What Does The Bible Say About Homosexuality?: Bible Scholar Dan McClellan

What the Bible Actually Says About Homosexuality: A Scholar's View

For decades, Mormon and Evangelical pulpits have delivered a simple message: the Bible condemns homosexuality, full stop. This certainty has shaped policy, theology, and countless personal tragedies. Yet according to biblical scholar Dan McClellan, who detailed his research on the Mormon Stories Podcast, that confidence rests on a fundamental misunderstanding of the text itself. The Bible never actually addresses homosexuality as a modern identity or orientation. In fact, the concept would have been unrecognizable to its authors.

The Ancient Sexual World

To understand the relevant passages, you must first abandon modern assumptions about sex. Ancient Mediterranean cultures, including those that produced the Bible, viewed sex not as a mutual act between equals but as something one person did to another. The primary axis of concern was not gender attraction but power and penetration.

In this framework, the insertive partner maintained status and masculinity. The receptive partner surrendered it. This explains why some ancient texts rationalized a man taking the insertive role with another male, provided the other man was of lower status. A man seeking the receptive role, however, represented a pathological loss of status. It made no sense to them. As McClellan notes, ancient texts like the Talmud and the Alphabet of Ben Sira even worried about sexual positions between husbands and wives, with dire warnings for men who allowed their wives to be "on top." These were concerns about social hierarchy, not sexual orientation.

The Proof Texts Fall Apart