A Summary of the Book of Leviticus

and

Other Scriptural References

Misused to Promulgate and Defend Homophobia and Hate Crimes
compiled by

This document is intended for personal educational use. Much of this material is taken from the introductions and annotations in The Jerusalem Bible. December 2003 revised January 2008

This compilation arose in response to a magazine news article defending the publishing churchs descriminatory position against proposed federal Bill C-250, and that churchs actions to solicit support for their campaign against the bill in the Parliament of Canada. Bill C-250, accepted by a narrow margin by the House of Commons, extends to homosexual people the same protections against hate crimes as previously was given all other Canadian citizens. C.f.: http://www.godhatesfags.com

Foreword
In studying the scriptures, remember that the books of the Bible are not in chronological order. Also, these are selected writings from among many others which were rejected by the church fathers during the lengthy deliberations concerning which books would be accepted as canonic (that is, which books most readily exemplified the party line of those who had gained power in the politics of the church at that time). There are also the deuterocanonical books of the Apocrypha the historical books: Tobit, Judith, Esther, 1 & 2 Maccabees; the Wisdom Books: Wisdom, and Ecclesiasticus; and the prophets Baruch and Daniel which are accepted by orthodox and catholic traditions but unknown or known and rejected by many protestant groups. There are many writings which occasionally were suppressed outrightly. And there are the gospels according to Thomas, Peter and Nicodemus, among others; the Gospel of the Birth of Mary; the Protoevangelion attributed to James the Lesser; and various gospels describing the childhood and youth of Jesus. Scriptural study also considers the important writings of the early church fathers and others of that era and since, the so-called Christian Testament since the Bible. These works include the three Creeds; the liturgical Sanctus, Te Deum, Gloria in excelsis, and hymns from the Liturgy of St. James; the epistles of Barnabas, Clement, Ignatius, Jerome and Polycarp; the Martydom of Polycarp; the Passion of Perpetua and Felicity; the Prophecies of Sibylline; and the writings of Basil, Gregory of Nazianzus, Gregory of Nyssa, Anthony, John Chrysostom, Ambrose, Augustine, Leo, Patrick, Dionysius, Benedict, Anselm, Bernard de Clairvaux, Aelred, Francis of Assisi, Bonaventure, Thomas Aquinas, Richard of Chichester, Thomas Kempis, Martin Luther, John Calvin, Teresa of Avila, Ignatius Loyala, John of the Cross, Cranmer, John Donne, John Bunyan, Richard Baxter, John Wesley, Sren Kierkegaard, Karl Barth, Dietrich Bonhffer and Maximilien Kolbe, Martin Luther King, Jean Vanier and Mother Teresa of Calcutta, to name only a few.

The only direct edicts against homosexuality in the Bible are in the Book of Leviticus, and outlaw only male homosexuality. Leviticus 18:22 simply says the act is hateful. Leviticus 20:13, possibly a later accretion, demands the death penalty.

