Sunday, May 27, 2012

Raymond E. Brown; Homosexualtiy

I purchased a bargain, used copy of Raymond E. Brown, S.S., An Introduction to the New Testament from the Anchor Bible Reference Library, on Half.com.  Although I am reading it straight through,  I can't help delving ahead in it.  This afternoon I read "Paul's Critique of Fornicators and Homosexuals (6:9-10)" in Brown's chapter on 1 Corinthians.

(This web page has excerpts of chapters copied from Brown's Introduction.  Once reaching that page, click on the link to 1 Corinthians and then scroll down to the "critique" section.  It is not a complete transcription, but it gives you a sense of his argument.  If you can, buy the book.  Brown is not to be missed, even by a few sentences.)

Here is the last sentence from that section:

Nevertheless, in insisting on the sexual limits imposed by the divinely commanded state of marriage between a man and a woman, Paul and indeed, Jesus himself, walking among us in our times, would not be frightened by being considered sexually and politically "incorrect," any more than they minded being considered overly demanding in the Greco-Roman and Jewish world of their times. [page 530; footnote omitted, although the footnote is important and classic Brown.]

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