Paul and malakos and arsenokoites
Paul's use of the Greek word arsenokoites (pl. arsenokoitai) is one of the most compelling reasons for me as a conservative Christian to believe in the traditional stand. For me it is the clincher. If Paul is quoting the Levitical prohibitions on same-sex intercourse using his Greek bible (the Septuagint or the LXX17) then Paul clearly thought that the Levitical prohibitions 26 (on male-male sex) applied in his day. Plus in 1 Cor 6:9 arsenokoites is listed separately to idolatry, so he is not just thinking of it in a cultic way. In his use of the word arsenokoites he is condemning all male-male intercourse whether it be homosexual or bisexual. I also understand the difference between our sexual orientation, and what we do with it (in our bodies) this is a fundamental and as far as I am concerned it is a given. God does not judge us because we experience same-sex attraction. God judges us on what we do with it.20 I totally support my gay Christian brothers who choose celibacy18 When it comes to biblical sexual ethics our bodies are not our own to do as we please.
The bibles stance on sexual ethics has got stronger not weaker as God reveals His word to us. It is true that Abraham could marry his half sister before the law. But when we come to the NT Paul would call it incest. The pro-gay scholars seem to be ignorant of God's progressive revelation to man. Paul clearly understood that there was no sin because Abraham married his half sister, but he clearly castigates the incestuous man in 1 Cor 5. When it comes to sexual ethics, then God has not changed His mind. The NT is full of charges to avoid sexual immorality (porneia)23, because it can lead to exclusion from the kingdom of heaven. These the pro-gay theologians gloss over, the Levitical prohibitions on sexual immorality still apply today. Paul the single or maybe widowed Christian (we do not know), goes into great detail about Christian sexual ethics.
In 1 Cor 6:9 Paul warns us "Do not be deceived". There is much deception in the debate between pro-gay scholars and conservative Christians. There are many people who will lie. But the debate is all about the truth. The battle is between personal experience and the truth of scripture. The problem with deception is that those who are deceived do not know it. In 1 cor 6:9. Paul uses two Greek words to denote the passive and active partner in male-male sexual 1 practise malakos and arsenokoites.2. A deeper discussion of these two words is below.
This is one of the most important NT passages on homosexual practise.
Paul uses the Greek word arsenokoites which he gets from the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the Septuagint (LXX). Here, Paul ratifies the Levitical prohibition on same-sex intercourse. Paul warns his readers "Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived", then he gives his vice list, which includes (male) homosexual and bisexual practise as well as other sins. While 1 Cor 6:9 has been argued to death by pro-gay theologians it nevertheless gives hope for all kinds of repentant sinners (sexually immoral, adulterers, thieves, drunkards as well as homosexuals) simply because of verse 11 which says "and that is what some of you were" past tense. It goes on to say "but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God". The word "but" in the bible is very important, Paul gives a long list of sins that real people committed, and Paul says "and that is what some of you were" past tense. "But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God". The gospel thus says that however vile a man may have been, he can be made clean (washed). The list includes heterosexuals as well as homosexuals, both have to live with their sexual desires, there is no guarantee that God will alter the sexual orientation of a homosexual. God does not command that, but he does command us to live holy lives before him in our bodies. We cannot necessarily change our orientation but we can change our behavior, we are judged by what we do in our bodies3, not our orientation. According to the bible we are all born with a sinful nature or orientation i.e. it is natural to sin.
The word arsenokoitai also occurs in 1Ti 1:10. I have chosen the ALT version carefully 27.
