Someone asked the other day about αρσενοκοιτης. They asked, “I see the argument that arsenokoitai is a made up word and could not possibly mean homosexual. How do we come about knowing what this word really means?”

First of all, all words are made up. God made up a lot at Babel, and humans have been making up words every since. Paul loves to make up words; “God-breathed” in 2 Tim 3:16 is perhaps the most famous. So just because a word is made up doesn’t say anything about whether or not we can know its meaning.

This is the first time in the blog I have dealt with the issue of etymology, so perhaps a few introductory comments are in order.

The etymology of a word is the meaning of its parts. In English we might talk about a “goalpost.” This is a goal that is formed by two vertical posts. In other words, in the creation of the word for where you kick the ball in soccer — excuse me, football — somebody took the word “goal” and the word “post” and created a term. When you look at the etymology of “goalpost,” you can see its two parts and those two parts tell you the meaning of the new term, “goalpost.”

Etymologies can be fun to play with. I just found Etymonline.com. I don’t know how reliable it is, but it is fun.