Church stance on gay marriage "for good of society", says Bishop Michael Nazi

[Tea Earl Grey Hot]

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Well, I never saw any other translation, really. They are the same in all languages.
They all condemn homosexual acts.

The issue centers around the exact meaning of "arsenokoitēs." When you see "homosexual," or "effeminate" in your Bible, it's that word translated. 20th century translations render it "homosexual." Most scholars I think are dead set that it really means "homosexual" but there are a number of scholars who argue that it probably doesn't. According to the books I've read, we're not really certain what the word means. I'm not a Christian anymore so I'm not really concerned about the issue, but if you're Christian, you may want to look into the debate.

Countryman has written a book about interpreting Biblical sexual ethics in light of historical context. He has this to say on the word (apologies if this quote is too long):

Arsenokoitai is of uncertain meaning. It contains basic elements referring to male gender and to sexual intercourse, and the King James translators, presumably relying on the guidance of etymology, used the peculiar phrase "abusers of themselves with mankind." The original edition of the Revised Standard Version combined the two terns and translated them "homosexuals." The second edition substituted "sexual perverts." The great problem with analyzing this vocabulary is that arsenokoitai never appears in a context that can give us a clear sense of exactly what the term meant to Paul or to Paul's audience or even for some centuries thereafter. There is no certain instance of it prior to the New Testament writings, and it occurs only one other time in the New Testament itself again in a list and this time without malakoi (1 Tim. 1: 10, a post-Pauline writing). Its etymology could suggest some such meaning as "a man who has intercourse with another man," but etymology is a notoriously bad guide to the actual, live meanings of words. In American English, for example, "outbuilding" and "outhouse" are synonymous in terms of etymology, but quite different in usage, the one meaning any outlying building on a farm, the other meaning a latrine. Usage, not etymology, determines meaning.

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There have been two major suggestions about the meaning of Paul's terns. One, put forward by Robin Scroggs, proposes that malakoi and arsenokoitai functioned together as Greek equivalents to technical terminology in rabbinic Hebrew that designated, respectively, the penetrated and penetrative partners in anal intercourse. The terns, on this interpretation, would have been closely tied to the purity law of Leviticus and its interpretation in the scribal tradition.50 The other suggestion, made by John Boswell, holds that there was no intrinsic connection between malakoi and arsenokoitai, that the former word, if it had anything at all do with sexual activity, meant "masturbators," and that the latter was probably a vulgar expression meaning "male prostitutes." If this is correct, it would be unclear whether Paul's use of the term was meant to condemn them for same-gender sexual acts or for acts of prostitution or both.51 Scroggs's argument implies that the two terms malakoi and arsenokoitai should form an invariable pair because neither would have the same import without the other. Yet in its one other occurrence in the New Testament, arsenokoitai appears without malakoi and is associated rather with "those given to harlotry" and "kidnappers" (1 Tian. 1: 10). Furthermore, if Paul was indeed employing technical terminology used in the synagogue and reaffirming it in the context of the church, we should expect knowledge of this usage to continue, but the later record is at best mixed, with little evidence for arsenokoites as meaning anything like "homosexual."52 Then, too, Scroggs's hypothesis is complex, requiring us to understand the vocabulary in terns of a double linguistic and cultural tradition, whereas Boswell's hypothesis stays entirely within the bounds of the Greek-speaking world. This does not prove that Scroggs is mistaken, but, other considerations being at least equal, the simpler hypothesis is preferable.53 More recently, Dale B. Martin has presented strong arguments against the linking of the two words and has demonstrated once again that we simply do not have any adequate evidence to tell us what arsenokoites meant.

L. William Countryman. Dirt, Greed, and Sex: Sexual Ethics in the New Testament and Their Implications for Today (Kindle Locations 1672-1700). Kindle Edition.