Christian bookshops are refusing to stock copies of a new Bible study guide that challenges standard New Testament translations that describe gay sex as sinful, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.

An American distributor, God's Word to Women, has banned the Australian publication, and withdrawn another Bible translation published by the same New South Wales publishing house, Smith and Stirling, for promoting a lifestyle in contradiction of the scriptures.

Two American academics have asked that their endorsements be removed from other works by a classical greek lexicographer, Ann Nyland, because of her authorship of the gay study bible.

Australia's largest Christian retailer, Koorong, says it is unlikely to carry the Study New Testament for Gay, Lesbian, Bi, and Transgender if the content proves controversial.

Mainstream Christian churches claim practising homosexuality is a sin based on several biblical verses and stories. One is the Old Testament story of Genesis, while the ancient story of Sodom is taken as exclusive support for heterosexual coupling, and Leviticus 18:22 reads: "You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female. It is an abomination."

In 1 Corinthians 6:9 and Timothy 1:10 Paul sets out examples of Jewish law including admonitions against fornication, idolatry and drunkenness, as well as the much-disputed word "arsenokoites" which has been taken to mean homosexuality.

But in her study guide, Dr Nyland says the word has been wrongly assumed to mean homosexual. Its range of meanings includes one who anally penetrates another, whether female or male, a rapist, a murderer, or an extortionist. When used with the meaning anal penetrator, it does not apply exclusively to males, Dr Nyland says.

The word does not appear in any Greek literary source until the poets of the Imperial period, she says, when the Greeks wrote at length on male-male sexual relationships.

The reference in Romans, and the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, were about angels having sex with humans, and not about homosexual acts, she says.

Most New Testament translations are based on a lack of understanding of Greek word meaning and context, and they display a disregard for published academic research, which shows passages in earlier translations are wrong, she says.

The manager of Smith and Stirling Publishing, Portia Blakely, said the study guide was a world first and she had expected a backlash from the Christian right.

"Since we made the Gay and Lesbian Study Bible available to the public, leading evangelists who previously recommended our books have withdrawn their endorsements from all our books and Bibles on the grounds that we have produced a work that even discusses homosexuality," she said.

"The Christian right's unfounded treatment of gay and lesbian people is inexcusable bigotry which they blame on the God whom they worship."