Jesus was Not Gay

Jesus Was Not Gay by Yahya Snow


There is no evidence showing Jesus to be gay

The claim that Jesus was gay is based on no evidence whatsoever; hence is intellectually flawed from the beginning. Jesus never said he was gay, nor did he ever commit a homosexual act, the fact remains there is no evidence for Jesus being gay, none whatsoever.

Suffice to say, in academic circles it is the responsibility of the claimant to bring evidence for his claim; quite simply the one making such claims about Jesus has no evidence whatsoever. Therefore to claim he was gay would be a claim which lacks any evidence and thus is dismissed as unscholarly and essentially this claim is designed to incite reaction provoke and aggrieve those who hold Jesus as a holy individual (namely Muslims and Jesus) and ultimately challenge people’s attitudes towards homosexuality, especially those within conservative religious groups

This does lead to the question as to what basis they make their claim upon. Well, quite simply they build their claim upon the silence of Jesus, (i.e. he never claimed he was not gay) and the fact he never got married or had a relationship with a woman.
So from the outset you can see their claims are based on nothing but mere conjecture on their part, nothing substantial at all.

Nevertheless there is evidence that Jesus was not gay. To show this evidence I will employ a methodically rational approach in highlighting the fact Jesus was not gay.

Asking a man whether he is gay or not

If you see a person on the street and you want to ascertain whether he is gay or not you have a few routes you can take in order to find out what sexual persuasion the person is of.
The first route is the most direct and possibly the quickest; simply ask the man. Nobody asked Jesus this question. Jesus lived in a community, as well as during a time, in which homosexuality was not something which was discussed and frowned upon greatly, thus asking a man whether he was gay would have been an insult and even taboo. So, in order, to show Jesus was not gay we can use alternative reasoning.

Does the man have a wife?

The second way of finding out whether a man is gay or not is to check if he has a wife or girlfriend. If this is the case then this would surely show he is not gay. Now we know Jesus did not take a wife nor did he have any such relationship with a woman. So we must employ alternative reasoning as this method yields no benefit to out purpose.
However, before moving on to the next line of reasoning, as a way of side note; many people find it unusual that Jesus did not marry and the claimants try to use this to support their “gay” claim. This simply shows their lack of deep understanding concerning the life of Jesus.

Reasons why Jesus never married

Jesus was thought to have been amongst the Essenes who were strict Jews who practiced abstinence of all sexual relations or as Pliny described them as people who “abjure sexual love”. Thus they avoided sexual lust of any kind (i.e. avoided marriage etc) and focussed on spirituality and learning making them ascetics. Concerning Jesus; “it appears as if he was educated under the hard discipline of the Essene teachers” thus it is of no surprise that Jesus followed ways which avoided any sexual feelings and never married.

So this helps explain the lack of marriage on the part of Jesus, so it is unfair for the claimants to try and dishonestly capitalise on this and suggest homosexuality. Would they suggest homosexuality of the Pope or nuns due to their avoidance of marriage (abstinence), of course not, thus it is unfair to do this with the example of Jesus. The fact that Jesus was not a man of material means meant he could not support a wife coupled with the information of Jesus being similar to the Essenes in mindset concerning avoiding marriage provides powerful reasons behind Jesus not marrying.

The views of Jesus concerning gays and homosexuality

Going back to our methodology of reasoning, given that the man is single and we cannot ask him directly whether he is gay; what else can we do to find out whether the man is gay? Well we could always be indirect and ask him concerning his views on homosexuals and homosexuality. Thus any views opposing homosexuality would be enough to indicate the man is not gay as he must be taken at face value. Jesus he was anti-homosexuality.

Jesus did not agree with homosexuality and he opposed it and condemned it. As we know, Jesus was an honest man who was not afraid to stand up for his beliefs thus we know we can take Jesus at face value. Now, we must realise that Jesus could not have been gay as he did not support homosexuality. One may ask for references concerning Jesus’ views.

