ἀρσενοκοίτης

From the study of 1 Corinthians 6:9

Range of meaning

Literally 'male-bedder': arsēn (male) + koitē (bed, and by extension sexual intercourse). It denotes a man who has sex with males. Whether it refers to all such acts or only certain exploitative forms is the main point of dispute (see debates).

Against the English

KJV: 'abusers of themselves with mankind'. YLT: 'sodomites'. WEB: 'homosexuals'. NRSV: 'sodomites'. ESV, NIV and NLT combine it with malakoi into one phrase about men having sex with men or practising homosexuality. BSB: 'men who... perform homosexual acts'. 'Homosexuals' as a single word first appeared in the RSV (1946), where it translated both Greek terms together.

How it drifted

'Homosexual' was coined in 1868–69, along with the modern idea of sexual orientation as a fixed identity. The Greek word names an act or practice and makes no claim about orientation. 'Sodomite' comes from later Christian reading of Genesis 19. Paul does not mention Sodom.

Used elsewhere in the period

The earliest known use is here, then in 1 Tim 1:10. It may be Paul's own coinage or a term from Hellenistic Jewish usage. The Septuagint of Lev 20:13 reads 'whoever lies with a male (arsenos) the lying (koitēn) of a woman', with the two parts side by side, and Lev 18:22 is similar. Later rabbinic Hebrew used a parallel phrase, mishkav zakur, 'lying with a male'. The verb arsenokoitein appears in the Sibylline Oracles 2.73 (date disputed). It appears in Bardaisan, quoted by Eusebius (Preparation for the Gospel 6.10.25), and in Hippolytus (Refutation 5.26.22–23), in contexts about male–male sex.

From the study of 1 Timothy 1:10

Range of meaning

Built from ἄρσην (arsēn, 'male') and κοίτη (koitē, 'bed', and by extension 'sexual intercourse'), with the noun ending -tēs that marks someone who does something. The most natural sense is 'a man who beds males', that is, a male who has sexual intercourse with another male. The word is very rare. Its earliest known uses are here and in 1 Corinthians 6:9, and it may have been coined in Greek-speaking Jewish or Christian circles.

Against the English

KJV: 'them that defile themselves with mankind' (describes an act, in roundabout language). YLT and NRSV (1989): 'sodomites'. BSB, WEB, NASB: 'homosexuals'. NIV, ESV, NLT: phrases like 'practicing homosexuality'. CSB: 'males who have sex with males'. The renderings that describe an act are closer to the Greek's shape than the noun 'homosexuals'.

How it drifted

The English word 'homosexual' was coined in German in 1868–69 and came into English in the 1890s. Its basic meaning is a person's lasting orientation or identity. It first appeared in an English Bible in the RSV of 1946, at 1 Corinthians 6:9. 'Sodomite' links the act to Genesis 19, but the Greek word does not mention Sodom.

Used elsewhere in the period

Most scholars trace the word to the Greek Septuagint (the ancient Greek Old Testament) at Leviticus 20:13, 'whoever lies with a male as with a woman [μετὰ ἄρσενος κοίτην γυναικός]', and Leviticus 18:22, where arsenos and koitēn stand side by side. Later uses: Sibylline Oracles 2.73 (in a list that also includes economic wrongs), Aristides' Apology 13 (on the gods' behaviour), Hippolytus Refutation 5.26.23 (a mythic figure who acts as arsenokoitēs with Adam), and Bardaisan as quoted in Eusebius Praeparatio Evangelica 6.10.25. The Latin Vulgate's masculorum concubitoribus means 'those who lie with males'.