![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.bartehrman.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Joshua-Schachterle-Bart-Ehrman-Author-1-1.png\" "\\"Joshua")
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Written by Joshua Schachterle, Ph.D<\/a><\/p>\n Author | \u00a0Professor | Scholar<\/p>\n Author | \u00a0Professor | BE Contributor<\/p>\n Verified! \u00a0See our editorial guidelines<\/a><\/p>\n Verified! \u00a0See our guidelines<\/a><\/p>\n\nDate written: May 6th, 2026\n\nDate written: May 6th, 2026\n Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily match my own. – Dr. Bart D. Ehrman<\/p>\n The word \u201cfornication\u201d appears frequently in English translations of the Bible, yet its meaning is far less straightforward than it might seem at first glance<\/strong>. While modern readers often assume it refers simply to sex between unmarried people, this definition reflects a relatively narrow and later understanding of the term. In the biblical texts themselves, the words translated as \u201cfornication\u201d carry a much broader and more complex range of meanings shaped by ancient cultural, social, and religious contexts.<\/p>\n In this article, I\u2019ll explain how these terms function across both the Old and New Testaments<\/a>, tracing how their meanings shift depending on context. By looking closely at the linguistic roots and the historical settings in which these words were used, we can better understand not only what biblical authors may have intended, but also why translating and interpreting \u201cfornication\u201d in the Bible remains such a challenging and often debated task today.<\/p>\n In most English dictionaries, fornication is defined simply as sexual intercourse between people not married to each other. However, as we\u2019ll soon see, the Hebrew and Greek words frequently translated as fornication often contain much broader connotations.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s begin with Hebrew. The Hebrew verb usually translated as \u201cto commit fornication, prostitution, or unfaithfulness\u201d is zanah, while the related noun zonah generally means a prostitute or harlot. Forms of these words are found many times in the Hebrew Bible, although not always in the same contexts. In my discussion of the use of these words in Old Testament books, I\u2019ll go into more detail about the ways various forms of this word are used.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the Greek word often translated as fornication in the New Testament is porneia<\/strong>, from which we derive English words like pornography. However, translating this word is a tricky business and requires some background.<\/p>\n In his book The Corinthian Body<\/a>, Dale Martin notes that “the precise meaning of porneia is simply uncertain given the lack of evidence we have.” It\u2019s not that we don\u2019t know the general gist of the word: porneia always refers in some sense to sexual immorality. The problem is that different cultures and times in history have defined sexual immorality differently. As Carolyn Osiek has noted in Early Christian Families in Context<\/a>, “To say that \u03c0\u03bf\u03c1\u03bd\u03b5\u03af\u03b1 [porneia] means fornication is circular, and the concept of illicit sex only begs the question of what is considered illicit.” For an example of this, let\u2019s discuss the difference between adultery (Greek: moicheia) and fornication (porneia) in the ancient Greek-speaking world.<\/p>\n In his article, \u201cPorneia: The Making of a Christian Sexual Norm,\u201d<\/a> Kyle Harper notes that the line dividing these two concepts was entirely determined by the status of the woman involved.<\/p>\n (Affiliate Disclaimer: We may earn commissions on products you purchase through this page at no additional cost to you. Thank you for supporting our site!<\/em>)<\/p>\n Moicheia was sexual violation of a respectable woman\u2014extramarital sex with a wife, daughter, or widow. Porneia was extramarital sex that did not injure a third party such as a husband, father, or male relative who stood in a position of protection over a woman’s sexual honor. The nature of the sexual sin\u2026 was determined by the woman’s place in society.<\/p>\n For modern people, adultery and fornication can overlap. If a person is married and has sex with someone to whom he is not married, he is an adulterer. But since the two having sex are also not married to each other, they are also committing fornication according to the dictionary definition above.<\/p>\n Harper notes that the word porneia, \u201cderived from the Greek porn\u0113 (“prostitute”)\u2026 passed into Latin as fornicatio and thence into English as “fornication.” But “fornication” is effectively limited to ecclesiastical usage.