Or at least so says Rev. Dr. Martha Simmons, Creator and Director of The African American Lectionary. During a Feb. 18th 2010 interview with Santita Jackson on Chicago's WVON 1690 She appeared along with Dr. Brenda Wade who we will feature in another article. Dr. Simmons stated that not only does the bible not address the issue of sexual orientation, but the word which many people claim that was used to address this issue (Gk: arsenokoites) was a word of unknown origin and meaning and was allowed to creep in later translations of the bible. She stated that this word was defined by scholars as 1- sexual behavior or 2- sexual orientation. She says that most biblical translations only refer to homosexual sexual behavior not homosexual orientation. Here is the verse in question.
1 Cor. 6:9~ "Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,"
Ἢ οὐκ οἴδατε ὅτι ἄδικοι θεοῦ βασιλείαν οὐ κληρονομήσουσιν; μὴ πλανᾶσθε· οὔτε πόρνοι οὔτε εἰδωλολάτραι οὔτε μοιχοὶ οὔτε μαλακοὶ οὔτε ἀρσενοκοῖται (arsenokoites)
Dr. Simmons also stated that the Gk word paiderfastis would have been used by Paul to point out homosexual orientation in the verse. She also says that the bible is ambiguous or does not address how atoms split or when slavery should have ended, but it does lay down the greater principle of how we should live and that is rooted and grounded in love.
What Do We Make Of Dr. Simmons' Assertions?
Aside from the fact that Dr. Simmons got a "whole bunch" of things wrong in just a short and limited period of time, she leapt into a pool of erroneous and irresponsible doctrine.
First, we have done an article on The Dunamis Word 2, Homosexuality & The New Testament, addressing this specific use of the word arsenokoites, and how the word was derived and why Paul used that word rather than paiderfastis.
In that article we clearly state that although paiderfastis was used to describe homosexual behavior, it was the word used to describe men who had sex with young and fair skinned boys. In other words the use was limited to refer to same gender sexual relationships between men and boys. In actuality Paul's words were not limited to pederasts or those who's object of sex was young fair-skinned boys or females. Within the scripture arsenokoites opened up and broadened the meaning and spoke more completely toward men and women who had same gender sexual relationships. Therefore, the use of arsenokoites was used to imply a much more broad category of same gender sexual relationships covering adult to adult and adult to child relationships.
Read more!
