-
Honor Godly Marriage!The Watchtower—1983 | March 15
-
-
True, porneia is sometimes used in a limited sense, as applying to sex relations between unmarried (single) persons. An instance of such a limited usage is 1 Corinthians 6:9, where “fornicators” are mentioned separately and in addition to those who engage in such other sexual vices as adultery and homosexuality. But just before this, at 1 Corinthians 5:9-11, Paul used the same word when counseling Christians not to mix with “fornicators.” Is it reasonable to think that here he referred only to immoral unmarried persons? That could not be so, for chapter 6 sets out a broad range of illicit sexual practices that must be shunned, including adultery and homosexuality. Likewise, Jude 7 and Revelation 21:8, which show that God judges unrepentant “fornicators” as worthy of eternal destruction, could hardly be limited only to unmarried persons that have sex relations. And the Jerusalem governing body’s edict at Acts 15:29, “to keep abstaining . . . from fornication,” must be understood to have the wide field of application.b
-
-
Honor Godly Marriage!The Watchtower—1983 | March 15
-
-
b It is noteworthy that Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary gives as its first definition of “fornication”: “Human sexual intercourse other than between a man and his wife.” And in defining “intercourse” (heterosexual, anal, oral) it states that this would involve “the genitalia of at least one person.” So the English word “fornication” is an appropriate translation for the Greek word porneia.
-