[B-Greek] ARSENOKOITHS: Did I get this right?

Eric Weiss papaweiss1 at yahoo.com
Tue Mar 15 21:03:01 EST 2005


The Old Testament seems to prohibit sexual acts between two males (indeed, the term 
ARSENOKOITHS, if coined by Paul, may have come from the LXX of Leviticus 18:22, I 
understand). I'm not referring to the Sodom and Gomorrah passages in Genesis and Ezekiel 
which have been bandied back and forth elsewhere as to what they are referring to, just to the 
seeming explicit prohibition in Leviticus 18 in both the Hebrew and LXX. 
 
So ... in the midst of this discussion we're having, is there sufficient lexical or semantic 
knowledge of the meanings or likely meanings of ARSENOKOITHS and MALAKOS for us to 
conclude that Paul was referring to sexual acts between males when he used these terms? I'm 
not asking whether or not the term "homosexual" is a proper translation of one or both of these 
terms, as that seems to raise the issue of whether or not "homosexual" as understood by us 
is a proper term for 1st-century views and mindsets. What I'm asking is: Is it proper and likely to translate these words (or at least ARSENOKOITHS) as "a man who has sex with another 
man"? And if so, is there enough knowledge of the term(s) to say that it refers to 1) any man who has or had sex at any time with another man? 
2) Or just to men who regularly have sex with other men? 
3) Or just to men who have sex exclusively with other men?
 


Eric S. Weiss


		
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