Jesus promotes marriage between man and woman as natural and as the only legitimate union. Jesus is reported to have said:

4"Haven't you read," he replied, "that at the beginning the Creator 'made them male and female,'
5 and said, 'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh'?
6 So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate." (Matthew 19: 4-6)

If that is not sufficient then there is further (and even stronger) evidence of Jesus opposing the idea of homosexuality. Jesus is reported to have said:

"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. (Matthew 5:17)

So, we see through this quotation that Jesus was supporting the Law; we also know Jesus was an expert and a teacher of the Law. So what does the Law say about homosexuality? We can get the answer from Leviticus which reports:

" 'Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable. (Leviticus 18:22)

In fact Leviticus:

" 'If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads. (Leviticus 20:13)

Thus we realise that the Law teaches us that homosexuality is an abomination, it is a sin. As Jesus supported the Law we can clearly say Jesus did not support homosexuality at all. The Law also supports the death penalty for homosexual sex. Jesus hates the act of homosexuality and supports the death of those involved. Therefore Jesus could not have been a homosexual.

Further evidence shows Jesus not to be gay

Of course there is other evidence supporting this and showing to us that Jesus was not gay. Assuming you wanted to find out if an individual was gay but could not speak to that individual you could always ask his relatives and friends.

The relatives and friends of Jesus never claimed he was gay rather they considered him to be a holy man and wise. We must remember that people in those days did not consider homosexual people as pious, holy or wise thus we realise from this that Jesus was not gay as he was thought to be a holy and wise man. This is also shown by Josephus, the Jewish historian who described him as “a wise man” [1].

We can also note that the enemies of Jesus never accused Jesus of being homosexual despite their hatred towards Jesus and their desire to slander him and sway people away from his teachings. What we can infer from all this is that nobody who knew Jesus or knew of him thought he was gay even amongst those who hated him.

Based on all this overwhelming evidence pointing to the fact that Jesus was not gay we can safely say that the “gay” claim against Jesus is unscholarly and untrue.

Christians and Muslims do not believe Jesus to be gay either

Finally it is important to mention those who believe in Jesus, the Christians (Trinitarians and Unitarians) and the Muslims. What do these groups believe concerning Jesus? Well, the Trinitarian Christians do not view Jesus as a homosexual, whilst the Unitarians and Muslims would have similar beliefs in believing he was a Prophet like all other Prophets, i.e. heterosexual and not homosexual. In fact Muslim sources teach us that Jesus will get married when he returns and even procreate (i.e. he will have children). [2] [3]

Summary of the evidence proving Jesus was not gay

1. There is no evidence of Jesus being gay.
2. Jesus never claimed to be gay.
3. Jesus opposed homosexuality. He did not agree with it and considered it a sin.
4. The friends and family of Jesus did not believe he was gay.
5. Even the enemies of Jesus never claimed he was gay despite their hatred of Jesus.
6. Christians (Unitarians and Trinitarians) and Muslims do not believe him to be gay
7. Muslims believe Jesus will marry and have children, thus he thought of as heterosexual.

Conclusions

In the light of such reasoning and evidence we can dismiss the “gay” claim as fanciful and based on mere conjecture as it lacks any truth or evidence to it whatsoever. The evidence in fact points to the fact that Jesus was not gay.

It is intellectually dishonest on the part of those who make the “gay” claims or use such claims to try and pursue their personal agenda. I would appeal to them to be factual and avoid such baseless claims; it reflects poorly upon them.

Disclaimer

In the way of a disclaimer; this article was not written due to homophobia or to upset any gay people. This article sets out to do academic and intellectual justice to the memory of Jesus as it appears people with less than sincere intentions have began to use their claims concerning Jesus in order to pursue insincere personal agendas.

Note: all Biblical quotes are from the NIV Bible.

References

[1] Jewish Antiquities, Flavius Josephus, Wordsworth Editions Limited 2006 pg 780

[2] Mishkat al-Masabih, 3:47

[3] Ibn Al Jauzi in Kitab al Wafa