Thursday, October 15, 2015

Porneia (A Brief Diachronic and Synchronic Exercise)

LSJ Greek-English Lexicon provides the definitions "fornication" or "prostitution" for the Greek noun PORNEIA. While I do not take exception to LSJ's treatment of PORNEIA in toto, one problem is the issue of synchronicity over against diachronicity. In other words, we need to focus on how the word(s) in question were used in the first century and honestly examine such usages in the NT and in secular first-century writings to ascertain their possible meanings in a determinate usus loquendi. For instance, Timothy George observes that PORNEIA originally denoted "prostitution" (cf. the terms PORNH and PERNHMI), but by the mid-first century CE, PORNEIA came to mean (potentially and generally) "sexual immorality or irregularity" (George, Galatians, 392). I think that Matt. 5:32 and Jude 7 demonstrate the accuracy of George's construal.

Louw-Nida makes this comment on PORNEIA: "To engage in sexual immorality of any kind, often with the implication of prostitution-'to engage in illicit sex, to commit fornication, sexual immorality, fornication, prostitution" (88.71). Though no examples are given of this usage, L-N also says that PORNEIA may refer to incest in the NT. (Sed vide 1 Cor. 5:1ff.)

While I would not restrict PORNEIA to homosexual activity, it seems that that the term encompasses such activity (based on Jude 7). For ARSENOKOITHS, the new BDAG gives the following information: "a male who engages in sexual activity w. a pers. of his own sex, pederast 1 Cor 6:9." Cf. Soph. Lex.

7 comments:

Duncan said...

"Enkidu’s hostility towards Ishtar has another root. Earlier in the Epic, Enkidu, who is originally a wild man, is “civilized” by a temple prostitute. These prostitutes, called ishtaritu, inhabited the temples of Ishtar, offering themselves to any male worshipper who paid the required contribution. In fact, every Babylonian woman was expected to go to a temple and perform the rite with a stranger at least once in her life. Like Inanna, Ishtar was known as the Goddess of prostitutes, and her alternate names of Har and Hora gave rise to the terms “harlot” and “whore”."

Duncan said...

There is an important detail in Jude 7 that is being overlooked:-

και αι περι αυτας πολεις

This like many other verses in Jude that are referencing non biblical tradition, so the context can only be assumed unless we have access to the original source material.

"Jude is the only New Testament book which uses the term ekporneuō. Although this term is found forty-two times in the Old Testament and describes playing the harlot, the New Testament employs it only once. On the other hand, the verb porneuō without suffix occurs seventeen times in the Old Testament and eight times in the New Testament. Thus the predominant verb in the Old Testament to describe the act of fornication is ekporneuō, whereas the predominant verb in the New Testament is porneuō. It may be significant that the term ekporneuō is found only in Jude, and it may have a slightly different or more comprehensive meaning. Michael Green, 2 Peter and Jude, revised ed., Tyndale New Testament Commentaries (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1987), 180, footnote 3, states: “The rare compound ekporneuō, ‘fornicate’, may suggest by the ek ‘against the course of nature’.”"

Duncan said...

https://www.academia.edu/1771106/_The_kar.kid_harimtu_Prostitute_or_Single_Woman_A_Reconsideration_of_the_Evidence

Duncan said...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hijra_(South_Asia)#cite_note-11

"The word "hijra" is an Urdu-Hindustani word derived from the Semitic Arabic root hjr in its sense of "leaving one's tribe,"

Duncan said...

https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/156/1/George_Fs_Leichty_173-185.pdf

pg 175 -

Duncan said...

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/meretrix#Latin

Edgar Foster said...

Interesting point about Jude 7 and good catch there. However, the main point I was making is how words change over time, and this seems to be the case with porneia and its related formations. Maybe ekporneuo does have a different meaning, but context should also influence, if not determine, our understanding of Jude's usage of the word.