Background
Introduction to The Pentateuch
adapted from The Jerusalem Bible

The first five books of the Christian Bible are known to Jews as The Law and for many centuries all five books were attributed to Moses as the sole or principal author. However, modern study reveals a variety of styles, a lack of sequence, and such repetitions and variations in narrative that it is impossible to ascribe the whole group to a single author. Four distinct literary traditions can be identified and found side by side in the Pentateuch. Two of these go back to the time when Israel became a nation, a period dominated by the figure of Moses. Together, the traditions of earlier times converging on Moses and the memories of what happened under his leadership comprise this national epic. One means to distinguish between these two separate strands is their use of different names for God: one employs the name Yahweh 1 and is known as Yahwist; the other uses Elohim and is known as Elohist. The two other identifiable written traditions are from a later period: one is known as Deuteronomic, introducing additions and revisions by Levites after the fall of the Kingdom of Israel; the other is the work of editors after the Exile, known as the priestly tradition. The Mosaic religion set its enduring seal on the faith and practice of the nation, and the Mosaic law remained its standard. The modifications required by changing conditions over some seven centuries are presented as interpretations of the mind of Moses, and invested with his authority. Genesis sets the history of the ancestors in a background of primordial history. The early chapters visualize the situation of all humanity in the personages of Adam and Eve2 and see the origins of human history in an increasing wickedness which brings the Flood as its punishment. The repopulation of Earth starts with Noah, but our attention is directed ultimately to Abraham, father of the chosen people, to whose descendants the Holy Land was promised. Chapters 15 to 50 deal with the history of the patriarchs. The three books which follow have for their common framework the life of Moses. Exodus tells of the deliverance from Egyptian slavery, and the Covenant of Sinai, with the journey through the Wilderness connecting the two. There is an added list of ordinances controlling the practice of worship in desert conditions. Leviticus is taken up almost entirely with legislation for the ritual of Israelite religion. It can be attributed largely to the priestly tradition. Numbers resumes the account of the desert journey and the first settlement of Israelite tribes in Transjordania. Within this narrative material, there are groups of enactments supplementing the Sinaitic code or anticipating the time when the people will have settled in Canaan. Deuteronomy is a code of civil and religious laws, set in three discourses of Moses. It ends with an account of the death of Moses and the appointment of Joshua as his successor. The history of Israel is the story of Gods intervention and Gods promises, and the obligation of Gods people to keep the Law. At the same time, the Pentateuch gives a faithful picture of the origin and migrations of Israels ancestors and their moral and religious way of life, seen through the treasured memories of character and anecdote. We can put Abrahams stay in Canaan at about 1850 BC. But from the Exodus onward, after the birth of Moses, we are dealing with a much later period: the likeliest time for the Exodus is the reign of Meneptah (1224-1214 BC), and from this point the history begins to be much more circumstantial. The original Ten Commandments of Moses, of which there are two distinct traditions in the Pentateuch, are certainly ancient. The rest of the large code of legislation found in the five books includes other elements of the greatest antiquity (such as the food laws in Lev. 11), but also includes elements from the later times of the Judges and of the Monarchy, and others again which show the development in social and religious customs traceable to the Exile. Throughout, the hands of the Deuteronomic and priestly editors are often to be observed, annotating and adapting.

In preparing the translations found in The Jerusalem Bible, the translators made full use of the ancient Greek, Aramaic and Hebrew texts. The Jerusalem Bible has been acclaimed by biblical scholars and readers of all denominations for its vigorous and vital translation, faithful in all respects to the original sources.

1 2

Yhwh, the name which cannot be spoken. Elohim is a plural form. Man, adam, is a collective noun = mankind. In verse 23, ...woman ...taken from man is a play on the Hebrew words ishshah (woman) and ish (man).

Genesis 19 Sodom and Gomorrah

This is a story about the extreme seriousness of the breach of the laws of hospitality: in addition to sharing food and drink, and water to wash and a place to lodge, you must provide protection to your guests and to strangers. The local hooligans wanted access to the strangers to abuse them, that is, to rob them and rough them up, which may include rape. Lot was prepared to do anything to prevent this breach. But this crime was considered doubly serious in that it was to be perpetrated not against humans but against angels. Read in context, this chapter is a story about the right way and the wrong way to deal with foreigners those who are not of your tribe and about Yahwehs extreme response to such xenophobic foreign policy. Cultural and linguistic ties between Sodom and the act of sodomy are historically added interpretations. Ezekiel 16:49 says that pride, gluttony, arrogance, complacency, and overlooking the needs of the poor and homeless, rather than homosexuality, are the issues of concern. This passage marks one of the earliest examples of human grapplings with concepts of mutual responsibility. Recall Jesus mandate to be ones brothers keeper.

A Summary of the Book of Leviticus

Being unclean always means being excommunicated.3 to some degree Prescribed responses range from simply being shunned until evening, through being cast into the desert, to being killed by specifically prescribed barbaric methods. Being unclean always means being forbidden to touch any holy object or participate in any holy action. Chapters 1 through 7 deal with the requirements of killing and burning sacrificial animals. Chapters 8 through 10 deal with the ordination of priests. Chapter 11 deals with The Clean and Unclean. Among things forbidden to be eaten, or to be touched when dead: animals which do not have cloven hooves and are not ruminants: camel, hyrax & hare (and presumably rabbit?), pig any water creature without fins and scales vulture, owl and other birds of prey, seagull, ostrich, stork, ibis, pelican, heron, bat all insects except certain locusts small ground beasts including moles, rats and lizards. must be circumcised) and then she remains unclean for another 33 days. However, its worse if she bears a daughter, in which case shes unclean for 2 weeks, followed by another 66 days. Of course, this is in addition to the basic rule that a woman is unclean for 2 weeks during her menstrual cycle half the time for most of her expected adult lifetime. After the unclean period following birth has passed, the prescribed atonement and sacrifice for sin is to bring both a lamb and a turtledove to be immolated by burning upon the altar. Chapters 13 and 14 deal with the exclusion of people with leprosy, boils, burns and ulcerations of the skin, and assorted diseases of the scalp and chin.

