This is an article by Harry McCall which appeared in the Debunking Christianity blog. Arguing that Jesus in the Gospels was what we in the early 21st century would be consider being Gay.
This evidence from the Canonical Gospels is far more disturbing to some Christians, than some non-canonical gospel portraying that Jesus had a wife.
Jesus the Homosexual: Evidence From the Gospels
By Harry H. McCall at 6/04/2012
Jesus is created / redacted in each of the Gospel author’s mind to give credence to their own story of Jesus which – for them – would have trouble standing on its own merits. Thus in Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus is the New Moses and his life is set in a Roman Palestine context that mimics Israel in Egypt complete with the killing of the toddlers to Jesus even being taken down to Egypt by his family so – like Moses and the Israelites – Jesus comes out of Egypt.
In Mark the theme is the Messianic Secret where the author of this Gospel portrays Jesus was working signs and wonders, but then demanding neither his disciples nor anyone to tell what they have seen Jesus do (So, if no historian recorded any miracle Jesus did, it’s because Jesus himself made them swear not to tell anyone!).
In Luke, Jesus follows the template of Elijah and emulates many of the events of this famous prophet of the Hebrew Bible such as the well-known parallel being 2 Kings 1; 9-12 to Luke 9: 51 -56 (Fire from Heaven) and Luke 4: 16; 7: 11 – 17 to 2 Kings 1: 17 – 24 (The Healing the Widow’s Son).
The author of the Fourth Gospel (or generally known as John) is not only well versed in the allegorical meanings (much like the Jew Philo of Alexandria, Egypt), but more importantly this author uses Greek philosophy to legitimize Jesus’ life as divine. There are no earthly virgin birth accounts here (as in Matt. and Luke), but Jesus is the eternal divine logos or Word which - as with Greek philosophical Neo-Platonism - always has been.
Jesus in the Gospel of John is now far removed from the highly Jewish themes in the Synoptic Gospels as the Jesus of the Fourth Gospels never speaks in parables, but is well versed in Hellenistic Greek and Classical philosophy. The author of this Gospel has reinvented Jesus (apart from the Torah Jew of the Synoptic Tradition) to function much like a educated Classical Greek teacher complete with a school of students called μαθητὰς (disciples).
However, the Greek social culture redacted in this Gospel does not stop with just Greek philosophical terms, but as in Greek society, the author of the Fourth Gospel has the older Jesus take a younger lover or what was both well-known and common in Greek culture as Pederasty (the courting by an older male of a younger male entering puberty until his late teens). While Jesus enjoys a close relationship with his handpicked twelve apostles, the Fourth Gospel lets the reader know that Jesus has indeed chosen a young lover τὸν μαθητὴν ὃν ἠγάπα ὁ Ἰησοῦς (the disciple Jesus loved (ἠγάπα = Imperfect, indicative, Active, 3 singular) who is said to lie (ἀνέπεσεν) on top of Jesus’ body (κόλπῳ) at the Passover Supper.
[A note on English translations: To tone down the erotic nature, English translations tend to paraphrase John 13: 23: “the disciple, whom Jesus loved, was reclining next to him.” (New International Version); “The disciple Jesus loved was sitting next to Jesus at the table.” (New Living Translation); “One of his disciples, whom Jesus loved, was reclining at table close to Jesus,” (English Standard Version) and even the King James Version, “Now there was leaning on Jesus' bosom one of his disciples, whom Jesus loved.” But either these versions paraphrase the Greek with a totally new inoffensive non-erotic meaning or – like the King James Version - gives the impression this disciple was simply resting his head on the chest of a reclining Jesus.]
[Note on ἠγάπα (Agape Love): Though Christians claim that agape is used only as spiritual or divine love, this claim cannot be supported in the Bible or more in precisely the LXX (Septuagint). In the story of The Rape of Tamar by her brother Amnon in 2 Samuel 13, we are told in 13: 1 that “… καὶ ἠγάπησεν αὐτὴν αμνων υἱὸς δαυιδ.” "and Amnon the son of David loved (agaped) her". Here agape as used for the love of lust which would finally lead to rape. Thus, likewise, Jesus’ love for this one special disciple could just as well be one of sexual lust.]
[Note on κόλπῳ (torso): The English translation of just where the beloved disciple was lying on Jesus’ body is highly paraphrased from this disciple simply reclining next to Jesus to lying on Jesus’ breast. However, the Classical Greek Dictionary of Liddell, Scott, and Jones (Oxford University Press, 1968) gives the first definition of κόλπος either as bosom or lap. The second definition places κόλπος in the genital area between the legs as in the vaginal area in women. In the LXX, it can be used for a position of sex intercourse as with Abraham and Hagar: "...ἐγὼ δέδωκα τὴν παιδίσκην μου εἰς τὸν κόλπον σου..." (I have given my maid into your bosom) (Genesis 16: 5).]
