Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Lost in Translation

Recently I had a thought while watching the news footage of the Marriage ceremonies performed before the passage of Proposition 8. I noticed that there was a gay couple performing a traditional Jewish wedding ceremony complete with the breaking of the glass and a Rabbi. I thought about this and then a few days later the thought hit me, "Wait, Jews believe in gay marriage?" This thought led me to rediscover the bible and good old Leviticus, the one scripture upon which hinges all other scripture and modern revelation concerning Homosexual activity. As I began to research in depth the KJV of Leviticus another thought hit me, "Why am I studying the English translation of the Latin translation of the Greek translation of the original Hebrew? After all don't we believe the Bible to be correct as far as it is translated correctly?" So I went back and looked for the Hebrew Jewish interpretation of Leviticus 18. What I found was that Judaism is a split religion with many differing branches of observation, but that in all of them, the original Hebrew word for abomination was "to'eba" which doesn't really have a direct english translation, but instead had a meaning that lay closer to idolatry, or ritualisticly unclean. To'eba is the same word used in describing the dietary violations (ie no Pork) not the same word used for outright sin. I decided to check this out and recieved individual confirmation from an LDS bibe scholar and master of both greek and Hebrew as well as other languages who I shall keep anonymus for his protection.
After discovering that the act of homosexuality as stated in Leviticus 18 was not an aboninable sin, but more of an idolatrous impurity, I went back and reread the entire chapter looking for the meaning of Moses using the context of Idolatry. I encourage all of you who see this to re-read Leviticus 18 and see how the entire chapter seems to make much more sense. Moses is refering to the Idolization of each of those acts listed as they had become idolized in Egypt and Cannan, and Moses condemns the acts as idolatrous. To me this scripture resonates truth and I wanted to share it with those of you who read my blog.

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