G4205 — πόρνος (pornos)¶

Core Data¶

Strong's: G4205
Original: πόρνος
Transliteration: pórnos
Pronunciation: por'-nos
Part of Speech: Masculine noun (n-m)
Root: From πέρνημι (pernēmi) — to sell; a (male) prostitute (by extension: any sexually immoral man)
Occurrences: 10 in NT (10 unique verses, 5 books)
First Occurrence: 1Co 5:9 — "I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators"
Hapax Legomenon: No

Lexicon Definition¶

From πέρνημι (pernēmi, "to sell"); a (male) prostitute (by extension, a debauchee). The word originally denoted a man who sells his body, parallel to πόρνη (pornē), the female counterpart.

Louw-Nida Semantic Domain¶

Domain: 88.271 — Sexual Misbehavior (subdomain of 88: Moral and Ethical Qualities and Related Behavior)
Gloss: a sexually immoral person
Other words in subdomain: ἀρσενοκοίτης (G733), ἀσέλγεια (G766), ἐκπορνεύω (G1608), κοίτη (G2845), κύων (G2965), μαλακός (G3120), μοιχαλίς (G3428), μοιχάω (G3429), μοιχεία (G3430), μοιχεύω (G3431), μοιχός (G3432)

UBS Semantic Domains: - [088] Moral and Ethical Qualities and Related Behavior

Translation Distribution (KJV)¶

Translation	Count	%
whoremonger(s)	5	50%
fornicator(s)	5	50%

Note: KJV uses "whoremonger" in later epistles and Revelation; "fornicator" in 1 Corinthians and Hebrews.

Distribution by Book¶

Book	Count	Per 100 Verses
1 Corinthians	4	0.92
1 Timothy	1	0.88
Hebrews	2	0.66
Ephesians	1	0.65
Revelation	2	0.50

Concentrated in Pauline vice lists and Revelation exclusion lists. Absent from the Gospels, Acts, and all other epistles. 1 Corinthians accounts for 40% of all occurrences, all within chs. 5–6 (the church discipline and body-as-temple passage).

Semantic Categories¶

1. Exclusion from Church Fellowship¶

1Co 5:9 — "I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators"
1Co 5:10 — "Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters"
1Co 5:11 — "not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater"

Paul distinguishes between associating with outsiders who are pornoi and tolerating a pornos within the church. The word appears three times in this single disciplinary passage.

2. Exclusion from the Kingdom of God¶

1Co 6:9 — "neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind"
Eph 5:5 — "no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God"

Pornos heads the list of those barred from inheriting God's kingdom.

3. Vice Lists with Paired Sins¶

1Ti 1:10 — "For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons"
Heb 13:4 — "whoremongers and adulterers God will judge"

Pornos appears alongside specific paired sins: arsenokoitai (1 Tim), moichoi (Heb 13:4).

4. Warning Example — Esau¶

Heb 12:16 — "Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright"

Unique usage: pornos parallels "profane person" (bebēlos) with Esau as the example — appetite overriding covenant inheritance. May carry the broader sense of one who sells what is sacred for bodily gratification.

5. Final Exclusion (Eschatological)¶

Rev 21:8 — "the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone"
Rev 22:15 — "without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie"

In both Revelation exclusion lists, pornoi appear alongside murderers, sorcerers, and idolaters — those permanently outside the New Jerusalem.

Common Collocations¶

Word	Strong's	Co-occurrences	Typical Pattern
εἰδωλολάτρης (eidōlolatrēs)	G1496	6x (60%)	Paired in vice lists: "fornicators... idolaters"
πλεονέκτης (pleonektēs)	G4123	3x (30%)	Paired: "fornicator, or covetous"
θεός (theos)	G2316	3x (30%)	Judgment context: "God will judge"
ἅρπαξ (harpax)	G727	2x (20%)	Vice list grouping: "extortioners"
ἀρσενοκοίτης (arsenokoitēs)	G733	2x (20%)	Paired sexual sins list
μοιχός (moichos)	G3432	2x (20%)	"whoremongers and adulterers"
βασιλεία (basileia)	G932	2x (20%)	Kingdom exclusion: "shall not inherit the kingdom"
φονεύς (phoneus)	G5406	2x (20%)	Revelation lists: "murderers and whoremongers"

The dominant collocation is with idolaters (60% of all verses) — pornos and eidōlolatrēs are nearly inseparable in NT vice lists.

Word Family / Cognates¶

G4202 πορνεία (porneia) — fornication (the act/abstract noun); 25 vv — G4202-porneia.md
G4203 πορνεύω (porneuō) — to commit fornication (verb); 7 vv
G4204 πόρνη (pornē) — harlot/prostitute (female agent); 12 vv
G1608 ἐκπορνεύω (ekporneuō) — to give oneself over to fornication (intensified verb); 1 v

All derive from πέρνημι (pernēmi, "to sell"). G4205 is the masculine agent noun; G4204 is the feminine.

Synonyms¶

No distinct synonyms were returned by search_relationships.py for G4205 beyond the cognate family already listed above.

Antonyms¶

No antonyms were returned by search_relationships.py for G4205.

Easily Confused Words¶

Word	Strong's	Shared Translation	Key Difference
μοιχός (moichos)	G3432	Both in sexual sin lists	moichos = specifically an adulterer (married person violating marriage); pornos = broader sexual immorality
ἀρσενοκοίτης (arsenokoitēs)	G733	Both in sexual vice lists	arsenokoitēs = specifically same-sex intercourse; pornos = general sexual immorality

Domain Neighbors (Louw-Nida 88.271 — Sexual Misbehavior)¶

Word	Strong's	Verses	Primary KJV Translation	Key Difference
μοιχός (moichos)	G3432	4	adulterers	Specific to adultery; pornos is broader
μοιχεύω (moicheuō)	G3431	13	commit adultery	Verb of adultery; pornos is an agent noun of general immorality
μοιχαλίς (moichalis)	G3428	5	adulteress	Feminine of moichos; pornos is masculine general
μοιχάω (moichaō)	G3429	5	committeth adultery	Alternate adultery verb
μοιχεία (moicheia)	G3430	4	adultery	Adultery as abstract; porneia is the broader counterpart
ἀσέλγεια (aselgeia)	G766	8	lasciviousness	Outrageous sensuality/shamelessness; pornos is the person
ἀρσενοκοίτης (arsenokoitēs)	G733	2	abusers of themselves with mankind	Specific to same-sex acts
μαλακός (malakos)	G3120	3	effeminate	Passivity/softness; pornos is the active agent

Hebrew Source¶

No Hebrew sources found via LXX mapping for G4205. The feminine counterpart πόρνη (G4204) maps to Hebrew זָנָה (zanah, H2181), but the masculine πόρνος does not appear in the LXX of the Hebrew Bible.