ANNEX C
Deeper NT Context for Paul’s Coin
The Verses They Swing
1 Corinthians 6:9—“Wrongdoers won’t inherit God’s kingdom. Don’t be deceived: fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, male prostitutes, sodomites…” (NRSVA). 1 Timothy 1:10—“…fornicators, sodomites, slave-traders, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound teaching” (NRSVA). Romans 1:26-27—“Women swapped natural intercourse for unnatural, men burned with passion for one another, committed shameless acts…” (NRSVA). Church loves these—NIV even slaps “homosexuals” on ‘em, a word Paul never knew. Sounds like a sex blacklist, right? Hold up—those English hacks gutted the guts of it. These ain’t about who’s loving who; they’re Paul’s war cries against a deeper rot. Let’s crack ‘em open.
Context Ain’t Optional
You can’t read these lines solo—they’re threads in a bigger fight. Two thousand years back, no iPhones, no “gay rights” debates—hell, no sanitary pads or tea bags either. If Paul wrote about Grindr, they’d blink dumb. Their world ain’t ours. Homosexuality as we get it—committed, mutual love? Not on their radar. “Top” and “bottom”? Didn’t work like today. Greek had words—paiderastes for boy-chasers, kinaidos for the debauched—but Paul sidesteps ‘em. Why? ‘Cause he’s not chasing bedroom roles; he’s hunting something else. Words shift—Hebrew, Greek, English—they bend with time. Paul didn’t know his letters would be “Bible,” didn’t see translators twisting his ink two millennia later. Zoom out—context’s king, or you’re just guessing.
Paul’s Word Forge
Take arsenokoitai (ἀρσενοκοῖται)—1 Corinthians 6:9, 1 Timothy 1:10. Not in Greek dictionaries ‘til Paul pens it. Arseno (male) plus koitai (bed)—he’s welding something new. Could’ve grabbed paiderastes (παιδεραστής)—boy-lover, clear as day—or androkoitai, a known sex term. Nope. He crafts arsenokoitai—a jagged edge for his crowd. Pair it with malakoi (μαλακοί)—“soft ones”—not “gay” like NIV twists, but spineless marks, easy prey. 1 Timothy 1:7—“They yap law, don’t know jack”—he’s aiming at false teachers, not lovers. Romans 1:26-27—“unnatural” (para physin, παρὰ φύσιν)—sounds sexy, but it’s cult haze, idols over God (v19-25), not wiring. Paul’s slinging metaphors—porneia (πορνεία) as harlotry’s stink (Hosea 1:2), not fleshly lust. His audience got the code; we don’t.
The Man and His Mess
Paul’s no polished preacher—2 Corinthians 11:6: “Untrained as a speaker, but I’ve got knowledge.” He’s raw, pissed, defending his turf. 2 Corinthians 11? He’s brawling with false apostles—“Deceitful workers, disguising as Christ’s own” (11:13-15). Satan’s crew in holy drag, undermining his gig. Galatians 1:6-9—“Different gospel? Cursed!”—he’s livid at angel-spun lies. His letters aren’t sermon notes; they’re fightin’ words, penned to churches he planted, now wobbling under cons. 1 Corinthians 6:1-8—lawsuits shred unity; he’s begging ‘em to sort it in-house. This ain’t about sex—it’s about keeping the flock from cracking. His fight was real, so bad he begged God to yank his thorn in the flesh.
Twisted Over Time
2 Peter 3:15-16—“Paul’s letters are tough, twisted by the ignorant to their ruin.” Spot on. Centuries roll, meanings drift—by 1946, RSV jams “homosexual” into arsenokoitai. Paul’s ink didn’t say that—56 AD had no such word. Translators choked, lost the thread, handed church a bat to swing at love. 2 Peter 2:1-3—“False teachers sneak heresies, exploit with greed”—that’s the sin Paul chased, not beds. Today’s pulpits twist it—shame the pure, pocket the tithes, dodge the real rot. Paul fought a corrupt cult, but that cult won. It morphed, took power, and now sits on the throne (Rev 3:12) with Trinity’s Twist. Sleek name, isn’t it?
What He Was Really After Galatians 5:19-21—“Works of the flesh: fornication, idolatry, sorcery…” Weymouth nails it: “Idol-worship, impurity, indecency.” Not modern hookups—cult rot, spiritual filth. Galatians 5:6—“Faith working through love”—that’s Paul’s lens, not law’s cage. 1 Corinthians 6:12—“All things lawful, but not profitable”—mocking petty rules while cons fleece the flock. 1 Timothy 1:3-7—“Stop the fables, stick to truth”—doctrine wars, not bedroom busts. Patricides, matricides (1 Timothy 1:9)—authority-killers, not literal kin-slayers—trashing God’s five-fold spine (Ephesians 4:11). Exploitation’s the sin—power grabs, not pulses. If Paul meant literal patricides and matricides, why even call them out? Obviously metaphorical here.
The Real Fight
1 Corinthians 5:1—guy with his stepmom? Cult trash, not church-bred—Paul axes it before it blooms. 1 Corinthians 8:1—eidolothuton (εἰδωλοθύτον), idol meat—weak consciences stumble. If meat was just food, why’s it a sore thumb in doctrine? The real issue? A lost teaching—reincarnation. They believed the gods once lived as men, and before that, as birds (Ziz), beasts (Behemoth), and sea creatures (Leviathan). They stopped eating meat not for health, but ‘cause they thought those creatures have divine traits. Then came the clash—Paul’s gospel said the true God is beyond idols. They knew “Him” but traded truth for shinier myths, prowling over created things, worshiping them to gain power. Acts 20:29-30—“Wolves rise after me”—Paul saw the claws. Romans 1:19-25—idols over God, that’s the “shame.” His beef? Corrupt leaders (1 Corinthians 6:1-8), greedy cons (1 Timothy 1:3-7)—swindlers wrecking faith for gain. Not love, not sex—doctrinal rot. Church today? Slams the broken with a twisted Bible—“Sodomites!”—when Paul’s cry was for truth, not shame. Souls bleed for it still.
In Jewish mythology, Ziz, Behemoth, and Leviathan are a trio of primordial creatures representing the air, land, and sea—Ziz, a giant griffin-like bird; Behemoth, a massive land beast; and Leviathan, a sea monster. Jewish apocrypha and pseudepigrapha, like Enoch, paint them as cosmic forces, with Behemoth and Leviathan clashing at the world’s end. Paul’s battle? Not against flesh, but these same spiritual entanglements—idols, false power, the rot of men playing gods. And just like then, the battle rages on.