The Greek word for “fornication” is “porneia”,
which means harlotry (including adultery and
incest); figuratively, idolatry: The NKJ renders
“fornication” as “sexual immorality.” The NIV
renders it as “marital unfaithfulness/infidelity.” As
you can see Christianity has made up its own
meaning of fornication to mean sex before
marriage. Christianity continues to define and
redefine itself. I continue to question Christians in
these matters.
Answered by Marshall Beretta, EPM Volunteer
I was not sure from your comments on “porneia”
whether you were arguing for personal support of
pre-marital sex. I’ll treat the general issue of the
word. The Bible in its entirety is clear on sexuality.
Words have meaning in context. Looking at a word
such as porneia (proveuo, porna, pornos, moicheia,
etc.) is only a prelude to understanding the specific
idea the writer is conveying to the reader within a
set of words. In addition, there is usually a broader
context within which a set of words is placed. This
can be within a sentence, paragraph, theme,
chapter, book, testament, or entire work. To fully
capture what a writer means for the reader to
understand by a word or idea, one must consider its
whole context, as well as its immediate context.
Even beyond a particular word usage is the greater
linguistic context of the language—its origins,
historical development, borrowed influences, etc.