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Leviticus 20:10-21, King James Version
Italic words were supplied in the English translation for clarity.
Leviticus 20:10-21
Sexual prohibitions return with severe penalties and childlessness formulas
The prohibitions return as a penalty catalogue
Adultery with a neighbor's wife brings a death formula for both parties. Intercourse with a father's wife or a daughter-in-law likewise. A man lying with mankind as with a woman is called abomination, and both are assigned death, their blood upon them. A man who takes a woman and her mother is assigned burning. A man or woman who lies with a beast is assigned death together with the animal.
Sibling relations, menstruation-status sex, and intercourse with an aunt receive cutting-off language. Taking an uncle's wife or a brother's wife receives a childlessness formula. The sanctions vary. They are not one undifferentiated curse.
State the male-male clause without turning it into a license to harm
The wording is as severe as the adultery and bestiality clauses beside it, and it should be read honestly. The ancient expression and its contemporary scope remain disputed. What is not disputed is that this unit cannot authorize execution, assault, forced treatment, conversion coercion, family violence, or anti-LGBTQ abuse.
A penalty list that places distinct cases side by side does not make LGBTQ people, or loving same-sex relationships, the same thing as adultery, incest, or sex with animals. Equating them is a use of the page, not a requirement of the grammar.
These penalties belong to ancient legal rhetoric
Leviticus 20 is not a modern criminal code, a church-discipline manual, or a script for street violence. Later Jewish legal tradition reasoned about these texts rather than simply copying their deaths into every age. Christian readers have no warrant to revive the killings.
The right response to the severity is to tell the truth about what is written, refuse to hide it, and refuse to enact it against persons.
How this should shape us
Do not kill, beat, expel, or coerce anyone in the name of these verses. Keep the named acts distinct, protect people from sexual exploitation and from homophobic harm, and let disagreement about later application happen without erasing either the text or the neighbor.
Teach it back
Explain Leviticus 20:10-21 in your own words. Include its ritual, legal, narrative, or calendar movement; one source-supported detail; one uncertainty; and one use the context rules out.
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Go deeper
The explanation above is meant to stand on its own. Open these notes only if you want language, history, disagreements, or source locations.
Where careful interpreters disagreeThe strongest options and their difficulties
Where do careful interpreters disagree?
Best judgment: Interpreters disagree over Priestly and Holiness composition, legal scope, ancient enforcement, kinship structures, sexual acts and rationales, moral versus ritual categories, resident-outside status, and how Jews and Christians should reason from these texts today. Material alternatives are stated without pretending the ethical stakes disappear.
How certain? probableResearch trail and exact locationsThe source record behind this section
Supports: Exact reader-facing KJV wording, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage for this thought unit.
Leviticus 20:10-21, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Supports: Hebrew wording, morphology, ritual and legal vocabulary, names, clause relationships, KJV language controls, and translation limits.
Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Lev.xml, Masoretic words and morphology for 20:10-21
Supports: Unit-bounded translator notes on Hebrew, syntax, ritual vocabulary, measures, textual questions, and older-English wording; silence is not treated as evidence.
NET Bible Leviticus PDF, complete PDF pp. 1-99, translation and translator notes for 20:10-21
Supports: Open critical orientation to Day of Atonement, holiness, social law, calendar, land, release, covenant, and final valuations.
Yale Bible Study, 'Leviticus Part 2,' complete guide sections on Leviticus 16, the Holiness Code, love of neighbor, festivals, land, covenant, and vows, applied to Leviticus 20:10-21
Supports: One prominent contextual reading of the male-male prohibitions, preserved as a material interpretation rather than declared consensus.
Nissinen, 'It's About Masculinity, Not Homosexuality,' complete article sections on Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13, Hebrew wording, ancient masculinity, and reception limits
Supports: A different critical model that treats Torah as legally polyphonic; it preserves denominational and compositional disagreement rather than deciding contemporary ethics by concealment.
