Holly3278

Hey everyone. Does the Bible really condemn premarital sex or not? I think the whole question depends on what the apostles actually meant when they used the Greek word "porneia".

Here is how the word "fornication" which is translated from the Greek word "porneia" is used in one of the New Testament epistles:

Flee G5343 fornication. G4202 Every G3956 sin G265 that G3739 a man G444 doeth G4160 G1437 is G2076 without G1622 the G3588 body; G4983 but G1161 he that committeth fornication G4203 sinneth G264 against G1519 his own G2398 body. G4983
(1 Corinthians 6:18 KJV+)

G4202
πορνεία
porneia
por-ni'-ah
From G4203; harlotry (including adultery and incest); figuratively idolatry: - fornication.

As you can see, it can mean anything from harlotry including adultery and incest to figurative idolatry and fornication.

So, what does it mean actually? I have heard some argue that it means the practices of temple prostitutes in Pagan Rome and Greece. What do you think?

Toto

This topic has come up here before. Check out these archived threads:

Pornea - - - "Fornication" or "Sexual Immorality"?

pre-marital sex is bad, why?

The Bible and Cohabitation

Most probably, pornea refers to prostitution.

rhutchin

Another most probably is that pornea refers to any sexual activities that take place between any two (or more?) people outside those sexual activities that take place between a man and a woman in marriage.

cycomiko

any elaboration on why you think that?

rhutchin

Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband. (1 Corinthians 7:2)

cycomiko

at first glance that sounds more like a 'no adultery' clause than a 'no premarital sex' order.

spamandham

The Old Testament condemns premarital sex for women, but not for men. In the old testament, even extramarital sex was ok for men, as long as the woman was not the wife or salable daughter of another Israelite. What is a concubine if not an unmarried sex partner, and the kings of the OT had them by the hundreds. God even tells David that all the unmarried Israelite women are his for the taking.

The New Testament is dominated by asceticism, so I think the prohibitions there really do refer to all extra-marital sex (and maybe even marital sex).

Doug Shaver

Pretty much what spamandham said. The NT authors were not explicit, but it's about as obvious as it needs to be that they would have disapproved of it. They did not get that teaching from Jewish scripture, though. The OT authors don't seem to have had a problem with men having sex before marriage, and even for women, it was problem only for those who had never been married. A woman who was divorced or widowed apparently was about as free as any man to do whatever she wanted, at least as far as the Torah was concerned.