A Critical Examination of the Concept of Homosexuality in the Bible and its Implications for the Contemporary African (Nigerian) Context

Résumé

The African Church is still seeking the proper way to address homosexuality and the act of homosexuality through its daily quest for better hermeneutical interpretation of biblical texts without African cultural influence and biases. This paper uses a historico-grammatical method to critically engage the biblical texts for their contribution to the existing interpretive discourse of the passages that condemned homosexuality. The author evaluates the context of Genesis’ and Leviticus' prohibition of homosexuality as a form of counter-narrative to the Ancient Near Eastern culture of the Old Testament and argues that the New Testament writers, especially Paul and the apostles, condemned the act of homosexuality as a counter-narrative to its Greco Roman culture too. The Israelites were warned not to engage in such homosexual practices because they were exclusive of the community of Yahweh. The early Church also followed suit to distinguish itself as a new Israel and an exclusive community ofYahweh through salvation in Christ Jesus. Therefore, the paper submits that the present Church must join the war of counter narrative against homosexuality that is rooted in the Old Testament and has its bearing in the New Testament to speak against the act of homosexuality today irrespective of the cultural indifference, prohibition or legalization of homosexuality. This condemnation of the act of homosexuality in the Church must be done in the sense of embracing homosexuals without compromising the counter-narrative of the Old and New Testaments regarding homosexuals today.