what does porneia mean?

[DamianWarS]

πορνεία or porneia is the greek word translated in the KJV into "fornication". The word fornication means "voluntary sexual intercourse between persons not married to each other"

porneia is a noun but as a verb it is porneuō which is porneia in an action form. It's root words are connected with prostitution. For example: "pornē" a female prostitute and "pornos" a male prostitute. A further study of the roots of the word will bring up the word "pernemi" simply meaning "to sell". Even in English we use the word "pornography" which despite its meaning today comes from the greek word "pornographos" meaning "(one) writing of prostitutes".

porneia can be argued that it is used as a metaphor for idol worship and idolatry in the bible as well. The idea of idolatry is giving your worship to something other than God, so in a sense leaving God for another. In the context of a relationship with God this seems be close to adultery in a marriage relationship and there is this idea of selling or prostituting yourself for the pleasures of something else.

So porneia seems to be connected with prostitution at the very least. But it seems to be a word that describes not just the act of prostitution but the sin that is happening during the act. So to commit porneia then, at the very least, is having affairs with another who you are not married to. What are those "affairs". At the very least they are sexual affairs but should not be limited to just sexual.

You do not have to be married to commit porneia or to be with a prostitute but since prostitution is defined by affairs with another who you are not married to then we can define the "affairs" by definition through a marriage lens. Obviously affairs with your marriage partner is not porneia but we can use the contrasting affairs to define just what these affairs are limited to. These affairs then are "marital affairs" because they are defined through a marriage lens but do not limit the people who are not married. This means a single person can still have marital affairs. It doesn't matter if a person is married or not it is the actions they are doing that define them as "marital affairs".

A marriage is made up of emotional/mental, physical and spiritual connections. We have the same sort of connections with every person we interact with however there are exclusive levels defined within marriage that you do not seek anywhere else. For example physical is just not the sexual relationship but the closeness that a marriage couple shares. That closeness should be unique to the marriage and should not be satisfied anywhere else and the same goes with the emotional and spiritual. But how do we define the levels? Well the highest levels should be reserved for your marriage partner (outside of God). So your highest emotional relationship should be with your marriage partner and the same with physical and spiritual. So if you reach these levels with another that is not your marriage partner then you are committing porneia.

What about those who are not married? Well it is not something that can be articulated very well on a forum but these levels can be thought as universal or cultural levels and we all have ideas of what they mean. The important thing is the oneness that is created in a marriage and this "oneness" should not be sought outside of a marriage. An obviously example is the physical union of sex but then there are also emotional levels and even spiritual levels you have with others. It is hard to define how far these levels should go and at times you don't need to think about it but when we begin to seek levels that are in a marriage union outside of marriage we are committing porneia.

So if I were to define the word I would say porneia is seeking the levels of relationship that exist in a marriage union outside of a marriage

 

[lawtonfogle]

What about those whose positions in life have made them unable to get married? Can they not share a closeness like that of a marriage, minus the sexual attraction (in which case, they might as well get married)? That seems to be pushing it.

Even merely looking at how different adultery was treated from sex between virgins (one resulted in death to the participants, the other resulted in a marriage) suggest to simplify sexual rules to something as simple as 'sex outside marriage is bad' is going beyond merely pushing it.

Of course, to complicate the matters, you have the conflict (note I did not say contradiction) between God's mentioning that it was not good for Adam to be alone and Paul teaching that it is better to serve Christ alone and not marry. Did something fundamentally change?

 

[chingchang]

πορνεία or porneia is the greek word translated in the KJV into "fornication". The word fornication means "voluntary sexual intercourse between persons not married to each other"

porneia is a noun but as a verb it is porneuō which is porneia in an action form. It's root words are connected with prostitution. For example: "pornē" a female prostitute and "pornos" a male prostitute. A further study of the roots of the word will bring up the word "pernemi" simply meaning "to sell". Even in English we use the word "pornography" which despite its meaning today comes from the greek word "pornographos" meaning "(one) writing of prostitutes".

porneia can be argued that it is used as a metaphor for idol worship and idolatry in the bible as well. The idea of idolatry is giving your worship to something other than God, so in a sense leaving God for another. In the context of a relationship with God this seems be close to adultery in a marriage relationship and there is this idea of selling or prostituting yourself for the pleasures of something else.

