# What does arsenokoites actually mean
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-arsenokoites-actually-mean/306037
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [May 30, 2005, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-arsenokoites-actually-mean/306037 "2005-05-30T00:12:56Z")
**Posts on this page:** 17
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@stpauler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stpauler)
#### Post date: [May 30, 2005, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-arsenokoites-actually-mean/306037/1 "2005-05-30T00:12:56Z")
This might get shifted over to GD, but I’m curious what _arsenokoites_ actually means especially in biblical contest.
Thanks!
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### Author:  [@stpauler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stpauler)
#### Post date: [May 30, 2005, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-arsenokoites-actually-mean/306037/2 "2005-05-30T00:17:08Z")
Err… conte **x** t
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### Author:  [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)
#### Post date: [May 30, 2005, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-arsenokoites-actually-mean/306037/3 "2005-05-30T00:40:59Z")
The absolute GQ answer is that nobody knows for sure.
Literally, _arenos_ means “male” and _koites_ means “bed.” Put together thet word literally means “male-bedder.” While the compound _arsenokoites_ is not found in any Greek literature before Paul (and he may have coined the word himself), the suffix _koites_ is fairly common and is attached derisively to prefixes meaning things like “whore,” “mother,” “horse” and the like. The general tone and use of the _koites_ in compounds was fairly analogous to “f\*cker.” When used in those compounds it always referred to the penetrative partner in a sexual act, never the passive.
Outside of Paul, _arsenokoites_ is found mainly on vice lists which give little context. There are 42 known lists which follow one of two formulations: The most common is _Pornoi, moixoi, malakoi, **arsenokoitai** , kleptai, pleonektai, methusoi, loidoroi_. “Prostitutes, adulterers, the (morally) soft, _arsenokoitai_, thieves, greedy ones, drunkards, (verbal) abusers/profaners.” Less commonly _arsenokoitai_ is followed by _andrapodistais kai epiorkrois_, “slave traders and perjurers.”
These lists aren’t especially helpful but there are a few instances in greek literature where a more specific context is given. Unfortunately, those contexts are not exactly consistent.
Twice in Greek literature, _arsenokoites_ is used to indicate homosexual rape. Once in Aristede’s _Apology_ where it refers to the rape of Ganymede by Zeus and once in Hippolytus’ _Refutatio_, where it refers to the rape of Adam by an evil angel named Naas.
There are also two instances where it refers to _heterosexual_ sex…once where it’s used to refer to male prostitutes who service women, and once for men who are accused of practicing the act with their wives.
Speculation varies, the late Yale historian John Boswell thought that it may have indicated exploitive acts…either rape, or sexually mercenary acts. Many believe it referred to male prostitutes, or to the practice of pederasty (which involved teenage male prostitutes). Some of course, will argue that it means “homosexual.” For a number of reasons, it is unlikely that it meant “homosexual” in a modern sense but it is not a question that can be definitively settled from the available evidence other than to say that no proposed definition is certain.
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### Author:  [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)
#### Post date: [May 30, 2005, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-arsenokoites-actually-mean/306037/4 "2005-05-30T01:02:45Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Literally, arenos means “male” and koites means “bed.”
But the first bit of the word is arseno, not arenos.
Perhaps the etymology of [Arsenic](http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?l=a&p=20) is relevant here:
> [@](#):
>
> Arsenic
> c.1386, from [O.Fr](http://O.Fr). arsenic, from L. arsenicum, from Gk. arsenikon “arsenic,” adopted for Syriac (al) zarniqa “arsenic,” from Middle Persian zarnik “gold-colored” (arsenic trisulphide has a lemon-yellow color). The Gk. word is folk etymology, from arsen “male, strong, virile” (cf. arseno-koites “lying with men” in N.T.) supposedly in reference to the powerful properties of the substance…
I don’t like that bit were it says ‘folk etymology’.
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### Author:  [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)
#### Post date: [May 30, 2005, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-arsenokoites-actually-mean/306037/5 "2005-05-30T01:06:47Z")
> [@Squink](#):
>
> But the first bit of the word is arseno, not arenos.
> Perhaps the etymology of [Arsenic](http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?l=a&p=20) is relevant here:
> I don’t like that bit were it says ‘folk etymology’.
