Now, it only
remains to look at the changes within the early Christian church. Christian ascetic teachings took root in the
in the soil prepared for it by the stoic philosophers which was increasing in
popularity among the Romans.[1] Justin understood Christ’s comments about
eunuchs to be an indication that men who could not remain chaste should
castrate themselves,[2]
which is asceticism taken to an extreme.
Marcion, 2nd century CE, was so acetic that he “prohibited
marriage for all his followers.”
Cassianus and ascetics like him likely got their ideas on celibacy from
the Gospel According to the Egyptians. Bullough further points out that “the Syrian
Christian Church of the third Century were unanimous in their testimony that
the fundamental conception around which the Christian belief centered was the doctrine
that Christian life was ‘unthinkable outside the bounds of virginity,’” quoting
from Voobus.[3] However, in the Didascalia Apostolorum, a work produced by the Syrian Christian
Church in the third Century, the author indicates that Christian sons “should
be married off as soon as possible to avoid the temptation of [fornication].”[4] So, there seems to be contradictions as to
what people thought even here.
Interestingly,
many Christian writers felt that all sex, including in marriage was wrong. Eustathius of Sebastia from the 4th
Century CE, believed that married people could not receive salvation. And, sexual abstinence became a requirement
for church membership, but this requirement was removed by the late 4th
to early 5th centuries.[5] In monasticism, asceticism focused on same
gender romance with St. Basil, 4th century advising the monks to
avoid close relationships with others of their own age. St
Augustine recommended similar restrictions for nuns.[6]
Bullough points
out that Christianity in the early years was not unified and that one should
not take “Paul’s references to sex as a systematic or comprehensive treatment
of sexual matters.”[7] The followers of the Gnostic Prodicus felt
that since the law had been abolished by Christ, they were free to enjoy
adultery, nudity and “other sexual activites.”[8] Clement also spoke about women who “play the
man against nature, both being married and marrying women.”[9] Augustine, who lived from 354 to 430CE, had a
very close relationship with his mother, withdrew from women and had a close
relationship with an unnamed male companion who would remain nameless, though
this relationship may not have been sexual.[10]
By the end of the
second or beginning of the third century CE, the Chruch had begun to wipe out
Gnosticism; however, it acquired an ascetic flavor in the process. “Greggory of Nyssa, in the fourth century
dismissed marriage as a sad tragedy.”[11]
It seems to me that in an effort to gain converts, sometime after the second
Century, theologians began using Greek Philosophy to explain the existence
God. Firmicus Maternus some time in the
fourth century clearly felt that the galli were to be hated. He claimed that their Goddess filled them
with an “unholy spirit” which allowed them to predict the future, [12]
which again sounds an awful lot like Paul in Romans 1.
St John Chrysostom
in the 4th Century CE, said regarding Romans 1, “No one can claim,
[Paul] points out, that she came to this because she was precluded from lawful
intercourse or that she was unable to satisfy her desire she fell into this
monstrous depravity. Only those
possessing something can change it…” He
further elaborates on the men, “Likewise [Paul] casts aside with these words
every excuse, charging that they not only had [legitimate] enjoyment and
abandoned it, going after a different one, but that spurning the natural they
pursued the unnatural.” So, Chrysostom seems to think that Paul is speaking of
those who were already known to be heterosexual. Boswell concludes from this that Paul only
discussed “homosexual acts committed by heterosexual persons.”[13]
In conclusion, it
seems obvious that Romans and early Christians would have known of age
appropriate same-gender attraction as well as transgenders or eunuchs. It also seems apparent that there were a
plethora of words available for the Biblical authors to use to describe transgender
people or homoromantic people, but they did not use any of these words. This indicates to me that the Biblical
writers likely had no concern about it.
It is also apparent that as asceticism increased in popularity among the
pagans, it also increased among early Christians. This, more than any apparent hatred of
homosexuals by Christ or the disciples, seems to have lead to the eventual
interpretations of Scripture in anti-homosexual ways. Pagan asceticism also likely influenced
ancient Judaism’s shift in attitudes.
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