The meaning of Malakoi Paul also uses the Greek word malakos (Pl. malakoi) which literally means "the soft ones" Gagnon4 translates this as "effeminate males who play the sexual role of females". It is used in Mat 11:8 and Luke 7:25 "A man dressed in soft (malakos) clothing" but there it has no sexual connotation. The pro-gay theologian Robin Scroggs5 calls it "effeminate call boys" and thus he can use the exploitative argument15 and the pro-gay theologian Dale Martin6 says that in Greek literature it carries the broad sense of "the effeminate". In Paul's usage of the term malakos it has to be serious because it can lead to exclusion from the kingdom of God (1Co 6:9). It follows after adultery, and it is paired with arsenokoitai. The word malakos does not mean just an effiminate man ( a soft man), it is serious. The etymology of the word arsenokoitai is a good deal simpler, Paul was quoting his Greek OT of the day, the Septuagint (LXX). See the arguments below: The etymology of the word arsenokoitesJoe Dallas7 shows that the word arsenokoites8 is clearly related to the Levitical laws, based on the Greek translation of the OT the Septuagint (LXX). Thus, Paul is teaching that the Levitical (moral) laws on same-sex intercourse still apply in his day9. I have no reason to believe that God has changed his mind since then, regarding sexual ethics. Indeed the bibles stance in both the OT and the NT on same-sex intercourse goes counter culture. God tells His people not to be like the world. Paul sums this up:
The key issue in the gay debate is whether we conform to the world or the truth of scripture. Five people who argue that arsenokoitai is derived from the LXX translation of Lev 18:22 and 20:13, three of them are scholars, one is ex-gay and one is a celibate gay Christian. 1. Joe Dallas on arsenokoites Quote Pro-Gay Argument: 'Arsenokoite' is a word coined by Paul. It never appeared in Greek literature before he used it in these scriptures. There were, at the time, other words for "homosexual." Had he meant to refer to homosexuality, he would have used one of the words already in existence. Most likely, he was referring to male prostitution, which was common at the time. Boswell points out, accurately, that the word is peculiar to Paul, suggesting he did not have homosexuality in mind when he used it10 Prostitution is Boswell's first choice. If not that, he suggests Paul was condemning general immorality. At any rate, the term, according to this argument, means some sort of immoral man but not a homosexual. Response: Paul coined 179 terms in the New Testament. The terms do not, because they are original, significantly change the context of the verses they appear in. Nor is it remarkable he would have coined this one, considering he derived it directly from the Greek translation of the Old Testament (the Septuagint): meta arsenos ou koimethese koiten gyniakos (Lev 18:22) hos an koimethe meta arsenos koiten gynaikos (Lev 20:13) In other words, when Paul adopted the term arsenokoite, he took it directly from the Levitical passages-in the Greek translation- forbidding homosexual behavior. The meaning, then, could not be clearer: Though the term is unique to Paul, it refers specifically to homosexual behavior. As for the inference that it applies to male prostitution, a breakdown of the word shows it implies nothing of the sort. 'Arsene,' as mentioned earlier, appears few times in the New Testament, always referring to "male." 'Koite' appears only twice in the New Testament, and means "bed," used in a sexual connotation:
The two words combined, as Paul used them, put "male" and "bed" together in a sexual sense. There is no hint of prostitution in the meaning of either of the words combined to make arsenokoite. " Endquote 2. Manfred Brauch makes the same point.11 "Such a limitation of the meaning of this term can, however, I believe, not be maintained in view of the linguistic evidence from Paul's Jewish context, as well as the fact that in First Timothy 1:10 the term arsenokoitai is used by itself and can therefore not be limited to a designation of the necessary older partner in a pederast relationship. It has been shown by numerous studies, that the compound word, arsenokoitai, is a translation, perhaps coined by Paul himself, of the Hebrew term, mishkav zakur, literally, lying with a male derived directly from Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13 and used in Rabbinic texts to refer to homosexual intercourse. Such a connection between Paul's term, the Hebrew Leviticus text and the Rabbinic interpretation of that text, is confirmed by the Septuagint Greek translation rendering of Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13 as follows: meta arsenos ou koimethese koiten gynaikos ("with a man do not lie [as one] lies with a woman") hos an koimethe meta arsenos koiten gynaikos ("whoever lies with a man [as one] lies with a woman") The point is that arsenokoitai and coiten, both in the text of Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13 are used together in those two lines in the language with a man do not lie as one lies with a woman, or, whoever lies with a man as one lies with a woman, a cenois coiten. This background for Paul's compound