How did the word "homosexual" enter into the Bible when the word was invented in 1869?

Question

The first recorded use of the word was in 1869 by Karl-Maria Kertbeny.So, how could a word that was not in use during the writing of the Bible be in the Bible and be used to condemn people by quoting the scripture with that word that had not been in use before 1869?Is this a case of convenient amnesia about the original language and texts of the Bible?Was the word added to support sexual repression and then the addition was conveniently forgotten and assumed to have always been there?

Also, the word sodomy appears in the Bible and is used as yet another way to condemn.Yet few modern people take the time to actually learn what the original sins of Sodom were.It was not anal sex.Consider the following (in added details)

"Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. And they were haughty, and committed abomination before me: therefore I took them away as I saw good.” (16:49-50, KJV).

Answer 1

Funny how that works, eh? Oh, but "God" put it there! *rolls eyes*

Answer 2

HOMOS & PERVERTS
1 Corinthians 6:9-10; 1 Timothy 1:9-10
"Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God." (1 Corinthians 6:9-10)



Without question"> HOMOS & PERVERTS
1 Corinthians 6:9-10; 1 Timothy 1:9-10
"Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God." (1 Corinthians 6:9-10)



Without question, this passage from 1 Corinthians is probably the most butchered (and biased) translation of any Scripture allegedly regarding homosexuality.

When the King James version of the Bible was translated in 1611, the translators were obviously limited by the language and vocabulary of the day, as well as the current knowledge available regarding the ancient languages. When those translators came to this passage, they weren't sure what to do with a couple of obscure and difficult Greek words, MALAKOI and ARSENOKOITAI. Based on their understanding of these words and their context, they translated them as "effeminate" and "abusers of themselves with mankind," respectively. (The word homosexual wasn't coined until 1899)

Not to be outdone in the bad translation department, the New International Version (NIV) translators decided that these words should read "male prostitutes" and "homosexual offenders," respectively. Obviously there is a lot of difference between "effeminate" and "male prostitutes." And what is a "homosexual offender?" As we look at the Greek text and the cultural context of this passage, we will see that there are some major flaws with both sets of translations.

The Greek word MALAKOI can best be translated as "soft" or "voluptuous." This is the same word used by Jesus in Matthew 11:8 and Luke 7:25 to describe the fine, luxurious garments of royalty. Its appearance in 1 Corinthians 6:9 is the first recorded instance of the word being used to describe a person. Consequently, Bible scholars are unsure of its proper definition in this context.

Some scholars feel that the word refers to a person with weak or absent moral character, which seems to be a logical conclusion. Others feel it refers to "call boys" or male temple prostitutes. Still others believe it describes "pet boys," young male slaves owned by wealthy Greek men and used for sexual gratification.

It is quite possible that Paul had in mind the Hebrew word QUADESH, a pagan priest engaged in temple prostitution, but did not know a Greek equivalent of this word with the same connotation. We find this same Hebrew word in Deuteronomy 23:17, which the King James version incorrectly translates as "sodomite."

Regardless of which translation of MALAKOI is correct, it is obvious that we are not talking about the average homosexual.

The second word, ARSENOKOITAI, is as obscure as the first (translated as "perverts" in 1 Timothy 1:10). In fact, this is the first recorded use of the word in preserved literature. Scholars believe that Paul may have coined this word to describe something outside his working vocabulary. It may very well refer to pederasts, or patrons of the "call boys" or temple prostitutes, or even the owners of the "pet boys." Whatever Paul's intentions, he definitely did not use the Greek word for homosexual, ARRENOKOITAI, which was in common use during the time. Again, these possible definitions do not describe the average homosexual, although they may describe a certain subculture within the homosexual community.

It could be paul was never introduced to homosexuality. I prayed in the name of Jesus christ, and am aware the word arrenokoitai was used in that time for two mwn living with each other, and that was not in line with God. This was never his plan for mankind. I doubt if women lived with women in that time.
This article can be found at:
http://www.casadecristo.org/Darkness/homos.htm

Answer 3

Depends on the translation of the Bible. Some people wanted to make the Bible "easier to understand", so they injected their interpretations and changed the words over.

Answer 4

Here's a counter approach to what your first respondent wrote:

I Cor 6:9 Paul lists a many activities that will prevent people from inheriting the Kingdom of God. One has been variously translated as effeminate, homosexuals, or sexual perverts. The original Greek text reads malakoi arsenokoitai. The first word means soft; the meaning of the second word has been lost. [For further discussion of arsenokoitai visit Dr. Rembert Truluck's site.] It was once used to refer to a male temple prostitute (as in the verses from the Hebrew Scriptures/Old Testament described above). The early Church interpreted the phrase as referring to people of soft morals; i.e. unethical. From the time of Martin Luther, it was interpreted as referring to masturbation . More recently, it has been translated as referring to homosexuals . Each Translator seem to take whatever activity that their society particularly disapproves of and use it in this verse.[1]



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I CORINTHIANS 6:9-10

It is amazing the number of times that you will see the word "sodomite" or "homosexual" or "pervert" in different translations concerning this text. It is amazing because no one knows exactly what the words of the original text mean! The layperson, unfortunately, has no way of knowing that interpreters are guessing as to the exact meaning of these words. Pastors and laypersons often have to rely upon the authority of those who have written lexicons (dictionaries explaining the meaning of words) of Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic words. The authors of scriptural lexicons search for the meaning of the word within the scriptures themselves and also go outside of scripture and research literature written around the same time the scriptures were written. If the interpreter is already prejudiced against homosexuality they can translate these words as condemning homosexual sex even based upon little usage of that word in the Scriptures and little if any contemporaneous usage of that word.

