Christians Shouldn’t Be Rattled by the Latest Claims that We Have Misread the Bible on Sexual Ethics

The word Vines claims is mistranslated in 1 Cor. 6:9 is arsenokoitai, or literally "man-bedder". It's not one of the more subtle terms, and it's also worth noting (Sacred Band of Thebes, etc..) that in pagan Greece, there actually was a lot of hypothetically respectable homosexuality. So Paul's condemnation goes actually just the opposite way that Vines would suggest. (why is it that it seems one must go to an extremely elite school like Yale to get these things this wrong?)

Another thing I've noticed in arguments like those of Vines is that a "divide and conquer" hermeneutic is used, where instead of taking the various passages that address the issue together, each one is used as a "prooftext" and submitted to a somewhat deceptive analysis, and then one points out "look, all these prooftexts have been debunked." Classic example of a lie going ten miles while the truth is still getting its pants on.

So if we want yet another reason to bring our exegetical and hermeneutical skills up a notch, Vines gives it to us, because the alternative he presents is for all of us to chase after a ton of issues instead of starting with "the breadth of Scripture seems to present a negative picture of non-heterosexual relationships." This is especially crucial because coming next is going to be test cases for things like polygamy and polyamory--where really, the Biblical arguments are a lot more subtle (if no less compelling in my mind) than those against homosexuality.