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In Antiquity, Malakoi Was Never Used As A Universal Reference To Homosexuality
Wildflowers growing in the ruins of ancient Corinth. The Greek word malakoi, which is the plural of malakos, and the Greek word arsenokoites are both used in I Cor 6:9. Here is how the time-honored KJV translation words it. "Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate (malakoi), nor abusers of themselves with mankind, (arsenokoites)" KJV. Malakoi In 44 Translations
The Remarkable Semantic ShiftThe remarkable semantic shift in the meaning of malakoi, which by 1958, came to equate malakoi with homosexuality instead of softness, moral weakness or effeminacy, was not prompted by new linguistic evidence. Instead, cultural factors influenced modern translators to inject anti-homosexual bias into their translation. In ancient times, the malakos word group never referred exclusively to homosexuals and lesbians. The malakos stem, rarely, if ever, referred to homosexual behavior. Further, I have never seen any indication that the ancients ever used the malakos word group to refer to lesbians. Yet, translating malakoi today as homosexuals causes the word to include lesbians, something the original text never said and translations never said for 1900 years. It should be clearly understood that most antigay Christians interpret I Cor 6:9 as a universal prohibition of homosexuality including lesbian relationships, something our spiritual ancestors did not understand the text to say. Translating malakoi as homosexuals imposes a twentieth or twenty first century cultural meaning on the text which malakoi did not mean in the first century. If malakoi was not a universally understood reference to homosexuals in the first century when Paul used it, then malakoi does not mean homosexual today. The Malakos Word Group
Our ancestors used the malakos word group in a way similar to a high school baseball coach who chides a lazy jock by saying, “You throw like a girl” or a drill instructor barking at his male, boot camp recruits, “Okay ladies, drop and give me 50” [push ups]. The coach isn't calling his players homosexuals. The drill instructor isn't calling his recruits homosexuals. And the word malakoi, in antiquity, is rarely, if ever, used to indicate homosexuals. How Was Malakoi Used In Ancient Times?
Pericles, 495-429 BC, in his funeral oration, lauded the Greeks because they cultivated knowledge without malakia, meaning softness or effeminacy. Here malakia referred to intellect, not homosexuality. (Thucydides, The History of the Peloponnesian War, 431 BC, Book Two, Chapter VI.)
Plato expressed an ancient Greek concept, that too much music made a man soft, not homosexual. (Plato, The Republic, 360 BC, Book III.)
Aristotle, 384-322 BC, in Nicomachean Ethics, used malakos to describe lack of restraint and excessive enjoyment of bodily pleasures. Aristotle wrote: He “who pursues the excesses of things pleasant, and shuns those of things painful, of hunger and thirst and heat and cold and all the objects of touch and taste... that men are called 'soft' [malakos] with regard to these pleasures... Dionysius of Halicarnassus, 60-7 BC, in Roman Antiquities, explains how Aristodemus Malacus, 504 BC, tyrant of Cumae [situated northwest of Naples, the first Greek colony on the Italian mainland], made the male children of Cumae effeminate (meaning soft or womanly, not homosexual), so they would not rise up against him.
In ancient Greek society, the education of young men involved separation from effeminizing, womanly influence. Young men were educated by older male friends of the family, who taught sports, ethics, fighting and philosophy in the gymnasium. Aristodemus suppressed the all-male gymnasiums and limited male influence by giving male children into the care of female governesses. “3 These children, accordingly, forsaking the houses of their fathers, were brought up in the country like slaves, serving the murderers of their fathers. And to the end that no noble or manly spirit might spring up in any of the rest of the citizens, he resolved to make effeminate by means of their upbringing all the youths who were being reared in the city, and with that view he suppressed the gymnasiums and the practice of arms and changed the manner of life previously followed by the children.
Josephus, AD 37-100, used malakos to describe men who appeared soft or weak through lack of courage in battle or who were reluctant to commit suicide in defeat or who enjoyed too much luxury. This usage does not indicate homosexuality. (Wars of The Jews, 7.338; Antiquities of The Jews, 5.246; 10.194.)
Epictetus, AD 55-135,---> used malakos to refer to soft-headed persons, whom he regarded as unable to absorb true philosophy. This usage does not indicate homosexuality. (Epictetus, Discourse 3:9.) Dio Chrysostom, AD 40-120, used malakos to refer to those made soft by too much learning. This usage does not indicate homosexuality. (Dio Chrysostom 49:25.) John The Faster, around AD 575. For centuries, malakia was said to mean masturbation. Use of malakia, with the meaning of masturbation, is attributed to John the Faster around AD 575. The Catholic Church has long interpreted malakia to mean masturbation. (John The Faster, Penitential). These citations indicate that the malakos word group was not used by our ancestors as a general reference to homosexuality. Its a matter of common sense. To define arsenokoites, we must study how the word was actually used by our Greek speaking ancestors. Opinions and "best guesses" are relatively worthless. What we want are cold hard facts, based on actual usage. Jesus identified the sin of Sodom and it was not homosexuality. I am saying that the Holiness Code was aimed at Israel,in a specific place, the land of Israel, in a specific time period, while Israel was in the land, living under the Law. And what some Christians wrongly interpret as a universal prohibition of all gay relationships is, in reality, a prohibition of shrine prostitution in worship of the Canaanite fertility goddess. What was a sodomite in the Bible? Were sodomites homosexuals, as many conservative preachers insist or was a sodomite in the Bible always a shrine prostitute who worshipped the Canaanite fertility goddess? Those who believe that the Centurion’s pais was only a servant and not the same sex partner of the gay Centurion, cite Greek lexicons to prove their case. Since most Biblical Greek lexicons do not mention beloved or same sex lover as possible meanings of pais. most nongay Christians insist same sex lover could not possibly be the meaning of pais. 4. Family Values in the Bible are so different from Traditional family values as taught by Focus On The Family that modern Christians would totally reject the "family values" practiced by Abraham and Sarah, Ruth and Boaz and many of the heroes of faith in the Old Testament.
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