What Really Constitutes Fornication?

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Here's an intriguing case of fornication.
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†. Mtt 5:32 . . Whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causes her to commit adultery
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The koiné Greek (New Testament) word for fornication is porneia (por-ni'-ah) which means "harlotry" which Webster's defines as: sexual profligacy.
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The koiné Greek (New Testament) word for adultery is moicheia (moy-khi'-ah)
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There's a technical difference between moicheia and porneia. The first requires the participation of at least one married person; while porneia is typically between single people.
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So then how can a married woman commit porneia if it's an act that only single people commit?
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Well, the Lord's statement said nothing new. It merely reiterated a God-given statute wherein a man marries a girl he's been led to believe is a virgin only to find out later that she slept around before he met her. That kind of fraud is not only grounds for divorce; but also grounds for the death penalty. (Deut 22:13-21)
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Cliff<o:p></o:p>
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[for_his_glory]

Even with the laws God gave to Moses for the people, mans sin hardened hearts now turned to fornication, lust of self and covertness of others property including another mans wife. New laws were added continuously for the transgressions of man and this is how we got the law for divorce which was handed down by Moses in Deuteronomy 24:1-4.

1 Corinthians 7:10, Jesus commands the woman not to leave her husband and if she does she should remain unmarried, but in Malachi 2:10-16 the treachery that man commits against a woman which leads him to have an affair outside of the marriage or abuses the wife whether it be physical or emotional gives place to what was said by Moses in Deuteronomy 24:1-4 that if a woman is no longer pleasing to her husband then the husband should give his wife a written bill of divorcement and send her out of the house and this gives the woman the right to marry again, but she can never go back to her former husband if that marriage does not work out or her husband dies for now she is defiled to be with her first husband and this is an abomination to God.

 

[Webers_Home]

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Here's a couple of interesting items from the Wednesday, Dec 14, 2011 issue of the Oregonian.

A Pew survey last year determined that four in ten Americans under 30 consider marriage passé. D'Vera Cohn, a Pew researcher, commented that many under-30 young adults regard marriage as an obsolete social environment.

Rose Kreider, a Census Bureau demographer who specializes in household stats, noted last year that 7.5 million couples were living together without being married. In real numbers, that's 15,000,000 practicing fornicators in the USA alone; and that's not even counting the incidents of casual sex going on among people just dating and not living together. Is it any wonder then that there are reality shows like Under 16 And Pregnant on television?

America has become a decadent society and rapidly becoming more and more like ancient Pompeii. Though I'm a Christian; I sincerely think it's high time we took the slogan "In God We Trust" completely off the USA's fiat currency; and while we're at it, remove the statement "One nation under God" from the pledge of allegiance too because 15,000,000+ fornicators should not be saying things like that.

Cliff<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p>
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[Hitch]

Some of the fault lies in our own (DF) mind set of ' Dont polish the brass on a sinking ship'.

Rather than 'With God all things are possible'.

 

[Webers_Home]

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†. 1Cor 6:16 . . What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith He, shall be one flesh.
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That is a very interesting statement. In essence it's saying that every time a guy sleeps with a slut, he's actually consummating a marriage.
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†. Gen 2:24 . .Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
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†. Mtt 19:6 . . So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man divide.
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How many women was it that Tiger Woods slept with? (chuckle) Looks like Mr. Tee has got himself a harem. You know who really gets the women? Rock stars. Aerosmith lead singer Stephen Tyler once remarked that he had slept with so many women backstage that he could scarce remember Liv Tyler's mom. According to the above passages, every one of those women, including Liv's mom, are now one flesh with Stephen via the practice of fornication.
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Cliff<o:p></o:p>
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[Ace1234]

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Here's an intriguing case of fornication.
ffice:office" /><O:p></O:p>
†. Mtt 5:32 . . Whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causes her to commit adultery
<O:p></O:p>
The koiné Greek (New Testament) word for fornication is porneia (por-ni'-ah) which means "harlotry" which Webster's defines as: sexual profligacy.
<O:p></O:p>
The koiné Greek (New Testament) word for adultery is moicheia (moy-khi'-ah)
<O:p></O:p>
There's a technical difference between moicheia and porneia. The first requires the participation of at least one married person; while porneia is typically between single people.
<O:p></O:p>
So then how can a married woman commit porneia if it's an act that only single people commit?
<O:p></O:p>
Well, the Lord's statement said nothing new. It merely reiterated a God-given statute wherein a man marries a girl he's been led to believe is a virgin only to find out later that she slept around before he met her. That kind of fraud is not only grounds for divorce; but also grounds for the death penalty. (Deut 22:13-21)
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Cliff<O:p></O:p>
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Fornication was often put in place of pornia incorrectly during latin translations, coming from the latin word Fornix. Biblically fornication was nothing but pagan prostitution, nothing else. Fornication can be a type of pornia, but it's not pornia itself. The pagan prostitutes worked under archways, this is the fornix of the building per say.