word seems all too obvious and needs to be acknowledged I believe as the most appropriate determinant of Paul's meaning. Paul's use of this term, whether or not originally coined by him, presupposes and reaffirms the judgment of the Levitical holiness code and all of Judaism and early Christianity, that same sex relations are seen as contrary to God's will. The inclusion of the same compound word, in First Timothy 1:10, in the list of vices, which includes everything from lying to murdering one's own parents, behaviors in that text are characterized as "contrary to the sound teaching that conforms to the glorious gospel," makes it absolutely clear that for both Paul and the early Christians, homosexual behavior was understood to be morally wrong and that wrongness had nothing to do with ritual purity codes and thus outdated and irrelevant. Well, then, this wrongness was determined by the good news of God's creative transforming power in Christ which sought to restore all of our human brokenness, towards that image of God in and for which we are created as male and female. " 3. Gagnon makes the same point 16 "The word arsenokoitai should be translated literally as "men who lie with a male." Here are some reasons why: Clear connections to the Levitical prohibitions of male-male intercourse. The word is formed from the Greek words for "lying" (koite) and "male" (arsen) that appear in the Greek Septuagint translation of the Levitical prohibitions of men "lying with a male" (18:22; 20:13). The intentionality of the connection with the absolute Levitical prohibitions against male-male intercourse is self-evident from the following points: (a) The rabbis used the corresponding Hebrew abstract expression mishkav zakur, "lying of/with a male," drawn from the Hebrew texts of Lev 18:22 and 20:13, to denote male-male intercourse in the broadest sense. (b) The term or its cognates does not appear in any non-Jewish, non-Christian text prior to the sixth century A.D. This way of talking about male homosexuality is a distinctly Jewish and Christian formulation. It was undoubtedly used as a way of distinguishing their absolute opposition to homosexual practice, rooted in the Torah of Moses, from more accepting views in the Greco-Roman milieu. (c) The appearance of arsenokoitai in 1 Tim 1:10 makes the link to the Mosaic law explicit, since the list of vices of which arsenokoitai is a part are said to be derived from "the law" (1:9). All of the above considerations show Dale Martin's argument (adopted by Rogers) to be silly; namely, that the meaning of a compound word does not necessarily add up to the sum of its parts. In this instance, it clearly does. Implications of 1 Tim 1:9-10 corresponding to the Decalogue. At least the last half of the vice list in 1 Tim 1:8-10 (and possibly the whole of it) corresponds to the Decalogue. Why is that important? In early Judaism and Christianity the Ten Commandments often served as summary headings for the full range of laws in the Old Testament. The seventh commandment against adultery, which was aimed at guarding the institution of marriage, served as a summary of all biblical sex laws, including the prohibition of male-male intercourse. The vice of kidnapping, which follows arsenokoitai in 1 Tim 1:10, is typically classified under the eighth commandment against stealing (so Philo, Pseudo-Phocylides, the rabbis, and the Didache; see The Bible and Homosexual Practice, 335-36). This makes highly improbable the attempt by some to pair arsenokoitai with the following term andrapodistai (kidnappers, men-stealers), as a way of limiting its reference to exploitative acts of male-male intercourse (so Rogers, parroting others), rather than with the inclusive sexual term pornoi (the sexually immoral) that precedes it." (Emphasis added) Gagnon has another 10 points to make in his article 4. Ron Belgau Ron is a "B side" gay Christian18 - Ron believes that God calls gay Christians to lifelong celibacy. "The key debate over this passage concerns the meaning of the term arsenokoitai. There is a lot of debate over this word, but having studied Greek, it seems to me fairly self-evident that arsenokoitai is a compound word referring to those offenders condemned in Leviticus 18:22. In the Septuagint, we find “You shall not lie [koiten] with a male [arsenos] as with a woman; it is an abomination” (Leviticus 18:22). The linguistic problem seems to me to be exactly analogous to this: suppose I have an Old Testament text which says, “it is unlawful to lay bricks,” and I have a New Testament text that says “bricklayers are lawbreakers.” It would seem inconceivable to me to say that “Greek scholars don’t know exactly what bricklayer means.” Yet Mel White claims (with an apparently straight face) that “Greek scholars don’t know exactly what arsenokoitai means.” While I can appreciate Mel’s desire that this should be true (since I shared that desire for years), it simply is not true. My New Testament Greek Lexicon (put together by Greek scholars!) defines arsenokoites (the singular of arsenokoitai) as “one who lies with a male as with a female, sodomite, homosexual.” It is true enough that there are some Greek scholars who reject this interpretation, just as there are some