The Christian Greek
I have touched on this topic before but I am not sure if people understood it. And there is enough information about it to fill a book so I am only going to be able to give you some basic facts and if you are interested in it you will have to take it and look into it yourself.
Christians that want to get into a deeper study of the Bible may get into a word study-a word analysis. They usually look the word up in the Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance or a Lexicon or the internet, and for most words this will lead to accurate information. But there are topics that these sources will not give you accurate information and could even lead to a false understanding or a false belief. Why?
It was initially caused by differences in morality, between the Christians and the Pagans—Greco-Romans. I have spoken about the challenges the Apostles had with writing the New Testament in Koiné Greek because it was a Pagan language that did not have words that expressed Christian morals. This is no surprise! There would be no reason to expect a Pagan language or society or culture to have Christian morals or values.
So the Apostles had to improvise and it is pretty involved and that is why I simply call it Christian Greek….let me give you an example…
A Roman, Romulus Packumus tells his friend that he is going to get a prostitute for the evening and asks if he should get a temple prostitute or one down at the squire way? His friend says that the ones down on squire are more expensive, better looking, and more enthusiastic. So Romulus goes down and has a prostitute. And then he goes home where he has murals on the walls and maybe the floors of prostitutes and people having sex…which was common in Roman homes. Now keeping in mind that the Romans have no concept of sin as wrong doing…to them the word sin means their arrow missed the target. So what he did was completely legal and more than socially acceptable whether he was married or not…it was normal and their "gods" couldn't care less. So what did the Christians do with this?
First the word sin…the Koiné Greek word Hamartia derives from the Greek verb hamartanein, meaning "to miss the mark" The Christians changed the context and definition of this Greek word and incorporated it into the “Christian Greek” redefining the Greek word for sin as wrong doing and a transgression against God.
The Greek word for Prostitute πουτάνα, means the same in the Greek as it does in English, but Prostitution was acceptable in the Roman culture and considered a norm, even religiously....temple Prostitutes. A Roman husband was free to have sex with other women or even men. Adultery was not an issue unless they had sex with another man's wife....The Christians changed the context of this word and redefined it all as a sin.
Now there are different types of sexual sins listed individually and specifically in the scriptures….
πορνείας·… porneias … General sexual acts
πορνείᾳ … porneiai … Sexual acts the plural
πορνεῦσαι … Sexual activities.
πορνείαν … Sexual activity connected to a Greek god or temple.
πόρνος … A sexual person, male for female
πόρνοι … Referring to a group having sex…orgy?
πορνεῖαι … Sexual thoughts
All of these appear in the scriptures and are all normal in the Roman culture but then the Apostles changed the context of these words and defined them as sexual sins to conform to Christian morals. And incorporated them into the “Christian Greek.”
Then in modern Bibles these word are mostly lumped into the phrase “sexual immorality” In older Bibles like the Geneva Bible and the King James Bible these words are lumped into the word fornication. Fornication is not a Greek word nor is it a biblical word, it comes from the Latin.
Fornication was coined in the Latin around the 4th century and it is based on a connection to prostitution. This word makes its way into the older Bibles with an additional meaning….two single people having sex being defined as a sin. Lumping all the Greek words that where actually in the Scriptures, all together reduces the accuracy of the scriptures but defining two single people having sex as a sin skews the reality of history, almost all of it.
Since the beginning of time, two single people having sex formed a marriage. There is no biblical requirement for a wedding ceremony. It was the Protestants in the mid 1500’s that first required a wedding ceremony to be married and the Catholic Church soon followed suite. But still religiously and legally the union forms the marriage, because you can have a wedding put if you do not have sex, you can get the marriage annulled. The union forms the marriage.
The definition of fornication… The consensus of modern dictionaries states that fornication is consensual sexual intercourse between people who aren't married to one another. So the definition of fornication is saying that everybody in history sinned when they formed a marriage, because they were single when they had sex to form a marriage. The general notion that you have to have a wedding before you have sex would be unworkable.....because for thousands of years they had to have sex to be married, so it was impossible to be married before the couple had sex. And this is how God describe the sequence ....For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh....Genesis 2:24
Some modern definitions define fornication as casual sex, which would be more accurate but still it was not necessary to put a non-biblical word in Bibles. And as it is it has become part of Christian terminologies – the Christian language. Just as other non-biblical theological words and phrases can cause inaccuracies and false beliefs.
But back to the point of the Christian Greek, you can see that the Christians were taking Greek words and redefining them. They really did not have much of a choice….but as it is in modern times if you look up a Greek word you may get the Christian Greek definition for it, like it is a matter of fact. Christian Greek has created its own placebo history, which permeates nearly all sources Christian and media. LOL Which people should have noticed, if the Christians and Romans had the same morals things would have probably went a lot differently.
And there were other words that were redefined to the Christian Greek. Jesus is another word that came about in the 17th century. No one knows where it came from and it translates to nothing in Koiné Greek, but yet if you look it up nearly all sources will tell you it was translated from the Greek word Ἰησοῦς – Iésous, this is false. Iésous is not a name it is a Greek word that means healer and it can not be translated from Yeshua or to Jesus. Keep in mind that there are no J’s in the scriptures ….Yahweh, Yeshua, Yob, Yacob, Yericho etc. besides, is it possible that no one knew Christ’s name until the 17th century??!! LOL
Again we have a Christian language that permeates the sources to the point that for the “average Christian” it can be confusing and hard to find the truth. You ask a simple question about the Greek language and you get a Christian Greek explanation for it.
Between this language shuffle and theological literary style of the biblical time period where any one Apostle would speak to either extreme of a topic it can make it confusing….ever notice that when people debate on this forum they can throw seeming opposing scriptures at one another that came from the same Apostle….no wonder we have so many denominations!
