Sunday, March 20, 2022

Gillian Beattie on ἀρσενοκοῖται Denoting One Who Engages in Homosexual Relations

  

The content of Paul’s replies appears to be determined in large part by an overwhelming concern with sexual immorality, πορνεία, which figures prominently in the two preceding chapters. πορνεία or a related term is used in 5:1, 9, 10, 11 and 6:9, 13, 15, 16, 18. Several other kinds of sexual offenders are condemned in 6:9—adulterers (μοιχοὶ), ‘ladies’ men’ (μαλακοὶ), and men who engage in homosexual relations (ἀρσενοκοῖται)—and these are apparently what some of the Corinthians used to be (6:11). (Gillian Beattie, Women and Marriage in Paul and His Early Interpreters [Journal for the Study of the New Testament Supplement Series 296; London: T&T Clark, 2005], 19-20, emphasis added)