Understanding 1 Corinthians 6:9

[Jenya]

Hello everyone, I am new to this site, and joined to get some things cleared up, regarding my understanding of a certain Bible passage. I have used Blue Letter Bible to do in depth study, but there must be something that I am missing, because I am not seeing clearly from my studies. I have contacted blue Letter bible about my questions but I never got an answer that concluded my questions. I hope that someone here will be able to help.

The passage I have questions about is: 1 Corinthians 6:9

In the passage the word that I am having trouble with is: effeminate

In the image bellow we can see under "Outline of Biblical Usage" Roman numeral I. is the first meaning. Roman numeral II. is the second meaning. A. is a subset of II. (which is a further explanation of II.) The points under A. (shown with green arrows) break down what they mean by effeminate. They are subsets of A.

But my question is: "Are the subsets under "A." different meanings for the word effeminate, or are all theses points explaining one specific meaning?"

My main concern is what exactly Paul was trying to condemn when he said effeminate, was it just homosexuality? Or both effeminacy and homosexuality?





The second picture below, connects with my questions above, but here I am not sure what the word lewdness means in subset "iii.". Looking at various dictionaries I cannot get a clear cut picture. Help here would be good.





This is a different word, but it is used in 1 Corinthians 6:9, but as can be seen in the image below, there is one definition with what seem like three definitions separated by commas, I underlined them with different colors. but my question is: "Are the "three" definitions in this one definition contributing to one meaning? What is that meaning? Or should these "three" definitions be taken and applied separately?"





Thank you.

 

[tourist]

I am sure that there are many on this site that would be more than happy to clarifies this for you. Welcome to CC.

 

[oldhermit]

Hello everyone, I am new to this site, and joined to get some things cleared up, regarding my understanding of a certain Bible passage. I have used Blue Letter Bible to do in depth study, but there must be something that I am missing, because I am not seeing clearly from my studies. I have contacted blue Letter bible about my questions but I never got an answer that concluded my questions. I hope that someone here will be able to help.

The passage I have questions about is: 1 Corinthians 6:9

In the passage the word that I am having trouble with is: effeminate

In the image bellow we can see under "Outline of Biblical Usage" Roman numeral I. is the first meaning. Roman numeral II. is the second meaning. A. is a subset of II. (which is a further explanation of II.) The points under A. (shown with green arrows) break down what they mean by effeminate. They are subsets of A.

But my question is: "Are the subsets under "A." different meanings for the word effeminate, or are all theses points explaining one specific meaning?"

My main concern is what exactly Paul was trying to condemn when he said effeminate, was it just homosexuality? Or both effeminacy and homosexuality?

The second picture below, connects with my questions above, but here I am not sure what the word lewdness means in subset "iii.". Looking at various dictionaries I cannot get a clear cut picture. Help here would be good.

This is a different word, but it is used in 1 Corinthians 6:9, but as can be seen in the image below, there is one definition with what seem like three definitions separated by commas, I underlined them with different colors. but my question is: "Are the "three" definitions in this one definition contributing to one meaning? What is that meaning? Or should these "three" definitions be taken and applied separately?"

Thank you.

The word for effeminate here is μαλακοὶ and Strong's tells us, "metaphorically, and in a bad sense: effeminate, of a catamite, a male who submits his body to unnatural lewdness."

 

[psychomom]

The word for effeminate here is μαλακοὶ and Strong's tells us, "metaphorically, and in a bad sense: effeminate, of a catamite, a male who submits his body to unnatural lewdness."

call me a skeptic, but my sense is our OP is none other than little 'Ruthie'.

i stand with apologies at the ready, though.

 

[oldhermit]

call me a skeptic, but my sense is our OP is none other than little 'Ruthie'.

i stand with apologies at the ready, though.

LOL. I would not be a bit surprised.

 

[crossnote]

A few defs...

79.100 μαλακός (1) ή, όν: pertaining to being soft to the touch - soft, delicate, luxurious. ἄνθρωπον ἐν μαλακοι̂ς ἱματίοις ἠμφιεσμένον a man dressed up in luxurious clothes LUK.7:25.

μαλακός, ή, όν. soft; (1) of clothes soft (to the touch), delicate (LU 7.25); neuter plural τὰ μαλακα as a substantive, luxurious clothes (MT 11.8); (2) figuratively, in a bad sense of men effeminate, unmanly; substantivally ὁ μ. especially of a man or boy who submits his body to homosexual lewdness catamite, homosexual pervert (1C 6.9)

3120. μαλακός malakós; fem. malaké̄́, neut. malakón, adj. Soft to the touch, spoken of clothing made of soft materials, fine texture (Matt. 11:8; Luke 7:25). Figuratively it means effeminate or a person who allows himself to be sexually abused contrary to nature. Paul, in 1 Cor. 6:9, joins the malakoí, the effeminate, with arsenokoítai (G0733), homosexuals, Sodomites.
Deriv.: malakía (G3119), softness.
Syn.: hapalós (G0527), soft, tender.
Ant.: sklērós (G4642), hard; trachús (G5138), rough.

