The translations and interpretations of malakos are not steeped in mystery like the word arsenokoites. There are many examples of malakos in various literary pieces and essays form the era and a very clear picture of how interpretive decisions have changed due to historical shifts in the ideology of sexuality.
Early English translations render malakos by terms that denote a general weakness of character or degeneracy, usually "weaklinges" however, a curious shift takes place in the mid-twentieth century. The translation of malakosbriefly became "effeminate" and then that translation was universally rejected and a term that denotes a particular sexual action or orientation is substituted. 1966 marks the first appearance of the translation of Malakos as "catamite," and the NAB (1970) renders arsenokoites and malakos together as "sodomite," the NIV 1973 was the first to try to make malakos mean "male prostitute". More recently we have seen attempts to render the word to mean pervert or homosexual perversion As was the case with arsenokoites, no real historical or philological evidence has been marshaled to support these shifts in translation, especially not that from the "effeminacy" of earlier versions to the "homosexual perversion" of the last fifty years. In fact, all the historical and philological evidence is on the side of the earlier versions. The shift in translation resulted not from the findings of historical scholarship but from shifts in sexual ideology.
Malakos is easy to define. Evidence from the ancient sources is abundant and easily accessible. Malakos can refer to many things: the softness of expensive clothes, the richness and delicacy of gourmet food, the gentleness of light winds and breezes. When used as a term of moral condemnation, the word still refers to something perceived as "soft": laziness, degeneracy, decadence, lack of courage, or, to sum up all these vices in one ancient category, women. For the ancients women are weak, fearful, vulnerable, tender. They stay indoors and protect their soft skin and nature: their flesh is moister, more flaccid, and more porous than male flesh, which is why their bodies retain all that excess fluid that must be expelled every month. The female is penetrable; their pores are looser than men's. One might even say that in the ancient male ideology women exist to be penetrated. It is their purpose (telos). And their "soft-ness" or "porousnes" is nature's way of inscribing on and within their bodies this reason for their existence.
To say that malakos meant a man who was penetrated is simply wrong. In fact, a perfectly good word existed that meaning just that was kinaedos. Malakos referred to this entire complex of femininity. This can be recognized by looking at the range of ways men condemned other men by calling them malakoi. In fact, in ancient writings when malakos is applied to an adult male it referred to men who prettied themselves up to further their heterosexual exploits.
Further. You have not shown arsenokoites to mean homosexual. Specifically you have failed to show that compound words derive their meaning from the meaning from their root words. DO you understand?
And by understand I mean comprehend what I am saying
.not standing beneath something
