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From: hudson@athena.cs.uga.edu (Paul Hudson Jr)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian
Subject: Re: homosexual issues in Christianity
Message-ID: <May.13.02.28.16.1993.1449@geneva.rutgers.edu>
Date: 13 May 93 06:28:17 GMT
Sender: hedrick@geneva.rutgers.edu
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>[There's some ambiguity about the meaning of the words in the passage
>you quote.  Both liberal and conservative sources seem to agree that
>"homosexual" is not the general term for homosexuals, but is likely to
>have a meaning like homosexual prostitute.  

From what I understand of my experience in looking up this word, and 
discussing it with a Greek-literate individual, the meaning of the 
word is rather clear.  Basically it literally means "he who beds with a man"
or "he who has sex with a man."  The burden of proof is on the 
pro-homosexuality side of the argument to show that the word has an 
idiomatic meaning nor evident from its literal meaning.  One can speculate
all day long that it might mean something else, but we need evidence
before we create new doctrines, and get rid of the historical understanding
of the meaning of this word.

Link Hudson.


[I've read enough discussions of this passage, in both liberal and
conservative sources, to be sure that the meaning -- even the literal
meaning -- is not certain.  That doesn't mean one can't come to some
conclusion, nor does it mean that I think there's any doubt about what
Paul thinks of homosexuality.  But there are plausible arguments for
a couple of different meanings.  --clh]
