“But the Bible says!”: How one mistake accidentally sparked today’s anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric

After months of deliberation, David Sheldon Fearon wrote a letter in 1959 to the committee responsible for developing the Revised Standard Version (RSV) of the Bible. Fearon, recently deceased, was then a 21-year-old seminary student in Canada who hoped to call attention to a mistranslation he’d discovered.

The passage in question: 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, a list of vices which outlines who will not “inherit the kingdom of God.” The list emphasizes and clarifies the comment that precedes it, which underlines that the “unrighteous” will not be rewarded with this privilege.

The recipients of Fearon’s letter — 22 men who were appointed by 44 Protestant denominations to develop the RSV — had added the word “homosexual” to that list, a move Fearon called a “serious weakness in translation.” He even attached an appendix to his letter to prove his interpretation was scholarly and sound.

Although academic rigor is reason enough for a change, Fearon was also concerned for LGBTQ+ people like himself who had been “wronged and slandered by the incorrect usage of this word.”

Documentarians of the film “1946: The Mistranslation that Shifted a Culture” highlight an emerging connotation at the time of the translation, naming “homosexual” as synonymous with a “pedophile” or a “molester.” Fearon underlined in his letter that misconflating the two concepts already had serious consequences.

“Since this is a holy book of Scripture sacred to the Christian, I am more deeply concerned because well-meaning and sincere, but misinformed and misguided people (those among the clergy not excluded) may use this Revised Standard Version translation of 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 as a sacred weapon, not in fact for the purification of the church, but in fact for injustice against a defenseless minority group…” he wrote.

The RSV committee had convened in 1929 to create a Bible that would reintegrate some of the “beauty and power” lost by the overly literal translation in another option for English speakers — the American Standard Version of 1901. The group aimed to bridge the need for a more modern and accurate translation with the need to reflect the true meaning of the original texts, de-emphasizing word-for-word translations.

In their process, translators shorthanded two Greek words — malakoi and arsenokoitai, which can have multiple meanings but have sometimes been translated as “effeminate” and “men who share a bed” respectively.

“Or know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with men, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God,” reads the American Standard Version of 1901, which the RSV committee was hoping to update.

After visiting the original Greek, the RSV committee combined the Greek terms into a simplified, more modern word they’d hoped would convey the same meaning: “homosexual.”

But many scholars — including Fearon — feel this was an error of oversimplification, as the original Greek likely required a more nuanced reading.

Rather than broadly referring to the queer community or even specifically to gay men, some of the earliest translations point to malakoi as meaning “weak” — more likely referring to moral weakness and a lack of self-control in this context. Coupled with the word arsenokoitai — which today’s scholars liken to using power as means to exploit others in broader ways, a better shorthand might be “sexual abusers.”

Christian researchers Kathy Baldock and Ed Oxford recently discovered the correspondence between Fearon and Luther Allan Weigle, head of the RSV committee, and were surprised to learn that the mid-century team of translators had been receptive to Fearon’s feedback about the mistranslation.

Weigle assured Fearon the information he provided would be considered when the team met again to continue revisions — but this would not occur for almost ten years.

In 1968, the RSV committee reconvened — and those scholars decided to strike their phrase about “homosexuals,” replacing it with “sexual perverts” in 1 Corinthians. It’s a broader description that more accurately conveys the injustices warned about in the original Greek — even if by today’s standards, the phrase needs additional refining if the hope is to condemn abusers and exploiters.

Despite the win, the change came too late. Two decades of damage had already been done, cementing the mistake’s legacy.

The New American Standard Version, for instance — a revision of the text that the RSV was based on, which never included the term “homosexual” — added the word for this updated version in 1971.

Because the correction didn’t come sooner, the 1946 version of the RSV became the first standard text circulated throughout the evangelical boom of the 1950s through ’80s that birthed today’s extremist, conservative Christian movement. And dozens of future translations and interpretations were based on it — many of them further skewing from original Greek, Hebrew or Aramaic words and context.

Although the RSV translators only included the word “homosexual” in just one passage, the mistranslation informed future translators — who added the word at least five more times to other versions of the Bible as an alternative to broader language that had been used in the past.

Some anti-LGBTQ+ Christians now promote dozens of additional passages through a queerphobic lens. This has resulted in countless experiences of religious trauma — creating both internal and external conflicts for people brought up in queerphobic faith traditions.

Although religiosity is often associated with lower risks for depression and suicidality for other groups, lesbian, gay, bisexual and questioning adults who view religion as important aspects of their lives are still at increased risk for suicide — with those who are questioning placed at the highest risk.

One study showed that the religious views of parents doubled suicide risk for LGBTQ+ young adults. Conversion therapy — which is largely pursued by parents and offered by religious leaders — can also double an LGB person’s risk for suicide attempt.

According to the Trevor Project, Pennsylvania is the state with the largest number of identified conversion therapy practitioners by a strong margin. A 2022 report by the Trevor Project notes that 16% of LGBTQ+ youth in Pennsylvania have been threatened with conversion therapy or have experienced conversion therapy — a practice that is still legal in the state, though five state boards recently adopted new policies to oppose it.

A growing movement to not only welcome but affirm and protect LGBTQ+ people is emerging in some Christian spaces — and as more people learn about how the Bible gets translated, the interest in reclaiming mistranslated texts for the purpose of calling out abusers (rather than LGBTQ+ people) is beginning too.

This brings hope for the next generation. Meanwhile, conservatives continue to lean on mistranslations to condemn the queer community and harm LGBTQ+ people — as the “sacred weapon” Fearon predicted they might.

Photo Credit: The Revised Standard Version of the Holy Bible. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)