Homosexuality in Romans 1:26-27 (Albert Barnes)
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; men with men
working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that
recompence of their error which was meet (Rom. 1:26-27).
Romans 1:26 -
For this cause - On account of what had just
been specified; to wit, that they did not glorify him as God, that they
were unthankful, that they became polytheists and idolaters. In the
previous verses he had stated their speculative belief. He now proceeds
to show its practical influences on their conduct.
Vile affections - Disgraceful passions or
desires. That is, to those which are immediately specified. The great
object of the apostle here, it will be remembered, is to shew the state
of the pagan world, and to prove that they had need of some other way of
justification than the law of nature. For this purpose, it was necessary
for him to enter into a detail of their sins. The sins which he proceeds
to specify are the most indelicate, vile, and degrading which can be
charged on man. But this is not the fault of the apostle. If they
existed, it was necessary for him to charge them on the pagan world. His
argument would not be complete without it. The shame is not in
specifying them, but in their existence; not in the apostle, but in
those who practiced them, and imposed on him the necessity of accusing
them of these enormous offences. It may be further remarked, that the
mere fact of his charging them with these sins is strong presumptive
proof of their being practiced. If they did not exist, it would be easy
for them to deny it, and put him to the proof of it. No man would
venture charges like these without evidence; and the presumption is,
that these things were known and practiced without shame. But this is
not all. There is still abundant proof on record in the writings of the
pagan themselves, that these crimes were known and extensively
practiced.
For even their women ... - Evidence of the shameful
and disgraceful fact here charged on the women is abundant in the Greek
and Roman writers. Proof may be seen, which it would not be proper to
specify, in the lexicons, under the words τριζὰς
ὄλισβον
(trizas olisbon), and ἑταιρίστης
(hetairistes). See
also Seneca, Epis. 95; Martial, Epis. i. 90; Tholuck on
the state of the pagan world, in the Biblical Repository, vol.
ii.; Lucian, Dial. Meretric. v.; and Tertullian de Pallio.
Romans 1:27 -
And likewise the men ... - The sin which is
here specified is what was the shameful sin of Sodom, and which from
that has been called sodomy. It would scarcely be credible that man had
been guilty of a crime so base and so degrading, unless there was ample
and full testimony to it. Perhaps there is no sin which so deeply shows
the depravity of man as this; none which would so much induce one “to
hang his head, and blush to think himself a man.” And yet the evidence
that the apostle did not bring a railing accusation against the pagan
world; that he did not advance a charge which was unfounded, is too
painfully clear. It has been indeed a matter of controversy whether
paederastry, or the love of boys, among the ancients was not a pure and
harmless love, but the evidence is against it. (See this discussed in
Dr. Leland’s Advantage and Necessity of Revelation, vol. i.
49-56.) The crime with which the apostle charges the Gentiles here was
by no means confined to the lower classes of the people.
It doubtless pervaded all classes, and we have
distinct specifications of its existence in a great number of cases.
Even Virgil speaks of the attachment of Corydon to Alexis, without
seeming to feel the necessity of a blush for it. Maximus Tyrius (Diss.
10) says that in the time of Socrates, this vice was common among the
Greeks; and is at pains to vindicate Socrates from it as almost a
solitary exception. Cicero (Tuscul. Ques. iv. 34) says, that
“Dicearchus had accused Plato of it, and probably not unjustly.” He
also says (Tuscul. Ques. iv. 33), that the practice was common
among the Greeks, and that their poets and great men, and even their
learned men and philosophers, not only practiced, but gloried in it. And
he adds, that it was the custom, not of particular cities only, but of
Greece in general (Tuscul. Ques. v. 20). Xenophon says, that
“the unnatural love of boys is so common, that in many places it is
established by the public laws.”
He
particularly alludes to Sparta. (See Leland’s Advantage, i.
56.) Plato says that the Cretans practiced this crime, and justified
themselves by the example of Jupiter and Ganymede (Book of Laws,
i.). And Aristotle says, that among the Cretans there was a law
encouraging that sort of unnatural love (Aristotle, Politic. b.
ii. chapter 10). Plutarch says, that this was practiced at Thebes, and
at Elis. He further says, that Solon, the great lawgiver of Athens,
“was not proof against beautiful boys, and had not courage to resist
the force of love” (Life of Solon). Diogenes Laertius says that
this vice was practiced by the Stoic Zeno. Among the Romans, to whom
Paul was writing, this vice was no less common. Cicero introduces,
without any mark of disapprobation, Cotta, a man of the first rank and
genius, freely and familiarly owning to other Romans of the same
quality, that this worse than beastly vice was practiced by himself, and
quoting the authority of ancient philosophers in vindication of it (De
Natura Deorum, b. i. chapter 28). It appears from what Seneca says (Epis.
95) that in his time it was practiced openly at Rome, and without shame.
He speaks of flocks and troops of boys, distinguished
by their colors and nations; and says that great care was taken to train
them up for this detestable employment. Those who may wish to see a
further account of the morality in the pagan world may find it detailed
in Tholuck’s “Nature and Moral Influence of Heathenism,” in the Biblical
Repository, vol. ii., and in Leland’s Advantage and Necessity
of the Christian Revelation. There is not the least evidence that
this abominable vice was confined to Greece and Rome. If so common
there, if it had the sanction even of their philosophers, it may be
presumed that it was practiced elsewhere, and that the sin against
nature was a common crime throughout the pagan world. Navaratte, in his
account of the empire of China (book ii. chapter 6), says that it is
extremely common among the Chinese. And there is every reason to
believe, that both in the old world and the new, this abominable crime
is still practiced. If such was the state of the pagan world, then
surely the argument of the apostle is well sustained, that there was
need of some other plan of salvation than was taught by the light of
nature.
That which is unseemly - That which is
shameful, or disgraceful.
And receiving in themselves ... - The meaning
of this doubtless is, that the effect of such base and unnatural
passions was, to enfeeble the body, to produce premature old age,
disease, decay, and an early death. That this is the effect of the
indulgence of licentious passions, is amply proved by the history of
man. The despots who practice polygamy, and keep harems in the East, are
commonly superannuated at forty years of age; and it is well known, even
in Christian countries, that the effect of licentious indulgence is to
break down and destroy the constitution. How much more might this be
expected to follow the practice of the vice specified in the verse under
examination! God has marked the indulgence of licentious passions with
his frown. Since the time of the Romans and the Greeks, as if there had
not been sufficient restraints before, he has originated a new disease,
which is one of the most loathsome and distressing which has ever
afflicted man, and which has swept off millions of victims. But the
effect on the body was not all. It tended to debase the mind; to sink
man below the level of the brute; to destroy the sensibility; and to
“sear the conscience as with a hot iron.” The last remnant of reason
and conscience, it would seem, must be extinguished in those who would
indulge in this unnatural and degrading vice. See Suetonius’ Life
of Nero, 28.
(Albert Barnes [1798-1870], Notes on the New
Testament: Explanatory and Practical, vol. 4, pp. 47-49)
(Read
also 'The Bible and Homosexuality')
