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Originally Posted by cupl4fun  the church translates as "fornication" is the Greek word "porneia" which actually means "unlawful or immoral sex". Most likely meaning sex forbidden in Leviticus in this context meaning sex with animals, incest, temple prostitution, and rape to name most of them. |
And regarding Leviticus
What you have to realize is the Levitical laws were designed to have priests distinguish themselves from the practices of the religions of the peoples around Israel in other parts of Canaan, especially those east of Jordan. These people were involved in the worship of Molech and Baal and other gods and goddesses.
In the start of chapter 20 if you read verse 2 it says to "speak to the children of Israel." Christians are NOT the "children of Israel". No Christians have an obligation to follow Jewish Levitical Laws- they just do not apply. Have you eaten a ham sandwich lately?
On fornication/porneia of course that is what we point out.
"porneia" which actually means "unlawful or immoral sex".
So what is "unlawful or immoral sex" someone might reasonably ask:
There are definite biblical restrictions on sexual acts which are broader called sexual immorality (Greek "porneia"). These are:
1) Sex during women's menstruation. Lack of hygiene for nomads in the desert (lack of clean water) could lead to dangerous infections -"unclean" in ENGLISH refers to filth/dirt/etc., but in Hebrew, it refers, as validly, to RITUAL impurity it was a "sin" (spiritual impurity) to do such.
2) Adultery which biblically was understood by the Hebrews to mean wrong for a married women to have sex with another man since violated her husbands property rights. A man could marry when he was age 12.5. It was never understood to be wrong for a married man since his wife had no such rights. The married man could have as many wives (as long as women was at least age 13.5) and concubines (breeders) as he wished as long as "other women" were not married (another man's property). Certainly there is nothing wrong with by agreement between man and wife, sharing sexually with others as in polyamory or swinging since no property of cheating issue. Nothing ever was wrong with singles sexuality. "Fornication" is a total mistranslation lie of Greek "porneia"
3) Sexual Idolatry as in using the temple prostitutes for pagan fertility goddess worship. Or, doing the same with the golden calf and having sex to praise it as a god when Moses came down. Porneia as used in I Cor 6-9, falsely translated in some bibles as fornication was actually the practice of the prostitutes in the Temples of Corinth selling their services as a part of pagan fertility goddess worship which was what Paul was warning against. Not even specifically about prostitution but used as a pagan sexual goddess worship.
Corinth was one of the sex capitals of the world. Corinth was even a Metaphor for Fertility. "Corinthian girl" meant prostitute, "to play the Corinthian" meant to visit a prostitution house for goddess worshiping. It was the idolatry that was the sin, not sex with prostitutes. "Common" prostitutes are often mentioned with no negative inference.
The major deities at the time was Aphrodite, goddess of fertility, and Cybele, the Mother Goddess. The worshippers of Aphrodite worked as prostitutes in the temples.... these temples held over one thousand prostitutes. The purpose of these prostitutes was to earn money for the temple and to worship Aphrodite (they used sex as worship). So over 1,000 prostitutes were cultic, and that's just from the worshippers of Aphrodite
Nothing in the bible ever said there was anything wrong with non-goddess "common" prostitution which was common and often mentioned with nothing negative about it. Tel Aviv Today is the brothel capital of the world since prostitution just isn't a biblical issue for Jews and its legal in Israel as it is in almost all the world outside the U.S.
4) Pederasty - sexual sins that took various forms: The practice of pederasty falls into three distinct styles. First is the relationship between an older man and a young boy. Second is the practice of slave prostitutes. Third is that of the effeminate "call boy" or male prostitute. Other practices included a heterosexual male degrading another heterosexual male by anal intercourse after capturing them in battle. Another practice was heterosexual's using anal intercourse to drive out other heterosexual strangers they didn't like such as the case of the Sodom story. It had absolutely nothing to do with homosexuality which is simply being as God designed some people to be.
Beyond these 4 there is no biblical basis for any other definition of porneia, or sexual immorality.
For Christians remember that Christ taught in the Sermon on the Mount that the only law is the law of love. He demonstrated this by reversing four of the OT laws which conflicted with loving people. Therefore anything that was hurtful, not by mutual consent etc. would be immoral for a Christian, but obviously not loving sexuality regardless of marital status or natural sexual orientation.