\u201d<\/p>\n He goes on to remark that while the definition of the English word fornication has narrowed over time, the definition of porneia gradually broadened in Greek. Since it was originally derived from the word p\u00f3rn\u0113 as noted above, Harper writes that porneia first meant simply “the practice of selling access to one’s body. Porneia in classical Greek, refers [only] to the activity of the seller.\u201d However, he reports that this meaning would eventually expand:<\/p>\n Perhaps the most subtle yet transformative innovation of the term \u03c0\u03bf\u03c1\u03bd\u03b5\u03af\u03b1 [porneia] was to give a single name to a diverse set of sexual practices that were widely accepted in antiquity precisely because they did not violate the social protocols of ancient sexual morality.<\/p>\n These sexual standards were only applicable when \u201cfree women,\u201d those who were not slaves, had a respectable marriage, and were not prostitutes, were involved. However, Harper notes that long before the advent of Christianity, \u201cAthenian law held that a man was not a \u03bc\u03bf\u03b9\u03c7\u03cc\u03c2 [adulterer] if he had sex with a woman who sits in a brothel or sells herself openly\u2026 The \u03bc\u03bf\u03b9\u03c7\u03cc\u03c2 violates a [free] woman, not his own marriage bond; there is no female equivalent.\u201d<\/p>\n In other words, the classification of sexual violations had more to do with the status of the woman involved than with any objective moral standard. Men with respectable marriages could have sex with slaves or prostitutes without technically violating their marriages. On the other hand women, even free women, were not given the same liberty.<\/p>\n Having established some of the nuances of the translation issues involved in this topic, let\u2019s move on to how the Bible uses the word fornicate (or its equivalents) in the Old Testament.<\/p>\n We begin with the earliest iteration of zanah, the Hebrew word often translated as fornication in the Hebrew Bible canon. It\u2019s found in the story of Tamar and Judah in Genesis<\/a> 38. Tamar is widowed twice after the deaths of Judah\u2019s sons Er and Onan. However, Judah fails to fulfill his obligation to provide his third son, Shelah, as her husband, leaving Tamar in a vulnerable and dishonorable position. Realizing she has been wronged, Tamar disguises herself as a prostitute and sleeps with Judah, who does not recognize her. When she becomes pregnant and is accused of prostitution, she reveals items Judah gave her as payment, proving he is the father. Judah admits his wrongdoing and declares Tamar more righteous than himself.<\/p>\n The word zanah in this story comes in verse 24 when it is discovered that Tamar is pregnant:<\/p>\n About three months later Judah was told, \u201cYour daughter-in-law Tamar has prostituted herself [z\u0101na\u1e6f\u0101h]; moreover, she is pregnant as a result of prostitution [lizn\u016bn\u00eem].\u201d<\/p>\n Notice that zanah here refers only to prostitution or paid sexual favors. However, in another book in the Pentateuch, we soon see the metaphorical use of the word, a use which becomes far more common than the literal use of the term in the Old Testament.<\/p>\n In Numbers 14:33, we see this sentence using a form of zanah in a figurative way:<\/p>\n And your children shall be shepherds in the wilderness for forty years and shall suffer for your faithlessness [zan\u016b\u1e6f\u00ea\u1e35em], until the last of your dead bodies lies in the wilderness.<\/p>\n The context of this passage is the 40 years the Israelites have wandered in the wilderness looking for the Promised Land. In this sentence, the Hebrew word zan\u016b\u1e6f\u00ea\u1e35em, which can mean extramarital sex, is used for unfaithfulness to God, otherwise known as idolatry. In fact, this word is used frequently to mean worship of idols in further passages.<\/p>\n Another example of this use can be found in 2 Kings 9, which describes an Israelite warrior named Jehu overthrowing the wicked king Ahab and killing his wife Jezebel. However, before Jezebel is killed, we see this short dialogue in verse 22:<\/p>\n When Joram saw Jehu, he said, \u201cIs it peace, Jehu?\u201d He answered, \u201cWhat peace can there be, so long as the many prostitutions [zan\u016bn\u00ea] and sorceries of your mother Jezebel continue?\u201d<\/p>\n Although calling a woman a \u201cJezebel\u2019 once meant an accusation of sexual promiscuity in English, this is not what Jehu accuses Jezebel of. Instead, he charges her with serving idols rather than the God of Israel. In other words, her \u201cprostitutions\u201d are simply unfaithfulness to God.