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David and Jonathan

The story goes that King Saul began to hate David and wanted him killed,
because he
saw him as a threat to his throne. Eventually, David did succeed Saul as
King - but the
rest of the story is not as well discussed. I am sure many people will read
this and cry
out "Two men in the Bible loving each other - that's absurd!". But, how can
pure love
be blasphemy when God is in it? Paul addressed it this way "To the pure, all
things are
pure, but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure."

First, both David and Jonathan had wives (as was customary then - and now).
David
was described as being ruddy, with a fine appearance and handsome features
(1 Sam
16:12 and 1 Sam 17:42) so apparently he was quite good-looking. When
Jonathan first
saw David he was immediately drawn to him."When he (David) had finished
speaking
to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was knit to to soul of David, and Jonathan
loved him as
his own soul. And Saul took him away that day, and would not let him return
to his
father's house. Then Jonathan made a covenant with David, becasue he loved
him as
his own soul. Then Jonathan stripped himself of his robe that was upon him,
and gave
it to David, and his sword, and even his armor and bow and girdle. (Sam
18:1-4) In this
passage it speaks of an "immediate bond of love", their souls being "in
unison," their
souls being "knit", etc. Genesis 2:7, as written in the original Hebrew,
describes how
God blew the spirit into the body of Adam that God had formed from earth, so
that
Adam became a living soul. This means that "soul", in the ancient Israelite
times and
this in Old Testament Hebrew, represents a combination of body and spirit.
Thus the
two men appear to have loved each other both physically and emotionally.
Also, since
people in those days did not wear underwear, by removing his robe Jonathan
would
have stripped himself naked in front of David. That would be considered
extremely
unusual behavior then (and quite possibly now). Another indication that
their
relationship was more than friendship and quite possibly physical.

It seems as though it was love at first sight between David and Jonathan.
They
professed their love several places in the scriptures. 1 Sam 20:3 " David
replied (to
Jonathan) Your father knows full well that I have found favor in your eyes."
and
Jonathan continued "Whatever you say, I will do for you" David was right ,
Saul
(Jonathan's dad) did not let this go unnoticed. He confronted Jonathan about
his love
for David "Then Saul's anger was kindled against Jonathan, and he said to
him, "You
son of a perverse, rebellious woman, do I not know that you have chosen the
son of
Jesse to your own shame, and to the shame of your mother's nakedness. For as
long as
the son of Jesse lives on this earth neither you nor your kingdom shall be
established."

Saul began to plot the death of David, and Jonathan discovered his father's
evil plan
and went to warn David and convince David to escape. They met to say
good-bye to
one another- Sam 20:41 "David rose from behind the stone heap and fell on
his face to
the ground and bowed three times; and they kissed one another and wept with
one
another until David recovered himself. " Other translations have a different
ending to
the verse: "...and they kissed one another and wept with one another, until
David
exceeded." (KJV) "...and they kissed one another and wept with one another
until
David got control of himself." (Amplified Bible) "and they sadly shook
hands, tears
running down their cheeks until David could weep no more." (Living Bible) As
can be
seen, the translators of the Living Bible apparently could not handle the
thought of two
adult men kissing, so they simply said the two shook hands! This is less
than honest.
The original Hebrew text says that they kissed each other and wept together
until David
became large; i.e. had an erection. Again, the thoughts of David becoming
sexually
aroused after kissing Jonathan is too threatening for Bible translators, so
they either
ignored the ending entirely or created one of their own.

When Jonathan died, David wrote a lamentation , 2 Sam 25-26 Jonathan lies
slain upon
thy high places, I am distressed for you, my brother Jonathan; very pleasant
have you
been to me, you love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women". In the
society
of ancient Israel, it was not considered proper for a man and woman to have
a platonic
relationship. Men and women rarely spoke to each other in public. Since
David's only
relationships with women would have been sexual in nature, then he must be
referring
to sexual love here. It would not make sense in this verse to compare
platonic love for a
man with sexual love for a woman; they are two completely different
phenomenon.

Marriage

I have had many men from "Promise Keepers" write to tell me that it is
possible to have
a deep love for another man without being homosexual. I fully agree. It
seems as
though Saul acted exactly as most fathers do upon finding their son has an
attraction for
another male - he ranted, raved, and blamed the mother. The reference to
nakedness
within Biblical phrases tends to represent a topic of sex. By discussing
Jonathan's
actions relative to his mother's nakedness implies a more intense sexual
attraction than
just friends.

