthodox Judaism states that God gave Moses two sets of laws, the written law (the Torah/five books of Moses in the Old Testament) and the Oral law (which was handed down from teacher to studen orally until it was written as the Talmud in in the 3rd to 7th centuries A.D.). The Torah is the word of God, but the Talmud tells you how to understand the word of God. Interpretation. F'rexample, 'An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth' is a horrible rule. But the Talmud explains that you're not meant to literally remove the eye from someone who injured someone else's eye. That person has to provide appropriate compensation; the value of an eye for an eye.
Other religions have their own commentaries and interpretations.
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If a book about laws allows multiple interpretation, it's not a good at its job. And people did die (sometimes in pretty horrible ways) over an interpretation of their bible.
People still die over interpretations of muslim holy books.