Word

πορνεία

porneía · G4202 · Greek · 25 occurrences

See all 25 in Search

Meanings

to engage in illicit sex, to commit fornication, sexual immorality, fornication, prostitution

To engage in sexual immorality of any kind, often with the implication of prostitution

Examples
Matthew 5:32 but I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except for the reason of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
Matthew 15:19 “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, acts of adultery, other immoral sexual acts, thefts, false testimonies, and slanderous statements.
Matthew 19:9 “And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery.”

How it’s used In 8 roles

Every occurrence, grouped by the words it is grammatically related to.

the word studied the word it goes with

Whose, or of whatGenitive or possessive

7 occurrences in 1 groups

αὐτόςhe, she, it, same 7

Words describing itAdjectives, demonstratives, participles

1 occurrences in 1 groups

τοιοῦτοςsuch 1

Named alongside itApposition

4 occurrences in 6 groups

ἔρχομαιto come 1
ἔχωto have 1
μέλοςmember, body part 1
ὅστιςwhoever, whichever, whatever 1
πράσσωto do 1
προλέγωto say beforehand, to warn 1

What it doesIt is the subject

3 occurrences in 2 groups

ἀκούωto hear 2
ὀνομάζωto call 1

What is done to itIt is the object

3 occurrences in 2 groups

ἀπέχωto receive in full, to be far, to abstain 2
φεύγωto flee, to run away 1

What is said to be itIt is the predicate

1 occurrences in 1 groups

ὅστιςwhoever, whichever, whatever 1

After prepositionsPrepositional phrases

8 occurrences in 5 groups

ἐκfrom 5
ἐπίon 3
διάthrough 2
ἐνin 2
ἀπόfrom 2

In phrases “… of it”It is the genitive

5 occurrences in 4 groups

θυμόςanger 2
ἀκάθαρτοςunclean 1
λόγοςword, saying, message 1
οἶνοςwine 1

When two words share a role, as in “Paul and Barnabas said”, the verse appears under each, so a section’s counts can add up to more than the number of occurrences.

MACULA Greek Linguistic Datasets, available at https://github.com/Clear-Bible/macula-greek/, licensed CC BY 4.0; MACULA Hebrew Linguistic Datasets © 2022-2024 by Biblica, Inc., CC BY 4.0. Westminster Leningrad Codex (tanach.us). OpenScriptures Hebrew Bible morphology (hb.openscriptures.org), CC BY 4.0.

In the other Testament 3 words

תַּזְנוּת taznûwth · H8457 · promiscuity, debauchery, prostitution: תַּזְנוּת (taznûwth, H8457) is the Hebrew cognate denoting the same core semantic field of sexual immorality (fornication/whoredom), regularly rendered by πορνεία (porneía, G4202) in LXX translation contexts, establishing direct cross-linguistic lexical equivalence.
זָנוּן zânûwn · H2183 · fornication, prostitution: Hebrew term for sexual immorality/whoredom that the LXX translators rendered with this Greek term, sharing the core semantic domain of illicit sexual activity and its metaphorical extension to covenantal unfaithfulness.
זְנוּת zᵉnûwth · H2184 · fornication: Hebrew זְנוּת and Greek πορνεία both denote sexual immorality/prostitution as their primary sense, with both extending figuratively to idolatry in their respective corpora; the Greek term's gloss explicitly includes adultery and incest as subcategories, while the Hebrew gloss is broader but covers the same semantic field.

Semantic domains 1 entry

To engage in illicit sex, to commit fornication, sexual immorality, fornication, prostitution88.271: The noun names sexual immorality broadly, including fornication and adultery. Matthew's teaching on divorce uses this term: “but I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except for the reason of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery” (Matthew 5:32).

Word family 5 words

Words formed from the same root. They share a form, not always a meaning.

πόρνος pórnos · G4205 · a sexually immoral person · 10×πορνείαporneía · G4202πόρνη pórnē · G4204 · prostitute · 12×πορνεύω porneúō · G4203 · to engage in illicit sex, to commit fornication, sexual immorality · 8×ἐκπορνεύω ekporneúō · G1608 · to engage in illicit sex, to commit fornication, sexual immorality · 1×

Thayer's Greek-English Lexicon πορνείας, ἡ (πορνεύω), the Sept. for תַּזְנוּת, זְנוּת, זְנוּנִים, fornication…

πορνείας, ἡ (πορνεύω), the Sept. for תַּזְנוּת, זְנוּת, זְנוּנִים, fornication (Vulg.fornicatio (and (Rev 19:2)prostitutio)); used a. properly, of illicit sexual intercourse in general (Demosthenes, 403, 27; 433, 25): Acts 15:20, Acts 15:29; Acts 21:25 (that this meaning must be adopted in these passages will surprise no one who has learned from 1 Cor 6:12ff how leniently converts from among the heathen regarded this vice and how lightly they indulged in it; accordingly, all other interpretations of the term, such as of marriages within the prohibited degrees and the like, are to be rejected); Rom 1:29 Rec.; 1 Cor 5:1; 1 Cor 6:13, 1 Cor 6:18; 1 Cor 7:2; 2 Cor 12:21; Eph 5:3; Col 3:5; 1 Thess 4:3; Rev 9:21; it is distinguished from μοιχεία in Mt 15:19; Mk 7:21; and Gal 5:19 Rec.; used of adultery ((cf. Hos 2:2 (4), etc.)), Mt 5:32; Mt 19:9.
b. In accordance with a form of speech common in the O. T. and among the Jews which represents the close relationship existing between Jehovah and his people under the figure of a marriage (cf. Gesenius, Thesaurus, i., p. 422{a} following), πορνεία is used metaphorically of the worship of idols: Rev 14:8; Rev 17:2, Rev 17:4; Rev 18:3; Rev 19:2; ἡμεῖς ἐκ πορνείας οὐ γεγεννήμεθα (we are not of a people given to idolatry), ἕνα πατέρα ἔχομεν τόν Θεόν, Jn 8:41 (ἄθεος μέν ὁ ἄγονος, πολύθεος δέ ὁ ἐκ πόρνης, τυφλωττων περί τόν ἀληθῆ πατέρα καί διά τοῦτο πολλούς ἀνθ' ἑνός γονεῖς αἰνιττόμενος, Philo de mig. Abr. § 12; τέκνα πορνείας, of idolaters, Hos 1:2; (but in John, the passage cited others understand physical descent to be spoken of (cf. Meyer))); of the defilement of idolatry, as incurred by eating the sacrifices offered to idols, Rev 2:21.

Thayer's Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament (1889), public domain

Topical studies with this word 1 entry

Sexual Misbehavior25 occurrences

Meanings adapted from the UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament, © United Bible Societies, CC BY-SA 4.0 and the UBS Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew (from the Semantic Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew), © United Bible Societies, CC BY-SA 4.0; MACULA Greek Linguistic Datasets, available at https://github.com/Clear-Bible/macula-greek/, licensed CC BY 4.0; MACULA Hebrew Linguistic Datasets © 2022-2024 by Biblica, Inc., CC BY 4.0. Westminster Leningrad Codex (tanach.us). OpenScriptures Hebrew Bible morphology (hb.openscriptures.org), CC BY 4.0.

Sources

eRhema lexical overview, based on the UBS Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew and the UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament (© United Bible Societies, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Macula Hebrew and Greek (Clear Bible, CC BY 4.0); released under CC BY-SA 4.0