Homosexuality: Contemporary Claims Examined in the Light of the Bible and Other Ancient Literature and Law

I found the book to be useful because he discusses the meaning of the Hebrew and Greek terms "to'ebah", "bdelygma" and "anomia". Both Boswell and Helminiak base their case on the use of these terms. He refers to the Septuagint's witness against homosexuality which I also found useful as the term "arsenokoitai" is derived from the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament). He also deals with the Apocrypha and Psudepigrapha texts. He deals with the interpretations on word "nature" in Rom 1:26-27, i.e. Paul is only condemning perverts rather than inverts. He also rightly cites David Wright who critiqued Boswell's claim that "arsenokoitai" refers to prostitutes. As it was written in 2000 he can also critique earlier revisionists such as Bailey, Boswell, Scroggs, Nissinen, Countryman and Wink.

In the last decades of the twentieth century religious scholars and sociologists have sought to discredit the Bible and other ancient Greek and Roman sources in their statements regarding homosexual behavior and orientation. Dr. De Young presents in this book a readable yet comprehensible explanation of homosexuality as presented in the Bible and other ancient literature and law. In so doing he seeks to evaluate virtually every attempt to reinterpret the Bible and other ancient Jewish, Greek, Roman, and Christian literature on this topic. He arranges and critiques these reinterpretations under six or seven different groupings, including ritual purity, worldview, liberation theology, and moral argumentation. Dr De Young arranges his presentation by first addressing why homosexual behavior is wrong. Then in successive chapters he presents the witness on homosexuality as found in the Old Testament, the Pseudepigrapha and Apocrypha, the Septuagint (Greek translation of the OT), Romans 1:26-27, 1 Corinthians 6:9-11, 1 Timothy 1:8-10; Jesus and the Gospels, and in all the sacred and secular law codes from the ancient Near East. In a final chapter the author gives the answers to the twenty most important questions about homosexuality and gay rights, and references these answers to longer discussions in the text. Dr. De Young has thought to make his book readable by writing in a communicative style. He also opens each chapter with a fictional vignette that is set in the times and that focuses on the issue that each chapter subsequently unfolds. There are substantial subject, author, and scripture indeces. This book comes recommended by leading biblical scholars and theologians, seminary presidents, early church historians, women's organizations, renewal movements, pastors, psychologists, and apologists. In the words of one reviewer, this book is "Masterful. I predict that this readable and informative treatise will be foundational for years to come."