Is ἀρσενοκοίτης Biblical dialect for ἀρρενοκοίτης?

[davidwalucy@yahoo.com]

Greetings,

There are some who claim that the meaning of αρσενοκοιτης is uncertain because the word was coined by Apostle Paul. An example of use by Paul is in 1Cor 6:9 which reads:

1 Corinthians 6:9 (Scrivner Text): η ουκ οιδατε οτι αδικοι βασιλειαν θεου ου κληρονομησουσιν μη πλανασθε ουτε πορνοι ουτε ειδωλολατραι ουτε μοιχοι ουτε μαλακοι ουτε αρσενοκοιται

1 Corinthians 6:9 (KJV)
Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality,

I have not found any pre-New Testament (p-NT) references to the word. However, there are p-NT references to the word αppενοκοιτης. Further, the LSJ entry for αρσενοκοιτης reads:

v. ἀρρενοκοίτης

And the Greek LS Lexicon reads:

ἀρσενοκοίτης: ἴδε ἀρρενοκοίτης.

so I assume the v. in the LSJ means “see”

Wikipedia article for Attic Greek (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attic_Greek) in the Phonology section reads:

Rr instead of rs.
Attic and Euboean Ionic use rr in words, when Cycladean and Anatolian Ionic use rs:
Attic χερρόνησος → East Ionic χερσόνησος "peninsula"
Attic ἄρρεν → East Ionic ἄρσεν "male"
Attic θάρρος → East Ionic θάρσος "courage".

Note also the example of “male.” I believe the Bible uses ἄρσεν-, and not ἄρρεν- correct? Is the difference between the two forms just a dialect difference? If so, my thought is that if the Bible uses ἄρσεν- instead of ἄρρεν-, that it would follow that the Bible would use ἀρσενοκοίτης instead of ἀρρενοκοίτης and the difference in the two words is just a dialect difference and therefore ἀρσενοκοίτης was not coined by the NT writer and the meaning is not uncertain. Is any of this correct at all? The reason why I ask is that the Biblical commentaries that I have access to and indicate that the meaning of ἀρσενοκοίτης is certain make no comments on the origin if the word ἀρσενοκοίτης.

Thank you,
David

[Brian Gould]

Hatch-Redpath lists the entry as ἄρσην, ἄρρην. That suggests that, in Septuagint use, ἄρσην is the more usual spelling.

https://archive.org/details/HatchRedpat ... 0/mode/2up

[davidwalucy@yahoo.com]

Thank you. Brian Gould states:

Hatch-Redpath lists the entry as ἄρσην, ἄρρην. That suggests that, in Septuagint use, ἄρσην is the more usual spelling.

So, is αρσενοκοιτης same word as αρρενοκοιτης? If so, is the reason that one is just a regional dialect spelling of the other? If, so I guess there just happens to be no pre-New Testament manuscript witness for the spelling αρσενοκοιτης?

-David

[Brian Gould]

This is an interesting question but I’m sorry to say I’ve reached a dead end. According to Liddell & Scott (first link below), the compound ἀρσενοκοίτης is found, just once, in Diogenes Laertius, at the reference 6:65. I’ve found that passage in an old (1925) Loeb edition, on pp. 66-67 (second link). The translation on the right-hand page seems to confirm that the term does indeed have to do with homosexuality:

Seeing a young man behaving effeminately, “Are you not ashamed,” he [Diogenes] said, “that your own intention about yourself should be worse than nature’s: for nature made you a man, but you are forcing yourself to play the woman.”

Inexplicably, however, I can’t find the Greek word anywhere in the text on the left-hand page. Is it just me, or is it really not there?

https://archive.org/details/greekenglis ... 2/mode/2up

https://ia801603.us.archive.org/17/item ... oguoft.pdf

[Tony Pope]

According to Liddell & Scott (first link below), the compound ἀρσενοκοίτης is found, just once, in Diogenes Laertius, at the reference 6:65.