To emphasize the homo-social background of this event, two of the Synoptics even have Jesus giving orders to Peter and John to seek out a gay man: “And He said to them, “When you have entered the city, a man will meet you carrying a pitcher of water; follow him into the house that he enters. “And you shall say to the owner of the house, ‘The Teacher says to you, “Where is the guest room in which I may eat the Passover with My disciples?”’ “And he will show you a large, furnished upper room; prepare it there.” (Luke 22: 10 -12 = Mark 14: 13 – 15) In first century Palestine, only women carried water from a well (Genesis 24; 11; John 4: 7) and any man doing a woman’s job would be consider effeminate; thus making it easy for his disciples (John likely being gay himself) to locate him. The fact that Luke adds phase “τῷ οἰκοδεσπότῃ τῆς οἰκίας” (to the master of the house) gives the reader a second homo-social indication that this house is occupied by two men or gay lovers that Jesus likely had met on an earlier occasion in Jerusalem. Thus for the conservative Christian, the Passover Meal (Last Supper) was celebrated in a gay couple’s home where Jesus could be at sexual ease with his disciples and to express openly his affections for the special disciple he loved (ἠγάπα).
Of all the four Gospels, the Fourth Gospels is the only one to use the phrase “ὃν ἠγάπα” or “whom he loved” four times: John 13: 23, 19: 26, 21: 7 and 21:20 with only 20: 2 (now redacted) for the tomb of the dead Jesus to read “ὃν ἐφίλει or the Aorist of the Greek root for fellowship or brotherly love: φιλία.
Interestingly, the Gospel of John even goes as far to tell its Greek readers that Jesus’ own disciples were shocked to find Jesus alone talking to a woman: “…καὶ ἐθαύμασαν (astounded) ὅτι μετὰ γυναικὸς ἐλάλει•…” “…and they were astounded / shocked that He had been speaking with a woman…” (John 4: 27) (Notice the context that the disciples had no way of knowing if this woman was a Samaritan or not. They simply saw Jesus talking to a woman and were shocked!)
Finally, the following two verses in Mark add nothing to the Passion Narrative and are oddly out of place: “A young man was following Him, wearing nothing but a linen sheet over his naked body; and they seized him. But he pulled free of the linen sheet and escaped naked." (Mark 14: 51 – 52) However, if we consider the logical conclusion that of the twelve disciples Jesus took with him to the Garden and then the three disciples Jesus carried even further with him into the Garden (Peter, James and John), Jesus’ final hours were likely spent in both prayer and in the arms his lover be it John or a thirteenth person (unnamed youth) wearing a loose fitting garment over his naked body covered with a "linen sheet" providing easy sexual access and comfort for a deeply troubled Jesus.
This evidence from the Canonical Gospels is far more disturbing to some Christians, than some non-canonical gospel portraying that Jesus had a wife.
Jesus the Homosexual: Evidence From the Gospels
By Harry H. McCall at 6/04/2012
Jesus is created / redacted in each of the Gospel author’s mind to give credence to their own story of Jesus which – for them – would have trouble standing on its own merits. Thus in Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus is the New Moses and his life is set in a Roman Palestine context that mimics Israel in Egypt complete with the killing of the toddlers to Jesus even being taken down to Egypt by his family so – like Moses and the Israelites – Jesus comes out of Egypt.
In Mark the theme is the Messianic Secret where the author of this Gospel portrays Jesus was working signs and wonders, but then demanding neither his disciples nor anyone to tell what they have seen Jesus do (So, if no historian recorded any miracle Jesus did, it’s because Jesus himself made them swear not to tell anyone!).
In Luke, Jesus follows the template of Elijah and emulates many of the events of this famous prophet of the Hebrew Bible such as the well-known parallel being 2 Kings 1; 9-12 to Luke 9: 51 -56 (Fire from Heaven) and Luke 4: 16; 7: 11 – 17 to 2 Kings 1: 17 – 24 (The Healing the Widow’s Son).
The author of the Fourth Gospel (or generally known as John) is not only well versed in the allegorical meanings (much like the Jew Philo of Alexandria, Egypt), but more importantly this author uses Greek philosophy to legitimize Jesus’ life as divine. There are no earthly virgin birth accounts here (as in Matt. and Luke), but Jesus is the eternal divine logos or Word which - as with Greek philosophical Neo-Platonism - always has been.
Jesus in the Gospel of John is now far removed from the highly Jewish themes in the Synoptic Gospels as the Jesus of the Fourth Gospels never speaks in parables, but is well versed in Hellenistic Greek and Classical philosophy. The author of this Gospel has reinvented Jesus (apart from the Torah Jew of the Synoptic Tradition) to function much like a educated Classical Greek teacher complete with a school of students called μαθητὰς (disciples).