Biblical Scholars who argue that God is not the Creator, or that Christ was not born of a virgin, or that He wasn’t the Son of God, or that He did not rise from the dead. But if Christians had to give up their beliefs every time a scholar professed disbelief, Christianity would not have survived a week. Linguistically, the transformation from “it is unlawful to lay bricks” to “bricklayers are lawbreakers” is identical to the transformation from “you shall not koiten with an arsenos” to “arsenokoitai shall not enter the kingdom of God.” In both cases, the verb has been conjugated to function as a noun, and the object has been joined to the verb to form a new compound word. Words have to mean something, and the obvious grammatical meaning of arsenokoitai is “men who lie with men,” a reference back to Leviticus 18:22. This does not automatically prove that this is what Paul meant. As some have pointed out, “ladykiller” does not mean either a lady who kills or a person who kills ladies. But most compound words have obvious meanings. A homosexual, for example, is a person sexually attracted to their own sex. There is a tiny amount of room for skepticism about the meaning of arsenokoitai, but in order to make a compelling case against the obvious meaning, one would need to propose an alternative meaning, find documentation of that alternative meaning, and show that the alternative meaning would make at least as much sense out of Paul’s argument as does the grammatically obvious meaning. I welcome serious, faithful scholars who challenge and question our beliefs about the Scriptures. Many of the great heroes of the faith have done this, challenging Christians to take more seriously the Word of God. Such men and women have started great reform movements. But after two years of studying Greek in college so that I could understand the translation arguments in the passages treating homosexuality, my reaction was something like, “this is the best challenge we can make on the translation of arsenokoitai?” I, at least, did not find the argument convincing. And moving beyond the specific question of whether or not arsenokoitai refers to active homosexuals, the statement that fornicators, adulterers, active homosexuals, and other sinners will not enter the kingdom of heaven is logically connected with the statement a few verses later that sexual sin defiles the temple of the Holy Spirit. Paul’s argument in the latter half of I Corinthians 6 is that sexual sin separates us from the spirit (and thus from the kingdom of God). But he also argues that sinners can be washed, sanctified, and justified “in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.” (See Jesus and Sexual Morality: Life in the Holy Spirit, above). None of this is to single out homosexual sin for special condemnation; adultery and fornication are just as serious in God’s eyes and much more commonly practiced. But for those of us tempted to homosexual activity, it is important to recognize that the Scriptures say that such activity can cut us off from God by defiling the temple where He dwells through the Holy Spirit within us. It is also important not to be discouraged. Romans 7 is very clear that the struggle between the flesh and the Spirit is not over in a moment. It is a part of every Christian’s daily walk with Christ. As long as we keep returning to the cross in repentance, we will receive forgiveness and Christ will help strengthen us and progressively free us from sin. That is why Paul is clear in I Corinthians 6:11 that we can be set free from our sins. The way is not free from struggle, but the battles do lead to victories, and freedom from the power of sin." 5. Matt Kennedy24 “Arsenokoites,” the second word, means “one who lies with a male in a male homosexual erotic relationship.” This word as it was most commonly used in the context of sexual relations refers “in general” to any male who plays the role of the male in bed with another male, be he with a prostitute or with a lover. The interesting thing about this word, as Richard Hays notes in his Moral Vision of the New Testament, is that coming from a learned Jew like Paul, “arsenokoites” would likely represent an allusion to the Greek text of Leviticus 20:13 “meta arsenos koiten gynaikos,” “arsenokoites” being a compound of “arsen” (male) “and koiten” (intercourse). The compound word, “arsenokoites” is in fact not known in Greek literature prior to the NT. For that reason Hays believes Paul likely created it in reference to Leviticus 20. The significance of this, of course, is that Paul understood the Levitical prohibitions against homosexuality to be morally binding on the church beyond the context of ritual purity. Most likely these two words taken together represent a blanket condemnation of both the passive and assertive forms of male homosexual behavior. This passage, therefore, represents another explicit NT condemnation of homosexual behavior without regard to cultural or relational context. ( Bauer, Arndt, Gingrich and Danker Greek Lexicon of the NT and other Early Christian Literature ) Other scholars who link arsenokoitai to the LXX translation of the Levitical prohibitions include David F. Wright28 30, P.D.M. Turner, James DeYoung, Stephen