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Fornication -what is it?

McBell

McBell

Admiral Obvious
Fornication
FORNICA'TION, n. [L. fornicatio.]

1. The incontinence or lewdness of unmarried persons, male or female; also, the criminal conversation of a married man with an unmarried woman.

2. Adultery. Mat 5.

3. Incest. 1 Cor 5.

4. Idolatry; a forsaking of the true God, and worshipping of idols. 2 Chr 21. Rev 19.
 
T

tigrers99

Member
When a married person has sexual intercourse with someone other than their spouse, they commit adultery against him/her. Since they married so very young back in the 1st century, we do not understand the New Testament's teaching on marriage as they did. The fornicators were single men and women and peddled their trade in the many pagan temples that existed in that part of the world. Many a married person even today vistits these peddlers for their own personal reasons. We know these peddlers as prostitutes. Back in the 1st century they were known as fornicators.

The Apostle Paul alluded to a 'fornication' that is unheard of even among the pagans, when a man's son was having sex with either his natural mother or his mother in law in (1Cor.5). Notice that nothing condemning was said about this mother, just her son or son in law. She was committing adultery against her husband but he was committing a kind of fornication that was outlandish and he didn't even work the temple. Imagine the shock he had when 1Cor.5 was read to him saying he was worse than a temple prostitute.

I know that many people have been taught that two people sin if they have sex without a legal document of marriage. I used to believe this, but have found that using the word 'fornication' as a catch all to catch this, does not work.
 
Lindsey-Loo

Lindsey-Loo

Steel Magnolia
To me, fornication is having sex outside of marriage. That means it could be between two unmarried persons or a married person with someone who is not their spouse. I believe fornication encompasses all sex outside of marriage, and adultery falls under the category of fornication. All adultery is fornication, but not all fornication is adultery. If that makes any sense.
 
ChristineES

ChristineES

Tiggerism
Premium Member
MidnightBlue said:
That Old Testament god was awfully harsh.
Click to expand...

The Law is pretty harsh. With the exception of the Ten Commandments and a few other laws, I sometimes wonder if it was men who started them and gave the credit to God. (I get this idea because of what Jesus taught)
Men and women are more harsh than God, it seems. ;)
 
B

Big_TJ

Active Member
Khale said:
From Answers.com:

Fornication came about to be a blanket word for sexual immorality for the same reason that, today, the word "gay" primarily means homosexual. It was just extensions of the original term that slowly became widely accepted. Eventually altering the meaning of the word.

There may be a couple reasons why fornication is not mentioned in the ten commandments. First of all, at the time, sexual contact between two unmarried individuals was not as unacceptable as some would have you believe. Though certainly not lauded, there are documented cases of (at the very least) temple sanctioned prostitutes in the Judeo-Christian religion (more Judeo than Christian, but it would not be surprising to find cases in the latter.) Secondly, there may not have been a word for fornication at the time the ten commandments were created. This is, however, just a guess as I have no way to confirm this.

Biblically, at least within the old testament, sex between two persons who were not married was not considered a sin, per se. It just wasn't recommended. New testament-wise, you need to remember, that nearly the entirety of this testament was a series of opinions from practitioners of the early religion. One or two of them thought that it was sinful, so it became sinful.
Click to expand...

Good information! So, shouldn't the teaching of fornication be more about "whoredom" than "sex before marriage" or "all sex-related sins?" It seem to me that Christians are using today's meaning of the word to promote a concept which the bible never intended (somewhat like Mary being a Virgin).
 
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