So porneia seems to be connected with prostitution at the very least. But it seems to be a word that describes not just the act of prostitution but the sin that is happening during the act. So to commit porneia then, at the very least, is having affairs with another who you are not married to. What are those "affairs". At the very least they are sexual affairs but should not be limited to just sexual.

You do not have to be married to commit porneia or to be with a prostitute but since prostitution is defined by affairs with another who you are not married to then we can define the "affairs" by definition through a marriage lens. Obviously affairs with your marriage partner is not porneia but we can use the contrasting affairs to define just what these affairs are limited to. These affairs then are "marital affairs" because they are defined through a marriage lens but do not limit the people who are not married. This means a single person can still have marital affairs. It doesn't matter if a person is married or not it is the actions they are doing that define them as "marital affairs".

A marriage is made up of emotional/mental, physical and spiritual connections. We have the same sort of connections with every person we interact with however there are exclusive levels defined within marriage that you do not seek anywhere else. For example physical is just not the sexual relationship but the closeness that a marriage couple shares. That closeness should be unique to the marriage and should not be satisfied anywhere else and the same goes with the emotional and spiritual. But how do we define the levels? Well the highest levels should be reserved for your marriage partner (outside of God). So your highest emotional relationship should be with your marriage partner and the same with physical and spiritual. So if you reach these levels with another that is not your marriage partner then you are committing porneia.

What about those who are not married? Well it is not something that can be articulated very well on a forum but these levels can be thought as universal or cultural levels and we all have ideas of what they mean. The important thing is the oneness that is created in a marriage and this "oneness" should not be sought outside of a marriage. An obviously example is the physical union of sex but then there are also emotional levels and even spiritual levels you have with others. It is hard to define how far these levels should go and at times you don't need to think about it but when we begin to seek levels that are in a marriage union outside of marriage we are committing porneia.

So if I were to define the word I would say porneia is seeking the levels of relationship that exist in a marriage union outside of a marriage

To best capture the intent of the author, we would have to know what 'porneia' meant at the time the letters were written. For example...in modern English we say "dude...that is so gay"...but we don't mean "dude...that is so happy/joyful". If we were reading a document from 1700 that included the word 'gay'...it would mean something entirely different than what it means today. So...what did porneia mean at the time Paul authored those letters? From all the information I can gather...the best definition would be "illicit sexual behavior". So then the question becomes what was illicit sexual behavior in...say Corinth? God doesn't change...so what offended him then would offend him now...and what did not offend him then would not offend him now.

Blessings,
CC

 

[dayhiker]

Hi Damain,
I thought you started out very well with your definitian of proneia. In Pauls day proneia meant prostitution as you point out. When Jerome transtated the Latin Valgate he chose a slang word for prostitution forte. And as you point out the KJV often translated this word family with words related to prostitution.
I don't see how you can get from their to proneia meaning levels of intimacy. I think of men who fought in WW2 and the closeness that soldiers often have. Sounds to me like you are defingin that relationship as wrong. What about the relationship Jesus had with John. Sounds to me like your defining that as proneia as well.
I can accept what you say about proneia and prostitution, but I don't see how the how your conclusion would be what the churches Paul was writting to would have thought when they read those books.

dayhiker

 

[Zebra1552]

If you already know its meaning, then why ask the question?

 

[Phinehas2]

The key is to see how the word is used in context in the NT. As with agapeo, we know what the Greek word means but we have read the Bible holistically to know what it means regarding God.
porneia means sexual activity outside faithful man/woman marriage. It is often questioned in a liberal hedonistic world, as with any word relating to sex or sexual, to to see if different meanings can make people more comfortable with sexual immorality. ;-)

 

[MrPolo]

Another take by Fr. John Trigilio on 5/28/2007:
[W]hat I actually said was that the original Greek text of the Gospel (Matthew 5:32) uses the word PORNEIA which means 'illict or unnatural relations' as the only exception to the permanence of marriage (which in reality means there was no valid marriage if it was an unnatural union, as in the case of incest or homosexuality). The Greek word MOICHEIA means 'adultery' and that word is NOT used by the sacred author who wrote the Gospel. Hence, adultery, while still a serious and mortal sin, does not itself invalidate a marriage (unless the person NEVER intended to enter a faithful union from the day of their wedding vows.)

Jesus uses MOICHEIA to describe 'adultery' when He says someone who looks at another's wife commits adultery, but He only uses PORNEIA once to describe the illict and unnatural sexual relationship, which was my point when I answered on the air last month.