I have touched on this topic before but I am not sure if people understood it. And there is enough information about it to fill a book so I am only going to be able to give you some basic facts and if you are interested in it you will have to take it and look into it yourself.
Christians that want to get into a deeper study of the Bible may get into a word study-a word analysis. They usually look the word up in the Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance or a Lexicon or the internet, and for most words this will lead to accurate information. But there are topics that these sources will not give you accurate information and could even lead to a false understanding or a false belief. Why?
It was initially caused by differences in morality, between the Christians and the Pagans—Greco-Romans. I have spoken about the challenges the Apostles had with writing the New Testament in Koiné Greek because it was a Pagan language that did not have words that expressed Christian morals. This is no surprise! There would be no reason to expect a Pagan language or society or culture to have Christian morals or values.
So the Apostles had to improvise and it is pretty involved and that is why I simply call it Christian Greek….let me give you an example…
A Roman, Romulus Packumus tells his friend that he is going to get a prostitute for the evening and asks if he should get a temple prostitute or one down at the squire way? His friend says that the ones down on squire are more expensive, better looking, and more enthusiastic. So Romulus goes down and has a prostitute. And then he goes home where he has murals on the walls and maybe the floors of prostitutes and people having sex…which was common in Roman homes. Now keeping in mind that the Romans have no concept of sin as wrong doing…to them the word sin means their arrow missed the target. So what he did was completely legal and more than socially acceptable whether he was married or not…it was normal and their "gods" couldn't care less. So what did the Christians do with this?
First the word sin…the Koiné Greek word Hamartia derives from the Greek verb hamartanein, meaning "to miss the mark" The Christians changed the context and definition of this Greek word and incorporated it into the “Christian Greek” redefining the Greek word for sin as wrong doing and a transgression against God.
The Greek word for Prostitute πουτάνα, means the same in the Greek as it does in English, but Prostitution was acceptable in the Roman culture and considered a norm, even religiously....temple Prostitutes. A Roman husband was free to have sex with other women or even men. Adultery was not an issue unless they had sex with another man's wife....The Christians changed the context of this word and redefined it all as a sin.
Now there are different types of sexual sins listed individually and specifically in the scriptures….
πορνείας·… porneias … General sexual acts
πορνείᾳ … porneiai … Sexual acts the plural
πορνεῦσαι … Sexual activities.
πορνείαν … Sexual activity connected to a Greek god or temple.
πόρνος … A sexual person, male for female
πόρνοι … Referring to a group having sex…orgy?
πορνεῖαι … Sexual thoughts
All of these appear in the scriptures and are all normal in the Roman culture but then the Apostles changed the context of these words and defined them as sexual sins to conform to Christian morals. And incorporated them into the “Christian Greek.”
Then in modern Bibles these word are mostly lumped into the phrase “sexual immorality” In older Bibles like the Geneva Bible and the King James Bible these words are lumped into the word fornication. Fornication is not a Greek word nor is it a biblical word, it comes from the Latin.
Fornication was coined in the Latin around the 4th century and it is based on a connection to prostitution. This word makes its way into the older Bibles with an additional meaning….two single people having sex being defined as a sin. Lumping all the Greek words that where actually in the Scriptures, all together reduces the accuracy of the scriptures but defining two single people having sex as a sin skews the reality of history, almost all of it.
Since the beginning of time, two single people having sex formed a marriage. There is no biblical requirement for a wedding ceremony. It was the Protestants in the mid 1500’s that first required a wedding ceremony to be married and the Catholic Church soon followed suite. But still religiously and legally the union forms the marriage, because you can have a wedding put if you do not have sex, you can get the marriage annulled. The union forms the marriage.
The definition of fornication… The consensus of modern dictionaries states that fornication is consensual sexual intercourse between people who aren't married to one another. So the definition of fornication is saying that everybody in history sinned when they formed a marriage, because they were single when they had sex to form a marriage. The general notion that you have to have a wedding before you have sex would be unworkable.....because for thousands of years they had to have sex to be married, so it was impossible to be married before the couple had sex. And this is how God describe the sequence ....For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh....Genesis 2:24
Some modern definitions define fornication as casual sex, which would be more accurate but still it was not necessary to put a non-biblical word in Bibles. And as it is it has become part of Christian terminologies – the Christian language. Just as other non-biblical theological words and phrases can cause inaccuracies and false beliefs.
But back to the point of the Christian Greek, you can see that the Christians were taking Greek words and redefining them. They really did not have much of a choice….but as it is in modern times if you look up a Greek word you may get the Christian Greek definition for it, like it is a matter of fact. Christian Greek has created its own placebo history, which permeates nearly all sources Christian and media. LOL Which people should have noticed, if the Christians and Romans had the same morals things would have probably went a lot differently.
And there were other words that were redefined to the Christian Greek. Jesus is another word that came about in the 17th century. No one knows where it came from and it translates to nothing in Koiné Greek, but yet if you look it up nearly all sources will tell you it was translated from the Greek word Ἰησοῦς – Iésous, this is false. Iésous is not a name it is a Greek word that means healer and it can not be translated from Yeshua or to Jesus. Keep in mind that there are no J’s in the scriptures ….Yahweh, Yeshua, Yob, Yacob, Yericho etc. besides, is it possible that no one knew Christ’s name until the 17th century??!! LOL
Again we have a Christian language that permeates the sources to the point that for the “average Christian” it can be confusing and hard to find the truth. You ask a simple question about the Greek language and you get a Christian Greek explanation for it.
Between this language shuffle and theological literary style of the biblical time period where any one Apostle would speak to either extreme of a topic it can make it confusing….ever notice that when people debate on this forum they can throw seeming opposing scriptures at one another that came from the same Apostle….no wonder we have so many denominations!
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