If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.
This verse is part of the Holiness Code in Leviticus — a long series of laws given to ancient Israel to set them apart culturally and religiously from surrounding nations. The laws in this section cover everything from child sacrifice to adultery to how priests should handle grief, and many offenses in these chapters carry the death penalty. The verse specifically prohibits male same-sex intercourse, using the word "detestable" — a term also applied elsewhere in Leviticus to things like eating shellfish. Christians today read this passage very differently: some see it as a permanent moral law; others view it as part of an ancient civil code that no longer applies to Christians under the New Covenant; others examine what it meant in its specific cultural context. This is one of the most contested passages in contemporary Christianity, and honest engagement with it requires sitting with real disagreement and complexity.
Lord, these words are hard, and I won't pretend otherwise. Give me the humility to wrestle honestly with scripture I don't fully understand, the courage to ask real questions, and the grace not to use your Word as a weapon. Teach me to hold truth and love in the same hands. Amen.
There's a particular kind of discomfort that comes when you open the Bible and land on a verse like this one. Maybe you've been there — your eyes fall on words that feel foreign, even brutal, and you're not sure whether to close the book, argue with it, or just push through. Every serious reader of scripture eventually encounters passages that resist easy digestion. Leviticus 20 is full of them. And the instinct to either dismiss the text outright or flatten it into a weapon says more about our discomfort with complexity than it does about the text itself. Wrestling honestly with a hard passage is itself an act of faith. It means you believe the Bible is worth the struggle. It means you're willing to sit with real tension — asking questions about original context, about how the New Testament reshapes or fulfills Old Testament law, about what it means to hold scripture with both conviction and humility — without demanding a neat answer by Tuesday. The danger isn't in asking hard questions. The danger is in pretending hard verses don't exist, or in wielding them against others without having done that careful, honest wrestling yourself. Where are you tempted to skip the hard parts?
What is the Holiness Code in Leviticus, and what was its original purpose for ancient Israel? How does knowing that context change — or not change — how you read this verse?
When you encounter a Bible passage that makes you deeply uncomfortable, what is your first instinct — and do you think that instinct usually serves you well?
Many laws in Leviticus 20 carry the death penalty, yet most Christians apply some and set others aside. What principles guide which Old Testament laws carry ongoing moral weight for Christians today — and who gets to decide that?
How does the way you interpret this verse affect how you actually treat LGBTQ people in your life, your church, or your community?
What would it look like for you to engage this verse — and others like it — with both genuine intellectual honesty and real love for the people it most directly affects?
Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,
1 Corinthians 6:9
Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.
Leviticus 18:22
For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine;
1 Timothy 1:10
And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another ; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.
Romans 1:27
For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:
Romans 1:26
Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.
Jude 1:7
For every one that curseth his father or his mother shall be surely put to death: he hath cursed his father or his mother; his blood shall be upon him.
Leviticus 20:9
If a man lies [intimately] with a male as if he were a woman, both men have committed a detestable (perverse, unnatural) act; they shall most certainly be put to death; their blood is on them.
AMP
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.
ESV
'If [there is] a man who lies with a male as those who lie with a woman, both of them have committed a detestable act; they shall surely be put to death. Their bloodguiltiness is upon them.
NASB
“‘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.
NIV
If a man lies with a male as he lies with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination. They shall surely be put to death. Their blood shall be upon them.
NKJV
“If a man practices homosexuality, having sex with another man as with a woman, both men have committed a detestable act. They must both be put to death, for they are guilty of a capital offense.
NLT
"If a man has sex with a man as one does with a woman, both of them have done what is abhorrent. They must be put to death; they are responsible for their own deaths.
MSG