However, the Greek social culture redacted in this Gospel does not stop with just Greek philosophical terms, but as in Greek society, the author of the Fourth Gospel has the older Jesus take a younger lover or what was both well-known and common in Greek culture as Pederasty (the courting by an older male of a younger male entering puberty until his late teens). While Jesus enjoys a close relationship with his handpicked twelve apostles, the Fourth Gospel lets the reader know that Jesus has indeed chosen a young lover τὸν μαθητὴν ὃν ἠγάπα ὁ Ἰησοῦς (the disciple Jesus loved (ἠγάπα = Imperfect, indicative, Active, 3 singular) who is said to lie (ἀνέπεσεν) on top of Jesus’ body (κόλπῳ) at the Passover Supper.
[A note on English translations: To tone down the erotic nature, English translations tend to paraphrase John 13: 23: “the disciple, whom Jesus loved, was reclining next to him.” (New International Version); “The disciple Jesus loved was sitting next to Jesus at the table.” (New Living Translation); “One of his disciples, whom Jesus loved, was reclining at table close to Jesus,” (English Standard Version) and even the King James Version, “Now there was leaning on Jesus' bosom one of his disciples, whom Jesus loved.” But either these versions paraphrase the Greek with a totally new inoffensive non-erotic meaning or – like the King James Version - gives the impression this disciple was simply resting his head on the chest of a reclining Jesus.]
[Note on ἠγάπα (Agape Love): Though Christians claim that agape is used only as spiritual or divine love, this claim cannot be supported in the Bible or more in precisely the LXX (Septuagint). In the story of The Rape of Tamar by her brother Amnon in 2 Samuel 13, we are told in 13: 1 that “… καὶ ἠγάπησεν αὐτὴν αμνων υἱὸς δαυιδ.” "and Amnon the son of David loved (agaped) her". Here agape as used for the love of lust which would finally lead to rape. Thus, likewise, Jesus’ love for this one special disciple could just as well be one of sexual lust.]
[Note on κόλπῳ (torso): The English translation of just where the beloved disciple was lying on Jesus’ body is highly paraphrased from this disciple simply reclining next to Jesus to lying on Jesus’ breast. However, the Classical Greek Dictionary of Liddell, Scott, and Jones (Oxford University Press, 1968) gives the first definition of κόλπος either as bosom or lap. The second definition places κόλπος in the genital area between the legs as in the vaginal area in women. In the LXX, it can be used for a position of sex intercourse as with Abraham and Hagar: "...ἐγὼ δέδωκα τὴν παιδίσκην μου εἰς τὸν κόλπον σου..." (I have given my maid into your bosom) (Genesis 16: 5).]
To emphasize the homo-social background of this event, two of the Synoptics even have Jesus giving orders to Peter and John to seek out a gay man: “And He said to them, “When you have entered the city, a man will meet you carrying a pitcher of water; follow him into the house that he enters. “And you shall say to the owner of the house, ‘The Teacher says to you, “Where is the guest room in which I may eat the Passover with My disciples?”’ “And he will show you a large, furnished upper room; prepare it there.” (Luke 22: 10 -12 = Mark 14: 13 – 15) In first century Palestine, only women carried water from a well (Genesis 24; 11; John 4: 7) and any man doing a woman’s job would be consider effeminate; thus making it easy for his disciples (John likely being gay himself) to locate him. The fact that Luke adds phase “τῷ οἰκοδεσπότῃ τῆς οἰκίας” (to the master of the house) gives the reader a second homo-social indication that this house is occupied by two men or gay lovers that Jesus likely had met on an earlier occasion in Jerusalem. Thus for the conservative Christian, the Passover Meal (Last Supper) was celebrated in a gay couple’s home where Jesus could be at sexual ease with his disciples and to express openly his affections for the special disciple he loved (ἠγάπα).
Of all the four Gospels, the Fourth Gospels is the only one to use the phrase “ὃν ἠγάπα” or “whom he loved” four times: John 13: 23, 19: 26, 21: 7 and 21:20 with only 20: 2 (now redacted) for the tomb of the dead Jesus to read “ὃν ἐφίλει or the Aorist of the Greek root for fellowship or brotherly love: φιλία.
Interestingly, the Gospel of John even goes as far to tell its Greek readers that Jesus’ own disciples were shocked to find Jesus alone talking to a woman: “…καὶ ἐθαύμασαν (astounded) ὅτι μετὰ γυναικὸς ἐλάλει•…” “…and they were astounded / shocked that He had been speaking with a woman…” (John 4: 27) (Notice the context that the disciples had no way of knowing if this woman was a Samaritan or not. They simply saw Jesus talking to a woman and were shocked!)
Finally, the following two verses in Mark add nothing to the Passion Narrative and are oddly out of place: “A young man was following Him, wearing nothing but a linen sheet over his naked body; and they seized him. But he pulled free of the linen sheet and escaped naked." (Mark 14: 51 – 52) However, if we consider the logical conclusion that of the twelve disciples Jesus took with him to the Garden and then the three disciples Jesus carried even further with him into the Garden (Peter, James and John), Jesus’ final hours were likely spent in both prayer and in the arms his lover be it John or a thirteenth person (unnamed youth) wearing a loose fitting garment over his naked body covered with a "linen sheet" providing easy sexual access and comfort for a deeply troubled Jesus.
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