Chapter 15 has separate lists of the sexual impurities of men and of women. It also covers such issues as spitting, and the unclean-ness of chairs, saddles, beds and other possessions Anyone or anything touching any of these unclean of unclean persons. Specific sacrifices and rites of atonement creatures must immediately be dipped in water and will are prescribed. Of particular note, any seminal discharge remain unclean until evening. However, if anything renders both a man and a woman unclean. Both must wash unclean falls into an earthenware vessel, it must be broken the whole body immediately, and still will remain unclean and its contents destroyed. Seeds are unaffected, unless wet. until sun down. Verse 19 onward clarifies the menstrual issue, no pun There are many more forbidden creatures. Curiously, springs, wells and stretches of water are exempted from all intended. A women is unclean throughout the discharge of blood, and for 7 days following. Anyone touching her of these edicts. becomes unclean until evening. [How has this affected Chapter 12 explains that a woman becomes unclean after generations of people needing hugs?] This contagion birthing. The explanation holds an implicit double whammy: extends to include the clothing of anyone touching her, and shes unclean for 8 days (at which time the childs foreskin everything she touches or sits upon all needing cleansing

ex = out, from; communis = common, whence community

and still remain contaminated until evening. Any man who sleeps with her during her period becomes unclean for 7 days. (Penalties are listed in Chapter 20.) The legal requirement: 8 days after being cured of her flow, she must take 2 turtledoves to be sacrificed. Chapter 16 explains the rites and vestments required for the great Day of Atonement, which includes the sacrifice of a young bull and 2 goats. During the immolation, blood is sprinkled repeatedly at least 21 times. Everyone, native and stranger, had to participate in this ritual, which demanded fasting and refraining from work, on the 10th day of the 7th month. Chapter 17 decrees that anyone, native or stranger, not following the edicts concerning immolation and sacrifice is outlawed. It also explains how to deal with the bloodletting of any permitted animal youve snared for supper.

sleep with anothers concubine slave not yet purchased or given her freedom, you shall not be put to death, but you must sacrifice a ram in reparation. The verses beginning at 23 offers a somewhat confusing symbol of the fruit of any fruit tree you plant being regarded as its foreskin. For the first 3 years, it is uncircumcised [not adult or mature?] so you cant eat it. In the 4th year, all the fruit is consecrated to God. In the 5th year, you can eat it. More dietary rules follow, forbidding the consumption of anything containing blood, along with the practices of divination, magic, and recourse to the spirits of the dead.4 Further, you must not round off your hair at the edges or trim the edges of your beard. Tatoos are forbidden, along with forcing your daughters into prostitution. You must accept strangers in your land as your own countrymen, and your legal verdicts, scales and measures must be just.

