Some Highlights:
New Testament Greek written in Koine, or everyday Greek.
Examples from Classical Greek on the words used for adulterating
Examples of willful mistranslation in order to appease ruling powers (i.e. the homosexual King James)
Philo cited in support of the Thesis.
Moich- in Greek Literature
In order to define any word accurately, a lexicographer must examine how a word or family of words was used in all of Greek literature. One mistake that is commonly made is the false assumption that there is a special ecclesiastical or Biblical Greek, and that Greek words take on a new or different meaning just because they are used in the Bible. This theory, however, has been proven wrong time and time again. In the 17th and 18th centuries, scholars assumed that since the Greek of the New Testament did not resemble any of the great classical dialects of Greek used in ancient literature, then it was somehow different and specialized, and therefore the words could have special meanings only in the Bible. This was the basis behind the King James Version of the Bible being translated into very ornate, Elizabethan English and the Luther Bible being translated into High German, neither of which were commonly spoken in England or Germany before the translation of these Bibles. However, in the late 19th century, a very great number of papyrus scrolls began to be discovered, many of which were reflective of common writing during the 1st century. These papyri contained everyday things such as letters, lists, contracts, receipts, etc. What was also discovered was that the form of Greek used in these everyday documents matched the Greek of the New Testament, now called Koine Greek or Common Greek. So, in fact, the New Testament was written in what amounts to common street language.In addition to this, it must be understood that the books of the New Testament, many of them letters, were being read by everyday Greek-speaking peoples who had no specialized education to understand some sort of ecclesiastical language. Thus, the vocabulary carried no special meaning to them, but was merely the vocabulary they had been schooled in and which they had read all of their lives in classical authors, such as Aristotle. So how Aristotle understood a Greek word would be the same way they would understand a Greek word when they read it in an epistle from Paul.
So let us examine a few passages from Greek literature which show clearly that the popular definition of adultery does not fit the moich- family of words. First, we will read A.L. Peck's translation of Aristotle's Historia Animalium IX.32.6-10:
"Also another kind of eagle is the so-called true-bred. They say these are the only true- bred birds altogether; for the other kinds are mixed and adulterated by each other, including the eagles and hawks and the smallest birds."
Here the English word adulterated is translated for the Greek word memoicheutai, an inflected form of the word moicheuo. It could have just as easily been translated cross-bred or mongrelized. In fact, the word was translated with the phrase "spoilt by the interbreeding of different species" in a translation by D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson. These translators understood that the word moicheuo was in reference to adulteration or cross- breeding. It should be pointed out, especially since men's salvation depends upon a complete and saving knowledge of truth, that this is the exact same Greek word used in Exodus 20:13 in the Ten Commandments and the exact same Greek word used in Romans 13:9.
We also need to make note of some other interesting features of this passage. First, the word kind is translated for the Greek word genos, which when applied to people is translated race.
Secondly, the word true-bred is translated for the Greek word gnesios, which is defined by LSJ and by Lampe as: "belonging to the race." This word is in fact derived from genos, which as we said before, means "race." Donnegan defines this adjective gnesios as: "peculiar to a race, of pure race," and his primary definition of gnesiotes is: "purity of descent," while his primary definition of gnesios is: "purely descended." Critica Sacra records the Latin definition "germanus" which also means purely descended or of pure descent. Finally, all of the lexical authorities agree that gnesios is the opposite of the word nothos, which means mongrel and which we will discuss later. Thus, it is agreed upon by all of these scholarly authorities and by the translator of this passage in Aristotle that the word gnesios means pure-bred, pure race, pure descent or racially pure. Furthermore, we find innumerable examples in Greek literature where this word is used as and must be translated as pure-bred or racially pure to make sense.
What is interesting is that the King James Version translates this same Greek word as the possessive pronoun own in I Timothy 1:2 and Titus 1:4.4 There is absolutely no justification for this absurd translation. In the KJV, I Timothy reads: "Unto Timothy, my own son..." And Titus reads: "To Titus, mine own son..." The Anointed Standard Translation correctly renders these two phrases as, "To Timothy, a racially pure child..." and, "To Titus, a racially pure child..." This is an example of open and willful deception on the part of the KJV translators who knew the one and only definition of the word gnesios and decided not to use it. Their deception is now perpetuated in the Judeo school of theology. Even the Old Latin translated gnesios with the Latin germanus, which again means of pure descent. It should be remembered, however, that this type of dishonesty was quite common among the KJV translators. Another notable example is the occurrence of the Greek word meaning homosexual in I Corinthians 6:9 and Timothy 1:10. Bowing to the pressures of the homosexual King James, the KJV translators translated this word ambiguously as "abusers of themselves with mankind" instead of homosexual so they would not offend King James.
Let us now look at another passage in Aristotle, using the translation of D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson:
"While children mostly resemble their parents or their ancestors, it sometimes happens that no such resemblance is to be traced. But parents may pass on resemblance after several generations, as in the case of the woman in Ellis, who committed adultery with a negro; in this case it was not the woman's own daughter but the daughter's child that was a blackamoor" (Historia Animalium VII.5).
Here we have a clear cut case of a white Sicilian woman who mongrelized with an Ethiopian negro. Aristotle is commenting on the fact that the first generation offspring was rather light-skinned, especially when compared to the second-generation. Both, of course were mongrels, but due to genetic shuffling, the second generation mongrel was so dark that it actually resembled a pure Ethiopian negro. This was what Aristotle was discussing and once again he used the verb moicheuo, the exact same Greek verb used in the Ten Commandments. This same story is also told in four other places in ancient literature,5 and no where is the idea of marital infidelity brought up. In fact, it is clear from the other accounts and the contradictions between some of the information, that it would have been impossible for any of the ancient authors to have known whether the woman was married. Most of the authors, including the other occurrence of this story in Aristotle's own writings, simply say that the woman had sex with the negro. For example, in Aristotle's Generation of the Animals, 722a 10, he says that the woman had sex with the negro, using the Greek word sungignomai, which means "to have intercourse."
