British Church Leader says “Bible may sanction gay unions”

Anglican Bishop of Liverpool, James Jones wrote in the essay, Making Space for Truth and Grace, in A Fallible Church, Jones urges Anglicans to “acknowledge the authoritative biblical examples of love between two people of the same gender, most notably in the relationship of Jesus and his beloved [John] and David and Jonathan”.

The story of Jonathan and (later king) David in the Old Testament book of Samuel hints in a different direction, recounting that they “made a covenant, because he [David] loved him as his own soul”. The word for “covenant” is used elsewhere in the Bible (Proverbs 2:17; Malachi 2:14) for a marriage covenant.Later King Saul, Jonathan’s father, also offers David his daughter saying: “Thou shalt this day be my son-in-law a second time.” When Jonathan dies, David laments: “Thy love to me was wonderful, surpassing the love of women.”