<\/strong><\/p>\n A final example comes from the prophets who use this metaphor of fornication-as-idolatry more than any other Old Testament books<\/a>. In Jeremiah 2:20, God speaks through the prophet, telling the Israelites<\/p>\n For long ago you broke your yoke In this entire chapter, God begs his people to repent for worshipping other gods, specifically the Canaanite gods of the people around them. This is depicted as a form of \u201cprostituting\u201d themselves, selling their allegiance to other gods to get what they want or establish bonds with other peoples rather than serving their own God. As Harper notes,<\/p>\n The OT never strongly condemns male patronage of female prostitutes, though the wisdom literature includes some practical warnings against the wiles of public women. But in Biblical Hebrew zanah acquired a metaphorical meaning that was to shape the destiny of the term in later discourse. From the time of Hosea, [it] came to mean idolatry (Hos 1:2; 4:12-13).<\/p>\n But what about the New Testament? Is there any continuity with the Hebrew Bible\u2019s figurative reading of fornication or prostitution as idolatry?<\/p>\n DID PAUL AND JESUS HAVE THE SAME RELIGION?<\/p>\n Jesus taught a message of repentance to prepare for the Kingdom of God while Paul taught faith in Jesus. \u00a0Did they agree?\u00a0 Should they be considered the \u201cco-founders\u201d of Christianity?<\/p>\n __CONFIG_colors_palette__{“active_palette”:0,”config”:{“colors”:{“62516”:{“name”:”Main Accent”,”parent”:-1}},”gradients”:[]},”palettes”:[{“name”:”Default Palette”,”value”:{“colors”:{“62516”:{“val”:”rgb(255, 133, 34)”,”hsl”:{“h”:26,”s”:0.99,”l”:0.5667}}},”gradients”:[]}}]}__CONFIG_colors_palette__ LEARN MORE<\/strong> <\/a> In most Greek lexicons, the word porneia is defined as sexual immorality, fornication, marital unfaithfulness, prostitution, adultery, or simply as a generic term for sexual sin of any kind<\/strong>. In other words, it can be used to mean something very specific or something general and vague, making it a hard word to translate accurately. To do so, we need to look at specific verses in the New Testament and analyze their use of the word according to the specific contexts.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s start with the Gospels. In telling the Pharisees what defiles a person in Matthew 15:19, Jesus refers to porneia as one item in a long list of sins:<\/p>\n Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth enters the stomach and goes out into the sewer? But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this is what defiles. For out of the heart come evil intentions, murder, adultery, sexual immorality [porneiai] theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile.\u201d<\/p>\n The King James Version (and several other versions) translates porneia as \u201cfornication.\u201d But since Jesus doesn\u2019t specify, and since the word in Jesus\u2019 time could mean so many different types of sexual immorality, it\u2019s difficult to know his intention. We find the same problem in Mark 7:21, of which Matthew is essentially a copy. Does it indicate prostitution? Sex with someone outside marriage? Pederasty? All of the above? It\u2019s impossible to know for sure.<\/p>\n In fact, the same broad term is used in Acts 15:19\u201320, in a letter sent from the Jerusalem Church to Gentile converts:<\/p>\n Therefore I have reached the decision that we should not trouble those gentiles who are turning to God, but we should write to them to abstain only from things polluted by idols and from sexual immorality [porneias] and from whatever has been strangled and from blood.<\/p>\n While it may be significant, given the metaphorical use of fornication\/prostitution as idol worship in the OT, that the letter specifies both idol worship and sexual immorality as prohibited, their equivalence is not stated explicitly.<\/p>\n However, the author of Acts\u2014who also wrote the book of Luke\u2014seems to assume that his readers will know what porneias means, and therefore avoids mentioning specific sexual prohibitions. However, one thing is clear from this passage: as Jennifer Wright Knust writes in her book Abandoned to Lust: Sexual Slander and Ancient Christianity<\/a>, the word porneia is used rhetorically to define a moral failing associated with depraved outsiders. In this and many other cases in the NT, Christians are defined as those who do not engage in porneia.<\/p>\n Paul epitomizes this exclusionary meaning of the word in 1 Corinthians 5:1\u20135:<\/p>\n It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality [porneia] among you and the sort of sexual immorality [porneia] that is not found even among gentiles, for a man is living with his father\u2019s wife. And you are arrogant! Should you not rather have mourned, so that he who has done this would have been removed from among you?<\/p>\n For I, though absent in body, am present in spirit, and as if present I have already pronounced judgment in the name of the Lord Jesus on the man who has done such a thing. When you are assembled and my spirit is present with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.