That was a typo. _Arsenos_ means “male.”
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### Author:  [@stpauler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stpauler)
#### Post date: [May 30, 2005, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-arsenokoites-actually-mean/306037/6 "2005-05-30T01:17:49Z")
Thanks **Diogenes.** Do you remember where the two references that were about heterosexual sex come from? And did they pre/post date Paul’s usage?
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### Author:  [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)
#### Post date: [May 30, 2005, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-arsenokoites-actually-mean/306037/7 "2005-05-30T02:19:03Z")
> [@stpauler](#):
>
> Thanks **Diogenes.** Do you remember where the two references that were about heterosexual sex come from? And did they pre/post date Paul’s usage?
There are no known uses of the word before Paul and he may have invented it himself.
The statement about men with their wives - “some men even commit the sin of arsenokoitai with their wives” - was said by St. John the Faster in the 6th century CE
Before that, St. John Chrysostam (4t century CE) used the term to refer to child molesters…
I don’t precisely remember the source of the “gigolo” usage but I believe it came from a Roman cultural context rather than a Greek one. The male rape uses are both earlier than the het ones.
The most common form of homosexuality Paul would have seen would have been the trading in enslaved boy prostitutes and I’m personally convinced that the patronization of those “rent boys” was what Paul was referring to, but that over time the use got widened to include more general forms of sexual exploitation or aggression.
That is MHO, of course, and the GQ answer is still that nobody knows for sure.
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### Author:  [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)
#### Post date: [May 30, 2005, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-arsenokoites-actually-mean/306037/8 "2005-05-30T03:02:55Z")
> [@Diogenes the Cynic](#):
>
> The statement about men with their wives - “some men even commit the sin of arsenokoitai with their wives” - was said by St. John the Faster in the 6th century CE.
Might this not be a reference to anal sex? It would be a common aspect of all the acts associated with arsenokoitai, with men or women.
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### Author:  [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)
#### Post date: [May 30, 2005, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-arsenokoites-actually-mean/306037/9 "2005-05-30T03:18:06Z")
> [@Fear Itself](#):
>
> Might this not be a reference to anal sex? It would be a common aspect of all the acts associated with arsenokoitai, with men or women.
I think it’s generally taken that anal sex was probably the intent, but oral sex is a possibility as well, or John the faster could have been referring to any kind of non-procreative sex. There are other possibilities as well (rape or violent sex, women anally penetrating their husbands, men prostituting their wives to others) but anal sex is probably the best guess.
The question, then, is was Paul condemning only the specific act of anal sex wihout regard to gender? Did he intend to forbid anal sex for married couples (or oral sex)?
If _arsenokoites_ refers to an act rather than a gender configuration then it confuses the translation all the more. It seems that whatever the word meant, it was not used exclusively for homosexuals or homosexual acts.
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### Author:  [@BookReader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BookReader)
#### Post date: [May 30, 2005, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-arsenokoites-actually-mean/306037/10 "2005-05-30T04:42:24Z")
Hmmm; could this be where the Brits got the term “arse”? :dubious:
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### Author:  [@roger\_thornhill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/roger_thornhill)
#### Post date: [May 30, 2005, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-arsenokoites-actually-mean/306037/11 "2005-05-30T05:39:13Z")
> [@BookReader](#):
>
> Hmmm; could this be where the Brits got the term “arse”? :dubious:
As I said elsewhere, everything’s bottoms with you lot!
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### Author:  [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)
#### Post date: [May 30, 2005, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-arsenokoites-actually-mean/306037/12 "2005-05-30T06:07:58Z")
> [@roger thornhill](#):
>
> As I said elsewhere, everything’s bottoms with you lot!
In the field of stock market charting, “double bottoms” are particularly important! 😛
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### Author:  [@scm1001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scm1001)
#### Post date: [May 31, 2005, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-arsenokoites-actually-mean/306037/13 "2005-05-31T14:52:24Z")
which verses in the bible do arsonokoites appear in? I would be interested to see how the modern bibles translate it.
also I presume that koites is the derivative of our coitus?
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### Author:  [@stpauler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stpauler)
#### Post date: [May 31, 2005, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-arsenokoites-actually-mean/306037/14 "2005-05-31T15:29:22Z")
It was used in I Corinthians and I Timothy.
