I have seen it stated many time how Paul continue have understood homosexual monogomous love, and so he must have been speaking only of hetrosexuals doing homosexual acts or ....................................
So I find it really contradictory and almost funny, if it wasn't a serious matter, that Boswell would say stuff like:
Gay marriages were also legal and frequent in Rome for both males and females. Even emperors often married other males. There was total acceptance on the part of the populace, as far as it can be determined, of this sort of homosexual attitude and behavior. This total acceptance was not limited to the ruling elite; there is also much popular Roman literature containing gay love stories. The real point I want to make is that there is absolutely no conscious effort on anyone's part in the Roman world, the world in which Christianity was born, to claim that homosexuality was abnormal or undesirable.
So if the if the above statement is true, then Paul would have know about marriages/unions, etc.
Boswell also says in the very same article:
"Homosexuality," Plato wrote, "is regarded as shameful by barbarians and by those who live under despotic governments just as philosophy is regarded as shameful by them, because it is apparently not in the interest of such rulers to have great ideas engendered in their subjects, or powerful friendships or passionate love-all of which homosexuality is particularly apt to produce." This attitude of Plato's was characteristic of the ancient world, and I want to begin my discussion of the attitudes of the Church and of Western Christianity toward homosexuality by commenting on comparable attitudes among the ancients.
Excerpts from the keynote address made by Prof. Boswell to the Fourth Biennial Dignity International Convention in 1979.
Am I the only one who finds it confusing for an author to say how Plato's attitude was characteristic of the ancient world, and then also say that homosexual marriages were legal and frequent in Rome. So which is it? Was it normal/natural or was it regarded as shameful even among the barbarians?
I have read many a article discrediting Boswell's finding, but frankly I think he discredits himself when he put contradictory statements in the same study. IMHO.
I am not going to try to rehabilitate Boswell in one short post, especially since many of the criticisms against him do seem to have merit. However I need to point out to you that you misread his paraphrase of Plato.
I don't recognize the passage so I don't know just how free his paraphrase is. But since you seem to be prepared to accept the passage at face value, I need not be more particular. I an only going to comment on your misinterpretation of the passage as quoted in your post.
You added an "even" in the first clause changing the meaning entirely.
As you quoted the passage, Plato was claimed to have said:
"Homosexuality is regarded as shameful by barbarians and by those who live under despotic governments." This simply states what barbarians and despots believe.
But as you stated it in your commentary, it was "regarded as shameful even among the barbarians*." This implies that Plato and his society believe this, and that the other two types of society (which are so different and have very few beliefs in common) agree.
That this is not what Plato was saying (at least according to Boswell's paraphrase) since in addition to homosexuality, these same barbarians and despots also thought philosophy was shameful. Plato, a philosopher, and the Greeks in general, did not dispise philosophy.
As the paraphrase continues, Boswell has Plato saying that philosophy and homosexuality are dispised by despots because they don't want to encourage either Great Ideas, or Powerful Friendships.
There is nothing in the paraphrase you quoted to contradict Boswells other statement, as you imply.
Having said that, I suspect that Boswell
was a bit free with his paraphrase, and that what Plato actually said was not as conveniently phrased to highlight Boswell's point.
*In Plato's time, "barbarians" simply meant foreigners, people who did not speak the same language or share the same intrinsic culture. Just as the Jews would have called the Greeks "gentiles," the Greeks would have called the Jews "barbarians."
Wallowing in filth is an abomination to God.