μαλακός malakos soft, gentle*
Of the 4 occurrences in the NT, 3 refer to people of high station "who are clothed in soft clothing": ἐν μαλακοῖς (ἱματίοις: Luke) ἠμφιεσμένον (Matt 11:8a par. Luke 7:25); οἱ τἁ μαλακἁ φοροῦντες (Matt 11:8b; cf. Gos. Thom. 78). According to the saying of Jesus, John the Baptist is distinguished from such people, for he is clothed as an ascetic prophet of the desert (cf. also Mark 1:6 par. Matt 3:4; Heb 11:37; Rev 11:3; see O. Böcher, Christus Exorcista [BWANT 96, 1972] 109f.; G. Schneider, Luke [öTK] ad loc. [bibliography]). The vice catalog of 1 Cor 6:9 mentions the μαλακοί, soft people/weaklings, as reprehensible examples of passive homosexuality (cf. Rom 1:27; Lev 20:13; Ep. Arist. 152; Sib. Or. 3:184ff., 584ff.; see Billerbeck III, 70; H. Conzelmann, 1 Cor [Hermeneia] ad loc. [bibliography]).

Who's Ruthie? hehe

 

[presidente]

Hello everyone, I am new to this site, and joined to get some things cleared up, regarding my understanding of a certain Bible passage. I have used Blue Letter Bible to do in depth study, but there must be something that I am missing, because I am not seeing clearly from my studies. I have contacted blue Letter bible about my questions but I never got an answer that concluded my questions. I hope that someone here will be able to help.

The passage I have questions about is: 1 Corinthians 6:9

In the passage the word that I am having trouble with is: effeminate

This response is specific, so if you want to lock your kids in the bedroom or skip the message, you have been warned. I try not to be too graphic.

I did a word study on this looking at references in ancient Greek literature (or secondary sources about it) a few years ago. Sometimes the word was used to refer to men who weren't manly, who primped too much, or men who plucked hair out of their thighs (which actually could have been preparation for a homosexual act.) Some references did seem to imply the person engaged in certain sexual acts.

In this context, I think Paul may be using two words for those who engage in homosexual acts. The word translated 'homosexuals' or 'abusers of themselves with mankind' is arsenokoites, which men's "man bedder", where 'bed' can mean to have sex with. I think the word may be created out of the wording of a verse in Leviticus 20 which says to put a man who lies with a man as one does with a woman to death. The verse contains '...arsenos koiten...' if I remember correctly.

In the Grecco Roman mindset, there might be a more dominant man, the rich upper class guy or the older one. Then there is the other participant in the act who might be younger, a slave, or whatever. I suspect the arsenokoites is the person who gets his male part stimulated, and the malakos, the 'effeminate' in the KVJ, might be the other partner in the act. I saw a crude scene from a movie where two guys were accusing two other guys, roommates, of being gay, and were debating about who was the 'pitcher' and who was the 'catcher.' If my guess is that arsenokoites are the pitcher and malakos are the catcher.

Malakos could theoretically refer to men who are lack moral strength and fiber, or maybe transvestites or something like that. But I suspect it refers to the other participant in the act. And at least one Bible I've read had 'catamite' as a description in the footnote, which confirms my suspicion. And a retired chair of Classics from a state university who taught Greek for decades at the University level and worked at one point at some kind of Harvard center for something or other, agreed with this theory.

 

[Jenya]

Hello everyone, I would like to thank everyone who contributed to this thread, and I would like to share what I have learned through my studies.

The Outline of Biblical Usage is in outline format.

The word effeminate, a subset of the second definition, is simply a metaphor. In the image below we can see four subsets that describe the word effeminate (these subsets are not categorized in any specific order)



[HR][/HR]
The meaning of ​unnatural lewdness in subset or section iii.:

lewdness:

inclined to, characterized by, or inciting to lust or lechery; lascivious.

lechery:

unrestrained or excessive indulgence of sexual desire.

unnatural:

contrary to the laws or course of nature.


"So unnatural lewdness points to sexual indulgence in something that is contrary to the laws or course of nature."



[HR][/HR]
Regarding the image below I understand that for the word arsenokoitēs, in this one definition there are three parts, where underlined with red is the first part of the meaning and then underlined with blue, we have the word sodomite, which means: a person who engages in sodomy.

Sodomy means: sexual intercourse involving anal or oral copulation.

And then the green part is also a single word: homosexual


"I see that all three parts come together to form one meaning in great clarity."



[HR][/HR]
I also had confusion with the Root Word (Etymology) resource, and the new Strongs Definitions resource.

In the Root Word (Etymology) resource I was not sure what "Of uncertain affinity" meant, but it means that the word that you are studying, and in this case the word is: effeminate. This word, is the actual root. If the root was something else then that would have been specified in that resource.

In the Strongs Definitions resource I discovered how it functioned on my own, and what surprised me was that the word catamite was stated as a figurative definition.

"All the resources together, they work as a unit."

All of which can be seen in the image below:



[HR][/HR]
In conclusion I would like to say that Paul here is trying to be very specific in what he is saying in the last part of 1 Corinthians 6:9, and this specific thing he is talking about is: Genital homosexual sodomy, I personally am not sure if those three words make sense being together, but I hope the Paul's point is clear. It was a great blessing when I realized the clarity God has in his Word, if only we study it.

Please correct me where you see I have made mistakes in my study or where I may be misunderstanding something. Hope this can be a blessing in your life as much as it was in mine. I am also very grateful to Ann Davis from BlueLetterbible.com for helping me out, I am blessed that God could use her the way he did. May God bless you all.