arsenokoitai bailey boswell continuing with dr deyoung s article survey of new interpretations of arsenokoitai d s bailey d s bailey was perhaps the trailblazer of new assessments of the meaning of arsenokoitai he takes the term in i cor as denoting males who actively engage in homosexual acts in contrast to malakoi effeminate those who engage passively in such acts however he insists that paul knew nothing of inversion as an inherited trait or an inherent condition due to psychological or glandular causes and consequently regards all homosexual practice as evidence of perversion hence bailey limits the term s reference in paul s works to acts alone and laments modern translations of the term as homosexuals bailey wants to distinguish between the homosexual condition which is morally neutral and homosexual practices italics in source paul is precise in his terminology and moffatt s translation sodomites best represents paul s meaning in bailey s judgment bailey clearly denies that the homosexual condition was known by biblical writers j boswell the most influential study of arsenokoitai among contemporary authors is that of john boswell whereas the usual translation of this term gives it either explicitly or implicitly an active sense boswell gives it a passive sense in an extended discussion of the term he cites linguistic evidence and common sense to support his conclusion that the word means male sexual agents i e active male prostitutes his argument is that the arseno part of the word is adjectival not the object of the koitai which refers to base sexual activity hence the term according to boswell designates a male sexual person or male prostitute he acknowledges however that most interpret the composite term as active meaning those who sleep with make their bed with men boswell bases his interpretation on linguistics and the historical setting he argues that in some compounds such as paidomathes child learner the paido is the subject of manthano and in others such as paidoporos through which a child passes the paido is neither subject nor object but simply a modifier without verbal significance his point is that each compound must be individually analyzed for its meaning more directly he maintains that compounds with the attic form arreno employ it objectively while those with the hellenistic arseno use it as an adjective yet he admits exceptions to this distinction regarding arreno boswell next appeals to the latin of the time namely drauci or exoleti these were male prostitutes having men or women as their objects the greek arsenokoitai is the equivalent of the latin drauci the corresponding passive would be parakoitai one who lies beside boswell affirms he claims that arsenokoitai was the most explicit word available to paul for a male prostitute since by paul s time the attic words pornos fornicator and porneuon one committing fornication found also in the lxx had been adopted to refer to men who resorted to female prostitutes or simply committed fornication in the absence of the term from pagan writers such as herodotus plato aristotle and plutarch and from the jewish writers philo and josephus boswell finds even more convincing evidence for his affirmation that arsenokoitai did not connote homosexual or even sodomite in the time of paul he also demonstrates its absence in pseudo lucian sextus empiricus and libanius he subsequently finds it lacking in all discussions of homosexual relation among christian sources in greek including the didache tatian justin martyr eusebius clement of alexandria gregory of nyssa and john chrysostom chrysostom is singled out for his omission as final proof that the word could not mean homosexuality boswell next appeals to the omission of the texts of i cor and i tim from discussions of homosexuality among latin church fathers cited are tertullian arnobius lactantius and augustine the last named uses circumlocutions other latin writers include ausonius cyprian and minucius felix the term is also lacking in state and in church legislation by the sixth century the term became confused and was applied to a variety of sexual activities from child molesting to anal intercourse between a husband and wife having surveyed the sources boswell concludes there is no reason to believe that either arsenokoitai or malakoi connoted homosexuality in the time of paul or for centuries thereafter and every reason to suppose that whatever they came to mean they were not determinative of christian opinion on the morality of homosexual acts it is clear throughout that boswell defines arsenokoitai to refer to male prostitutes he even goes so far as to conclude that paul would probably not disapprove of gay inclination gay relationships enduring love between persons of the same gender or same sex eroticism d s bailey homosexuality and the western christian tradition london j boswell christianity social tolerance and homosexuality chicago several tranlation of i tim are kjv them that defile themselves with mankind asv abusers of themselves with men nasb homosexuals rsv nkjv