From my friend Justin Cannon at truthsetsfree.net...
Passage II: 1 Timothy 1:8-10
Now we know that the law is good, if any one uses it lawfully, understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, immoral persons, sodomites, kidnappers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine
(RSV)
Let us keep in mind that the word translated as
sodomites is the Greek word
arsenokoitai. Right now we should ask, What exactly does this word mean? Often when writing lists, common things are grouped together. Looking closely at 1 Timothy 1:9-10, we can see that there are what I will call structural pairs that are reflected below in the English as well as in the Greekthe original language of the New Testament.
1 Timothy 1:9-10 (RSV) English
Row A:
lawless and disobedient
Row B:
ungodly and sinners
Row C:
unholy and profane
Row D:
murderers of fathers murderers of mothers manslayers
Row E:
immoral persons sodomites kidnappers
Row F:
liars perjurers
1 Timothy 1:9-10 (RSV) - Greek
Row A:
anomoi kai anupotaktoi
Row B:
asebesin kai amartwloi
Row C:
anosioi kai bebhloi
Row D:
patralwai mhtralwai androfonoi
Row E:
pornoi arsenokoitai andrapodistai
Row F:
yeustai epiorkoi
As you will notice there seems to be a relationship between the words in each row. The chart below illustrates that the words in each row are either synonyms or closely related in some manner:
Row A:
lawless &
disobedient
= two synonyms
Row B:
ungodly &
sinners
= two synonyms
Row C:
unholy &
profane
= two synonyms
Row D:
murderers of fathers, murderers of mothers, manslayers
=three types of murderers
Row F:
liars & perjurers
= two synonyms
But what about row E? What do immoral persons, sodomites, and kidnappers have in common? To answer this question beyond a shadow of a doubt, we will need to explore the Greek. The three Greek words present in line E are:
pornoi (
pornoi),
arsenokoitai (
arsenokoitai), and andrapodistai (
andrapodistai).
Some commonly read Bible translations include the King James Version (KJV), New International Version (NIV), New King James (NKJ), Revised Standard Version (RSV), and New English Bible (NEB). These words were, respectively, translated in the following manner:
pornoi
arsenokoitai
andrapodistai
KJV:
whoremonger
them that defile themselves with mankind
men-stealers
NIV:
adulterers
perverts
slave traders
NKJ:
fornicators
sodomites
kidnappers
RSV:
immoral persons
sodomites
kidnappers
NEB:
fornicators
perverts
kidnappers
As we see there is no clear-cut agreement as to what these words mean, though the above translations agree on the general sense of such words. To determine the precise meanings, we will use a lexicon. A lexicon is a scholarly dictionary used to determine the meaning of biblical words. A search through the online Greek lexicon available at
searchgodsword.org gives the following information on the Greek term
pornos, which is the stem of the word
pornoi, the first of the three words:
Pornos derives from the verb
pernemi meaning to sell and the following three definitions are given:
1. a male who prostitutes his body to anothers lust for hire
2. a male prostitute
3. a male who indulges in unlawful sexual intercourse, a fornicator
Andrapodistes, the stem of the word
Andrapodistai, the third word, returns the following definitions:
1. slave-dealer, kidnapper, man-stealer
a. of one who unjustly reduces free males to slavery
b. of one who steals the slaves of others and sells them.
Arsenokoitai, as previously indicated, is made up of the Greek words for male (
arseno-) and beds(
koitai). In Greek, the word
koitai, literally meaning beds,is commonly used as a euphemism for one who has sex.
Arseno- is an adjectival prefix, thus literally we could translate this as a man who has sex or male bedder.
We have, first of all, a male prostitute, the male-bedder (
arsenokoitai), and the slave dealer. The New American Bible offers a footnote that might shed some light on the historical context of the time:
The Greek word translated as boy prostitutes may refer to catamites, i.e. boys or young men who were kept for the purposes of prostitution, a practice not uncommon in the Greco-Roman world. In Greek mythology this was the function of Ganymede, the cupbearer of the gods, whose Latin name was Catamus
(New American Bible)
It was a common practice in that men of Pauls time would have slave pet boys whom they sexually exploited. Dr. Ralph Blair explains,
The desired boys were prepubescent or at least without beards so that they seemed like females.3 Today, this practice is referred to as pederasty. Regardless, we know the
pornos is a prostitute.
Keeping this in mind, lets look back at what we have so far: the enslaved male prostitute, the male-bedder (
arsenokoitai), and the slave dealer. This contextual dynamic leads one to understand
arsenokoitai as being the one who sleeps with the prostitutethe man who literally lies on the
bed with him. It is as if Paul were saying,
male prostitutes, males who lie [with them], and slave dealers [who procure them].2 Not only does the syntactical and historical context point to this understanding, but also the very literal sense of the word
arsenokoitai itself: male bed.
If this translation of
arsenokoitai is correct, it should also make logical sense where it is also used in 1 Corinthians 6:9, either confirming or refuting this understanding of
arsenokoitai.
Passage III: 1 Corinthians 6:9-10
Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither the immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor sexual perverts
, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor robbers will inherit the kingdom of God. (RSV)
The term translated sexual perverts above is actually two different words. The first word is
malakos, which is the singular form of the word
malakoi, and the second term is
arsenokoitai. Some commonly read translations include
malakos
arsenokoitai
KJV:
effeminate
abusers of themselves with mankind
NIV:
male prostitutes
homosexual offenders
NKJ:
homosexuals
sodomites
RSV1952:
à homosexuals
ß
RSV1977:
à sexual perverts
ß
RSV1989:
male prostitutes
sodomites
Jerusalem Bible:
catamites
sodomites
The term
malakoi, as an adjective, literally means soft. In Matthew 11:8 it has been used as an adjective in reference to John the Baptists clothing. In this text, however, it is used as a noun and its meaning is debated. Does our understanding of
arsenokoitai as revealed in 1 Timothy 1:10 as men who sleep with male-prostitutes make sense next to this word
malakos which is translated by both NIV and RSV as
male prostitutes? The Jerusalem Bible even translates the term
malakos as catamites, those young
soft prepubescent pet boys mentioned earlier. The syntactical and historical context of 1 Timothy 1:10 reveals the meaning of the word
arsenokoitai as men who sleep with prostitutes, and the fact this also fits the context of 1 Corinthians 6:9 seems to confirm that we have found the meaning of these obscure words. It makes perfect sense that Paul would rebuke not only the prostitute, but also the male-bedder or the man who sleeps with that prostitute.
As we see, these two verses are about this practice of prostitution and possibly pederasty, but what about Romans 1:27. It clearly says,
and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in their own persons the due penalty for their error. Is this not clear enough? There are no obscure Greek words. How are we to understand this?
Argent, it would be as easy to say that a bad scholar is one who twists the Good News of salvation through Christ Jesus into a condemnation of scapegoat groups among our fellow men, as many conservative preachers do, to their own judgment. I am interested, not in rationalizing some humanistic feelgood doctrine or some Pharasaic legalism vaguely based in the Bible, but in doing the commandments of my Lord and Savior. And to me the ostracizing of gay people on the basis of out-of-context Biblical prooftexting is as execrable an abomination against the Gospel as is the reduction of it to a generalized "Be nice to everyone" porridge.
