DavenTol

I had a bit of a debate with another scholar. He was saying the greek word “pornea” as used in the New Testament chiefly meant “fornication,” as in any sex outside of marriage.

I had opted for the “sexual immorality” definition, as in most bibles, seeing it as any sexual offense such as incest, prostitution, homosexuality, etc. I would think the definition of what would be sexually immoral biblically would be based more on what was forbidden in the Pentateuch/Torah, which did not focus on (or even possibly include) simple premarital sex. Of course, Paul could have his own definition of what’s sexual immoral independent of the original law.

For you who know Koine Greek, what's your take on this?

I already asked Bart Ehrman, and he said most scholars thought it meant sexual immorality in general, especially since premarital sex as we know it wasn't terribly common back then.

--Dan

Ben C Smith

I think premarital sex usually took on a specific social form, one common to almost all societies, to wit, prostitution. That, at any rate, is what πορνεια originally would have meant, derived from πορνη, a prostitute or harlot. Of course, prostitution was not always or even necessarily usually premarital; but I suspect that is what the ancient Jews (and, by extension, Christians) would have called premarital sex.

Ben.

Gamera

As I recall, Foucault's History of Sexuality (or via: amazon.co.uk), Volume I, has a discussion of fornication. His conclusion was that sex in Greek antiquity was not easily categorized along gay/straight married/extramarital lines. Rather, the obsession of Greek culture was to rationalize exploitative relationships to make them palatable. Thus, it was OK to have a extramarital relationship with a teenage boy, but only if you also assisted in his education (blah blah blah). I believe Foucalt discusses pornea in that context.

Now, Paul was a hellenized Jew, not a Greek, so he could have been using the word to cover a different semantic range.

Ben C Smith

I think the legitimation of offspring also played a major role in classifying sexual relationships. Deuteronomy 23.2, for example, forbids anyone from a πορνη to enter the assembly of the Lord. A lot of the polygamy stories in the Hebrew scriptures seem to me to be trying to teach something about the problems with tracing a lineage in the case of multiple wives or concubines.

Ben.