<\/p>\n Questions about this passage remain. For instance, is the man who is living with his father\u2019s wife committing porneia simply in the sense that they aren\u2019t married to each other? Or because it is legally defined as incest? Or because it is adultery? Note that all of these seem to be the case, indicating that for Paul, writing in the 1st century CE, porneia can be broadly applied to all of them.<\/p>\n In addition, the fact that Paul wants this man thrown out of the group makes Knust\u2019s point that the word was primarily used in writing for the purpose of defining who was in (members of the church who are not committing porneia) and who was out (those who commit some form of porneia).<\/p>\n Finally, we find several verses in the NT which clearly harken back to the OT use of the word zanah to indicate the sin of idolatry<\/strong>. These occur principally in the book of Revelation, which uses many OT themes to communicate its message about the eschaton or end of the world. In Revelation 2:21, for instance, in a letter to the church at Thyatira, John of Patmos writes this:<\/p>\n But I have this against you: you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet and is teaching and beguiling my servants to engage in sexual immorality [porneusai] and to eat food sacrificed to idols. I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality [porneias].<\/p>\n Note that first of all, John calls this female false prophet Jezebel, a name he almost certainly gives her for rhetorical purposes. Second, sexual immorality here is intertwined with idol worship, just as it is figuratively in the Hebrew Bible. We see a similar conflation in Revelation 14:8:<\/p>\n Then another angel, a second, followed, saying, \u201cFallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her prostitution [porneias].\u201d<\/p>\n In the book of Revelation, Babylon is the code word for Rome. Calling Rome a prostitute is the same as calling her an idol-worshipper<\/strong>, especially since Rome was polytheistic and persecuted Christians for refusing to worship Roman gods. Revelation 17:5 makes this even more explicit. John sees a woman clothed in the royal color of purple and wearing extravagant jewelry, representing the Roman emperors,<\/p>\n and on her forehead was written a name, a mystery: \u201cBabylon the great, mother of whores [meter ton pornon] and of earth\u2019s abominations.\u201d<\/p>\n This is not a characterization of Rome as sexually immoral, but rather as idolatrous. Rome is again compared to Babylon, the earlier empire which also destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple and forced Jews to worship idols. By this last book of the Bible, we have, in a sense, come full circle: porneia is explicitly associated with idolatry, just as it was in so many places in the OT.<\/p>\n Translation is always a tricky business, especially with texts as old as those in the Bible. Languages, even those like Greek and Hebrew which have survived, change drastically over time. This is why so many different English translations of the Bible have been made: there remain many different opinions on how best to translate important words like \u201cfornication.\u201d<\/p>\n The Hebrew word zanah is one of these. Literally meaning prostitution, promiscuity, or unfaithfulness, we find that, while some early OT texts use this literal meaning, many of the later books use this word figuratively to signify idol worship as infidelity to God.<\/p>\n With the Greek word porneias, the problem of translation is intensified. This word was used in the social and linguistic world of the NT to mean just about every kind of sexual immorality one can imagine: sex between unmarried people, sex between those not married to each other but married to other people, prostitution, incest; the list goes on and on. While we can surmise that readers and hearers of those texts in their time must have understood what the authors meant, 2,000 years later we can only speculate.<\/p>\n NOW AVAILABLE!<\/p>\n In The Beginning\u2122 – History, Legend, & Myth in Genesis<\/b><\/strong><\/p>\n In Part One of Bart’s new “How Scholars Read the Bible” Series, dive into the stories of the first book of the Bible from a historical perspective.<\/p>\n __CONFIG_colors_palette__{“active_palette”:0,”config”:{“colors”:{“62516”:{“name”:”Main Accent”,”parent”:-1}},”gradients”:[]},”palettes”:[{“name”:”Default Palette”,”value”:{“colors”:{“62516”:{“val”:”rgb(255, 133, 34)”,”hsl”:{“h”:26,”s”:0.99,”l”:0.5667}}},”gradients”:[]}}]}__CONFIG_colors_palette__ LEARN MORE<\/strong> <\/a> Fornication in the Bible: Meaning & Verses Written by Joshua Schachterle, Ph.D Author | \u00a0Professor | Scholar Author | \u00a0Professor | BE Contributor Verified! \u00a0See our editorial guidelines Verified! \u00a0See our guidelines Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily match my own. – Dr. Bart […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":25020,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","tve_updated_post":" Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily match my own. - Dr. Bart D. Ehrman<\/p><\/div> The word \u201cfornication\u201d appears frequently in English translations of the Bible, yet its meaning is far less straightforward than it might seem at first glance<\/strong>. While modern readers often assume it refers simply to sex between unmarried people, this definition reflects a relatively narrow and later understanding of the term. In the biblical texts themselves, the words translated as \u201cfornication\u201d carry a much broader and more complex range of meanings shaped by ancient cultural, social, and religious contexts.