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From: hartley@uvm-cs.UUCP (Stephen J. Hartley)
Newsgroups: net.religion
Subject: fornication
Message-ID: <321@uvm-cs.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 28-Oct-84 20:57:17 EST
Article-I.D.: uvm-cs.321
Posted: Sun Oct 28 20:57:17 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 30-Oct-84 01:31:10 EST
Organization: University of Vermont
Lines: 34


  I came across the following article that I thought other people might be
interested in.  This article is by Bruce Malina and appears in Volume 14
of the journal Novum Testamentum.  The title is "Does Porneia Mean Forni-
cation?"  Porneia is the Greek word that is usually translated as fornication
or sexual immorality in the New Testament.  I will quote the conclusions of
the article.

    From all of the above instances, it would seem quite clear that
    porneia means: 1) unlawful sexual intercourse; 2) specifically,
    sexual intercourse with a cultic or commercial prostitute; 3) unlawful
    conduct in general.  What makes a given line of conduct proneia, hence
    unlawful, is that it is expressly prohibited by Torah -- both oral
    and written.  Now it would appear that in no case is pre-betrothal,
    non-commercial, non-cultic heterosexual intercourse (what is called
    "fornication" today) prohibited!  The obvious reason for this is that
    there is no injunction in the Torah prohibiting such "fornication".

    To sum up: porneia means unlawful sexual conduct, or unlawful
    conduct in general.  What makes a particular line of conduct
    unlawful is that it is prohibited by the Torah, written and/or
    oral.  Pre-betrothal, pre-marital, non-commercial sexual intercourse
    between a man and a woman is nowhere considered a moral crime in
    the Torah.  ... there is no evidence in traditional or contemporary
    usage of the word porneia that takes it to mean pre-betrothal,
    pre-marital, heterosexual intercourse of a non-cultic or non-
    commercial nature, i.e. what we call "fornication" today.

  I would like to hear the reactions and comments of others to these
conclusions of Bruce Malina.
-- 
"If that's true, then I'm the Pope!"		Stephen J. Hartley
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