Apostle Paul's Aeropagus Address on Mars Hill, Athens |
“Michael Wood’s discovery is remarkable because it solves a colossal paradox regarding Paul’s Greek that has baffled scholars for 2,000 years,” says Dr. William Berg, who taught Greek and Roman Classics at Stanford University.
Paul’s only unequivocal reference to homosexuality is found within Romans 1:18-3:20, a Biblical passage that has mystified scholars for two millennia. “The interpretation of Romans 1:18-3:20 has been notoriously difficult for almost every commentator,” Richard Longenecker, the Distinguished New Testament Scholar at Wheaton College, writes in his book ‘Studies in Paul.’ “Earlier interpreters such as Origen, Jerome, Augustine, and Erasmus wrestled with this issue and it continues to plague commentators today.”’
The passage is riddled with paradoxes. It says that “only the doers of the law will be vindicated by God,” and “by the works of the law no one will be vindicated.” The passage also mysteriously separates idolatrous, homosexual, orgy fests from transgressions worthy of spiritual death. “In finding the definitive solution to Paul’s legal paradox, I inadvertently discovered why he separated the idolatrous, same-sex orgies from the things he considered worthy of spiritual death,” said Wood.
Dr. Berg has spent many months examining the linguistic and historical basis of what he describes as Wood’s “remarkable” discovery. “Michael Wood reveals to the public a well-kept secret, namely that the apostle Paul, like the rest of his contemporaries, divided the commands of the Jewish law into two groups demarcated by Leviticus 19:18—‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the commandments based on loving your neighbor were ‘Justices of the Torah.’ Those not based on Leviticus 19:18 were ‘Jobs of the Torah.’” Dr. Berg explained.
Wood’s solution is definitive, elegant, and verifiable. Romans 2:13-26 teaches: Only the doers of the ‘Justices of the Torah’ will be vindicated before God. Romans 3:20 says, “By the ‘Jobs of the Torah’ no one will be vindicated.” Not only is there no contradiction, but the two teachings have always been simple restatements of each other; the “Great Paradox” is no paradox at all!
This legal solution fully explains Paul’s treatment of homosexuality. Paul’s passage excludes idolatrous, homosexual, orgy fests from things which he considered worthy of spiritual death, things such as “bad-mouthing others,” “deceiving,” and “inflicting pain.” Those engaged in idolatrous, homosexual orgies weren’t violating the Justices (they weren’t violating the precept, “Love your neighbor as yourself”). Therefore, Paul was obliged to separate this from his list of things which did violate the Justices.
The finding is significant because it documents that Paul purposefully separated the same-sex acts; it was a conscious, deliberate decision consistent with the rest of the passage. In fact, it was demanded by the rest of the passage. The resolution of the paradox empirically proves that Paul’s view on homosexuality was very different from what Christians had thought for 2,000 years.
Although Romans 1 contains the only unequivocal reference to homosexuality, anti-homosexual statements have been introduced into other passages in newer versions of the English Bible. As for these modern changes to the Biblical text: “Michael Wood has gone the extra mile in being faithful to Paul’s Greek,” said Dr. Berg. “He shows, time and again, that the words traditionally mistranslated as ‘homosexual,’ ‘effeminate,’ ‘impure,’ and so forth, are really targeting selfish, unloving, unjust activity and have nothing to do with sexual orientation. He shows that once again Paul was condemning those who violate the Justices of the Torah, and nothing more.”
Full details of Michael Wood’s definitive solution to the 2,000-year-old paradox and the implications for full acceptance of gays and lesbians are discussed in his new book, ‘Paul on Homosexuality.’
Get your own copy of "Jesus on Homosexuality," (.PDF Format) by Michael Wood. Share it with your church. Discuss in church groups. Write a news article about Woods' major historical findings, to inform citizens about Christianity's tragic 1,900 year error!
Source: PRNewChannel
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2 comments:
Because Paul talks about people exchanging or abandoning their physikos - innate nature - sexual attraction to the opposite gender - he is not talking about homosexuals in Romans 1:26,27.
Homosexuals do not have a natural attraction to the opposite gender to abandon or exchange, any more than humans have tentacles to abandon or exchange.
Heterosexuals do have a natural attraction to the opposite gender, and sometimes, in prison or in fertility religions, they have abandoned it, and substituted a person of their own gender for someone of the opposite gender. This parallels the way idols are substitutes for God.
This is also the problem of the claim that only heterosexuality is natural - a claim that is contradicted by the Creation itself, since homosexuality has been documented in thousands of species.
I agree with above writer. No matter how you translate the early writings, I don't think Jesus approved of anything but one man and one women relationships. When we have to spend years studying to find a path around the writings of the Bible, we are incorrectly guided.
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