On 19/10/2005 4:33 AM, Dr.Ace wrote:
From the Bible (New International Version)
Leviticus 18:22
22 " 'Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable.
Punishments for Sin
Leviticus 20:13

13 " 'If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have
done what is detestable.
They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads. "


Leviticus 19:19

"Ye shall keep my statutes. Thou shalt not let thy cattle gender with a
diverse kind: thou shalt not sow thy field with mingled seed: neither
shall a garment mingled of linen and woollen come upon thee."

So, those 50/50 cotton/poly t-shirts are out of the question, then?

Other parts of Leviticus warn against those unclean shellfish, so those
are forbidden too, lest you anger God. So, no more lobster dinners. Or
growing more than one crop in your fields. Or not letting ground lay
fallow on Jubilee years.

In a more symbolic reading, to Christians, Leviticus is part of the
prophecy of the coming of the messiah and his eventual death on the
cross as a sin offering. It is not specifically about Jewish law and
regulation for worship or marriage.

For Jews, Leviticus is specific instructions for the house of Aaron, the
tribe of priests. It may also be an important early part of the Torah
in the Talmudic tradition.

For anthropologists and biblical scholars it is an interesting example
of the rules created by early Judaic pastoralists (contemporaries of the
early Judaic people did not share many of these rules) specifically
dealing with the codification of items like food, clothing, kinship and
land ownership into distinct groups. Those items (like shellfish) which
could not be placed easily in a particular grouping (i.e., neither of
the land nor the sea) were declared "unclean" (and there is some
disagreement if this translation is even accurate.) Only items which
fit into a specific group or place were considered holy enough for the
Aaronites.

The verse you quote is part of a series of laws regarding marriage, sex
and childbirth; these rules followed many of the same requirements
regarding categorization and grouping.

There is a lot of interesting reading available about these early
monotheistic pastoralists and Leviticus is a very well studied, but
poorly understood, part of that history. There is a fair amount of
disagreement not only on what it means, but who wrote it and why. There
also happen to be some troublesome translation problems in Leviticus,
not unlike much of the old testament.

In short, applying the laws and pronouncements of Leviticus to a modern
situation to completely different times and people is not really
helpful. I encourage people who do so to remember that you shouldn't
just pick and choose the rules you like; that would be presumptuous. If
one is going to go around quoting Leviticus admonishing people to follow
it as if it was God's literal word on Earth, then they had better make
sure they are following it as strictly as they would have others do.

"Let he who is without sin cast the first stone."

--
Clever "Straight but not Narrow" Monkey