FOREWORD

that the Book of Leviticus should be divided into two volumes?

   Volume 1 derives from Moses' meeting with his god Yahweh on Mt. Sinai some time in the 16th century B.C., but volume 2 was an addition of ten chapters of laws (Lev. 17-26) conceived by an early Jewish (Israelite) priest in the 6th century B.C. and is known by Biblical scholars as the "Holiness Code?"

that homosexuality is not a sin; that in Leviticus 18:22  the 6th century B.C. priest described same-sex sexual activity as a taboo (toevah), which means something abhorrent or abominable, especially idolatry such as the worship of the fertility gods Baal and Asherah, but not a sin (which he described as (zimah), like adultery or prostitution?

that the priest regarded homosexuality as "unclean" behavior for worshipers of their god Yahweh, therefore abhorrent or abominable in their special relationship with Yahweh?   that the term "abomination" in Lev.18:22 was applied to whatever the early Jews considered foreign to their worship of Yahweh?

that the early Jews condemned, ridiculed and scorned their neighbors and their neighbors' religious beliefs by changing  vowels in the names of their gods to the Hebrew vowel "o", a vowel of shame (Molech > Moloch)?



And that they substituted the word for house (zebul) with the word housefly (zebub) to refer to the Canaanite god  Baalzebul ("Lord of the house") as Baalzebub (Beelzebub, "lord of the flies") and to show their contempt for him?

 

that the destruction of the ancient towns of Sodom and Gomorrah resulted from a natural catastrophe, not because of God's wrath?  And that the moral of the story of Sodom and Gomorrah was the inhospitality shown by the townspeople toward Lot's angelic guests, not homosexuality.

                      Don Frederick

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