[Linux4christians] Shellfish Logic and the Defense of Homosexual Marriage - EXCELLENT!

[Karl Kleinpaste]

"Peter B. Steiger" <webservant at trinitybclaramie.org> writes:
> One thing I wanted to throw into the mix was the discussion on the word
> "malakos" from 1 Corinthians 6.  Various Bible translations interpret this
> as "effeminate" or "homosexual", but I don't see how they made that leap.
...
> But I have always wondered about this specific verse.  Jesus uses the term
> "malakos" Himself in Matthew 11:8

NET Bible has this footnote on the word's use:

| This term is sometimes rendered "effeminate," although in contemporary
| English usage such a translation could be taken to refer to demeanor
| rather than behavior.  BDAG 613 s.v. μαλακός 2 has "pert. to being
| passive in a same-sex relationship, /effeminate/ esp. of /catamites/,
| of men and boys who are sodomized by other males in such a
| relationship."  L&N 88.281 states, "the passive male partner in
| homosexual intercourse - `homosexual.' ...As in Greek, a number of
| other languages also have entirely distinct terms for the active and
| passive roles in homosexual intercourse."

Like many words in English, the meaning is very context-sensitive.
I have no difficulty with understanding that a reference to the
overprivileged in one context (Matt 11) is not in conflict with a
reference to homosexual sex in another (1Cor 6).  I count on (and must
trust) that translators will in general do their best to grasp those
contextual differences.