S7. Engaging in Sexual Contact with Animals. [Make a Comment]
We are not to have sexual contact of any kind with an animal.
This precept is derived from His Word (blessed be He):
Key Scriptures
Exodus 22:18(19)
Whoever has sexual relations with an animal must be put to death.
Leviticus 18:23-30
(Maimonides RN348-RN349; Meir MN117-MN118; Chinuch
C210-C211)
You are not to have sexual relations with any kind of animal and thus become
unclean with it; nor is any woman to present herself to an animal to have
sexual relations with it; it is perversion. Do not make yourselves unclean
by any of these things, because all the nations which I am expelling ahead
of you are defiled with them. The land has become unclean, and this is why
I am punishing it - the land itself will vomit out its inhabitants. But you
are to keep my laws and rulings and not engage in any of these disgusting
practices, neither the citizen nor the foreigner living with you; for the
people of the land have committed all these abominations, and the land is
now defiled. If you make the land unclean, it will vomit you out too, just
as it is vomiting out the nation that was there before you. For those who
engage in any of these disgusting practices, whoever they may be, will be
cut off from their people. So keep my charge not to follow any of these
abominable customs that others before you have followed and thus defile
yourselves by doing them. I am ADONAI your God.
Leviticus 20:15-16
If a man has sexual relations with an animal, he must be put to death, and
you are to kill the animal. If a woman approaches an animal and has sexual
relations with it, you are to kill the woman and the animal; their blood
will be on them.
Deuteronomy 27:21
"A curse on anyone who has sexual relations with any kind of animal." All
the people are to say, "Amen!"
Romans 1:26-28
For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women
exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the
men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one
another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in
themselves the penalty of their error which was due. And even as they did
not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased
mind, to do those things which are not fitting
Supportive Scriptures
Matthew 15:19-20
For out of the heart come forth wicked thoughts, murder, adultery and other
kinds of sexual immorality, theft, lies, slanders ... These are what really
make a person unclean, but eating without doing n'tilat-yadayim does
not make a person unclean.
Romans 13:13-14
Let us live properly, as people do in the daytime - not partying and getting
drunk, not engaging in sexual immorality and other excesses, not
quarrelling and being jealous. Instead, clothe yourselves with the Lord
Yeshua the Messiah; and don't waste your time thinking about how to
provide for the sinful desires of your old nature.
1 Corinthians 5:1-5
It is actually being reported that there is sexual sin among you, and it is
sexual sin of a kind that is condemned even by pagans - a man is living with
his stepmother! And you stay proud? Shouldn't you rather have felt
some sadness that would have led you to remove from your company the man who
has done this thing? For I myself, even though I am absent physically, am
with you spiritually; and I have already judged the man who has done this as
if I were present. In the name of the Lord Yeshua, when you are assembled,
with me present spiritually and the power of our Lord Yeshua among us, hand
over such a person to the Adversary for his old nature to be destroyed, so
that his spirit may be saved in the Day of the Lord.
1 Corinthians 5:9-13
In my earlier letter I wrote you not to associate with people who engage in
sexual immorality. I didn't mean the sexually immoral people outside
your community, or the greedy, or the thieves or the idol-worshippers - for
then you would have to leave the world altogether! No, what I wrote you was
not to associate with anyone who is supposedly a brother but who also
engages in sexual immorality, is greedy, worships idols, is abusive, gets
drunk or steals. With such a person you shouldn't even eat! For what
business is it of mine to judge outsiders? Isn't it those who are part
of the community that you should be judging? God will judge those who are
outside. Just expel the evildoer from among yourselves.
1 Corinthians 6:13
"Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food"? Maybe, but God
will put an end to both of them. Anyhow, the body is not meant for sexual
immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body.
1 Corinthians 6:18-19
Run from sexual immorality! Every other sin a person commits is outside the
body, but the fornicator sins against his own body. Or don't you know
that your body is a temple for the Ruach HaKodesh who lives inside you, whom
you received from God? The fact is, you don't belong to yourselves
1 Corinthians 10:8
And let us not engage in sexual immorality, as some of them did, with the
consequence that 23,000 died in a single day.
Galatians 5:19
And it is perfectly evident what the old nature does. It expresses itself in
sexual immorality, impurity and indecency
Ephesians 5:3
Among you there should not even be mentioned sexual immorality, or any kind
of impurity, or greed; these are utterly inappropriate for God's holy
people.
Colossians 3:5
Therefore, put to death the earthly parts of your nature- sexual immorality,
impurity, lust, evil desires and greed (which is a form of idolatry)
1 Thessalonians 4:3-5
What God wants is that you be holy, that you keep away from sexual
immorality, that each of you know how to manage his sexual impulses in a
holy and honorable manner, without giving in to lustful desires, like the
pagans who don't know God.
Commentary
The texts of the referenced Scriptures speak for themselves. There is no New Covenant Scripture that is precisely on the subject of bestiality.
Classical Commentators:
Maimonides, Meir, and HaChinuch each wrote two mitzvot that prohibit
and condemn bestiality.
NCLA: JMm JFm KMm KFm GMm GFm