Acts 15:29-- "unlawful marriage" or "fornication question...?
So I've read a couple different versions of this verse. I think the apostles are talking to the Gentiles. The Standard American Edition says:
"that ye abstain from things sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication; from which if ye keep yourselves, it shall be well with you. Fare ye well."
The New American Bible says:
"namely, to abstain from meat sacrificed to idols, from blood, from meats of strangled animals, and from unlawful marriage. If you keep free of these, you will be doing what is right. Farewell."
"Fornication" is used in the first translation. "Unlawful Marriage" in the second. Is there a difference? And what, according to the time and people, would have been considered "fornication" or "unlawful marriage"? Would same-sex marriage/relationships have been been considered, at the time and by the people relative to the scripture, unlawful or fornication? Were the apostles speaking about what THEY would have thought to be unlawful marriage, or what the Gentiles would have thought to be unlawful marriage (or would it have been the same either way)?
Try not to go off on other tangents but stay relevant to my questions please! Thanks.
2010-12-16T17:10:13Z
Based on the one answer it sounds like this passage is referring to fornication in the sense of worshiping the idols and offerings, and not the sexual kind. ???
Moi2010-12-16T17:03:55Z
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Well in the original manuscripts, it is the Greek "porneia" (as English "porno"-graphy), meaning:
1) illicit sexual intercourse
a) adultery, fornication, homosexuality, lesbianism, intercourse with animals etc.
b) sexual intercourse with close relatives; Lev. 18
c) sexual intercourse with a divorced man or woman; Mk. 10:11,12
2) metaph. the worship of idols
a) of the defilement of idolatry, as incurred by eating the sacrifices offered to idols
the second translation its obviously a bad translation ... there is not such thing called unlawful marriage , i think they were trying to be politically correct and wanted to avoid writing sex with out being married which would had been a way better translation for those who don't understand what fornication means , they obviously wanted to make the new American bible more understandable and obviously failed miserably in that particular verse .
edit : they are talking about eating some particular things and then when they say fornication they really mean fornication not "unlawful marriage" which is a miss-translation . you might go ahead and check other translation and im pretty sure all others will say fornication .
"unlawful marriage" is a paraphrase, and isn't what the Greek says. Fornication is defined as any sexual activity outside of marriage. But be aware that there was more than one type of marriage in existence at the time Acts was written. So it isn't confined to the "one man-one woman" concept. For example, polygamy was common, and was only forbidden to clergy in the Christian church.
Edit: history also records same-sex marriage and polyandry in existence in ancient times. Since marriage wasn't regulated by government or even so much by religion at the time, the concept of an "unlawful" marriage would be somewhat meaningless.
This is just ONE of the many issues that have been caused by translations of the Bible.
The section you quote is covering sacrifices, kosher foods, and marriage. Sacrifices today are a pointless subject, as you know. Kosher is too, really. But, the 'marriage' issue is very, very hot.
Fornication is and is not 'unlawful marriage.' Today, we think of them as very different things, but they're not really.
The OLD church had rules about what was and was not a lawful marriage. No priors, eligibility, faith issues, racial issues, same-sex issues, and so on. Before that, 99% of the Internet would be considered married, as they looked not at the church's rules, but if you had had sex or not. That first person, that was husband/wife number one. Each one after that was another number. For proof, look to Christ's conversation with Mary, at the well.
However, organized religion only counted public marriages as lawful, and then under conditions. Any extra sex was fornication. I'm not sure exactly how they looked at anal or oral sex, but I don't think it was as popular then as it is today. While still fun, it was seen as a way to have children,mostly sons, so... The church believed this very much, which is why the ban on contraception came along.
To be simple, gays could not marry. They could have sex, but this was seen as 'sick' in most forms, and accepted as sex in a few, but never as a marriage. The Greeks seemed to have enjoyed this far more than most, but it was by no means rare. The 'myth' is that it was practiced in Sodom, and was therefore called Sodomy. While this applied mostly to men on men, it was no doubt also practiced by girls who wanted to remain pure until marriage, or other with that fetish. Again, verification can be found in the texts, and in modern porn, to which few are unaware of.
Different cultures have always had different rules for marriage. They can be as simple as sleeping together, even not having sex but sharing the bed, to year long ceremonies that would be impossible to afford today. Even today, Wicca has a "Hand-fasting" ritual which is different from the christian ceremony of exchanging rings. To them, it is no less binding, but many refuse to accept it.
Today, well, sex isn't that important to marriage. Instead, it seems to be the misery one has with someone, that bonds them. Gays and straights have sex freely, and have since the 1960s in America. Prior to that, well, sex was a taboo that was rarely spoken of, but done much more often.
The greek word used is porneia (where we get "pornography"). Strong's Concordances states the following:
Porneia: from porneuo (harlotry) (includes adultery and incest); figuratively, idolatry----fornication
Unlawful marriage does not seem to be a valid translation of the word, as it is much broader in context than unlawful marriages. Since the rest of the verse seems to be connected with pagan religions (pagan sacrifice, eating blood, eating sacrificed animals), I would imagine that what the speaker had in mind was the sexual acts associated with the 'worship' of certain pagan gods in their temples, or simply the figurative form of the word, idol worship in general.