Chapter 20 catalogues the penalties for offences. Child sacrifice carries a sentence of death by stoning. Complacent Chapter 18 presents the rules governing conjugal relation- bystanders were subject to being outlawed, along with ships and incest, explained in terms of relationships in which magicians and those seeking to contact the spirits of the you (a man, of course) must not uncover your nakedness. dead. A death sentence is required for anyone who curses his parents, or who commits adultery with a married women. If Among the more outstanding edicts: its your neighbours wife, she must die too. The same goes You cannot have both a woman and her sister in for cross-generational in-laws and gay men. If you take both your harem while both are still alive. a woman and her mother to wife, all 3 shall be burnt to Lying with a man as with a woman is a hateful death. In case of bestiality, both the person, man or woman, thing. and the animal are to be killed. Sex with a sibling or Lying with an animal renders you unclean, unless half-sibling results in execution in public. Both the man and youre a women, in which case it is a foul thing. women who have sex during the womans period must be The Canaanite practice of sacrificing children in fire exiled. The list continues, and concludes by returning to as an offering to the god Molech or Melech (= king) necromancers and magicians, who now must be put to death is forbidden. The punishment for these offences is to be expelled from the by stoning. 5 people. Chapter 21 deals with sacerdotal sanctity. Priests must marry Chapter 19 begins with offences in worship which will cause virgins and must not go near corpses except those of closest you to be outlawed. It then shifts focus to deal with many relatives (father, mother, brother, son, or daughter only) and issues, including harvesting fields and feeding the poor and then only under some circumstances. In passing, the daughter of a priest who prostitutes herself must be put to homeless. It forbids stealing, dealing deceitfully or fraudulently death by burning. There is also a list of exclusions from the with people, or exploiting them. Verse 18 tersely states You priesthood, including any man who is blind, lame, disfigured or deformed, is hunchbacked or dwarfed, has an injured foot must love your neighbour as yourself. Other regulations are listed. You are not to mate your or arm, has any disease of the eyes or the skin, has any cattle with those of another kind [cross species barriers?]. running sores, or is a eunuch. You are not to sow two kinds of grain in your field. You are not to wear a garment made from two kinds of fibre. If you 4 5 for some reason related in the minds of the authors? By the time of Deuteronomy, some of these issues are clarified. Women who are the victims of rape may be spared from death in some circumstances (22:22 ff.). A man whose testicles have been crushed or whose male member has been cut off is not to be admitted to the assembly of Yahweh (23:2). Most of the surrounding peoples are prohibited from admission to the assembly, entrenching systemic racism. Bestiality is cursed (27:21), as are those who displace their neighbours boundary mark, and those who tamper with the rights of the stranger, the orphan and the widow. There is no mention of homosexual acts. Incidently, Deuteronomy 6:5 is the source of the opening text (albeit in a different form of the English) of the Anglican mass from the 16th Century: Listen, Israel! Yahweh our God is the one Yahweh. You shall love Yahweh your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. Let these words I urge on you today be written on your heart.

Chapter 22 proclaims that priests who violate the law must die. Lay persons are forbidden to eat the sacred meal, unless they are members of the household of the priest. The priests guests and servants are expressly forbidden to eat holy things, but the priests slave, if acquired by purchase, is permitted to eat, as a member of the household. A priests daughter is excluded from joining the table when she marries, unless she becomes widowed or divorced and is childless. A lay person who eats holy things will be forced to replace the food, with an added 20% penalty. Clarification about sacrificial animals follows. All must be young males, without blemish. A comprehensive list of blemishes excludes any animal which is blind, lame, mutilated, ulcerous, or suffering a skin disease, those which are underdeveloped or deformed, and those which have been castrated or whose testicles have been bruised. All must be more than 7 days old, and both a dam [only males?] and her offspring may not be immolated on the same day. Chapter 23 deals with Sabbath and annual feasts. Passover requires the consumption of unleavened bread and 7 days6 of burnt offerings. The First Sheaf, at harvest, requires a sacrificial yearling lamb, as well as wheat, oil and wine. You are not permitted to use any of your harvest until you have made your offering. The Feast of Weeks is calculated as seven weeks plus 50 days afterward, on the day after the Sabbath. You must offer a new oblation of bread and 7 unblemished yearling lambs, a young bull and 2 rams. You will also be admonished to feed to poor and homeless. The First Day of the Seventh Month is a day of rest and burnt offerings. Then, on the Tenth Day the Day of Atonement you must do no work, you must fast. If you dont fast, you will be exiled. If you work, you will be expelled. Then on the Fifteenth Day, the Feast of Tabernacles begins. The first day of the feast includes a sacred assembly and all work is forbidden. For 7