nrsv sodomites neb niv perverts gnb sexual perverts in i cor these occur kjv abusers of themselves with mankind asv abusers of themselves with men nasb rsv homosexuals nkjv sodomites neb homosexual persversion the rsv and neb derive their translation from two greek words malakoi and arsenokoitai which gbn has as homosexual perverts nrsv has the two words as male prostitutes in the text and sodomites in the footnote the active idea predominates among the commentators as well it is the primary assumption boswell christianity yet this was no a word available to paul for a male prostitute for it does not occur at all in any literature prior to paul as a serach in the thesaurus linguae graecae using ibycuc confirms if paul coined the term it would have no prior history and all such discussion about its lack of usage in contemporary non christian and christian literature is meaningless again this would be expected if paul coined the word the key phrase here apparently is discussoin for boswell admits later n that it occurs in quotes of paul but there is no discussion in the context hence the implication is that we cannot tell what these writer polycarp to the philippian theophilus ad autolycum nilus epistularum libri quattuor cyril of alexandria homiliae diversae sybilline oravle meant yet polycarp who was a disiple of hohn the apostle and died about a d argues in the context that young men should be pure he uses only the three terms pornoi malakoi and arsenokoitai from paul s list this at least makes boswell s use of all subjective apparently clement of alexandria paedogogus sromata also belong here yet eusebius uses it in demonstraionis evangelicae either boswell is misrepresenting the facts about chrysostom s use of arsenokoitai and its form about in the vice lists of i cor or i tim or he is begging the question by denying that the word can mean homosexual when chrysostom uses it yet the meaning of arsenokoitai is the goal of his and our study whether in the lists or other discussions boswell later admits that chrysostom uses the almost identicl form arsenokoitos in his commentary on i cor although boswell suggests that the passage is strange it may be that paul is seeking to make a refinement in arsenokoitai apparently jerome is a significant omission here since he renders arsenokoitai as masculorum concubitores corresponding almost exactly to the greek n footnotes d s bailey homosexuality and the western christian tradition london j boswell christianity social tolerance and homosexuality chicago several tranlation of i tim are kjv them that defile themselves with mankind asv abusers of themselves with men nasb homosexuals rsv nkjv nrsv sodomites neb niv perverts gnb sexual perverts in i cor these occur kjv abusers of themselves with mankind asv abusers of themselves with men nasb rsv homosexuals nkjv sodomites neb homosexual persversion the rsv and neb derive their translation from two greek words malakoi and arsenokoitai which gbn has as homosexual perverts nrsv has the two words as male prostitutes in the text and sodomites in the footnote the active idea predominates among the commentators as well it is the primary assumption boswell christianity yet this was no a word available to paul for a male prostitute for it does not occur at all in any literature prior to paul as a serach in the thesaurus linguae graecae using ibycuc confirms if paul coined the term it would have no prior history and all such discussion about its lack of usage in contemporary non christian and christian literature is meaningless again this would be expected if paul coined the word the key phrase here apparently is discussoin for boswell admits later n that it occurs in quotes of paul but there is no discussion in the context hence the implication is that we cannot tell what these writer polycarp to the philippian theophilus ad autolycum nilus epistularum libri quattuor cyril of alexandria homiliae diversae sybilline oravle meant yet polycarp who was a disiple of hohn the apostle and died about a d argues in the context that young men should be pure he uses only the three terms pornoi malakoi and arsenokoitai from paul s list this at least makes boswell s use of all subjective apparently clement of alexandria paedogogus sromata also belong here yet eusebius uses it in demonstraionis evangelicae either boswell is misrepresenting the facts about chrysostom s use of arsenokoitai and its form about in the vice lists of i cor or i tim or he is begging the question by denying that the word can mean homosexual when chrysostom uses it yet the meaning of arsenokoitai is the goal of his and our study whether in the lists or other discussions boswell later admits that chrysostom uses the almost identicl form arsenokoitos in his commentary on i cor although boswell suggests that the passage is strange it may be that paul is seeking to make a refinement in arsenokoitai apparently jerome is a significant omission here since he renders arsenokoitai as masculorum concubitores corresponding almost exactly to the greek n next r scroggs
