The "Effeminati" and the "homosexuals" in Paolo's letters

Biblical reflections published on the website was discriminated? (United States), freely translated by Silvia Lanzi

The words usually translated like "effeminate" and "homosexual" In these steps (editor's note of Paolo's letters) are dark and difficult to make. The first word identifies someone who is morally weak and has nothing to do with gay men. The second word probably means "Person who uses power to get sex", although the word is so rare that a safe translation is impossible. No word refers specifically to gays and lesbians.
Another step of the writing used sometimes against gays is 1 Corinthian 6: 9-10, which reads as follows in the version of King Giacomo:

"You don't know that the unjust will not inherit the kingdom of God? There are no deception: neither the fornicators, nor the idolaters, nor the adulterers, nor the effeminate, nor the homosexuals, nor the thieves ... they will inherit the kingdom of God".

In this step there are two key phrases, relevant to our discussion. First, there is the reference to people "Effaminati", which is often seen as a reference to gay men. In truth, the Greek word that usually translates "effeminate" In verse 9 it has a rather large meaning. The term is malakoi, which literally means "Spring". So, Paolo is saying that the "Sliding people" They will not inherit the kingdom of God. Since we know that Paul is not talking about the biscuit homine, we must ask ourselves what it means.

This common Greek word has different connotations, which depend on the context in which it is used. In terms of morality, it has generally referred to something such as laziness, degeneration, decline or lack of courage. The connotation was to be "Slog like a woman" or like the delicate expensive fabrics worn by rich men. In the patriarchal culture of time it was thought that women were weaker than men, more fearful, more vulnerable and more vain. Thus, the men who ate too much, who liked expensive things, who were lazy or who dressed well were considered"Slog like a woman". Although this type of misogynist thinking is intolerable in our modern society, it was common in ancient times and explains why the version of King Giacomo Translation malakoi as “effeminate”.

But it is important to understand the difference between the ancient and the modern notion of what makes it effective. Paolo was not condemning fashionable men who bring bags; He was condemning a type of moral weakness. The understanding of the ancient Greeks and Romans of what meant male or female is quite different from that of today. The Romans of the first century did not think of femininity as a purely homosexual sudden. In that culture, every man who was most interested in the pleasure that he was considered feminine to the duty, and the men who brigade to make themselves more attractive "Whether they tried to attract women, whether they tried to attract men, they were called effeminate". The Romans considered all the men who were looking for pleasure, no matter with those who were looking for it. In the terms of the Romans of the first century, most WWF's professional wrestler (World Wrestling Federation) would be considered effective due to their apparent interest in tastes, costumes and hyper-mascol attitudes. From this perspective, Paolo condemned men who were Vanesi, fearful and self -indulgent.

In recent years, however, some have suggested that, in the context in which it appears in 1 Corinthians 6, malakoi could refer specifically to male prostitutes who would have served as a receptive partners (soft, "Like women") in sexual intercourse. In this translation there are two of the most popular English translations, the New International Version and the New Standard Version auditor. Since the term malakoi It was used to refer to men who exhibited negative traits associated with women in the first century culture, it is not difficult to note how the term can also be used to refer to male prostitutes. They would be considered sexually indulgent (a feature associated with women) those who play a receptive role in a relationship (another feature associated with women). Since Paolo USA here malakoi In a list of sexual sins, it is possible to infer that may have reported specifically to male prostitutes rather than to men in general.

However, regardless of the fact that Paolo intended to refer specifically to prostitutes or more generally to all men considered morally indulgent, it is clear that the term malakoi It has nothing to do with the question we ask to writing. We are not defending prostitution, neither vanity nor self -indulgence. Our question is if the same sex couples can live a love relationship engaged with the blessing of God. The term malakoi He does not face this problem.

The next key phrase in this step is made in the version of King Giacomo as "Those who abuse themselves with humanity". A similar phrase appears in a list of sins in 1 Timothy 1:10. Both sentences are derived from a single Greek word, arsenokoitai, which is quite rare: these two biblical references could be the first example that we have of this word used in the literature of the time. Since the word is so rare, probably its exact meaning has been lost forever. However, some scholars have worked hard to make a hypothesis.

A translation technique is to look at the roots of the words taken isolation. Arsenokoitai It is the combination of two existing terms, one that means "Bed" and refers to sex and the other it means "male". Thus, some scholars hypothesize that the term has something to do with male sexual expression, perhaps exclusively male, since the woman is not mentioned.

Unfortunately, this translation method often leads off the road. For example, imagine a translator of the future that runs into the word "Lady-Killer" In two thousand years and want to know what it means. It is clear that the sentence is made up of two words, lady and killer. So it should mean a woman (lady) kills (killer), Right? Or a person who kills the ladies? The difficulty of obtaining a good translation is clear, especially when we know that Lady-Killer It was a term used in the 70s to refer to men that women presumably find irresistible.

A better way to understand what Paolo may have understood with arsenokoitaiIt is to look for other occurrences of the word in the writings following his era. First, two ancient writers of the Church who had to deal extensively with homosexual behavior, Clement Alessandrino and Giovanni Crisostomo, have never used the word in their discussions on homosexual behavior. The word presents itself in their writings, but only in places where the list of sins of 1 Corinthians 6 is mentioned, not in steps where you are discussed homosexuality. This suggests that they did not believe that the term used by Paolo refers to homosexual behavior.

A similar model was found in other writings of the time. There are hundreds of Greek writings of this period that refer to homosexual activities with terms other than arsenokoitai. If Paolo wanted to refer in general to homosexual sex or one of the gay sex partners would have had other known and more common words at his disposal, he should not have resorted to this ambiguous compound word, that future generations would have found difficult to translate. Apparently Paolo was trying to refer to a slightly darker type of behavior.

This conclusion is strengthened by a study of the actual uses of arsenokoitai in Greek literature. Scholars have identified only seventy -three times when this term is used in the six centuries after Paolo (there are no known cases before Paolo). Practically in all examples, the term appears in a list of sins (such as those of Paolo) without any plot or context that can shed light on its meaning. In one case, a Greek author uses the term to catalog the sins of the Greek gods. In this context, probably, the term refers to the moment in which Zeus kidnapped and raped a boy, Ganimede. Arsenokoitai It is also used in an ancient legend in which it is said that the snake of Eden's garden became a satanic figure named Naas. NAAS uses a variety of means (including sleeping with both Adam and Eva) to acquire power over them and destroy them. In this story it is said that naas went to Adam and possessed it like a boy. Naas' sin is called arsenokoitai. These examples suggest that arsenokoitai It refers to cases in which a male uses its higher power or position to draw sexual advantage from another male.

This premise is strengthened by another translation technique. As we noticed above, most of the times when arsenokoitai It is used in ancient Greek literature, it appears in a list of sins (just like in 1 Corinthians 6). The common experience tells us that lists compilers tend to group similar elements together (when Tyler makes the shopping list, puts the vegetables at the beginning, dairy products in the end and the rest in the middle). In these lists, often arsenokoitai It is put at the end of the list of sexual sins and the beginning of economic sins or vice versa. For example, in 1 Corinthians 6 we find it between Malakoi (which could refer to male prostitution) and "thieves". In 1 Timothy 1:10 the word appears between "fornication" is "Schiavi merchants". This is consistent with the suggested meaning above, that is to say that arsenokoitai Describe a male who takes an aggressively sexual advantage from another man. Examples of this type of behavior could include a man who rapes another (as in the story of Sodom or in that of Zeus and Ganimede) or a man who uses his economic power to buy sex from a prostitute who sells his body to survive. The latter example is particularly accurate if you understand malakoiAs referred to the prostitute, in which case the list of Paul would include both the reference to male prostitutes (Malakoi) both to men who benefit from these prostitutes (arsenokoitai). This type of person is a close relative of the thief and the avaro, the two Greek words that most often follow arsenokoitai in the list of sins.
A thief, an avara person and one who uses his power to get sex are all taking something that does not belong to them. Thus, we conclude that the term is better understood arsenokoitai As a reference to the men who sexually force others. This conclusion is consistent with the Standard Version New Audix, the English translation of the Bible often considered as the most erudite; it translates arsenokoitai as “sodomites”. As we have already seen, Sodoma's men are the maximum example of sexual aggression and oppression. It also seems that even the New International Version, a more conservative English translation, is not entirely at ease translating arsenokoitai with a general reference to homosexuality; In 1 Corinthians 6, the term translates as "Homosexual transgressor", suggesting that, by committing the sin referred to here, homosexuality should be used in a transgressive or offensive way.

Lastly, there is an additional approach to find the meaning of a significant dark word for this discussion. Etymology is an attempt to trace the origins of a word, not only its components or the use that has been made later, but its origin. For an ancient word like arsenokoitai, doing etymological research is often very speculative, but some scholars have stressed that two Greek words united to form this new word appear next to each other (like different words) in Levitico 20:13 in the translation of the seventies (the Greek translation of the Old Testament that Paul read). From this it is deduced that the word was created by people who were familiar with this passage and that Paolo was probably referring to a prohibited behavior by Levitico 20:13.

This takes us to the starting point. As we have already seen in our discussion On the law of the Old Testament, Levitico 20:13 was written in a context of cultural sexual practices, including sacred prostitution. In the Letter to the Romans We have seen that Paolo refers to homosexual behavior that happened in similar cultural situations, when people had abandoned the only true God to worship pagan idols. If Paul derives the term arsenokoitai From Levitico 20:13 (and it is a big if), it would achieve that Levitico 20 and Romani 1 would provide the best proof of the type of homosexual behavior that he intended to prohibit, that is to say cultural sexual practices.

Given the current state of the literary tests, it is impossible to know if Paolo had intended to refer to Levitico 20 or he was using the term arsenokoitaimore generally to refer to a man who imposes himself aggressively on another. For us it is not necessary to solve the problem. It is sufficient to notice how clear it is that Paolo's terminology does not turn to the type of behavior on which we are questioning: two people of the same sex who love each other tenderly and live a committed relationship.

Original text: No fems? No Faias? (1 Corinthians 6: 9-10 and 1 Timothy 1:10)