ARSENOKOITAI & MALAKOI: Do these really mean homosexuality?
I received an email to me and much of my extended biological family from my Fundy minister brother Jim which read, in part: “....On the other hand, I do believe the Bible teaches clearly that homosexuality is sin. I have read the various exegeses and am convinced that to conclude otherwise is to twist the clear meaning of Scripture . The list of condemning sins the Apostle gives, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, in 1 Cor. 6:9, includes homosexuality (without qualification), but is not limited to homosexuality, which should give us all pause before we choose this one sin alone to condemn! That was the point I was trying to make. We should each view ourselves honestly as the "chief of sinners" before and while we try to help someone else.”
My Email response to my brother and the whole family:
Just a quickie--I really hate arguing--but the "sin list" in 1 Corinthians 6:9 contains two Greek words which are ambiguous, judging from the various translations commonly used today. The words are malakoi and arsenokoitai. The first, malakoi, is variously translated: weaklings (American Standard), soft (as in Jesus saying that John the Baptist would not be expected to have"malakois" clothing--such clothing is found in King's courts.) or wantons (RSV) or effeminate (Phillips) or voluptuous person (An Interlinear), or abusers (Green's Interlinear) or catamites (Jerusalem Bible)(boys kept for sexual favors by older men who were often respectable teachers in Roman culture) or male prostitutes. (NIV)
From my research I think the malakoi likely were the worshippers in such common cults of the time as that of Cybele. The male worshippers became like Atys, Cybele's lover who cheated on her and then castrated himself in remorse. The male worshippers castrated themselves in the frenzy of celebrating the goddess' special day, and later adorned themselves with women's attire, powdered their faces, and in St. Augustine's words (in his famous book, City of God), "Minced through the streets" begging for hand-outs. They sometimes became "temple prostitutes" in the practices of the Roman and Greek nature religions.
Arsenokoitai is only used this one time in the entire Bible--did Paul coin the word? It is found very rarely in other literature of the time and the meaning is also ambiguous there. The word literally is "male-beds" so it probably referred to sexual behavior of males. But does it mean males with males, or men bed-hopping with female prostitutes? Some of the common translations are:abusers of themselves with men (American Standard), sexual perverts (RSV), the pervert (Phillips), Sodomites (An Interlinear) (see my website for a discussion of how the word Sodomite is now recognized to have been a mistranslation),homosexual offenders (NIV). Certainly homosexuals, as well as heterosexuals, can do offensive things.
From my (and others') research, I believe the arsenokoitai were intact males who frequented male (or perhaps female) temple prostitutes of the numerous and often mentioned (in the Bible) fertility religions of the day. The coined word arsenokoitai may be related to the "do not lie with a male as with a woman" of the Levitical holiness code of the Old Testament. I think that study shows pretty firmly that much of the Code is also about avoiding the idolatrous practices of the surrounding nations, in which the emerging Hebrew people find themselves. ("Do not do as the Egyptians do." Don't sacrifice your seed, either as children or as sperm.)
Some translations combine both words, malakoi and arsenokoitai, ( because the translator didn't know what to make of the individual words) and translate them variously: perverts, homosexual perverts, homosexuals (the Living Bible, one man's paraphrase for his children), Sodomites, sexual perverts (Phillips and TEV), defilers of themselves with mankind (KJV), pederasts (One Interlinear)(child molesters), the immoral with women, boys, or men (Jerusalem). The New Oxford Annotated, Third Edition, I have been told, agrees with me about it referring to Temple Prostitution. (Haven't had the opportunity to pick up one of those yet.) New King James (I think) uses the word Sodomite, even though the Greek word is not related to the people of Sodom. "Sodomite" is translated in some dictionaries as "male temple prostitute," due to the King James translators erroneously translating the Hebrew.
My point is the meanings of the two words are ambiguous. If anything, the etiology of the words point to the practice of men having sex with male pagan (fertility religions) prostitutes in ritual practice. The arsenokoitai word is definitely about males, not about generic "men," that is, humans. If malakoi means soft or effeminate it would also apply negatively to men, not women. So these two words are not about "homosexuality," a word coined in the early 1900's by a psychiatrist, to describe an orientation, not a sexual practice.
Why are the women not mentioned in these two words ? Because the words are about temple prostitution, in my scholarly opinion, and women did not frequent the cult prostitutes--they could BE cult prostitutes, as eunuch men could be also. Or intact men. But women having sex with women had no cultic significance--no seed was exchanged. So there is no need to mention them here. Another reason this is not about the orientation homosexuality or the general practice thereof. Paul was speaking against idolatrous practices, not homosexual relationships.
Why have some translators translated ambiguous words so that they are against homosexuals? Because it is hard to erase all bias, even if you are trying to be objective. Homosexuals have been a despised underclass in this country, especially, for a long time. Sexuality is a touchy subject. Gender identity is sometimes even more touchy. For men to "act like women" is often verythreatening to male identity. Men dressed like women are frequently killed, even in these days. I know about this; I follow the statistics and have friends who are male to female transgendered persons. Sometimes I think it is less homo-hatred than it is men-threatening-male-gender-identity who are hated. Lesbians are loved as pornographic fodder, but hated if they insist that they don't need men at all. I have a friend who asks, "Why is a man in a dress scarier than a man with a gun?" I don't know the answer to these questions, but I have felt the intense hatred. It ain't pretty and it sure isn't from God.
I'm sorry this was so long for you who care not a whit about this! Of course you didn't read this far anyway! I did it because it is important --I minister with people all the time who are beating themselves up because they believe God created them with natural desires that they cannot fulfill, based on biased interpretations and translations of scripture. These folks either leave Christianity or become psychologically a mess, or, in some cases, try to self-destruct. I believe with all my heart that God did not intentionally create some people to live frustrated, lonely lives. You may think the scripture is clearly against homosexuality, but I thank God that God has shown me what the scripture really says. I believe that all who truly study it with a prayerful and open-minded attitude, will eventually come to the same conclusions I and many others have.
Thank you for giving me a place to speak. In the love of Christ, Marj
Marj Creech
God's Promise MCC of Eastern Ohio (Granville)
http://my.core.com/~risenregan/