Effeminate vs gay (bible versions)

[kelvinf]

If you say that someone is effeminate, does it always or necessarily mean that the person is gay?

e.g 1 Cor 6:9

[BIBLEDRB]1 cor 6:9-10[/BIBLEDRB]

Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,

(KJV)

Do you not know that the unjust will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor boy prostitutes nor sodomites

(NAB)

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,

(RSV-CE)

Surely you know that the wicked will not possess God’s Kingdom. Do not fool yourselves; people who are immoral or who worship idols or are adulterers or homosexual perverts

(GNT/TEV)

 

[Ron_Conte]

In my view, when Scripture uses the term effeminate, this refers to men who behave like women, or (by extension) women who behave like men. A person who is effeminate might be homosexual, or he might not be.

God gave men and women different roles in the Church, the family, and society. God intends that men and women dress and behave differently, as an expression of the truth that men and women have different roles in God’s plan. The violation of this plan of God is a sin.

[Proverbs]
{18:7} The mouth of the foolish is his destruction, and his own lips are the ruin of his soul.
{18:8} The words of the double-tongued seem simple. And they reach even to the interior of the gut. Fear casts down the lazy, but the souls of the effeminate [effeminatorum] shall go hungry.

[1 Cor]
{6:9} Do you not know that the iniquitous will not possess the kingdom of God? Do not choose to wander astray. For neither fornicators, nor servants of idolatry, nor adulterers,
{6:10} nor the effeminate [molles], nor males who sleep with males, nor thieves, nor the avaricious, nor the inebriated, nor slanderers, nor the rapacious shall possess the kingdom of God.

 

[Epistemes]

It all relates back to two mysterious words which, it seems. In context of your question about effeminacy and how that relates to homosexuality, the word which Paul uses is “malakoi”:

Malakoi suffers from the same lexical complexity. The word malakos means literally “soft.” There is no indication that it was used in the time of Paul as a derogatory remark leveled exclusively against gays. On the contrary, Hellenistic literature is replete with examples of heterosexuals being characterized as malakos. The label seemed to indicate some sort of general moral weakness or excess. The early church fathers invoked the word malakos against masturbation. Moreover they never used the word to imply being “effeminate” but rather list other terms for this purpose including *thelubrios *and *androgunos *whence the term “androgyny.”

fogarty.org/tim/gay_issues/word_arsenokoitai.html

Based on this decoding, it seems what is at heart in this passage is transgenderism. Consider how the Complete Jewish Bible translates the passage:

Don’t you know that unrighteous people will have no share in the Kingdom of God? Don’t delude yourselves - people who engage in sex before marriage, who worship idols, who engage in sex after marriage with someone other than their spouse, who engage in active or passive homosexuality, who steal, who are greedy, who get drunk, who assail people with contemptuous language, who rob - none of them will share in the Kingdom of God.

During the first century, transgender men, even if they never engaged in homosexual acts, were most likely publicly viewed as passively homosexual.

 

[OraLabora]

Good research, Epistemes.

I would be careful of a literal interpretation of that passage based on their lack of understanding, of that time, about differences between sexual orientation and gender identity, which are separate issues.

We know today that transgenderism is not “passive homosexuality” when in fact many forms of it (transvestitism in particular) involves often otherwise outwardly virile men who are heterosexual, get married, and father children.

I tend to take that passage more generally as being against sexual immorality rather than specific forms of it. For some transgendered people, transsexuals, their disorder is organic in nature, and well beyond their control. This is not willful immorality.

 

[kelvinf]

So what would you say about people in today’s society who use the term to refer to gays. Is gay a synonym of effeminate? If not, why to people prefer to use the term that way

 

[HauntedJame]

It is interesting so see how it has developed, from effeminate to homosexual. I am gay and trust me, I am nothing like a woman. Camp doesn’t do it for me and I am pretty much your ordinary guy…look like one, dress like one…but I know a lot of effeminate men, both straight and gay. It is a very lovely-dovely world, especially the media industry. Anyone who has ever hung around drama people know how…effeminate they are. Straight or gay.

I think that it depends on the person…I personally am not effeminate, but I have no problem with men who are, any more than I object to butch women.

 

[bingbang]

So a girl that likes sports and wears clothes like a guy is a sinner?

 

[HauntedJame]

Yeah, what does the Bible say about wearing clothes originally designed for the opposite sex?

 

[awatkins69]

It’s against it.

“The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman’s garment: for all that do so are abomination unto the Lord thy God.”(Deut 22:5)

Of course, what is woman’s clothing and what is man’s clothing are different between cultures. For instance, while in Rome it might be inappropriate for a man to wear a skirt, in Scotland or Ireland a man may wear something very similar to a skirt (kilts). However, in our culture, most of the immodest modern fashions are in vogue because they *are *inappropriate, not because our culture is vastly different than 50 years ago.