As the church and doctrine progressed sex in many ways became more sinful than it was, often at time it was sinful to have sex with your wife unless you were trying to procreate, so as they translated the bible pornia and fornication became a catch word for every sexual sin listed by the church.

Many argue fornication is premartal sex, not biblically. The verse you qoute the word should be pornia, which was either adultery, pagan sex worship, pederasty, sex during a womans period,...one other, think it's beastiality. In the original text pornia was clearly defined, it became more confusing through history as the church redefined sexuality and what sins they attached to it. For the jews pornia was always clearly defined because it broke defined law and had punishments, for the later church it was often used to cover anything they wanted.

This has nothing to do with a woman sleeping around before marriage. In OT days a woman's virgin status had more value than a non. The crime or sin was saying you were a virgin when you weren't. If you were a non virgin, you simply cost less. In those days the woman was property of the husband or father. By jewish cultural law if a new bride didn't bleed on the sheets, she wasn't a virgin. The husband had choices, he could give her back and get his money back, have her killed or he could forgive her and stay married. The decision of her virgin status was the wedding night, not a decision made later. Note, the husbands virgin status didn't matter, nor could he prove or disprove of it, but the wife was his property.

Sadly we know many women lose their hymen not through sex, rigorous exercise can break it, masturbation, illness, horseback riding, lifting, numerous causes, studies show about 20-30% don't bleed when they lose their virginity and many don't even know the cause of how or when their hymen broke. Imagine not being able to prove you were a virgin, knowing you are, but you didn't bleed on your wedding night. It was a cruel culture for women back then.

 

[Webers_Home]

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Here's a rather unsavory example of fornication.

†. 1Cor 5:1-7 . . I can hardly believe the report about the fornication going on among you, something so evil that even the pagans don't do it. I am told that you have a man in your church who is living in sin with his father's wife.

The fornication Paul condemned in that passage is the kind of incest where a man is sleeping with his step-mother. That sometimes happens when a son is about the right age for his father's youngish wife. My own dad's third wife was a buxom young girl of around 20 when I was but 25 so we were about the right age for each other. No, nothing happened because the very thought was repulsive; but you can see how a situation like that could be very tempting for a young man with no scruples in the prime of life.

Paul's criticism is based upon an ancient God-given law regarding sex with relatives.

†. Lev 18:6-8 . . None of you shall approach to any that is near of kin to him, to uncover their nakedness . . the nakedness of thy father's wife shalt thou not uncover: it is thy father's nakedness.
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It is thy father's nakedness because of the one-flesh law of Gen 2:24 and Mtt 19:6.

Anyway, bottom line is: the kind of fornication about which Paul wrote is labeled by God in Leviticus as "abominable" which Webster's defines as: worthy of, or causing, disgust or hatred; viz: detestable.

Cliff<o:p></o:p>
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[Ace1234]

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Here's a rather unsavory example of fornication.

†. 1Cor 5:1-7 . . I can hardly believe the report about the fornication going on among you, something so evil that even the pagans don't do it. I am told that you have a man in your church who is living in sin with his father's wife.

The fornication Paul condemned in that passage is the kind of incest where a man is sleeping with his step-mother. That sometimes happens when a son is about the right age for his father's youngish wife. My own dad's third wife was a buxom young girl of around 20 when I was but 25 so we were about the right age for each other. No, nothing happened because the very thought was repulsive; but you can see how a situation like that could be very tempting for a young man with no scruples in the prime of life.

Paul's criticism is based upon an ancient God-given law regarding sex with relatives.

†. Lev 18:6-8 . . None of you shall approach to any that is near of kin to him, to uncover their nakedness . . the nakedness of thy father's wife shalt thou not uncover: it is thy father's nakedness.
ffice:office" /><O:p></O:p>
It is thy father's nakedness because of the one-flesh law of Gen 2:24 and Mtt 19:6.

Anyway, bottom line is: the kind of fornication about which Paul wrote is labeled by God in Leviticus as "abominable" which Webster's defines as: worthy of, or causing, disgust or hatred; viz: detestable.

Cliff<O:p></O:p>
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Yes, pornia was used in connection with incest, but the use of fornication in this verse to translate pornia is unscriptural. We must remember with pornia biblically, it actually broke a legal law. Most now accept that fornication being used to translate pornia is incorrect.

What became confusing when the latin word fornication was used, it often was used out of context in later bibles as a catch all word,...simply, one was guilty of the act of fornication, with pornia, we know the defined illegal sexual acts as they were clearly defined in the bible.

Sex during menstration
Adultery
Pagan sex prostitution
Pederasty
Incest.

The greeks today still define fornication as prostitution, where we use it to define most anything.There is no biblical basis whatsoever to translate porneia into fornication, it was just a later word to describe pagan sexual prostitution.