Carlson, Derrick K. Olliff and Dewey H. Hodges28. The only two pro-gay scholars (that I know of) who give this argument are Robin Scroggs31 and also Richard B. Hayes 24 32 The Greek arsenokoites and the Hebrew mishkav zakur Interestingly Robin Scroggs notes35 (regarding Lev 18:22, 20:13) that the "Rabbinic scholars picked up part of that phrase, "lies with a male," made it virtually into a noun, and gave it nearly the status of a technical term. The term that thus emerged and that is used frequently in this literature is mishkav zakur (lying of a male) or mishkav bzakur (lying with a male). Later I will argue that this Hebrew expression lies behind the rare Greek word, arsenokoites (lit. lying of, with a male) in 1 Cor 6:9." Later he says "Asenokoites is an almost exact Greek parallel to the Hebrew and is equally derived from Leviticus. More than ever the evidence suggests that arsenokoites is a Hellenistic Jewish coinage, perhaps influenced by awareness of rabbinic terminology". I would add that Paul was formerly a Pharisee educated under the feet of the Rabbi Gamaliel (Act 22:3) and that Paul would therefore have known the meaning of mishkav zakur. Other Pro-gay arguments: The commonest argument is that we do not know what the word arsenokoites means19, and of course they have to say that rather than admit that it comes from the LXX translation of the Levitical prohibitions, which would undermine the popular argument that the Levitical prohibitions are not relevant to day. Both Joe Dallas and Manfred Brauch etc. have already answered the etymology of arsenokoites. It is derived from the Greek translation of the OT (the Septuagint or LXX) and Paul is paraphrasing the Levitical prohibitions on male-male intercourse, which means that in the mind of Paul the Levitical prohibitions still stand. Steve Schuh33 gives a counter argument to this by saying that if arsenokoites is linked to the Levitical prohibitions then Paul must be thinking of it in regards to idolatry and cult prostitution, because that is how it was in Israel. Again the assumption is that male-male intercourse is only wrong in an idolatrous or cultic prostitution setting (Wright28 has made a strong argument against the latter). Also none of the wording of Lev, Rom 1 or 1 Cor 6:9 is that specific. The clearest evidence for this is from Paul's Rom 1 argument in which he sees it from from the creators perspective and female-female sex was not usually either done in an idolatrous or cultic setting. It means men that sleep around, based on 'arsene' (male) and 'koite' (bed), however given that this word can be linked directly to the Septuagint Levitical prohibitions this is unlikely. It also implies that Paul would accept a committed homosexual relationship, but Paul has made no such distinction. Paul is referring to a practice that was fairly common in the Greek culture of his day - married men who had sex with male youths on the side22. This is an example of the exploitative view that Robin Scroggs holds5. This position is undermined by Paul in Rom 1:27 "the men.... were consumed with passion for one another" This is hardly exploitative but consensual. John Boswell in "Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality" contends that Paul is only dealing with prostitution. This has been refuted by David F. Wright in ‘Homosexuals or Prostitutes?28 Wright also surveys the Latin, Syriac, and Coptic translations of 1 Tim 1:10 and 1 Cor 6:9. All three render arsenokoitai with words that reflect the meaning "homosexual,". Wright also says that "arsenokoitai" was clearly constructed from the Greek of the Septuagint of Lev 18:22 and 20:13 the latter has the two roots in the same order (hos an koimthe meta arsenos koiten gunaikos)30. Paul could have used other Greek words to mean a homosexual (tribades or kinaidoi)12 (also including the terms paiderastai (“lover of boys”), paidomanes (“man mad for boys”), and paidophthoros (“corrupter of boys”, and for example, androbates (“man-coverer”) and arrenomanes (“man mad for a male”29). This might be true, but he chose to use the word arsenokoites to directly link it with the Levitical prohibitions. This has much more scriptural force than if he had used other common Greek words for homosexuals (tribades or kinaidoi). Because arsenokoites would also include bisexuals who have male-male intercourse. Paul's economy with words here is superb. Paul was concerned with prostitution in 1 Cor 6:15, and so he was therefore thinking about temple homosexual prostitution in Corinth. But there was no temple prostitution in Roman Corinth, but there was temple prostitution in Greek Corinth two centuries earlier13. Paul does not link malakos and arsenokoites together with idolatry, but he uses both malakos and arsenokoites together in his vice list (1 Cor 6:9-10) that also includes fornicators, adulterers and idolaters (idolaters is a separate vice). The Levitical prohibitions are not limited to just cult homosexual prostitution (i.e. only wrong when linked to idolatry) and the use of arsenokoites implies the same here. Plus malakos and arsenokoites are listed separately from idolatry in 1 Cor 6:9, and not linked directly to it. References
Other articles (this site)
Other links
|
|---|