There is a myth that is persistently passed around in Evangelical circles that fornication and premarital sex are always the same thing. While there are instances where premarital sex is a form of fornication, they are not always the same thing. Almost no Greek scholar thinks that the Greek word 'porneia', translated at times as fornication, is always the same as premarital sex. Biblical usage does not show fornication as always referring to sex outside of marriage. Perhaps one of the most commonly used arguments against premarital sex is based upon an ignorant understanding of this word and words related to it. The following will briefly address this subject.
1. It's Circular Reasoning to Call Fornication a Sin
If one asks an Evangelical pastor 'is premarital sex a sin'? The response is often: 'It is a sin. It's sexual immorality'. And then one asks 'why is it sexual immorality'? The Pastor replies 'because it's fornication'. And the one asks 'why is premarital sex fornication'? The response is often 'because it's sexual immorality'. This is a form of circular reasoning. Many Evangelicals assume the word fornication means premarital sex. The make this assumption often without even having studied the Greek word porneia.
2. Almost know scholar considers fornication and premarital sex to always be the same thing
One will be very hard pressed to find any Greek dictionary or scholar who thinks that fornication is defined merely as premarital sex. Premarital sex can be a form of fornication at times but to say that they are always the same thing is totally untenable. And it can be shown that premarital sex is not the primary usage or meaning of this word.
Examples of what Greek tools (tools commonly used by Evangelicals) have to say about the Greek word porneia and words related to it:
-Strong's Concordance: 'porneia: harlotry (including adultery and incest); figuratively, idolatry'
-Strong's Concordance: 'porneuo: to act the harlot, i.e. (literally) indulge unlawful lust'
-Thayer's Lexicon: 'porneuo: to prostitute one's body to the lust of another, to give one's self to unlawful sexual intercourse, to be given to idolatry'
-Vine's Dictionary: 'porneia: illicit sexual intercourse...includes, adultery; it is distinguished from it'
-Exegetical Dictionary: 'prostitution, unchastity, fornication and is used of every kind of unlawful sexual intercourse'
-Greek-English Lexicon (Liddell/Scott): 'porneuo: to prostitute'
-Greek-English Lexicon (BAGD): 'porneia: prostitution, unchastity, fornication, of every kind of unlawful sexual intercoourse'
Notice in the above definitions that there is no mention of porneia or porneuo meaning only premarital sex. They refer to giving oneself over to unlawful/immoral lust, whether idolatry or adultery or prostitution. Many forms of fornication would include sex outside of marriage. But the word in itself does not condemn sex sex outside of marriage.
3. If fornication is not always premarital sex, what case is there for saying premarital sex is always 'fornication' or a sin?
To say that sex outside of marriage is always a sin, one must have a biblical argument that goes beyond merely using the word 'fornication'. Most other arguments used by Evangelicals are focused around attempting to show that monogamy is God's only way. However, this flies in the face of the biblical passages where God caused and condoned polygamy. And Evangelicals often stretch passages such as Genesis 2:24 well beyond their meaning.
A further study of the word porneia will be posted in the future. It will be shown that scholars consider this word as being connected to a root word meaning 'to sell'. The word is considered to have a range of meaning such as exogamy and prostitution etc. Biblical usage in the Greek Old Testament uses it mainly to refer to idolatry. And New Testament usage shows how it can refer to a variety of sexual sin or even non-sexual sin. This biblical usage fits with how the w
The word 'fornication' itself does not always refer to premarital sex. What case then is there in saying that premarital sex is always fornication? The evidence from the word itself is lacking. And without other arguments from the Bible to say premarital sex is a sin, there is no case for saying sex outside of marriage is always a sin in and of itself.
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