The Hermeneutics of Abomination: On Gay Men, Canaanites, and Biblical Interpretation

Abstract

A number of readers have claimed that injunctions against male homosexuality in the Hebrew Bible are aimed at cultic prostitution supposedly practiced by non-Israelites. Although several scholars have questioned the historical basis for this claim, less attention has been given to the ideological assumptions that underlie the hermeneutic argument. While cultic prostitutes may or may not have existed, the Hebrew Bible does attempt to link non-Israelite populations to sexual practices that are considered unacceptable by its authors. This attempt is an example of a common rhetorical move whereby the “other” is defined in relation to deviant sexual practice. Ironically, gay readers who rely upon this hermeneutic strategy participate in a process, already begun in the Hebrew Bible and taken further by its readers, in which sexual practice becomes the basis for insult, stereotyping, and condemnation. Since the reliance upon such a common mode of ethnic stereotyping cannot be accepted, gay and gay-affirmative readers need to replace such a “hermeneutics of abomination” with a critical study of the relations between gender ideologies and assumptions about sexual practice that are presupposed by the biblical texts.