In the present passage, however, Aristotle has simply been more specific. If the translator had said who adulterated herself with a negro instead of who committed adultery with a negro, then the passage would be much clearer, but as we shall see later, the phrase commit adultery and adulterate were in fact equivalent terms at the time of the translation of the first Bibles into English.
Let us now read a passage from Aelian, On Animals, VII.39-40, where he discusses a questionable reading from Anacreon:
"Those who falsify the reading and go so far as to say that we should write [eroesses] (for [keroesses]) are soundly refuted by Aristophanes of Byzantium; and I am convinced by his refutation."
Here, A.F. Scholfield, not to be confused with C.I. Scolfield, editor ofthe Scolfield Bible, has translated the verb moichao as falsify. Again, the clear connotation is to change, corrupt, alter from one form to another, adulterate, confuse or change the form of something. Dishonest translators should try to explain how it is possible to commit adultery with a word.
Thus far we have looked at examples in Classical Greek from Greek literature with which the writers of the New Testament and the translators of the Greek Septuagint would have been familiar, as well as the early Christians who read the Greek Septuagint and the New Testament. Let us now look at an example from an early patristic author, Methodius. Reading from the translation of Herbert Musurillo in Methodius' Symposium 3.2:
"Rather, He probably had in mind those who adulterate the truth, who corrupt the Scriptures with pseudo-scientific doctrine and begat an imperfect sort of wisdom, mixing in error with religion."
Here Musurillo has translated the Greek verb moichaomai as adulterate. We note that this adulteration results in an imperfect product and that the adulteration corresponds to mixing two things together. A similar idea was expressed by Synesius Cyrenesius in Epistulae 5.C, where, with the same Greek verb, he states that the Church or Body Politic was being adulterated with false-teachings, which, he says, places a trap for those who are described with the Greek word akeraios, which we have already defined as racially pure.
The emphasis in all of these quotes and throughout all of Greek literature is upon mixing two opposing elements together, whether that be truth and untruth as in the last two quotes or a white woman with a negro in the quote before those. It is true that the word can be and is used for illicit sex between people of the same race, but still the word does not primarily imply that one of the participants is breaking a marriage vow, but rather that confusion is being created in the seed-line of the man whose wife is being violated, for it will be unclear whether a resulting child is the husband's or the other man's. The emphasis is clearly upon mixing things up or causing confusion. In a predominately white, homogenous society, we would expect that when moichos or a related word is used, then the emphasis would be upon corrupting the seedline within the race. But more often than not, it is clear from the study of every occurrence in the Bible that the emphasis is upon race-mixing, except in cases where the context makes it perfectly clear that race is not an issue.
Finally, let us examine an occurrence of the word moicheia in the renowned Israelite scholar Philo's The Worse Attacks the Better 102:
"And because, with a view to the persistence of the race, you were endowed with generative organs, do not run after mongrelization and mongrelization and other non- pure forms of mixing, but only that which is a lawful means of propagating the race of man."
This passage is very interesting. Philo uses two different Greek words, both of which have been translated mongrelization, in describing the "non-pure forms of mixing." One of these Greek words is phthora which has been discussed extensively in other literature.6 The second word is moicheia, the subject word herein. Because Philo used two words with basically the same meaning, the translation of the passage seems redundant in English, but not in Greek, where this technique of using synonymous words in close proximity was quite common, especially in Philo's writings. We should also keep in mind that these two Greek words would have conveyed a slightly different spectrum of meaning to the Greek reader, but both are best translated as mongrelization in English. So redundancy is not an issue in the original Greek. What is important is that Philo specifically says that both of these acts, including moicheia, are forms of "mixing," which is translated for the Greek word mixeis and which is defined by LSJ as "mixing, mingling."
There are other interesting things to note in this passage also. First, it must be understood that Philo was commenting on the Greek Septuagint when writing, so when he refers to the law, he is speaking of the Pentateuch. And when he says "the race of man," he uses the term anthropos, the Greek term used in the Septuagint almost exclusively for the White, Adamic race. It is clear from the passage that Philo is concerned with the issue of race because he specifically uses the term twice, and when he says "persistence of the race," he means so that the race will survive in its pure form. It is also clear that the issue of race- mixing is what Philo is writing about because he specifically uses the terms "non-pure" and "mixing." So Philo has defined very specifically what the Greek word moicheia means, and he also stated very clearly that race-mixing is forbidden in the Pentateuch, that is the first five books of what is commonly called the Old Testament. Philo, an Israelite in dispersion, was of course writing about the Greek Septuagint, the Old Testament used by millions of Israelites during the 1st century AD, including the over 1,000,000 Israelites who lived in Alexandria, Egypt. Philo was a representative of these Alexandrian Israelites.
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4 This word also occurs in II Corinthians 8:8, Philippians 4:3, Sirach 7:18 and III Maccabees 3:19. Gnesios, the adverb form, occurs in Philippians 2:20 and II Maccabees 14:8 and III Maccabbees 3:23. All of these other occurences are dealt with in detail in The Truth Unveiled.
5 Aristotle, GA I 722a9, Antig. 122, Arist. Byz. epit. II 272, and Pliny VII 12.51.
6 The reader is encouraged to consult The Truth Unveiled by Pastor V.S. Herrell, pg. 156, and especially Appendix 10 of the Anointed Standard Translation of the New Testament for more information on this word and its related words.