Porneia Explained.

PORNEIA : This Greek word occurs 25 times in the New Testament. The word has a wide variety of meanings and means more than adultery. In order to understand the meaning of this word lets start with Jesus' familiar statement in Matthew 19:9 where He says,

And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery." Matt. 19:9 (also see Mark 10:11-12)

Int this passage Jesus uses two important Greek words, PORNEIA and MOICHAO. The first Greek word is translated in this verse as "immorality" and MOICHAO as "adultery." It is important to notice that if Jesus had not included the phrase "except for immorality" He would have declared that all divorce results in adultery. But He did not do that. He included the phrase "except for immorality." Consequently, He stated that if divorce occurs due to PORNEIA, then adultery will not occur when the "offended" party remarries. But what does PORNEIA mean? The Greek word PORNEIA has a very broad meaning and includes illicit sexual behavior such as prostitution, homosexuality, lesbianism, incest, premarital sex and bestiality. The Exegetical  Dictionary of the New Testament states,

PORNEIA 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, PORNEAI can also refer to homosexuality as sexual immorality . . . [1]

Kittel provides a very complete definition of PORNEIA stating that it has a broad meaning and includes "adultery, fornication, licentiousness, and homosexuality."[2, 3] Harper's Bible Dictionary states that PORNEIA also includes "bestially."[4] The meaning is also illustrated in a variety of other New Testament passages as given in the chart below.

These references show the breadth of the meaning of this word. The word was also used in ancient literature to refer to premarital sex. The emphasis of PORNEIA is bad moral behavior. By: Never Thirsty.