Jonathan Loved David,

Scattered through the Books of Samuel we find the following:

So Jonathan and David made a solemn compact because each loved the other as dearly as himself.
Jonathan pledged himself afresh to David because of his love for him, for he loved him as himself.

---the Lord stand witness between us forever to the pledges we have exchanged.

Then they kissed one another and shed tears together…

O Jonathan, laid low in death! I grieve for you, Jonathan my brother; dear and delightful you were to me; your love for me was wonderful, surpassing the love of women.

The Gay Centurian

Matthew 8:5-13

And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion, beseeching him, And saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented. And Jesus saith unto him, I will come and heal him.

Matthew uses the Greek word pai§ for servant which is Greek street slang for a servant used as a catamite. Jerome, when translating the bible from Greek to Latin used the word puer which carries the same sexual overtone in third century Latin.

The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof: but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed. For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it.

When Jesus heard it, he marvelled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.

And I say unto you, That many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And Jesus said unto the centurion, Go thy way; and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee. And his servant was healed in the selfsame hour.

Jesus did not live in Jewish Judea but in pagan Galilee. Here he would surely have been familiar with the Roman army's tolerance for homerotic relations extending across class lines. Jesus knew this was likely a homosexual relationship and by his cure indirectly endorsed it.


The Very Rev. Hollinshead T. Knight, Interim Rector at St. John's Episcopal Church in Jackson Wyoming, in his essay about the four primary theological stances toward homosexuality, says:

"It isn’t Scripture that creates hostility to homosexuality, but rather hostility to homosexuality that leads certain Christians to retain a few passages from an otherwise discarded law code. We don’t follow biblical teaching on divorce, polygamy, nudity, Paul’s advice not to marry, slavery, or the stoning of a dulterers! Biblical scholar Walter Wink has said that there is no biblical sex ethic. The Bible knows only a love ethic, which is constantly being brought to bear on whatever sexual mores are dominant in any given culture or period."

"The problem is not reconciling homosexuality with scriptural passages that seem to condemn it; the problem is how do you reconcile the rejection and mistreatment of homosexuals with the love of Christ for all people, particularly the oppressed and the rejected? I don’t think it can be done. If the law of love is more important than the laws of biology, I don’t see how Christians can exclude and mistreat people on the basis of sexual orientation. Otherwise you end up with a Matthew Shepherd situation, for which we can all bear some of the blame."



Although the story of David and Jonathan was mentioned above, the Old Testament of the Bible describes three emotionally close relationships between two people of the same gender. These appear to have progressed far beyond a casual friendship. There is, however, no unmistakable evidence that they were sexually active relationships. The passages seem to speak for themselves.

The individuals are:

  1. Ruth and Naomi
  2. David and Jonathan
  3. Daniel and Ashpenaz

You can read about all three of these by clicking here.