days, you must make burnt offerings. The 8th day sees another solemn meeting and work, again, is forbidden. Throughout the feast, you must leave your home and live in the shelter of a tent-like structure of palm branches, commemorating life during the Exodus from Egypt. Chapter 24 covers a multitude of rules, from tending the perpetual flame in the Tent of Meeting, to baking bread for the Golden Table. In addition, a blasphemer is to be punched in the head by all who witnessed it, and then stoned to death by all members of the community. A death penalty is given for killing any human, as well. Killing an animal requires restitution and may result in the death penalty. Anyone who injures a neighbour must receive the same injury: broken limb for broken limb, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. Chapter 25 deals with the Sabbatical Year and other cycles longer than 1 year. Of interest agriculturally, all fields and vineyards must remain fallow and unpruned every 7th year. Every 50 years is a Year of Jubilee, during which you do not sow or harvest anything. Property and ownership rights are also governed, along with loans and family support. Slaves must be purchased from neighbouring countries or from their people living in your country. You may leave them to your sons, to inherit and hold in perpetual possession. Chapter 26 repeats the proscription against idols, lists the blessings to be bestowed on you if you follow the Law, and the curses to befall you if you do not. Chapter 27 lists acceptable tariffs and estimates for the value of slaves, animals, houses, fields, and tithes which include the firstborn and every 10th animal of every herd. Note that if you try to substitute any animal for a lesser one, both will be taken. All disputes will be settled by the priest. Amen!

Deuteronomy
Deuteronomy 32:32 is sometimes used to defend hate crimes against gay people. Again however, the reference to Sodom and Gomorrah in The Song of Moses refers to pride, gluttony, arrogance and complacency as mentioned above. You [Israel = Gods People] grew fat, gross, bloated. (Deut 32:15b)

The new day always begins at sundown. Sundown on the eve of the New Moon always marks the beginning of the first day of every month, and was observed as a feast. For many generations, the First Day of the Seventh Month marked the new year.

The Prophets of the Old Testament

Jeremiah
Jeremiahs various oracles, which are not in chronological order in the book, were probably dictated to Baruch in 605 BC. Misquotes from Jeremiahs collected writings now are often used as homophobic hate fodder. Jeremiah was a man of peace. He had prophesied the fall of the kingdom of Judah to the Chaldaean invaders. His rants were against kings, clergy, false prophets and the people themselves who, once again, had turned from Yahweh and had failed to take care of the needs of the poor. Curiously, Jeremiah was despised during his lifetime and barely escaped the death penalty (seen by some Christians as a portent of Jesus of Nazareth). However, by the Maccabean period, Jeremiah had been elevated to the point of being considered a protector of the nation, almost a patron saint.

Ezekiel
According to the dates given within the book, Ezekiels prophetic ministry was among the exiles in Babylon between 593 and 571 BC. However, in chapters 4-24, a number of reproaches and threats are addressed to people living in Jerusalem, apparently before the siege. The series of oracles against the nations in chapters 25-32 belong to the same period. The remaining chapters 33-48 refer to the siege and the Exile, and look forward to the future re-establishment of the nation in Palestine. Ezekiel was a priest, and a prophet of action who made himself a sign to Israel in elaborate symbolic miming. He was also a visionary, as shown in the four long, violently imaginative visions in the book. These have the power to invoke the size and depth and mysteriousness of Gods working. Ezekiels teaching focuses on inner conversion: a new heart and a new spirit, given by God. By his visions, he stands at the source of the apocalyptic tradition. For his spiritual penetration, he has been called the father of Judaism. Ezekiel refers to Sodom and Gomorrah in chapter 16, an allegorical history of Israel, whom he calls a bold-faced whore (verse 30). Verse 48 is often used as hate fodder, simply because of the word Sodom. However, in verses 49 and 50 (always omitted by hate mongers) he says: The crime of your sister Sodom was pride, gluttony, arrogance, complacency; such were the sins of Sodom and her daughters. They never helped the poor and needy; they were proud and engaged in filthy practices [i.e.: disobeyed the cleanliness laws] in front of me; that is why I have swept them away as you have seen. And yet Samaria never committed half the crimes that you have.

The New Testament

Quotations from the Christian New Testament must also be taken in historical context. The Gospels probably were written over a period of about 16 years. Second Century tradition says that Matthew was the first and wrote in the Hebrew tongue. Such a book in Aramaic is lost; our Greek Gospel of Matthew is written after the oldest extant Gospel of Mark which dates to as early as AD 64. Taken together, the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles form a two-volume history of the rise of Christianity.

