Product Description

The World's first Study Bible for the Gay and Lesbian community. Deep in the shuddering guts of that religion known as Christianity is a rich and troubling history of persecution. Bullying. The singling out of those the church professes to be anti-God, such as gay, lesbian, bi and transgendered people. All built up from the foundation that is God's Word, the Bible. Only it isn't. There is no Scriptural foundation for this persecution, no anti-gay passages in the Bible that the Church professes there are. There have been mistranslations. Check. Persecutions. Check. Bullying. Check. But none of this is set down in the original languages and context of the Bible as God's Way.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #739438 in Books
• Published on: 2007-10-10
• Binding: Paperback
• 422 pages

About the Author
Dr Nyland is a Classical Greek language scholar who served as Faculty in the Department of Classics and Ancient History at the University of New England, Australia. Her research field is Greek lexicography from Homeric to Hellenistic times. She has published academic papers in the fields of both Greek and Hittite lexicography. Dr Nyland is known as the translator of The Source New Testament (TSNT).

Customer Reviews

Brilliant
I find it interesting that The Source New Testament has received a wonderful rating, yet the LGBT version of the exact same text has not. Virtually no changes were made between the two save the notes explaining the verses that are used to promote homophobia.

Amusingly the opening quote of the introduction is from the early church father St. Jerome, which says:

"Is there a man, learned or unlearned, who will not, when he takes the volume into his hands, and perceives that what he reads does not suit his traditional tastes, break out immediately into violent language, and call me a forger, and a profane person for having the nerve to add anything to the ancient books, or to make any changes or corrections to them? It is useless to play the lyre for a donkey. So great is the strength of established usage that even acknowledged corruptions please most people, for they prefer to have their copies nice rather than accurate."

This referring of course to the Latin Vulgate Bible which became the standard of Western Christendom from the 4th century until the German translation of Martin Luther in the 1530s and the Revised Latin Version of Erasmus in 1516.

The Bible has been translated for so long by ridged dogmatic rules that the actual meaning of the Greek is almost abandoned in favour of what tradition mandates, which is essentially not on par with the actual scripture. The LGBT version of The Source New Testament is bound for harsh criticism, as are most influential versions of the Bible. The King James Version, which became the standard bible of English speakers for centuries, was seen for decades by the majority of Christians as borderline heresy in favour of the Geneva Bible. The New Source Translation brings to light a Christianity that seems as if it has been lost underneath the creeds, superstitions, and ignorance that has plagued it for so many centuries.

My only hope/criticism for this Bible is that it will rearrange the structure of the text so that it is more easily studied. The translation is magnificent, as are the notes, but its layout could use some revising. Also, it might be beneficial to the readers to include ecumenical positive statements to the LGBT community, as at the moment it's essentially a linguistic study rather than spiritual. Nevertheless I highly recommend this translation to anyone who wishes to actually understand Christianity in a true and pleasant form. As a suggested book to guide a reader of The Source New Testament I highly suggest A New Christianity for A New World, by John Shelby Spong. I feel the two seem to go nicely together, but that is just my personal opinion.

The Enemy is Ignorance
I think it's a shame that a number have sort to discredit Dr Nyland's work with emotional and sometimes hateful reviews. Possibly these reviews say more about their own prejudices than a genuine appraisal of the work.

Those of us who are gay or lesbian from strong biblically-based Christianity are very familiar with the six passages assumed to speak about homosexuality. Not only from our own reading of English translations but also that we hear them consistently quoted by well-meaning Christians and Christian right wing extremists. The journey to reconciliation of the perceived conflict of our faith and sexual orientation can be long and painful. So intense is this internal conflict, many have walked away from faith believing that God and the church have condemned them. Tragically some are no longer with us because of suicide. This demonstrates the seriousness of gaining as much knowledge as possible. The Gay and Lesbian Bible is an important contribution to more enlightened perspectives about not only what the scriptures say, but more importantly, what they mean. Had this information been available to me and many others in our formative years it would have saved us many years of unnecessary suffering.

I believe my journey is similar to many and goes something like this. Firstly we read an English translation and make assumptions that certain verses are speaking about us. Basically that is, homosexuals along with slanders, adulterers and drunkards will not inherit the kingdom of God (1 Cor. 6:9). This interpretation is made with no knowledge of the historical and cultural contexts or the original language. When we begin delving deeper we question if we might be just trying to justify ourselves. The new knowledge gained by reading may even make us think we are possibly being deceived. If we continue to study we realise that things are not as cut and dried as we originally thought or were taught. If we persist in our reading however, eventually the evidence is overwhelming that those six passages are not referring to same-sex-orientation as we know it today but to temple prostitution, exploitive relationships, idolatry and rape.

The Gay and Lesbian Bible draws not only on past historical data, but more importantly, on recent discoveries of culture and language. This has not always been the case with other translations however as is explored in the work. This is a book by a scholar who documents new discoveries well. I wonder though if the title is a little misleading as I believe it would be enjoyed by anyone with a passion for biblical truth and accurate translation, whether they are GLBT or not. It would be most unfortunate if people missed out on all this work has to offer because of the title.

In the end the thing that is the enemy to us all is ignorance. Dr Nyland's work helps overcome that.

Anthony Venn-Brown
Author of A Life of Unlearning: a journey to find the truth
Co-founder and Convenor of Freedom 2 b[e]
Voted one of the 25 Most Influential Gay & Lesbian Australians

Load of garbage.
This is by far the biggest perversion to the word of God I have ever seen. I am also a student of the Greek language and guarentee that Dr. Nyland's claims concerning the incorrect translations concerning homosexuality are completely FALSE! I have studied over passages such as these and found that the NASB and the ESV both have the most accurate translation of the original text. The sad thing is that because the author has a Doctorate, people assume the translation must be correct. It is only false hope for those that lead a homosexual lifestyle and refuse to change. The appearance of knowledge in this work is in fact only an illusion and is certainly the devil's work. You can live your life how you wish, but God's word cannot be changed by Dr. Nyland or anyone else.