Also, many people state that same-sex marriages are not of the Bible and
therefore
forbidden by God. In looking at Jonathan and David's relatiionship further
we find a
possible inclusion of same-sex marriages within God Holy Word.

In1 Samuel 18:20-21 "Now Saul's daughter Michal was in love with David, and
when
they told Saul about it, he was pleased. 'I will give her to him', he
thought, 'so that she
may be a snare to him and so that the hand of the Philistines may be against
him .Thou
shalt this day be my son-in-law, in the one of the twain." Saul's belief was
that David
would be so distracted by a wife that he would not be an effective fighter
and would be
killed by the Philistines. He offered first his daughter Merab, but that was
rejected,
presumably by her. Then he offered Michal.

The KJV preserves the original text in its clearest form; it implies that
David would
become Saul's son-in-law through "one of the twain." "Twain" means "two", so
the
verse seems to refer to one of Saul's two daughters. Unfortunately, this is
a
mistranslation. The phrase "the one of" does not exist in Hebrew originally.
The words
are shown in italics in the King James Version; which is an admission by the
translators
that they made the words up. Thus, if the KJV translators had been truly
honest, they
would have written:"Thou shalt this day be my son-in-law, in the twain." In
modern
English, this might be written: "Today, you are son-in-law with two of my
children"
That would refer to both his son Jonathan and his daughter Michal. The
Hebrew
original text would appear to recognize David and Jonathan's homosexual
relationship
as equivalent to David and Michal's heterosexual marriage. So it is possible
that there is
Biblical approval of same-sex marriage.

Eunuchs

At first glance, it does not seem to make an enormous amount of sense to
discuss
eunuchs in relation to homosexuality. In our current usage of the word,
eunuchs are
those people who are physically unable to father children due to castration.
However, a
more generic definition would be one who is physically unable to father
children. In
that context, homosexuals would qualify as eunuchs in that their sexual
activities can
not produce children.

In Matthew 19:12, Christ says "For there are eunuchs who have been born
incapable of
marriage, and there are eunuchs who have been made by men, and there are
eunuchs
who have made themselves incapable of marriage for the sake of the kingdom
of
heaven. Let him who is able to accept this, accept it" (Amplified Bible).

Jesus states that there are some who are born incapable of marriage. This
could mean
that there are people who have such low sex drives that they simply not
interested in
sexual relationships or marriage - we tend to think of them as the confirmed
old
bachelor. It also could include, homosexuals who have no desire for a
physical
relationship with a member of the opposite sex and thus would be incapable
of such a
relationship.

To the people living during the time of the writing of the Bible it was
simply assumed
that all people would marry and have children. If one did not do so, it
would be
assumed that there was something wrong with him, i.e. he may be classified
as a
eunuch. Thus, it is possible that many people who were gay would have been
seen as
eunuchs. We do not know this for fact, but we do know that many men were
made to
be eunuchs by men in order to gaurd their harems and Paul spoke about those
who
chose celibacy in an effort to more fully serve God ( as with today's Roman
Catholic
priests). These two cover the last two categories spoken of by Christ, so we
are still left
with the first category.

During Biblical times, eunuchs were not allowed entry into the house of the
Lord and
were generally dispised. (Not too dissimiliar to homosexuals today.) Christ
attempted to
change the attitudes of people of His day and in Isaiah it is prophesised
that there would
be a day where many eunuchs were believers. Today there are many believing
GLBT
people.

Paul speaks of one eunuch in Acts 8: 26-39. The eunuch was a high ranking
official of
the queen of Ethiopia and he had come to Jerusalem to worship. He was on the
road
from Jerusalem to Gaza, returning home and reading the book of Isaiah.
Philip had
been commanded by an angel of the Lord to be on that road that day. Philip
caught up
with the man and preached the Word of God (dispite the prohibition of
allowing a
eunuch to worship). As they neared water Philip baptizes the eunuch (again
quite a
taboo) and is then wisked away by the Spirit of the Lord. Tradition has it
that this
eunuch introduced Christianity to Ethiopia.