What Jesus did not say. . .

I read the insightful and humorous tirade on a piece David French wrote regarding the politics and religion of the Texas senate race.  You should read it also.  The whole thing is a good read but the individual points of this critique are spot on.  They illustrate the problem that confronts the orthodox Christian in the face of the liberal or progressive distortion of Christianity as well as the secular complaint against the faith.  That is that if Jesus did not say it, it must not be wrong and should not be part of the theological or moral stance of any individual or church body that is intent upon being Christian.

In the piece, the liberal Christian in this race, defended by David French, complains that "the evangelical focus on abortion and homosexuality in politics” is a betrayal of the Christian doctrinal and moral position precisely because these are seen as “two issues that Jesus never talked about.”  There you have it in a nutshell.  If Jesus did not say anything against it, it must not be wrong.  Since Jesus did not explicitly mention abortion or any one of the letters of the LGBTQ+ plethora of sexual desires or condemn them, it must mean that Jesus intended to support and accept them as both legitimate for the Christian to hold and moral.  Now that is a joke.  Nevermind that Scripture does address the sacred character of life and may, actually, address abortion -- though not exactly recorded from the mouth of Jesus.  

Let me explain.  

The original meaning of the Greek word porneia is “to prostitute” or “to sell.” However by the time of the New Testament, porneia had a very broad meaning that included sexual behavior such as prostitution, extramarital sexual intercourse or adultery, paedophilia, promiscuity, homosexuality, lesbianism, incest, premarital sex and bestiality. The Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament states,

Πορνεία means “prostitution, unchastity, fornication,” and is used “of every kind of unlawful sexual intercourse” (BAGD s.v.). . . . Since in Rom. 1:26f. Paul clearly alludes to homosexuality as sexual immorality, πορνεία can also refer to homosexuality as sexual immorality, as does εκπορνεύω. in Jude 7 (cf. Genesis 19) ¹

The lexicon’s message is not that porneia occurs in Romans 1:26f, but that the sexual sin in Romans 1 is included in porneia. For more discussion about Jude 7, see below.

Kittel, Bromiley and Friedrich  provides a very complete meaning of porneia stating that its meaning includes “adultery, fornication, licentiousness, and homosexuality.”^2,3 Harper’s Bible Dictionary states that porneia also includes “bestiality.”⁴

Colin Brown states this about porneia,

porneia (Dem.  onwards, rare in cl. Gk) harlotry, unchastity (also of a homosexual nature).⁵

This highly acclaimed Greek-English dictionary points out that porneuo, pornos, and porneia are part of the same word group. Then it states,

The word group can describe various extra-marital sexual modes of behavior insofar as they deviate from accepted social and religious norms (e.g. homosexuality, promiscuity, paedophilia, and especially prostitution).⁶

Colin Brown also tell us that porneia occurs in the “Testament of Benjamin.” The word is used to refer to homosexual behavior. In the following quote from the “Testament of Benjamin,” porneia is translated as fornication. Yet, it is referring to homosexual activity since Jude 7 is about homosexuality.

And believe that there will be also evildoings among you, from the words of Enoch the righteous: that ye shall commit fornication with the fornication of Sodom . . . ⁷

Verein D. Verbrugge in the  New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology writes . . .

[Rabbinical Judaism] frowned on any kind of prostitution or extramarital sexual intercourse. Incest and all kinds of unnatural sexual intercourse were viewed as porneia. ⁸

^{Yes, it is true that Jesus did not say the word we use in an explicit reference to such behavior but it is also true that Jesus did not stand outside the Biblical world with its overt approval of marriage between a man and a woman as a life-long relationship of love and fidelity along with its disapproval of any sexual behavior that contradicted or violated this context.}

In the same way, though the Bible may not specifically mention the word abortion, but it does speak volumes about the value of human life and its source in God alone. Throughout Scripture, we see the sanctity of life upheld. Verses like Psalm 139:13–16 and Jeremiah 1:5 show that the source of life is from God alone and reveal God’s intimate care for the unborn from creation to life's end.  Jesus does not stand outside this tradition but stands within this doctrine and moral stand in all His words and actions. 

The absurdity of the liberal and progressive stand is obvious: that Jesus wants you to have a lot of gay sex and abortions because he never mentioned these explicitly or condemns them clearing.  Jesus very clearly acts in violation of the accepted moral and theological stand of the day with respect to the treatment of women (in speaking with unclean women and in His refusal to take up the accepted side against the woman found in adultery while leaving the man off the hook) and does so in ways that arouse His opponents.  Jesus does this with respect to the laws of the Sabbath as well.  But somehow, it is presumed that by silence Jesus infers that either the sins of abortion or homosexuality are not so bad or that they might even be good means that Jesus apparently was unwilling or unable to own His approval of these in the same way He owned the rules concerning the Sabbath or violated the norms for His relationship with the women of the day.  How odd!  You might then infer, as the original piece suggests, that Jesus by His clear teaching condemns adultery unless, of course, you are having extramarital sex with some of the same sex or that you can abort all the babies you want as long as you treat those who actually survived to birth with dignity.  It would be a hoot and a funny joke indeed except that there are actually Christians and people who think they know Jesus who are saying exactly that.

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1. Balz and Schneider. Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament. Eerdmans Publishing Com. 1993. vol. 3., pp. 137-139.
2. Kittel. Theological Dictionary of the new Testament. Eerdmans. 1968. vol. vi., p. 581-595.
3. Bromiley, Geoffrey W. Theological Dictionary of the New Testament. Eerdmans Publishing Com. 1985. VI, pp. 918-921.
4. Achtemeier, Paul J. “Fornication.” Harper’s Bible Dictionary. Harper & Row & Society of Biblical Literature. 1985, p. 319.
5. Colin Brown. Dictionary of New Testament Theology. Regency Publishers. 1975. vol. 1., p. 497.
6. Ibid.
7. Ibid. p. 499.
8. Verlyn D. Verbrugge.  New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology. Zondervan. 2000. pp 486.