The entry in the old 7th edition of LS has misled you. It reads "Diog. L. 6. 65 (ubi v. Menag.)" The parenthesis is intended to indicate that the word in question does not actually occur in the text of Diogenes Laertius but in something related to it. Ubi v[ide] is Latin for "where see", and Menag. turns out to be an abbreviation for a 17th c. scholar called Aegidius Menagius (in French Gilles Ménage), who wrote a commentary on Diogenes Laertius. Presumably in his commentary there is some discussion of the word ἀρσενοκοίτης.

See right hand column of https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_H8QP ... 3/mode/1up

Also
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilles_Ménage

[Brian Gould]

Thank you, Tony. That's something useful I learned today!

That seems to leave us, then, back where we started, without a single occurrence of the word ἀρσενοκοίτης (in either spelling) outside the NT. Is that it?

[Jean Putmans]

-ρρ- for-ρς-
“ Later Attic has ρρ for ρς for older Attic: θαρρος courage = θαρσος, αρρην male = αρσην …
b.Ionic and most other dialcts have ρς. ρς in Attic tragedy and Thucydides is probably an Ionism. Xenophon has ρς and ρρ.» (Smyth, Par. 79: https://archive.org/details/rosettaproj ... 5/mode/1up.
Kühner-Blass (a German Grammar: https://archive.org/details/p1ausfhrlic ... 7/mode/1up) Vol I,1, page 147, state, the -ρρ- forms didn’t make into the Koine, so probably we will find more -ρρ-forms than -ρς-forms in LXX/NT..

αρσενοκοιητης indeed probably is a wordcreation of Paul.
It’s not in the LXX (according to Hatch-Redpath; Lust-Eynikel-Hauspie; Muraoka; Rehkopf), but αρσενικος “male” is!

The Patristic Lexicon of Lampe has *αρσενοκοιτια and *αρσενοκοιτεω (the * indicating the word is not in LS!), both meaning sodomy.

Neither Woodhouse (https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dl ... 1/mode/2up), nor the German-Greek Dictionary have a Entry of Sodomy (both are older dictionaries, a modern one would probably have an eentry for homnosexuality/Sodomie). But Rost has an entry for “Knabenschänder” = Pederast (https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_QdBa ... 9/mode/1up): παιδοφθορος, βατταλος; παιδεραστια, παοδοφθοριά; βατταλιζεσθαι.

It seems Homosexuality in ancient Greece was quite accepted, but probably limited to the relation between older men and younger boys (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_Hom ... ity_(book)).

[Jean Putmans]

Please read instead of: “we will find more -ρρ-forms than -ρς-forms in LXX/NT.” > we will find more -ρς-forms than -ρρ-forms in LXX/NT..

[Tony Pope]

Thank you, Tony. That's something useful I learned today!

That seems to leave us, then, back where we started, without a single occurrence of the word ἀρσενοκοίτης (in either spelling) outside the NT. Is that it?

The NT occurrence is not the only one ever recorded, rather there is none other known that dates earlier than the NT. Several other occurrences are known from later.

It is often suggested that Paul coined the word, but it is quite likely that it was already in use among Jews who spoke Greek and needed vocabulary to discuss ethical questions, both among themselves and with non-Jews. It is often pointed out that the two components of the compound, ἄρσην (male) and κοίτη (bed; figuratively, sexual relations) occur together in Leviticus 18.22 (καὶ μετὰ ἄρσενος οὐ κοιμηθήσῃ κοίτην γυναικείαν, βδέλυγμα γάρ ἐστι) and several other LXX texts.

Also known are a number of other compound words ending in -κοίτης, which were used to refer to various unnatural sexual relations. For example, the BDAG lexicon mentions μητροκοίτης, which is recorded from a Greek poet dated 6th c. BC. Generally in these compounds the first part of the compound denotes the object of the activity.

[davidwalucy@yahoo.com]

Greetings All,

Thank you for all your contributions which afforded a nice perspective for the possible origin of the word ἀρσενοκοίτης, and a general caveat about the old 7th edition of the LS lexicon.

I think the post from Jean Putmans of September 27th, 2023, 6:57 am seems to indicate that there is probably no pre-New Testament Greek word for “homosexual,” perhaps due to the likely widespread acceptance of the relation between older men and younger boys, but I am not sure if I extrapolate correctly.

-David