The “sacred book” the “Holy Bible” has been translated in many languages. As of November, 2014, the United Bible Societies declare the Bible has been translated in more than 2,530 languages to date – including 55 different forms of sign language. However, only 531 languages have the complete text. Currently, there are 1,800 languages around the world that are still waiting for a translation in their native language. With all the modern translation tools at our disposal, why?

Some translations of the Bible include the word homosexual – a word that is nowhere in the original Hebrew or Greek.

The word homosexual didn’t exist when the Bible was written  (with the New Testament dating from about 2,000 years ago, and parts of the Old Testament going back to 1,400 to 400 BCE.)

It wasn’t until 1869 that Dr. Karoly Benkert, a Hungarian physician, created the term by combining the homo, the Greek word for same, with the Latin sexual.

The word homosexual did not come into use in the United States until the 1880s.

The word homosexual was first used in an English-language Bible in 1946.

In the Greek language, there are words for same-sex behavior, but never appear in the original text of the New Testament.

The concept homosexual didn’t exist when the Bible was written

If you see the word homosexual or homosexuality in the Bible, it is because translators chose those words to reflect their own homophobic feelings and ideas.

Where in the Bible you might find the word homosexual used incorrectly?

The Hebrew word kedah means temple prostitute and is sometimes inaccurately translated at sodomite or homosexual.

In 1 Corinthians, sodomite or homosexual are sometimes used, but they are incorrect translations of the Greek malakos, which means something closer to effeminate or the Greek practice of pederasty, which is men having sex with boys, not among peers.

1 Corinthians also refers in Greek to arsenokaitai, which appears nowhere else in the Bible or in Greek writings about homoerotic sexuality, but probably means male prostitute.

Jude 7 sometimes refers to homosexual flesh that the Sodomites pursued.  This is an inaccurate translation of hetera sarx which means, literally, strange flesh to describe the flesh of the angels who were sent by God to evaluate Sodom and Gomorrah.

In Timothy 1:9-10, translators sometimes use homosexual for the original Greek words, pornoi, arsenokoitai, and andrapodistai, meaning male prostitutes, males who hire male prostitutes or the slave dealers who procure them.

Including the word homosexual in the Bible is the choice of translators and is not a reflection of the Bible. Acknowledgement that one can not translate a word from Hebrew and Greek into the English if there is no English equivalent.

The misinterpretation of this word homosexual has caused more physical and spiritual slayings, for same-gender loving persons than one cares to recall. Persons who could not find love in their families after once “coming out” went to the church, only to find no love and affirmation there either.

I am here to tell you that the Creator of the universe loves you just the way you are. You have sacred worth in His mind. He claims you as His own, scripture proves it. He created you as a human and being that the Creator, from a “Christian” perspective is omniscient (all knowing), He knew you were going to be same-gender loving before you came into existence. So, He desires to have an intimate and personal, loving relationship with you.