Harlotry (including adultery and incest); figuratively, idolatry
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porneia names sexual immorality and, in prophetic and apocalyptic contexts, figurative covenant unfaithfulness expressed as idolatrous immorality. The New Testament uses the term plainly and seriously without voyeurism.
Reader summary
Full entry for πορνεία (G4202) · Open the biblical lexicon
porneia names sexual immorality and, in prophetic and apocalyptic contexts, figurative covenant unfaithfulness expressed as idolatrous immorality. The New Testament uses the term plainly and seriously without voyeurism.
The BSB source-word alignment has 25 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include sexual immorality (15), immorality (5), . . . (1), [of a kind] (1), for sexual immorality (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 5:32. Its strongest book concentrations include Revelation (7), 1 Corinthians (5), Acts (3), Matthew (3).
This entry includes 5 verse guides that explain exact original-language forms in context.
Porneia names sexual immorality and, in prophetic and apocalyptic contexts, figurative covenant unfaithfulness expressed as idolatrous immorality. The New Testament uses the term plainly and seriously without voyeurism. Jesus locates sexual immorality among the sins that come from the heart. Acts includes abstaining from sexual immorality in instructions to Gentile believers.
Paul confronts public sexual immorality in Corinth, commands believers to flee it, and grounds holiness in the body belonging to the Lord. Ephesians says such sin must not even be named among the saints as fitting conduct. Revelation uses the word for Babylon's corrupting immorality and idolatrous seduction. The word therefore requires moral clarity, gospel hope, and pastoral care: it names real sin, calls for repentance, and must never be handled with shame-driven spectacle.
How this word moves across literal use, covenant imagery, and teaching application.
Names sexual conduct outside the marriage covenant. In 1 Corinthians 6 the form sits inside Paul's argument that the body belongs to the Lord.
Carries the prophetic register of unfaithfulness to God. Revelation uses the vocabulary for Babylon's seduction and idolatry.
The metaphorical use depends on the literal meaning being real, but it should not erase the literal call to holiness.
Helps teachers move from identity to correction. The word should be applied with clarity, repentance, and restoration.
Do not make sexual sin uniquely beyond grace; the same gospel that names the sin also restores the repentant.
Related entries that trace the same semantic field. These are bridges, not one-to-one equivalents.
Hebrew verb used for harlotry and idolatry imagery, anchoring the covenant-betrayal register.
Hebrew noun for harlotry or infidelity that helps explain the prophetic background.
Adultery vocabulary that overlaps covenant-breach imagery without collapsing into the broader Greek category.
Greek adultery term that helps readers distinguish the broader scope of G4202.
Neighboring Greek vice term for licentiousness and moral excess, related but not equivalent.
Nearby words help define the edges of this entry without flattening them into the same term.
The selected witnesses move from Jesus' heart-level diagnosis, to Gentile obedience, to Corinthian church discipline, to body-and-union theology, to saintly holiness, and finally to Babylon's judged corruption.
For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, and slander.
Jesus lists sexual immorality among sins that come out of the heart and defile a person. The word belongs to moral and spiritual diagnosis, not mere ritual concern.
Instead, we should write and tell them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals, and from blood.
The Jerusalem decision tells Gentile believers to abstain from sexual immorality. The instruction places holiness within fellowship between Jewish and Gentile believers.
It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is intolerable even among pagans: A man has his father’s wife.
Paul confronts a reported case of sexual immorality tolerated in the church. The word names a public sin that requires corporate seriousness, not private indifference.
Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a man can commit is outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body.
Paul commands believers to flee sexual immorality and frames the sin in relation to the body. The surrounding argument roots sexual holiness in belonging to Christ and the Spirit's temple.
But among you, as is proper among the saints, there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed.
Paul says sexual immorality must not even be named among the saints as fitting conduct. Holiness shapes the community's speech, conduct, and identity.
For His judgments are true and just. He has judged the great prostitute who corrupted the earth with her immorality. He has avenged the blood of His servants that was poured out by her hand.”
Heaven praises God's true and just judgment on the great prostitute who corrupted the earth with her immorality. Revelation uses the term for Babylon's idolatrous, corrupting seduction.
In the LXX, πορνεία renders the Hebrew root זנה (zanah) and its noun forms זְנוּת (zĕnût) and תַּזְנוּת (taznût), the vocabulary the prophets use for Israel's covenant unfaithfulness. This gives the word a double register in the NT: literal sexual immorality and the spiritual betrayal of covenant loyalty.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Verse-level guides showing how this original-language form works in its specific context, including grammar, verse function, and guarded interpretation.
Greek word. Sexual immorality of any kind; distinct from μοιχεία (adultery) by broader scope including premarital relations.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
16 of 26 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
fornication, idolatry
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Read verseFull New Testament corpus: 260 chapters, 7,957 verses, 140,628 tokens. Data source: honza/textus-receptus (data only), with authority check against byztxt/greektext-textus-receptus.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
This word appears as a noun across 6 case and number patterns. The form changes show how the word functions in a sentence; they do not change the basic lexical meaning by themselves.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 1 selected witness from 25 lexical occurrence verses.
πορνεία is built from this root:
Defines the specific covenant breach addressed by Jesus.Matthew 5:31–32
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Porneia requires both clarity and care. Jesus names sexual immorality as a heart-level sin that defiles. Acts shows Gentile believers called to abstain from it as part of faithful discipleship and fellowship. Paul treats the Corinthian case as a serious public sin, but his deepest argument is not embarrassment or reputation. In 1 Corinthians 6, the body belongs to the Lord, is meant for resurrection, and is the temple of the Holy Spirit.
Sexual immorality contradicts that belonging. Ephesians presses holiness among the saints, and Revelation shows the word's figurative register as Babylon's idolatrous corruption of the earth. Teachers must therefore be plain without being crude, serious without being hopeless, and gospel-centered without minimizing repentance. The same Lord who commands holiness also washes, sanctifies, and justifies sinners.
1Cor.6.18
Porneia is a broad sexual-immorality noun in New Testament usage. Etymology alone should not narrow it to commercial sex. Context decides whether the reference is literal sexual sin, a specific case, general holiness instruction, or figurative idolatrous corruption.
The prophets often used sexual unfaithfulness language to describe covenant betrayal and idolatry. The New Testament preserves both registers: literal sexual immorality is named and confronted, and Revelation applies the language to Babylon's corrupting idolatrous seduction.