<\/p> In this article, I\u2019ll explain how these terms function across both the Old and New Testaments<\/a>, tracing how their meanings shift depending on context. By looking closely at the linguistic roots and the historical settings in which these words were used, we can better understand not only what biblical authors may have intended, but also why translating and interpreting \u201cfornication\u201d in the Bible remains such a challenging and often debated task today. <\/strong><\/p><\/div> In most English dictionaries, fornication is defined simply as sexual intercourse between people not married to each other. However, as we\u2019ll soon see, the Hebrew and Greek words frequently translated as fornication often contain much broader connotations.<\/p> Let\u2019s begin with Hebrew. The Hebrew verb usually translated as \u201cto commit fornication, prostitution, or unfaithfulness\u201d is zanah, while the related noun zonah generally means a prostitute or harlot. Forms of these words are found many times in the Hebrew Bible, although not always in the same contexts. In my discussion of the use of these words in Old Testament books, I\u2019ll go into more detail about the ways various forms of this word are used.<\/p> Meanwhile, the Greek word often translated as fornication in the New Testament is porneia<\/strong>, from which we derive English words like pornography. However, translating this word is a tricky business and requires some background.<\/p> In his book The Corinthian Body<\/a>, Dale Martin notes that \"the precise meaning of porneia is simply uncertain given the lack of evidence we have.\" It\u2019s not that we don\u2019t know the general gist of the word: porneia always refers in some sense to sexual immorality. The problem is that different cultures and times in history have defined sexual immorality differently. As Carolyn Osiek has noted in Early Christian Families in Context<\/a>, \"To say that \u03c0\u03bf\u03c1\u03bd\u03b5\u03af\u03b1 [porneia] means fornication is circular, and the concept of illicit sex only begs the question of what is considered illicit.\" For an example of this, let\u2019s discuss the difference between adultery (Greek: moicheia) and fornication (porneia) in the ancient Greek-speaking world.<\/p>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.bartehrman.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/fornication-in-the-Bible.png\" "\\"fornication")
<\/p>\nTranslations and Definitions of Fornication in the Bible<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.bartehrman.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/quote-down.png\" "\\"quote")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.bartehrman.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/quote-up.png\" "\\"quote")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\nFornication in the Old Testament<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\nand burst your bonds,
\nand you said, \u201cI will not serve!\u201d
\nOn every high hill
\nand under every green tree
\nyou sprawled and prostituted [z\u014dn\u0101h] yourself.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.bartehrman.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Jesus-and-Paul-PBS-4x3-1.jpg\" "\\"Jesus")
<\/a><\/p>\nFornication in the New Testament<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n![\"Fornication](\"https:\/\/www.bartehrman.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Fornication-in-the-Bible-verses.jpg\" "\\"Fornication")
<\/p>\nConclusion<\/h2>\n
![\"In](\"https:\/\/www.bartehrman.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/In-the-Beginning-Online-Course-by-Dr-Bart-Ehrman-768x576-1.png\" "\\"In")
<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\n\t__CONFIG_colors_palette__{\"active_palette\":0,\"config\":{\"colors\":{\"62516\":{\"name\":\"Main Accent\",\"parent\":-1}},\"gradients\":[]},\"palettes\":[{\"name\":\"Default Palette\",\"value\":{\"colors\":{\"62516\":{\"val\":\"var(--tcb-skin-color-0)\"}},\"gradients\":[]}}]}__CONFIG_colors_palette__<\/div>\n\t\n\t\tBurning Questions<\/span><\/span>\n\t<\/a>\n<\/div><\/div>Fornication in the Bible: Meaning & Verses<\/h2><\/div>
__CONFIG_post_symbol__{\"id\":\"17826\"}__CONFIG_post_symbol__<\/div><\/div>\t<\/span><\/div>Translations and Definitions of Fornication in the Bible<\/h2><\/div>