Had an interesting conversation with a student yesterday afternoon. He's doing the word study for his final exegesis project on the Greek word porneia, which I would generally translate as "sexual immorality." But the student had heard some interesting arguments that porneia only referred to "extreme" sexual sin, not including adultery.
Often there are underlying reasons behind why people work toward certain interpretations--no one is immune (yes, I know, that includes me too). But I have a hunch in this case that the driving force behind this interpretation is so that adultery is not considered a legitimate basis for divorce. Matthew 5 and 19 only mention porneia as a legitimate basis for divorce.
But that is not to say that the arguments aren't interesting. For example, one of the arguments is the fact that in 1 Cor. 6:9, pornoi (sexually immoral people?) are mentioned in addition to moichoi (adulterers)... thus the argument that adultery is different from porneia. Also in Mark 7:21-22, porneiai (sexual immoralities) and moicheiai (adulteries) are both on the list... thus the argument that porneia does not include adultery.
I'm open, but wonder if this is as if someone put "violence" and "murder" in the same list. Certainly murder is violence, but the word violence includes more than murder.
Anyway, one interesting thing that I had never noticed before is the lay of the manuscripts on Romans 1:29. Most modern translations have something like "filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness (poneria), coveteousness, evil..." But some manuscripts in the Western tradition have "evil, sexual immorality (porneia), coveteousness."
As Westcott and Hort so well described, the "church text" (the parent of the King James) "conflates" the two readings. Some copyist, uncertain whether to go with wickedness (poneria) or sexual immorality (porneia) put them both down, so the KJV has both: "fornication (porneia), wickedness (poneria)."
What happened here is pretty clear. One or the other of these was mistaken by some copyist for the other and from then on one manuscript stream had one; another manuscript stream had the other. Then when the text "normalized," both were kept. The reason modern translations go with "wickedness" is because Vaticanus (300's) has it and this manuscript (in the so called "Alexandrian" tradition) seems generally more reliable than the Western tradition.
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Dear Ken
I was doing a google search and came upon your blog and thought I should send you this email. I came upon a beautiful old Dutch Bible (printed in 1718) with a signature of Sarah Schenck and Letty Ackerman along with birth and death dates. I posted it on different internet sites and have discovered that they are direct descendents of the 3 Schencks that immigrated to New Amsterdam in 1650, namely Roelof, Jan and Anetje. Roelof's oldest son Marten who was born in 1661 fathered his oldest son Abraham who was born in 1689, fathered his youngest son Abraham in 1728, fathered Sarah who was born April 19, 1755. Sarah's daughter is Auletta (Letty) born in 1793 and Died in 1833. It was amazing to do the research and find where the Bible originated from. I've been checking lots of cemeteries and baptisms etc. etc. Now I discovered on your interenet site that your a theology professor and thought you may be able to help me try to discover more about this Bible. I bought it from an antique shop while on holidays in Vermont. The antique shop is called the Buggyman in Johnson Vermont and the dealer named, Mark said he got the Bible from the Mead family estate. The Bible as is has a great heirloom effect for myself as it is written in the Dutch language and is the approved translation at the synod of Dordrecht in the Netherlands for the Gereformeerde (Reformed) Church. My husband and I have two sons that are in the ministry in the Christian Reformed Church. One in Hamilton Ontario and one in Grand Rapids Michigan. We thought this would be a rich heirloom to pass to them as the Christian Reformed Church came out of the history of the Synod of Dordrecht in the Netherlands. We are both of Dutch Descendent. But I am also a hobbiest in geneology and love making the connections. I do feel moved that this Bible should also belong back in the Schenck/Ackerman family. Could you help me come up with some information. The Bible is 10.5 inches by 16 inches and 5 inches thick. It weighs 15 pounds. It has parchment linen paper and leather bound. It has 25 pages with the tiled illustrations and 6 fold out maps. It also has the complete Apocryphe books. Feel free to email me or mail at Evelyn Knetsch Box 283 Drayton Ontario. Or phone at 519 638 3341. Thank you in advance, Evelyn
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