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Topic: Arsenokoitai translated as "homosexual." (1 Post)

Message: Arsenokoitai translated as "homosexual."
Posted by Frank Cadmus on Friday, 11-Oct-2019 06:31:40 EDT Revised by Frank Cadmus [Frank Cadmus] on Friday, 11-Oct-2019 06:34:43 EDT
Only if we can understand what the Hebrew tongue first said in Leviticus 18:22 can we figure out what Paul was trying to convey with his new word "arsenokoitai." The literal Hebrew reads like this: Weth-zakhar lo tishkav mishkevey ishshah Translated into the literal English it reads; "with a male you shall not lie the lyings of the woman." Now since Leviticus 18:22 is only directed at Israeli males and not women, a clear-cut and simple reading prohibiting all male homosexuality would read; "Weth-zakhar lo tishkav (with a male you shall not lie)," but we have 'mishkevey ishshah' (lyings of the woman) in the verse. English translators of the verse also put in "as with," making the verse, wrongly, read; "with a male you shall not lie as with a women." Translators inserted "as with" instead of "the lyings of a woman" because "lyings of a woman" was not understood. Now it can be said that the translators were only trying to fill in the blanks with putting in "as with" so the reading of it flows better, but the author of Leviticus meant it to read as it reads. Now if we figure out what the term "lyings of a woman" is getting at, it will give light on the actions of the males being discussed that's prohibited. Mishkevey ishsha (lyings of a woman) is found nowhere else in the Bible, but if you go to Numbers 31:18, we find "mishkav zakhar" (lying of a man) with what's coming from the male perspective of penetrating a woman. So "lyings of a woman" in turn must mean it's coming from the perspective of the one being penetrated. We next go to the Talmud that gives a further explanation of the saying. There are only two ways a woman can have sex according to the Rabbis (Babylonian Talmud Sanhedrin 54a), vaginal and anal. They saw "lyings of a woman" as either one or the other. Since obviously two men cannot have vaginal sex, the only other act it is talking about is anal sex, a prohibition to God's Israeli males to separate them from those pagan (cult anal sex) practices of the Canaanites in their land the Jews were entering. There is a distinction between the two males who are not to be penetrated in Leviticus 20:13. An Israeli man who is of age (ish) or a male who either has an age distinction (pederasty) or a male with some kind of religious distinction (zakhar). In the context it is given ("Moloch" worship), the prohibition is saying an Israeli man should not lie with Caananite priests. Knowing now the correct Hebrew wordings, we can correctly translate Leviticus 20;13 as: "Israeli man of age shall not have anal sex with Zakhar (a male of some type of religious or age distinction) in his wife's beds." This is the correct translation and the translation Paul understood, if in fact he compounded words from Leviticus to come up with 'arsenokoitai,' and as you can see it narrows down the prohibition from the common believe the verse says: "A man should not have sex with the same gender like he would have sex with the female gender."

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