Are you for real? Really? Are you for real?
“I would encourage you to learn the meaning of arsenoloitai.”
“It does not mean homosexual.”
“That word has no meaning.”
How can you encourage someone to learn the meaning of a word that you think has no meaning?
How can you say a word that exists, was created for some purpose, and was used for that purpose, has no meaning?
How can you say what a word does NOT mean, if you suggest it has no meaning? How could you even know?
No ancient Greek writer used the word to mean lesbian or homosexual. There were a number of ancient Greek and Latin words Paul could have used in 1 Cor 6:9 and 1 Tim 1:10 if God intended to prohibit committed gay and lesbian partnerships
Malakoi usually referred to intellectual weakness or moral weakness or some kind of softness which implied effeminacy but malakoi was rarely, if ever, used to refer to Homosexuality. Arsenokoites occurs only 77 times in extant Greek manuscripts
in the first 2100 years of Greek history. It is therefore an extremely rare word. In 1 Cor 6:9, Paul is the first writer we have on record as using the word.
“Know ye not that the unrighteous
shall not inherit the kingdom of God?
Be not deceived: neither fornicators,
nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor
effeminate (malakoi), nor abusers of
themselves with mankind" (arsenokoitai).
Although scholars are unsure of its provenance, there are two reasonable possibilities for the origin of the Greek word, arsenokoitai or arsenokoites.
- Hellenistic (Greek speaking) Jews coined the word from the Septuagint
a Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament, based on use of the two roots of the word in Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13.
Leviticus 18:22 - meta arsenos ou koimethese koiten gunaikos
Leviticus 20:13 - hos an koimethe meta arsenos koiten gunaikos
Arseno is the Greek word for man and koite is the Greek word for bed, used euphemistically to mean having sex. We say ‘he slept with her’ when we mean, had sex with her. In the same way, koite-bed was a euphemism for having sex.
If the prohibitions of the Levitical Holiness Code informed its meaning, arsenos koiten condemns shrine prostitution, based on the context of Leviticus 18 and 20.
Philo lived at the same time Jesus lived. During the life of Christ, Philo understood Moses, in Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13, to be condemning shrine prostitution.
Philo’s understanding that the arsenokoit stem refers to shrine prostitution is 2000 years old. It is not a modern argument from gays and lesbians. Instead, it is the common first century Jewish viewpoint. Gays did not make up this viewpoint and it did not originate with gays therefore it is not historical revisionism by gays seeking an alibi for their sin.
If the arsenokoit stem from Leviticus 20:13, arsenos koiten, gave us the Greek word Paul used in 1 Corinthians 6:9 (most anti-gay Christians believe Paul borrowed the word from the Septuagint translation of Lev 18:22 and 20:13), then understanding arsenokoites as a reference to shrine prostitution was a common understanding in the first century, when Paul used the word in 1 Cor 6:9 and 1 Tim 1:10.
The modern attempt to make Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13 a prohibition of all homosexual activity is far from what Moses and God intended and far from ancient Jewish understanding of these verses.
The Jewish viewpoint articulated by Philo is 2000 years old. It was not invented by gay people as an excuse for sin. Understanding arsenokoites to refer to shrine prostitution is a commonly accepted meaning of arsenokoites in the first century.
Arsenokoites also condemns pederasty and incest, given the interpretation of Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13 in Sanhedrin 54a and Philo.
Shrine prostitution, pederasty and incest are not analogs of a committed faithful monogamous partnership between two men or two women.
Paul coined the word, arsenokoites,
borrowing from the Greek words of Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13. If this is true, arsenokoites must have indicated a sin which confronted Paul’s readers, with which they were so familiar that it was not necessary for him to define the word. The best historical possibility for its meaning is shrine or temple prostitution.
Some modern scholars insist that shrine prostitution did not occur in ancient Corinth. Whatever the outcome of that argument, Philo, who was intimately familiar with cultic religion in the first century, identifies Cybele or Ceres worship with the shrine prostitution Moses referenced in Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13.
Because Paul did not define the word arsenokoites when he used it, the meaning must have been clear to Paul’s first century readers.
Philo leaves no doubt about the meaning of arsenokoites. For first century Jews, it was a given that the arsenokoit stem referred to temple prostitution. The first century cultural and historical understanding is that arsenokoites refers to shrine prostitution, in which male worshipers engaged in anal sex with male priests and female priestesses of the fertility goddess.
