Biblical Gender Identity
Section: Intro ⋅ Single ⋅ Marriage ⋅ Adultery ⋅ Living Together Not Married ⋅ Prostitution ⋅ Cross Dressing ⋅ Homosexuality ⋅ Animals ⋅
Disclaimers:
1. This is a mature topic only intended for people who've at least begun puberty. If you are less than 13 years old then I pray you don't have any reason to concern yourself with this yet, and you should ask a trustworthy adult before reading this. (My Family in the Bible page (here) is meant for all ages.)
2. This summary is not intended for general counseling, it is for those who want to know what the Bible says on this topic, and for those who claim the Bible is silent or says the opposite, plus a little commentary to get us started on what it means and how all this fits in a Biblical worldview.Direct
- Leviticus 18:6-18 hub
- Leviticus 20:11-12 hub
- Leviticus 20:14 hub
- Leviticus 20:17 hub
- Leviticus 20:19-21 hub
- Deuteronomy 22:30 hub
- Deuteronomy 27:20 hub
- Deuteronomy 27:22-23 hub
- Ezekiel 22:11 hub
- Amos 2:7 hub
- 1 Corinthians 5:1-5 hub
NIV and NLT use the expression "don't have sexual relations with", but when we look at the original Hebrew (Interlinear Bible) God was being even more strict. He really said don't even "uncover their nakedness," and KJV and many other translations express it this way (Bible Hub). Given God's positive perspective on adoption and the fatherless, we must conclude that the attitudes expressed above are meant to cover adopted, foster, and any other children living in our home just the same as children who have half our DNA.
Notice incest is always described as with a female close relative. This is further reinforcement from inside the text (not something imposed from without) that homosexuality was outlawed. God didn't need to tell His people "don't have sex with your son" or your brother or your uncle, because He'd already said so when He declared homosexual behavior both detestable and a capital crime. If it was in any way understood that sex with your daughter was detestable but sex with your son (or son-in-law, or uncle, or brother, etc.) was ok, given how messed up the people in the Bible are, I'd expect there would be a little more than the absolute zero evidence for that belief/hope/wishful thought.
Once we are clear on these verses, then the trick is what Jesus called the most important commandment in the entire Law of Moses: we are supposed to love our neighbor as ourself. (Which is really Leviticus 19:18, quoted 8 times in the New Testament.) Clearly all this is strong evidence that pornography, while not named in the Bible, is sinful (the printing press, much less photography and photographic reproduction, hadn't been invented yet). This is reinforced by Jesus's paraphrasing in Matthew 5:27-28 and by John in 1 John 2:16-17. Then Paul throws in the sinker with 1 Timothy 5:1-2, advising us to treat all younger women as sisters, all younger men as brothers, explicitly closing the circle that the concepts of incest are meant to be taken seriously (more broadly than just literally).
This is yet another good example of a topic where God does not beat around the bush. He gets right to it and says what He means very explicitly, leaving very little wiggle room. But just because God told Moses to inform the Israelites that it's wrong doesn't mean everyone in the Bible was a good role model, especially before the law was delivered.
[Bad] Examples
- Genesis 9:20-27 hub
- Genesis 19:30-36 hub
- Genesis 20:12 hub
- Genesis 29:27 hub
- Exodus 6:20 hub
- 2 Samuel 13:1-22 hub
| Case | Verses | Just don't | Impure | Childless | Cursed | Capital crime | Dishonor | Disgrace | Detestable | Defile | Perversion | Wicked | |
| Genetic complications & family chaos | |||||||||||||
| Close relatives | Leviticus 18:6 | x | |||||||||||
| Mother | Leviticus 18:7 | x | |||||||||||
| Aunt | Leviticus 18:12-14, 20:19-20 | x | x | x | |||||||||
| Sister (full or half) |
Leviticus 18:9, 11, 20:17, Deuteronomy 27:22, Ezekiel 22:11 |
x | x | x | x | ||||||||
| Granddaughter | Leviticus 18:10 | x | |||||||||||
Family chaos |
|||||||||||||
| Father's wife | Leviticus 18:8, 20:11, Deuteronomy 22:30, 27:20, 1 Corinthians 5:1 |
x | x | x | |||||||||
| Brother's wife | Leviticus 18:16 | x | x | x | |||||||||
| Son's wife | Leviticus 18:15, 20:12, Ezekiel 22:11 |
x | x | x | x | x | |||||||
| Wife's sister | Leviticus 18:18 | x | |||||||||||
| Both a woman and her daughter (or even her granddaughter) |
Leviticus 18:17, 20:12, 14 Deuteronomy 27:23 |
x | x | x | |||||||||
Just because bad examples exist in the Bible doesn't invalidate any of God's instructions, nor is it an excuse to say morality had a beginning and end (namely, an end in the past). However, as a technicality, more so than any other sexual immorality, incest had a little gray area. In Genesis 4, 5, and 10, who were people going to marry (and therefore have children with) other than their close relatives? No one. But they were expected to carry out God's explicit command to fill the Earth (Genesis 1:28 and 9:1). Even atheist scientists have figured out that early creatures (including but not limited to humans) had more genetic diversity than we have today. (Genetics are discussed more in my separate article, Scientifically Superior, here.) As the human gene pool degrades, breeding with close family members becomes a serious medical problem. The Israelites had no idea of this 3 millennia ago. But God has always known. The condemnation of incest was essentially a prophecy that has come true.
Less important than the prophesy but still important is the concept of sexual harassment. This practice is where a person in power takes sexual advantage of someone else not in power, destabilizes the integrity of the workplace, and fares no better in the family. The family unit is God's design and His tool for strong society, so it's no wonder that God condemned this organizational cancer when He was establishing the parameters of the nation of Israel when they were first forming.
Further, notice that some of the cases were simply "don't," and some were condemned. When God simply said "don't" we might argue that it was a command to those people at that time, like the command to not shave their beard (Leviticus 21:5). But God didn't say shaving your beard is a disgrace, nor was it detestable, dishonorable, defiling, perverted, cursed, nor wicked. (Some Israelites were recorded with a sentiment of disgrace in 2 Samuel 10:1-5 and the parallel 1 Chronicles 19:1-5, but that was because it was done to them against their will not because God ever declared it disgraceful, detestable, etc.) When God says a behavior is explicitly bad, we need to take Him seriously. Since God doesn't change (Numbers 23:19, Malachi 3:6, Hebrews 13:8) what He declared immoral in the past is still immoral today, whether regarding incest or anything else.
Last Modified: Friday, December 08, 2023