[Here’s a list of the translations throughout history:](http://www.jeramyt.org/gay/gaytrans.html)
Version Year Translation
Koine Greek 56 malakoi arsenokoitai
Latin Vulgate 405 molles masculorum concubitores
Wyclif 1508 lecchouris synne of Sodom
Tyndale 1525 weaklings abusers of themselves with mankynde
Great Bible 1539 weaklynges abusers of themselves with mankynde
Geneva Bible 1560 wantons bouggerers
Bishops Bible 1568 effeminate liers with mankinde
Reims-Douai 1609 effeminate liers with mankind
King James Authorized Version 1611 effeminate abusers of themselves with mankind
The Revised Version 1811 effeminate abusers of themselves with men
Darby 1890 those who make women of themselves abuse themselves with men
Young 1898 effeminate sodomites
American Standard Version 1901 effeminate abusers of themselves with men
RVA 1909 los afeminados los que se echan con varones
Louis Segond 1910 les effimines les infames
Wesley’s New Testament 1938 guilty of unnatural crime
Goodspeed 1951 sensual given to unnatural vice
Jerusalem Bible (French) 1955 effeminate people with infamous habits
Phillips 1958 effeminate pervert
Interlinear Greek-English New Testament 1958 voluptuous persons Sodomites
The Amplified Version 1958 those who participate in homosexuality
New English 1961 homosexual perversion
New American Standard Bible 1963 effeminate homosexuals
Today’s English Version 1966 homosexual perverts
Jerusalem Bible (German) 1968 sissies child molesters
Jerusalem Bible (English) 1968 Catamites Sodomites
New American Catholic 1970 homosexual perverts sodomites
Revised Standard Version 1971 sexual perverts
The Living Bible 1971 homosexuals
New International 1973 male prostitutes homosexual offenders
New King James 1979 homosexuals sodomites
rev Luther Bibel 1984 lustknaben knabenschander
Elberfelder Bibel 1985 Wollustlinge Knabenschander
New Jerusalem Bible 1985 self indulgent sodomites
New American Catholic 1987 boy prostitutes practicing homosexuals
Revised English Bible 1989 sexual pervert
New Revised Standard 1989 male prostitutes sodomites
New Living 1996 male prostitutes homosexuals
Third Millenium Bible 1998 effeminate abusers of themselves with mankind
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### Author:  [@Excalibre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Excalibre)
#### Post date: [May 31, 2005, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-arsenokoites-actually-mean/306037/15 "2005-05-31T18:48:15Z")
> [@BookReader](#):
>
> Hmmm; could this be where the Brits got the term “arse”? :dubious:
Surely not indeed.
Etymonline states that it comes from the Proto-Germanic \*arsoz (the asterisk meaning that it’s a form that’s been reconstructed from its daughter languages) and it shows up in several Germanic languages. It lists cognates with other Indo-European languages, meaning that it must have come from Proto-Indo-European, and meant essentially the same thing, though it doesn’t list the Indo-European root of the word.
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### Author:  [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)
#### Post date: [May 31, 2005, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-arsenokoites-actually-mean/306037/16 "2005-05-31T19:04:32Z")
If you Google the term “arsenokoites definition English” (no quotes) you get around 564 cites, most of which disagree with each other. :rolleyes:
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### Author:  [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)
#### Post date: [May 31, 2005, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-arsenokoites-actually-mean/306037/17 "2005-05-31T19:32:18Z")
> [@scm1001](#):
>
> which verses in the bible do arsonokoites appear in? I would be interested to see how the modern bibles translate it.
>
> also I presume that koites is the derivative of our coitus?
No. Coitus is from a Latin compound, _co itus_, which means “coming together” (no snickering).
**stpauler** , it should probably be mentioned that a lot of those translations are combining _arsenokoitai_ with the word that comes before it, _malakoi_, which literally means “soft ones.” Although it has many times been translated as “effeminate” or “sissies,” etc, there is no support that it conveyed any such thing in Greek and the evidence is that _malakos_ was used to indicate moral weakness or lack of discipline in a general sense and frequently was a euphamism for masturbators (or sometimes womanizers).