In doing research on the cultural context of the 1st century, in trying to understand the difference between pre-marriage relationships then, and the idea of dating today; I came across an interesting article. So many were arranged marriages in that day, in comparison to romanticized dating today. In research I came across an article that seems to help clarify Paul's writing on the sodomites of his day. I quote the article... I put this reply in this thread since the topic came up.
From the Greek philosopher Dio Chrysostom (40-110 AD) in The Seventh or Euboean Discourse
Phrasing lifted from text numbered 133 through 152
"In dealing with brothel-keepers and their trade we must certainly betray no weakness as though something were to be said on both sides, but must sternly forbid them...Such men bring individuals together in union without love and intercourse without affection, and all for the sake of filthy lucre...For evils are never wont to remain as they are; they are ever active and advancing to greater wantonness if they meet no compelling check...Indeed, beginning with practices and habits that seem trivial and allowable, it acquires a strength and force that are uncontrollable, and no longer stops at anything...Now at this point we must assuredly remember that this adultery committed with outcasts, so evident in our midst and becoming so brazen and unchecked, is to a very great extent paving the way to hidden and secret assaults upon the chastity of women and boys of good family...The man whose appetite is insatiate in such things, when he finds there is no scarcity, no resistance, in this field, will have contempt for the easy conquest and scorn for a woman's love, as a thing too readily given — in fact, too utterly feminine — and will turn his assault against the male quarters, eager to befoul the youth who will very soon be magistrates and judges and generals, believing that in them he will find a kind of pleasure difficult and hard to procure. His state is like that of men who are addicted to drinking and wine-bibbing, who after long and steady drinking of unmixed wine, often lose their taste for it and create an artificial thirst by the stimulus of sweatings, salted foods, and condiments."
http://demonax.info/doku.php?id=text:dio_chrysostom_orations_1-20#the_seventh_or_euboean_discourse
That reads to me in parallel with Romans 1:24-27 and it sounds like prostitution progressing into sodomy if we use standard definitions from today's dictionaries and various thesauruses. When I write "standard definitions" I am meaning standard language rather than that from the 'fundamentalist' crowd who ignorantly use the words homosexual and sodomite interchangeably.
It is interesting that the NRSV Updated Edition 2021 has the following text note on 1 Cor. 6:9 -
a. 6.9 Meaning of Gk uncertain (about
malakos)
b. 6.9 Meaning of Gk uncertain (about
arsenokoites)
Another surprising change made in the NRSVue is on Romans 3:22 where the Updated Edition went back to the KJV "through the
faith of Jesus Christ" and put "through faith in Jesus Christ" in the margin.
They stayed with "faith" instead of making it "the
faithfulness of Jesus Christ". I've always considered "faith of" here to "the faith" in Jude 3.