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What does the Bible say about homosexuality? (is being gay a sin?)

EthicsCare noteMulti-view · no verdict

Short answer

Care note: most people asking this are gay themselves, or love someone who is. This page sets out the texts and how Christians read them. It is not a verdict on any person, and Christians across every position on this question agree that contempt and cruelty toward gay people are wrong and that the church has often been guilty of both.

A small number of passages are involved, and Christians disagree about what they prohibit and how far the prohibition reaches. The passages are: Genesis 19:5; Leviticus 18:22; Leviticus 20:13; Romans 1:26; Romans 1:27; 1 Corinthians 6:9; 1 Timothy 1:10; and Jude 1:7.

Two broad readings are held by serious, believing scholars, set out below with what each rests on. Neither is endorsed here.

It is worth naming what the argument is not about. It is not about whether the passages are in the Bible, nor about whether God loves gay people, nor about whether same-sex attraction is chosen. It is about what the texts prohibit and whether that prohibition covers a committed same-sex relationship as opposed to the practices the writers would have had in view.

Question

What does the Bible say about homosexuality? Is being gay a sin?

Analysis

The two main readings

The historic readingThe revisionist reading
HoldsThe texts prohibit same-sex sexual activity as such; the consistent pattern of Scripture presents marriage as between a man and a womanThe texts prohibit exploitative or idolatrous practices known in that world, and do not address a covenanted, equal same-sex partnership, a category the ancient world did not have in view
Leans onThe prohibitions are unqualified (Leviticus 18:22; Leviticus 20:13); Paul describes both male and female (Romans 1:26; Romans 1:27), which does not fit pederasty; the creation pattern is cited by Jesus (Matthew 19:4; Matthew 19:5)The practices named in that culture were pederasty, temple prostitution and the use of slaves; Romans 1 describes people exchanging what was natural to them, which is read as about people acting against their own nature; Sodom's sin is named elsewhere as pride and neglect of the poor (Ezekiel 16:49; Ezekiel 16:50)
Held byRoman Catholic; Eastern Orthodox; most evangelical bodies; the majority position across Christian historySeveral mainline Protestant denominations; a growing minority of scholars and churches

The two contested Greek words

1 Corinthians 6:9 uses malakoi and arsenokoitai, and the translation of both is genuinely debated. Our six hosted versions render them differently, which is itself worth seeing.

  • malakos literally means soft. It carried a range of meanings in Greek, from luxurious to effeminate, and is used elsewhere in the New Testament of clothing (Matthew 11:8). Whether it names a sexual role or a broader moral softness is disputed.
  • arsenokoitēs is a rare word, and Paul may have coined it. It joins the two words arsēn (male) and koitē (bed) that stand next to each other in the Greek Old Testament of Leviticus 18:22. The historic reading takes this as decisive: Paul built a word straight out of the Leviticus prohibition. The revisionist reading answers that a word's meaning is not settled by its parts, and that its rare later uses are often in contexts of economic exploitation.

Both sides make a real philological argument here. Neither is inventing its case.

On Sodom

Genesis 19:5 is often assumed to be the Bible's main statement on this subject. It is worth reading carefully: the account describes the men of the city demanding to gang-rape two visitors. Ezekiel names Sodom's sin as arrogance, excess and refusing to help the poor and needy (Ezekiel 16:49; Ezekiel 16:50), and Jude 1:7 refers to sexual immorality and pursuing unnatural desire. Both sides cite these. Most interpreters across positions agree that an attempted gang rape is not a useful text for evaluating consensual relationships, and the historic reading generally rests its case on Leviticus and Romans rather than on Genesis 19.

What both sides agree the Bible teaches

PointWhere
Every person bears God's imageGenesis 1:27
Sexual ethics apply to everyone, not only to some1 Corinthians 6:18; Hebrews 13:4; 1 Thessalonians 4:3
The lists Paul writes include sins common in every congregation1 Corinthians 6:9; 1 Corinthians 6:10
The same passage ends by saying that is what some of them were1 Corinthians 6:11
Contempt, mockery and violence are excludedJames 2:1; James 3:9; Luke 6:31
Judging outsiders is not the church's job1 Corinthians 5:12

1 Corinthians 6:11 is worth noticing whichever reading you hold. Paul finishes his list not with condemnation but with washing, sanctification and justification, and he includes greed, drunkenness and slander in the same sentence as the sexual sins. Both sides point out that churches have often applied that list very unevenly.

On orientation and behaviour

Traditions holding the historic reading generally distinguish between attraction, which they do not treat as itself sinful, and behaviour. Catholic teaching, for instance, calls for gay people to be accepted with respect and compassion and rejects unjust discrimination, while holding that same-sex sexual acts are not permitted. Some evangelical bodies take a similar line; others do not draw the distinction as clearly. Traditions holding the revisionist reading generally see the distinction as insufficient.

What is not in dispute among these bodies is that same-sex attraction is not chosen and that reparative or conversion therapy has caused documented harm; the major bodies on both sides of the interpretive question have moved away from endorsing it.

Where this leaves an honest answer

The disagreement is real, it is between people who take Scripture seriously, and it is not resolved by quoting a verse at someone who has already read it. Bubble Bible does not take a side on it. What we can do is show you the passages, show you both readings in their strongest form, tell you where the translations differ, and let you check every word of it yourself.

Sources, trace every one

Every cited verse, in full. Tap any reference to open it in the reader.

  • Genesis 19:5bsb

    They called out to Lot, saying, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Send them out to us so we can have relations with them!”

  • Leviticus 18:22bsb

    You must not lie with a man as with a woman; that is an abomination.

  • Leviticus 20:13bsb

    If a man lies with a man as with a woman, they have both committed an abomination. They must surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.

  • Romans 1:26bsb

    For this reason God gave them over to dishonorable passions. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones.

  • Romans 1:27bsb

    Likewise, the men abandoned natural relations with women and burned with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.

  • 1 Corinthians 6:9bsb

    Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who submit to or perform homosexual acts,

  • 1 Timothy 1:10bsb

    for the sexually immoral, for homosexuals, for slave traders and liars and perjurers, and for anyone else who is averse to sound teaching

  • Jude 1:7bsb

    In like manner, Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, who indulged in sexual immorality and pursued strange flesh, are on display as an example of those who sustain the punishment of eternal fire.

  • Matthew 19:4bsb

    Jesus answered, “Have you not read that from the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’

  • Matthew 19:5bsb

    and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’?

  • Ezekiel 16:49bsb

    Now this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed, and complacent; they did not help the poor and needy.

  • Ezekiel 16:50bsb

    Thus they were haughty and committed abominations before Me. Therefore I removed them, as you have seen.

  • Matthew 11:8bsb

    Otherwise, what did you go out to see? A man dressed in fine clothes? Look, those who wear fine clothing are found in kings’ palaces.

  • Genesis 1:27bsb

    So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

  • 1 Corinthians 6:18bsb

    Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a man can commit is outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body.

  • Hebrews 13:4bsb

    Marriage should be honored by all and the marriage bed kept undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterers.

On contested questions we show every major view, attributed and cited, and pick no winner. Answers are synthesized from primary sources, truth you can trace, not opinion.

What does the Bible say about homosexuality? (is being gay a sin?) · Bubble Bible