Cheating on your wife or husband is adultery (moicheia) and it is sinful and unlawful. Marrying or attempting marriage with someone you are not allowed to marry because of consanguinity (they are too closely related by blood) or because it is unnatural (incest or homosexual union) is also sinful and unlawful but it is also PORNEIA which means it is INVALID (because it is unnatural). Being sinful is not enough to invalidate a marriage union. Unnatural prevents the valid marriage union from ever existing in the first place

 

[DamianWarS]

Hi Damain,
I thought you started out very well with your definitian of proneia. In Pauls day proneia meant prostitution as you point out. When Jerome transtated the Latin Valgate he chose a slang word for prostitution forte. And as you point out the KJV often translated this word family with words related to prostitution.
I don't see how you can get from their to proneia meaning levels of intimacy. I think of men who fought in WW2 and the closeness that soldiers often have. Sounds to me like you are defingin that relationship as wrong. What about the relationship Jesus had with John. Sounds to me like your defining that as proneia as well.
I can accept what you say about proneia and prostitution, but I don't see how the how your conclusion would be what the churches Paul was writting to would have thought when they read those books.

dayhiker

Porneia's definition is related to the sin taking place when one is with a prostitute. So whenever a man decides to be with a prositude whatever the sin is that happens is porneia.

The problem I was more wrestling with was when does that sin happen because I don't think it is at the moment of intercourse and "porneia" can happen long before that and intercourse doesn't even need to take place. So I'm trying to look at the essence of the sin that is taking place then porneia will get defined with it.

When a men is wanting to be with a prostitute there is an obvious sexual desire from the man but is it only sexual desires that he wants fullfulled? What happens if a man hired a prostitute to have only oral sex... would that be porneia? What about if the man just wanted to kiss is that porneia? What about if the man wanted to simply be with a woman the way a husband is with a wife, not all together sexually but to hold her, or to even talk to her. What if you wanted to first take her out on a date to make it seem more husband/wife relationship. Because all of those things happen to many people when they are with a prostitute but when does the sin happen?

So my thoughts are what is the real desire behind wanting to have sex with a prostitute is it merely sexual or is it a glimpse of an intimate relationship that only a husband and wife share. I believe whether it is conscience or not or whether the person can articulate it or not the root of the desire is deep relationship that mimics that of a husband and wife.

Jesus certainly had a deep relationship with John, and David with Jonathan. Jesus himself said "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends" He did not say "his lover" or "his spouse" but "his friend". So obviously there is a level of deep relationship that Jesus recognized within friendship and not necessarily with marriage. Perhaps I misworded a few areas but my basic point is there is a level a relationship within a marriage that is unlike any other. Perhaps sometimes these are defined by the intentions not the act. Sometimes it is the taste of marriage that you seek but other times it is merely friendship but it can still be the same act. Sexual relationships are clear but other levels of intimacy are not so clear.

In the end it is our heart that gives us away and if our heart is seeking a taste of marriage then it is really no different than what we seek wtih a prostitute. Sex should reflect the love a husband and wife share so when we seek sex outside of marriage it is not just the sex we want but the love as well even if it is just for a fleeting moment. This is the essence of porniea, not the sex but the heart behind it.

 

[dayhiker]

Hi Damain,
I see what your getting at saying they were seeking a taste of marriage. Starting about 150 years ago our concept of marital love was put forth. Stephanie Coontz's book "Marriage, A History" details this in quite a bit of detail. The ancients didn't view marriage as love and intimasy as we do. One reason Jesus didn't say "his lover" or "his spouce" is because there weren't words and concepts to express that back then from my understanding. Not that I know it all! The arranged marriages were often to enhance the family business for example. A couple of the early church stories that impressed so many were stories of young people who refused to marry who their parents had arranged for them to marry and instead commited their life to Christ and thus forsaking their family wealth to live for the higher calling that Christ called them to.

If I were to say what is the heart motive before once commited porneia, I'd say it was not putting God first. Must of the prostitutes were in teh idol temples. Temples in ancient times were the banks of the ancient world. That is were the money was. A large portion of that money came in from the sacred prostitutes collected from their services. So in my mind to commit porneia was to worship an idol thru sexual intercourse with a temple prostitute. So the person was putting God second. This same theme runs thru much of the OT. Paul who knew the OT knew this so well and had seen Isreal fall from God by mixing idols with their daily activites rather than only having God formost in their hearts.

That's how I see what your looking for.
dayhiker