The truth is that the word some translators "transform" into "sodomite/homosexual/pervert" in I Corinthians 6:9-10 is actually TWO words. Some translators combine them because they "think" they go together but they DO NOT KNOW. This uncertainty is reflected in the fact that other translators keep the words separate and translate them "effeminate" and "abusers of themselves with mankind".

The two words in the original Greek are "malakoi" and "arsenokoitai". Malakoi is a very common Greek word. It literally means "soft". It is used in Matthew 11:7-18 and Luke 7:24-25 in reference to soft clothing. Scholars have to look at material outside of the Bible in order to try and figure out just what this means. The early church Fathers used the word to mean someone who was "weak" or "soft" in their morals and from the time of the reformation to the 20th century it was usually interpreted as masturbation. In Greek this word never is applied to gay people or homosexual acts in general. "No new textual data effected the twentieth-century change in translation of this word: only a shift in popular morality. Since few people any longer regard masturbation as the sort of activity which would preclude entrance to heaven, the condemnation has simply been transferred to a group still so widely despised that their exclusion does not trouble translators or theologians." (See Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality, John Boswell, University of Chicago Press, 1980, page 105-107) "Arsenokoitai" is discussed in the next section as it is found here and in I Timothy 1:8-11.

Note: Greek contained no word which compares to the English noun "homosexual" meaning someone of homosexual orientation. In fact the word "homosexual" (meaning someone of homosexual orientation) was not even coined until the late 1800'S by German psychologists, and introduced into English only at the beginning of the 1900's. (See Christianity, Social Tolerance, and homosexuality, John Boswell, University of Chicago Press, 1980, page 42) However, during scriptural times there were a number of Greek words to describe homosexual sex acts and the two words "malakois" and "arsenokoitai" do not appear among them (on "arsenokoitai" see Boswell, pp 345-346.) [2]

1 Tim 1:9 again refers to malakoi arsenokoitai which has been variously translated as homosexuals, sexual perverts etc. Again, the original meaning of the text as been lost.[1]

Dr. Rembert Truluck writes of arsenokoitai:

The word translated as "homosexual" or "sexual pervert" or some other similar term is Greek arsenokoites, which was formed from two words meaning "male" and "bed." This word is not found anywhere else in the Bible and has not been found anywhere in the contemporary Greek of Paul's time. We do not know what it means. The word is obscure and uncertain. It probably refers to male prostitutes with female customers, which was a common practice in the Roman world, as revealed in the excavations at Pompeii and other sites.

When early Greek speaking Christian preachers condemned homosexuality, they did not use this word. John Chrysostom (A.D. 345-407) preached in Greek against homosexuality, but he never used this word for homosexuals, and when he preached on 1 Corinthians 6:9 and 1 Timothy 1:10, he did not mention homosexuals. See the full discussion of this in John Boswell's book: Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality - Appendix 1, "Lexicography and Saint Paul," pages 335-353.



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I TIMOTHY 1: 8-11

The word "arsenokoitai" (sometimes translated "abusers of themselves with mankind") literally means male-bed. "Bed" is a euphemism for copulating. This word is extremely rare in Greek. Paul was apparently the first author to use this word. The word taken literally (male-copulator) is very ambiguous. Take, for example, the word "lady-killer." Does it mean "a lady who kills" or "someone who kills ladies"? In our language it means the latter, but even then it is not clear because we do not mean that someone literally kills ladies but that their charm "kills" them. So taking the word "arsenokoitai" or "male-copulator," does it mean "a male who copulates men"; does it mean "a man who copulates with women"; does it mean "a man who is copulated?"

The Bible does not clarify. These are the only two passages in the whole Bible where this word is used... Apparently there is no known contemporaneous literature in which this word is used. However, relatively close to the time Paul wrote it was used to refer to a male copulator connected with temple prostitution. It probably had this meaning until the late fourth century after which it came to mean a lot of different things, including homosexual activity. (See The Bible and Homosexuality, Michael England and Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality, John Boswell, University of Chicago Press, 1980, page 42)

Even IF the words "malakoi" and "arsenokoitai" COULD be connected with a male homosexual sex acts it STILL would not tell us WHAT KIND OF HOMOSEXUAL SEX ACT IS BEING CONDEMNED. They could refer to sex practices connected with the worship of idols, pederasty or some other sexual act which is exploitive.

It is clear that the translation of these two words as "sodomite", "pervert" or "homosexual" has very little, if any, sound basis and is a result of homophobia. [2]