> the Greek word he uses for the receiving partner is specifically the word for an underage male slave kept for sexual purposes,
I've seen this making the rounds on TikTok and it is absolutely untrue. What I find unsettling about this is the people who originally made this claim (not the ones unknowingly spreading it) had to have been deliberately dishonest. It's very easy to verify this for yourself - Greek and English side-by-sides are readily available with Greek dictionaries.
There are actually several Pauline references. The most famous is probably Romans 1:27.
> And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.
You can see the Greek words used, their translations, and look up their meanings and usage here:
You can see it is literally the same word, "men with men." There is no connotation of boyhood or slavery. The same is true in the other verses usually claimed to "actually" mean underage boys, although two verses do have an unusual word.
> Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,
In this case, the word is arsenokoitai, which is an unusual word, possibly of Paul's coinage. But again, we can refer to dictionaries for the meaning and etymology. You can already see the root is the same as before.
Once again, there is no connotation of being underage or a slave.
To be clear, this is not an endorsement - but we should be honest about what the text says. They usually also make this claim about Leviticus, even though the word used is just "male" and means such throughout the rest of the OT.
I've seen this making the rounds on TikTok and it is absolutely untrue. What I find unsettling about this is the people who originally made this claim (not the ones unknowingly spreading it) had to have been deliberately dishonest. It's very easy to verify this for yourself - Greek and English side-by-sides are readily available with Greek dictionaries.
There are actually several Pauline references. The most famous is probably Romans 1:27.
> And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.
You can see the Greek words used, their translations, and look up their meanings and usage here:
https://biblehub.com/romans/1-27.htm
You can see it is literally the same word, "men with men." There is no connotation of boyhood or slavery. The same is true in the other verses usually claimed to "actually" mean underage boys, although two verses do have an unusual word.
One such verse is in 1 Corinthians 6:9:
https://biblehub.com/1_corinthians/6-9.htm
> Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,
In this case, the word is arsenokoitai, which is an unusual word, possibly of Paul's coinage. But again, we can refer to dictionaries for the meaning and etymology. You can already see the root is the same as before.
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E1%BC%80%CF%81%CF%83%CE%B5%C...
Once again, there is no connotation of being underage or a slave.
To be clear, this is not an endorsement - but we should be honest about what the text says. They usually also make this claim about Leviticus, even though the word used is just "male" and means such throughout the rest of the OT.