A couple of Sundays ago, a lady approached me after one of our services and asked me about homosexuality in the Old Testament book of “Song of Solomon.” I admit I was dumbfounded because I was not aware of any homosexual references in that book of the Bible. She said one of her friends kept asking her how she could consider homosexuality to be wrong when the “Song of Solomon” was about two gay men. I responded that I had never heard that claim but I would look into it.
Well, I did look into it and here is what I learned. The idea that the “Book of Solomon” was a homosexual love song was advanced several years ago by a Dr. Paul Johnson in a book he wrote, as well as several articles. Dr. Johnson was a minister and a practicing homosexual. He was an active member of numerous homosexual organizations and publications.
He produced his own translation of the “Song of Solomon” which he said was based on fragments of the Hebrew text that predated those used by the traditional Bible translators. He claimed the original text reflected a homosexual love poem, but the text was later changed by scribes to hide its original homosexual content. His claims were later published on a pro-gay website, leading to them being read and believed by a much wider audience. That is the reason a small number of people will occasionally make the claim that the “Song of Solomon” is about two homosexual men and their love affair.
Dr. Johnson’s claims have been completely debunked by Hebrew linguists and scholars – both Christian and secular. His claim about using older fragments to correctly translate the text is impossible. There are only four small fragments of the “Song of Solomon” found among the Dead Sea Scrolls and they do not differ from the Masoretic text used to translate the “Song of Solomon” in our Bibles. I could go on and on with details, but suffice it to say that his claims are baseless and false.
Why did I choose to write about this? Because it is an example of how something so false and scholarly bankrupt can become accepted as truth by uninformed people who read articles on the internet. When the internet first became accessible to the masses, we often heard a statement similar to this: “Just because you read something on the internet doesn’t mean it’s true.” That statement is still very true. While the internet is a great blessing and makes good information readily available to all of us, it is also true that the internet is a curse which makes it easier for nonsense to be spread and believed.
Allow me to repeat the above statement one more time. Just because you read something on the internet that claims to be written by an expert does not mean that it is true.
Pastor Steve Hogg
Reuben says
Pastor Hogg,
Thank you for your insight and the research that you have done in this area. This is the first time I heard about this controversy however your research clarified the issue. Now, I’m well informed. Thank you for your post!