New Testament letter composed under the guise of a presumably lost letter of the Apostle Paul, the Epistle to the Laodiceans. The books of the New Testament were all or nearly all written by Jewish Christians—that is, Jewish disciples of Christ, who lived in the Roman Empire, and under Roman occupation. Luke, who wrote the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts, is frequently thought of as an exception; scholars are divided as to whether Luke was a Gentile or a Hellenistic Jew. A few scholars identify the author of the Gospel of Mark as probably a Gentile, and similarly for
Homosexuality in the New Testament Homosexuality in the New Testament In the New Testament (NT) there are at least three passages that refer to homosexual activity: Romans 1:26–27, 1 Corinthians 6:9–10, and 1 Timothy 1:9–10. A fourth passage, Jude 1:7, is often interpreted as referring to homosexuality. Jesus only discusses marriage in a heterosexual context when he cites the Book of Genesis during a discussion of marriage (Matthew 19:4-6 and Mark 10:6-9). The references to 'homosexuality' itself in the New Testament hinge on the interpretation of three specific Greek words: "arsenokoitēs" (ἀρσενοκοίτης), "malakos" (μαλακός), and "porneia" (πορνεία) and its cognates. While it is not disputed