📖 Biblical Definition
Same-sex sexual attraction and / or sexual practice. Modern technical term (coined 1869) for what Scripture names in older vocabulary: lying with mankind (Lev 18:22, 20:13), arsenokoites (1 Cor 6:9, 1 Tim 1:10), against nature (Rom 1:26-27). Scripture distinguishes (without fully separating) the attraction from the act: same-sex attraction is a manifestation of the fall's effect on every human's desires (Rom 7:14ff applies); same-sex acts are the willed practice of those disordered desires and are what the prohibitions specifically name. The Christian posture toward the same-sex-attracted person is the gospel posture toward every sinner: come to Christ, be washed, be sanctified, find your identity in Him, walk in chastity by the Spirit. The orthodox path through the modern controversy is to hold both compassion and the text without flinching from either.
📜 Webster 1828 Definition
Same-sex attraction and / or acts; modern term (1869); biblical category covered by Lev 18:22, Rom 1:26-27, 1 Cor 6:9.
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HOMOSEXUALITY, n. (German Homosexualität, coined 1869 by Karoly Maria Kertbeny) Modern technical term for same-sex sexual attraction and / or acts. Older biblical-English: sodomy. Scripture's prohibitions span both testaments: Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13, Romans 1:26-27, 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, 1 Timothy 1:9-10. The modern term's orientation-framing is post-biblical; Scripture frames the matter in terms of attraction (desires that the fall produces and the Spirit mortifies) and acts (the willed practice the prohibitions name). The Christian distinguishes these: temptation toward same-sex acts is not itself the sin; the willed practice is. Mortification of the desire and chastity in the body are the path of obedience.
📖 Key Scripture
Romans 1:26-27 — "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: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another."
1 Corinthians 6:9-11 — "Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind... shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God."
Genesis 1:27-28 — "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply."
⚠️ Modern Corruption
Scripture's binary act/attraction frame collapsed into the modern orientation frame, which then becomes identity, which becomes untouchable.
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The 1869 coinage homosexuality and the twentieth-century concept of sexual orientation together effected a category-shift that has shaped the modern church's confusion. Scripture's frame distinguishes (1) the desire (a manifestation of the fall, to be mortified by the Spirit, Rom 8:13), (2) the act (the willed practice, what the prohibitions name), and (3) the identity (anchored not in desire but in Christ for the believer). The modern orientation frame collapses these three into one and then attaches them to identity, making any moral evaluation of any layer feel like an attack on the person.
The orthodox path is to recover the distinctions. Same-sex-attracted Christians exist and are dearly loved by their Lord. Many of them walk in costly faithfulness their straight brothers and sisters can barely imagine, mortifying desires they did not choose to have, in obedience to a Lord whose acceptance is not contingent on the absence of those desires but on their refusal to be ruled by them. The contemporary church's worst pastoral failure on this issue is not the holding of the historic position; it is the abandonment of these brothers and sisters to navigate it alone, or worse, the suggestion that the gospel approves what Scripture names. 1 Cor 6:11 is the path: such were some of you, but ye are washed.
🔗 Greek & Hebrew Roots
1869 coinage (Kertbeny); same biblical material as sodomy entry.
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['German', '—', 'Homosexualität', '1869 Kertbeny coinage']
['Greek', 'G733', 'arsenokoites', 'male-bedder (1 Cor 6:9)']
['Greek', 'G3120', 'malakos', 'soft, effeminate (1 Cor 6:9)']
Usage
"Scripture distinguishes desire, act, and identity. The modern orientation frame collapses them."
"Mortification of desire + chastity in the body = the path of obedience."
"1 Cor 6:11 is the destination: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified."