Dr. Couch, I have heard some Bible teachers say that the word "dog" in some places in Scripture is referring to homosexuality. Is this true?
ANSWER: This is probably true and it is held by many Bible scholars, such as my Hebrew teacher, the great Dr. Merrill F. Unger. He writes in his commentary on Deuteronomy 23:17-18: "The harlot is the female religious prostitute and the sodomite is the male religious prostitute, the homosexual. "The price from the dog" is the fee paid to a male prostitute or "catamite." A catamite is a boy who has sexual relations with a man! God refuses to accept their offerings given to the tabernacle, or later to the temple! Ellicott agrees that this is the meaning of dog in these verses: "The prostitute and the sodomite" he writes.
Revelation 22:15 also refers to the "dogs," probably referring to homosexuals. The passage reads: Outside the new eternal Jerusalem "are the dogs and the sorcerers and the immoral persons and the murderers and the idolaters." John is not saying that in eternity there will actually be such people outside the city. All sin will be eradicated and all sinners will be cast into hell at this time. John is simply using a literary device that is making the point of their exclusion from the new heaven and the new earth! In my Handbook to the Book of Revelation (Kregel), I write on this verse and on 21:27: "Some have mistakenly assumed that the verse is saying that sinners are nearby, dwelling just outside the city walls of New Jerusalem. However, John was simply saying that the issue of sin is over. The sins of the pagan world have been purged forever. We will never look up and see sinful beings coming into the eternal, holy city."
Thanks for asking.
Dr. Mal Couch
ANSWER: This is probably true and it is held by many Bible scholars, such as my Hebrew teacher, the great Dr. Merrill F. Unger. He writes in his commentary on Deuteronomy 23:17-18: "The harlot is the female religious prostitute and the sodomite is the male religious prostitute, the homosexual. "The price from the dog" is the fee paid to a male prostitute or "catamite." A catamite is a boy who has sexual relations with a man! God refuses to accept their offerings given to the tabernacle, or later to the temple! Ellicott agrees that this is the meaning of dog in these verses: "The prostitute and the sodomite" he writes.
Revelation 22:15 also refers to the "dogs," probably referring to homosexuals. The passage reads: Outside the new eternal Jerusalem "are the dogs and the sorcerers and the immoral persons and the murderers and the idolaters." John is not saying that in eternity there will actually be such people outside the city. All sin will be eradicated and all sinners will be cast into hell at this time. John is simply using a literary device that is making the point of their exclusion from the new heaven and the new earth! In my Handbook to the Book of Revelation (Kregel), I write on this verse and on 21:27: "Some have mistakenly assumed that the verse is saying that sinners are nearby, dwelling just outside the city walls of New Jerusalem. However, John was simply saying that the issue of sin is over. The sins of the pagan world have been purged forever. We will never look up and see sinful beings coming into the eternal, holy city."
Thanks for asking.
Dr. Mal Couch
