Matthew 8 and Sodomy

Theodore Jennings and Tat-Siong Benny Liew have a curious article in the Fall 2004 issue of JBL . They offer an alternative interpretation of the story of the centurion of Matthew 8, an interpretation that hangs on taking “PAIS” not as “slave” or “son” but as “boy-lover.” They find plenty of evidence that the word can be used in this sense, and also plenty of evidence of pederastic relationships within the Roman military, not least between soldiers and their captive slaves. They believe that their interpretation better explains the “puzzling” dialogue that Jesus has with the Roman centurion regarding authority. Jesus is initially “amazed” at the centurion not because of the depth of his faith but because the centurion’s plea parallels the Jewish charge that Jesus has authority over the demons as the chief of the demons; the demonic host is structured, in short, like the Roman host, with a clear hierarchical command structure. Jesus does commend the centurion’s faith because, in spite of his professed adherence to a command-obedience hierarchy, the centurion by his actions undermines this structure, since he is willing to come to a Jewish rabbi for assistance. His actions, which for Matthew are the true evidence of faith, undermine his overt adherence to Roman hierarchy.

The punch line of the article comes in the final section, “Sexualities and Matthew,” where the authors argue that Jesus’ acceptance of a pederast centurion is fully consistent with Matthew’s portrayal of Jesus’ acceptance of sexual misfits: “Prostitutes, adulteresses, sexually aggressive women, sexually penetrated men, eunuchs, slaves, and condemned criminals (like Matthew’s Jesus) are all persons of infames, or ‘ill repute’ in Roman eyes. In this light, Matthew’s affirmations of these people should be read in connection with her challenge to hierarchical authority and Roman rule.”

The authors’ commitment of diligent, creative, and broad research to incredibly strained exegesis is hard to match. It is testimony to the lengths that some will go to find justification for sodomy in Scripture.