And the daughter of any priest, if she profanes herself by whoring profanes her father; she shall be burned with fire. (Leviticus 21:9, ESV)
If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them (Leviticus 20:13, ESV)
Village Skeptics will sometimes use these & similar texts as evidence that God is misogynistic homophobe. Others use the text of Leviticus 20:13 to justify the persecution & execution of homosexuals.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
In the case of Leviticus 21:9, yes this sounds misogynistic & brutal. “See how this destroys women?” says the Village Skeptic.
The people in the original audience & both their immediate forebears, & many generations that followed, lived in a polytheistic world in which women were used as cultic prostitutes. Men (Leviticus 20:13) were known to do temple prostitution & similar activities too.
Laws like these are designed to protect both women & men from exploitation by kings, warlords, & priests. Turning a son or daughter into a temple prostitute could carry a heavy price. When you think about it, God, as the Suzerain Creator-Deliverer is, in a sense, holding the sons & daughters among His people hostage (figuratively).
We are created in God’s own image. We are supposed to love God with all our heart, mind, soul, & strength first, then all others next, then ourselves. God here is gambling that the men in control of Hebrew society will love & value their children enough not to exploit them through turning them into cultic prostitutes. Far from devaluing human life, these laws are meant to be deterrents to temple prostitution & similar activities. They are there to protect & preserve children in general as well as adults.
O LORD, Hear Our Prayer(s) —- especially in regards to human trafficking, prostitution, witchcraft, sorcery, & the abuse of children & their (and other) angels & animals.
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