Expert: Dr Eddy Cheong - 3/15/2006

Question
Was David and Jonathan gay?  How does their relationship compare with the relationship between the 2 cowboys in the movie Brokeback Mountain?

Answer
1 Sam 20:16-17

16 So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, Let the LORD even require it at the hand of David's enemies.

17 And Jonathan caused David to swear again, because he loved him: for he loved him as he loved his own soul.
KJV

At first glance, it would seem rather inappropriate for the words “he loved him” to be used in verse 17 above. The Hebrew translation for “he loved him” does not truly reflect the meaning of the word as it could mean friendship or a sexual kind of affection….

OT:157 (he loved him)
'ahab (aw-hab'); or 'aheb (aw-habe'); a primitive root; to have affection for (sexually or otherwise):

KJV - (be-) love (-d, -ly, -r), like, friend.

(Biblesoft's New Exhaustive Strong's Numbers and Concordance with Expanded Greek-Hebrew Dictionary. Copyright (c) 1994, Biblesoft and International Bible Translators, Inc.)


CS Lewis the well known author mentioned that there are four kinds of ‘love', viz  
1.   Agape (God's kind of love),
2.   Storge- natural affection e.g family (AS IN BROTHERLY OR SISTERLY KIND OF LOVE),
3.   Phileo- friendship
4.   Eros (sexual love)

Jonathan and David developed an intense friendship (as in phileo above); evidenced by the fact that Jonathan chose to warn David of the evil intent of his own father King Saul (1 sam 20:5-15)

Character of Jonathan:
1.   He was a brave man (1 Sam 13:2-4; 1 Sam 14:6-13)
2.   He was a just man (1 Sam 19:4-5)
3.   He acknowledged and accepted God's presence with David
              1 Sam 20:13-15
              May the LORD be with you as he has been with my father. 14 But show me unfailing                                                         kindness like that of the LORD as long as I live, so that I may not be killed, 15 and do not ever cut off your kindness from my family-not even when the LORD has cut off every one of David's enemies from the face of the earth."
NIV
Nowhere in the Bible was there any implication of ‘moral looseness' in the life and character of Jonathan.In fact being God fearing, he would have surely known of God's commandment in Lev 18:22…

Lev 18:22

22 "'Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable.
NIV

Last but not least, the Bible clearly states that their covenant is a covenant of “Friendship” (verse 42 below)…

1 Sam 20:42-21:1

42 Jonathan said to David, "Go in peace, for we have sworn friendship with each other in the name of the LORD, saying, 'The LORD is witness between you and me, and between your descendants and my descendants forever.'" Then David left, and Jonathan went back to the town.
NIV

Brokeback mountain is a perverted version of friendship, a relationship so perverse that it is not Man forsaking God but God forsaking man. I don't think I will ever see that film….

Rom 1:24-25

24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.
NIV