What does the Greek word transliterated arsenokoitēs mean?

This information originally appears in the Word Foundations article titled “1946: The Movie Being Crafted to Shift — and Mislead — a Culture, Part 1.” The complete article is available here.

Arsenokoitēs is a term likely coined by Paul himself. It is a combination of two Greek words —

- - ἄρρην (transliteration: arrēn, which means “men or males” ) and
  - κοίτη (transliteration: koitē, which means “bed or couch” ).

arsenokoitēs / blueletterbible.org / A PDF file of this image is available here.

Significantly, when Paul used terms for men and women in Romans 1:27, (also go here), he chose “the Greek words that most emphasize biology: arsenes [males] and theleias [females]. Both words are rarely used in the New Testament; when they do appear, they appear in verses meant to emphasize the sex of the subject, as in a male child (arsenes).”¹ It is this word (arsenes / arrēn) that Paul combined with the Greek word for bed (koitē) to form arsenokoitēs. Thus, the term literally means “men in bed together,” a clear reference to — yes — homosexuality.

Joe Dallas writes, “The two words combined, as Paul used them, put ‘male’ and ‘bed’ together in a sexual sense, with no hint of prostitution [or any other form of abuse or departure from a committed, consensual same-sex relationship necessarily] involved.”² It is clear that while Paul’s term includes what Ed Oxford and Kathy Baldock would call “abusive homosexual relationships,” the term does not hone in on those exclusively. The apostle was referring to all homosexual relationships. Historian Alvin Schmidt says this: “Christian abhorrence of homosexuality was not confined to pederasty…. Sex between two males also was considered abhorrent. For instance, St. Paul condemned men’s ‘indecent acts with other men’ (Romans 1:27). He did not differentiate between pedophilia and adult homosexual acts; both were sinful perversions in God’s eyes.”³

Notes:

¹Joe Dallas, “Understanding Pro-Gay Theology,” in The Complete Christian Guide to Understanding Homosexuality: A Biblical and Compassionate Response to Same-Sex Attraction, Joe Dallas and Nancy Heche, General Editors, (Eugene, Oregon: Harvest House Publishers, 2010), 131.

²Joe Dallas, 137.

³Alvin J. Schmidt, How Christianity Changed the World, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2004), 88.