Bible Study Notes

by Brian Knowles

n Christian circles, the word “fornication” is frequently used to indicate singles sex. The Oxford Pocket American Dictionary of Current English defines the word “fornicate” “(of people not married or not married to each other) have sexual intercourse voluntarily.” In other words, voluntary singles sex that is not rape. It is therefore commonly believed that the word “fornicate” refers to voluntary sex between people of opposite genders who are not married to each other. Is this correct Biblical usage?

            In some of our English versions, like the KJV, the word “fornication” appears in both testaments. In the TaNaKh (Old Testament) it appears only four times (II Chronicles 21:11; Isaiah 23:17; Ezekiel 16:26 & Ezekiel 16:29). In the first three instances, fornication is translated from the Hebrew word zanah. In the fourth instance, it is taznuwth.

            Zanah means “commit fornication, be a harlot.” The essential meaning is to “be or act like a harlot,” Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew & English Lexicon of the Old Testament, p. 275b. The second word means the same thing (ibid. p.276). It is likely that the Greek word commonly translated as “fornication” has behind it the Hebrew zanah - meaning harlotry or prostitution. More on that later.

            Raymond J. Lawrence, Jr., commenting on Old Testament usage writes, “…the Torah does not forbid fornication. The modern word “fornication” [meaning singles sex] is simply not an identifiable Hebrew category,” The Poisoning of Eros, p. 34.

            On zanah, Lawrence writes this, “The New Testament use of the Greek porneia essentially continues the Hebrew zanah, meaning ‘illicit sexual behavior as defined by the Torah.’ Zanah has the main connotations: adultery and ‘cultic prostitution.’” (ibid. pp. 34-35).

            Porneia, according to the authoritative Bauer’s Lexicon, refers to “prostitution…of every kind of unlawful sexual intercourse,” BAG, p. 693b. “Unlawful “in Biblical usage means forbidden by the Torah. But the Torah, with its 613 commandments, does not mention singles sex - “fornication.”

            Lawrence writes, “Nowhere in Paul, or anyplace else in the New Testament, does porneia assume the boundaries of modern English ‘fornication’, sex outside of marriage,” (ibid. p. 37).

            The most common usage of zanah and porneia refers to temple or cult prostitution. This was a major problem for Christians and Jews in the ancient world. It was a component of idolatry - the very worst of sins.

The Example of Corinth

The New Testament Canon preserves two of Paul’s letters to the Corinthians. Corinth was a rich and populous city that catered to pleasure-seekers and idolaters alike. The city sat beneath a 2000-foot outcropping of rock atop which was the temple of Aphrodite. The cult of Aphrodite was served by some 1000 temple prostitutes of both genders. The funds they generated went into temple coffers.

            The city in general was known for its degeneracy. In fact a verb was made out of the city’s name - “Korinthiazesthai.” It meant “to practice whoredom.”

            Paul’s converts from the city represented a cross section of the populace. There were,
“fornicators [prostitutes], idolaters, adulterers, sexual deviants, thieves, drunks, slanderers and swindlers” (I Corinthians 6:9-10). A smattering of more elegant types - Crispus, Erastus and Chloe - completed the picture.

            When the writers of Scripture wrote of porneia they did not have in mind singles sex, but the kind of temple prostitution that was rampant in Corinth and many other cities of the ancient world. In the apostolic letter of Acts 15, the instruction to non-Jewish believers was to “…abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality [porneia], from the meat of strangled animals and from blood,” (Acts 15:20). The common denominator here is idolatry and its associated practices - including temple prostitution. They were telling their gentile converts to come fully out of idolatry. In Judaism, and among Noachides, that was the very worst sin, followed closely by homicide, adultery and slander.

            In our world, we see little of cult prostitution - but there’s an abundance of the garden variety to go around. In fact, sex slavery is a major crime worldwide. Any sexual practice that is forbidden in Torah (God’s direction or instruction) is porneia. Those commandments (mitzva’ot) apply equally to Jews and Gentiles. They represent God’s great moral law. (Study Leviticus 18, Romans 1:26,27 ; I Corinthians 6:9; Leviticus 20:13; I Timothy 1:1; Genesis 19 & Galatians 5:19 - 21 for an overview).