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Re: ARSENOKOITHS


On Sun, 18 Sep 1994 Dvdmoore@aol.com wrote:

> 	His suggestion to look up the second foot of a compound word made me realize
> we had dealt with other words that begin with ARREN- (=ARSEN-) in considering
> ARSENOKOITHS, but we had not even mentioned any other words that have -KOITHS
> for their second foot.  I was able to find a couple of examples by paging
> through Liddell & Scott.  The first was DOULOKOITHS which L&S translate
> "Consorting with slaves." The definition sounds bland, but when you consider
> that it is equated with DOULOMIKTHS and DOULOGAMOS the meaning becomes
> clearer.  The DOULOKOITHS reference is from Paulus Alexandrinus Astrologus
> (vi A.D.) O.2 which I don't have readily available, so am unable to give any
> notes on the context.  The other word is MHTROKOITHS which L&S define
> "incestuous person."  The reference is from Hippon (v B.C.) 14.  Again I am
> unable to give any notes on the context.
> 
> 	If someone has search software that has the capacity to pick out component
> parts of words and would be willing to do a search, we could probably come up
> with several more examples that could help elucidate Paul's use of the
> compound ARSENOKOITHS in 1Cor. 6:9.
> 
> David Moore

David Wright already threw out a few examples in his 1984 article: 
parakoitEs (bedfellow, spouse), klepsikoitEs (seeking illicit sex), 
androkoitEs (having intercourse with a man), hEmerokoitEs (sleeping by 
day), khamakoitEs (sleeping on the ground), enOtokoitEs (with ears large 
enough to sleep in), borborokoitEs (mudcoucher - a kind of frog), akoitEs 
(bedfellow, spouse), sugkoitos (bedfellow), homokoitos (bedfellow), 
deuterokoiteO, polukoitos (sleeping with many men or women), 
adelphokoitia (incest of brother or sister), anemokoitEs (luller of 
winds), etc.
     The translations here are Wright's - I haven't checked them or their 
usage.  What would be important would be to determine their date.  Wright 
said "most of them were of very rare occurence."  It would be very 
important if any of them were pre-Paul, since it would show 
the formation in question was hardly anomalous.  Although Wright was 
trying to undermine the part of Boswell's argument that dealt with 
_arsenokoitEs_ as denoting active sexuality, by providing these examples 
he cast doubt on part of his own thesis: that the term reflects a special 
Jewish neologism based solely on Leviticus 20.

Greg Jordan
jordan@chuma.cas.usf.edu
References: