Matthew 19:9, mng of PORNEIA

Steven Craig Miller scmiller at www.plantnet.com
Fri Oct 15 20:55:51 EDT 1999


To: Jeffrey B. Gibson,

<< The problem here, as I see it, is that, as Matt. 5:27 shows, Matthew was 
not only quite aware of another word for adultery which was less ambiguous 
than PORNEIA, but that he uses this other word when he wants to signify 
"adultery". Furthermore, against the Deuteronomic background in which the 
challenge to Jesus in Matt 19 is set, and as the roughly contemporary 
Rabbinic discussion of the  Deuteronomic material shows, the meaning of 
PORNEIA can hardly be limited to "adultery", even if it does include that 
signification. It is "something unseemly" which, most likely was sexual 
deviance, but not necessarily so. See M. Git. 9.10 (b. Git 90a). >>

I would concur with you, that is why I think the primary referent for 
PORNEIA  at Mt 19:9 should be seen to be prostitution, and it is being used 
as such by the Matthean Jesus as an abusive metaphor. Thus I've suggested 
the following translation:

"I say to you: whoever divorces his woman (except for divorcing whores) and 
marries another lives in adultery."

This translation leaves it unclear what a wife might have done to justify 
being called a "whore."

-Steven Craig Miller
Alton, Illinois (USA)
scmiller at www.plantnet.com



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