Bible might have originally permitted gay sex, leading scholar reveals

A leading Bible scholar has claimed that passages in the Bible originally permitted gay sex – before passages were added calling it an ‘abomination’.

The extraordinary claim from Harvard fellow and Biblical scholar Idan Dershowitz calls into question the text of Leviticus that have been used to justify centuries of religious homophobia.

Leviticus 18:22 states: “You shall not lie with a man as with a woman; it is an abomination.”

Anti-gay protesters quote from Leviticus to oppose equal marriage (Peter Macdiarmid/Getty)

However, Dershowitz believes the Bible’s teachings on the subject may have once read very differently.

Writing in the New York Times, he explained: “Like many ancient texts, Leviticus was created gradually over a long period and includes the words of more than one writer.

“Many scholars believe that the section in which Leviticus 18 appears was added by a comparatively late editor, perhaps one who worked more than a century after the oldest material in the book was composed.”

He added: “There is good evidence that an earlier version of the laws in Leviticus 18 permitted sex between men.

“In addition to having the prohibition against same-sex relations added to it, the earlier text, I believe, was revised in an attempt to obscure any implication that same-sex relations had once been permissible.”

Dershowitz says the biggest clue about the shifting status of gay sex is in the incest laws of Leviticus, which details a list of relatives with whom you are not allowed to have sex, and shows “strong evidence of editorial intervention”.