> I am involved in a discussion about whether homosexuality is sinful or not.
> And I was wondering if anyone could help me with these two words:
>
> malakoi
> arsenokoitai
>
> Some translations have "malakoi" as "effeminate" and some have it as "male
> prostitutes".
>
> Likewise, for "arsenokoitai" some translations have "homosexuals" and some
> have "sodomites".
>
> The RSV only has the one item "sexual perverts".
>
> Could you tell me what's going on here. Thanks.
>
> Steven Luker
This was discussed back in 1994. You can find the thread at:
http://sunsite.unc.edu/bgreek/archives/greek-2/threads.html
If your web browser can search, go to this page and search for "arseno" so
that you find arsenokotai as well as other entries like arsenokoitos (which
is a mistaken attempt to find the singular of arsenokotai, but it does occur
in a subject line).
As you might suspect, these words have a rich tradition in Greek literature,
so one of the best ways to investigate them is to look at their entries on
Perseus:
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/lexindex?entry=malako/s
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/lexindex?entry=a)rsenokoi/ths
You can click on specific references within these entries to see the
original Greek texts in which the words were used, which is a great way to
get an overview of their meaning if you have the time.
Hope this helps!
Jonathan
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