Frankel, 'Male Homosexual Intercourse Is Prohibited - In One Part of the Torah,' complete source-critical comparison of Leviticus 18, 20, Priestly texts, and Deuteronomy
Supports: Primary Jewish reception evidence showing later legal restriction and disagreement around capital punishment; it does not erase Leviticus's penalties.
Mishnah Makkot 1:10, complete unit in Hebrew and English on a Sanhedrin executing once in seven or seventy years and the preserved rabbinic disagreement
Supports: Publisher-visible framing of scholarly disagreement about Hebrews and supersessionism, used as a restraint on Christian canonical claims rather than as a complete solution.
Church, 'Hebrews and the Question of Supersessionism,' Oxford 2024 official abstract and metadata, pp. 167-180
Sources for This Section
These records identify the source, the claim it supports, and the exact location used. A source remains evidence to evaluate; it does not replace the biblical text.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact reader-facing KJV wording, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage for this thought unit.
Exact location: Leviticus 20:10-21, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Leviticus
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Hebrew wording, morphology, ritual and legal vocabulary, names, clause relationships, KJV language controls, and translation limits.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Lev.xml, Masoretic words and morphology for 20:10-21
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible: Leviticus with translators' notes
Biblical Studies Press
eBible.org distribution of the NET Bible, PDF generated 2025-12-31
Supports: Unit-bounded translator notes on Hebrew, syntax, ritual vocabulary, measures, textual questions, and older-English wording; silence is not treated as evidence.
Exact location: NET Bible Leviticus PDF, complete PDF pp. 1-99, translation and translator notes for 20:10-21
Open source ↗modern critical open study guide
Leviticus Part 2: Day of Atonement, Holiness Code, and Love of Neighbor
Joel S. Baden and Yale Bible Study
Yale Divinity School, 2023 course edition
Supports: Open critical orientation to Day of Atonement, holiness, social law, calendar, land, release, covenant, and final valuations.
Exact location: Yale Bible Study, 'Leviticus Part 2,' complete guide sections on Leviticus 16, the Holiness Code, love of neighbor, festivals, land, covenant, and vows, applied to Leviticus 20:10-21
Open source ↗modern scholarly open ancient sexuality study
It's About Masculinity, Not Homosexuality
Martti Nissinen
TheTorah.com, 2024
Supports: One prominent contextual reading of the male-male prohibitions, preserved as a material interpretation rather than declared consensus.
Exact location: Nissinen, 'It's About Masculinity, Not Homosexuality,' complete article sections on Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13, Hebrew wording, ancient masculinity, and reception limits
Open source ↗modern jewish scholarly open polyphonic reading
Male Homosexual Intercourse Is Prohibited - In One Part of the Torah
David Frankel
TheTorah.com, 2017
Supports: A different critical model that treats Torah as legally polyphonic; it preserves denominational and compositional disagreement rather than deciding contemporary ethics by concealment.
Exact location: Frankel, 'Male Homosexual Intercourse Is Prohibited - In One Part of the Torah,' complete source-critical comparison of Leviticus 18, 20, Priestly texts, and Deuteronomy
Open source ↗primary rabbinic legal reception text
Mishnah Makkot 1:10
Mishnah; digital Hebrew and English presentation by Sefaria
Sefaria, early rabbinic text; current digital presentation
Supports: Primary Jewish reception evidence showing later legal restriction and disagreement around capital punishment; it does not erase Leviticus's penalties.
Exact location: Mishnah Makkot 1:10, complete unit in Hebrew and English on a Sanhedrin executing once in seven or seventy years and the preserved rabbinic disagreement
Open source ↗modern christian scholarly handbook chapter abstract
Hebrews and the Question of Supersessionism
Philip Church
The Oxford Handbook of Hebrews and the Catholic Epistles, Oxford University Press, 2024
Supports: Publisher-visible framing of scholarly disagreement about Hebrews and supersessionism, used as a restraint on Christian canonical claims rather than as a complete solution.
Exact location: Church, 'Hebrews and the Question of Supersessionism,' Oxford 2024 official abstract and metadata, pp. 167-180
Open source ↗