Johns Gospel was known and used before AD 150 by Ignatius of Antioch, Papias, Justin and others. Its first explicit testimony is by Irenaeus, ca. AD 180: ...John, too, the disciple of the Lord who leaned against his breast, himself brought out a gospel while he was in Ephesus. His gospel was published by his disciples after his death. In this gospel we have the end stage of a slow process that has brought together not only component parts of different ages, but also corrections, additions and sometimes more than one revision of the same discourse. The arrangement of the contents is somewhat confusing and shows that the author or editors attach special importance to the Jewish liturgical feasts, and follow their annual order, suggesting that Christ fulfilled and competed the Jewish liturgy. The entire work is dominated by the mystery of the Incarnation. Where the other gospels associate Christs glory with his return at the end of time, Johns interpretation is new judgement is working here and now, and eternal life (unlike the kingdom of the synoptic gospels) is something actually of a present realm to those who have faith, possibly more akin to the gnostic tradition. Johns first letter summarizes his religious experience for churches in Asia threatened with disintegration under the impact of the early heresies. His second letter was written to rebuff a denial of the Incarnation. The third, and probably the earliest, was written to settle a jurisdictional dispute regarding his own episcopal authority.

The Letters of Paul comprise a range of styles, some in fluent Greek obviously written after long and careful thought, others with more spontaneity and urgency. These letters were usually dictated, and signed by Paul with a short personal greeting. The traditional order in the Bible arranges these letters in order of diminishing length. When read chronologically, one can see the evolution of Pauls theology and of his expression of it and its implications. These must also be seen in the historical context of a persecuted fringe group with its own very real internal power struggles. In addition, there are Pauls own personal struggles, including the personal conviction (rejected by the church) that all Christians should be celibate.

1 Corinthians 6
Paul was writing about an alleged case of incest in the local church (AD 57?). He wanted the people expelled from the church and didnt want to local law courts of the unjust involved. Also, he was venting against the Libertines who taught that sexual activity is as necessary for the body as are food and drink.

1 Timothy 1:10
Yes, rape is immoral, whether perpetrated against women, boys or men. But apparently not so for girls in AD 65.

Romans 1:18-32
Written AD 57 or 58, Paul was trying to show the similarities between Jews and Christians, joining them against the Greeks and Romans whom he considered had made nonsense out of logic. Remember that Paul was a Jewish boy brought up among the Greeks at Tarsus, a Roman municipality in Cilicia. Marriage was a matter of possession and the transference of name, wealth and power, not a matter of love. In context, Pauls rant is still completely appropriate to our modern, self-centred, throw-away society. His specific sexual references were protesting Roman orgies, not homosexual love. However, his basic logic is that it is irrational that pagans dont acknowledge God and therefore, because of that lack of acknowledgement, God has abandoned them, an arguement which is neither rational, nor entirely painting a picture of a God of Love.

Jude
Of the so-called Catholic Epistles, only Jude 7 is used today to justify anti-gay hatred. Judes letter, written between AD. 70-80, was addressed to Jewish Christians, denouncing infiltrators who were working to increase persecution against the church. Jude was very angry. His letter threatens with punishments promised by Jewish tradition, and quotes apocryphal Jewish writings. The reference to Sodom and Gomorrah is in regards to their destruction. The use of the word fornication (which may or may not be in the original letter) is confusing. Its etymology is restricted to references to consentient heterosexual activity in brothels (fornix = L. brothel), but it may show how well established was systemic hatred against homosexuals by the time of Jude.

Love
In the Bible, there are passages which some have interpreted as ancient attempts to portray the holiness of love, that homosexual love is not a modern concept. These include the stories of the relationships between King David and Jonathan, between Ruth and Naomi, and between Jesus and John the Beloved (= Betrothed).

In 1 Samuel 18, we read that Jonathans soul became closely bound to Davids, and Jonathan came to love him as his own soul. Later [20:41 ff] is written: David rose from beside the hillock [a pre-arranged signal to Jonathan that David must flee or be killed by Saul, Jonathans father].... There, they kissed each other and shed many tears. They renewed their oath to each other before parting.

The following scriptural passage is used in contemporary Christian marriage liturgies. Wherever you go, I will go, wherever you live, I will live. Your people shall be my people and your God, my God. Wherever you die, I will die and there I will be buried. It is Ruths vow to Naomi.

It has been said that behind every war ever fought on this planet lurk the masks of religious fundamentalism. It has been said that both scripture and history are full of examples that we humans just dont get it that to judge Gods face in another God-created human is blasphemy; and that the elevation of a written history (the Word of the Lord) of the evolving relationship between the Creator and the Created at a literal level to the status of Word of God (the incarnate Logos) is idolatry, and leaves little room for the Wind of God to blow.