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For whoremongers - Πορνοις· Adulterers, fornicators, and prostitutes of all sorts.
Them that defile themselves with mankind - Αρσενοκοιταις· From αρσην, a male, and κοιτη, a bed; a word too bad to be explained. A sodomite.
Men-stealers - Ανδραποδισταις· Slave-dealers; whether those who carry on the traffic in human flesh and blood; or those who steal a person in order to sell him into bondage; or those who buy such stolen men or women, no matter of what color or what country; or those who sow dissensions among barbarous tribes in order that they who are taken in war may be sold into slavery; or the nations who legalize or connive at such traffic: all these are men-stealers, and God classes them with the most flagitious of mortals.
For liars - Ψευσταις· They who speak for truth what they know to be false; and even they who tell the truth in such a way as to lead others to draw a contrary meaning from it.
For perjured persons - Επιορκοις· From επι, against, and ὁρκος, an oath; such as do or leave undone any thing contrary to an oath or moral engagement, whether that engagement be made by what is called swearing, or by an affirmation or promise of any kind.
And if there be any other thing - Every species of vice and immorality, all must be necessarily included, that is contrary to sound doctrine - to the immutable moral law of God, as well as to the pure precepts of Christianity where that law is incorporated, explained, and rendered, if possible, more and more binding.
For whoremongers - Leviticus 19:29; Leviticus 20:5.
For them that defile themselves with mankind - Sodomites. See the evidence that this crime abounded in ancient times, in the notes on Romans 1:27. It was forbidden by the law of Moses, and was punishable with death; Leviticus 20:13.
For menstealers - The word here used - ἀνδρᾶποδιστής andrapodistēs- occurs nowhere else in the New Testament. It properly means one who steals another for the purpose of making him a slave - a kidnapper. This is the common way in which people are made slaves. Some, indeed, are taken in war and sold as slaves, but the mass of those who have been reduced to servitude have become slaves by being kidnapped. Children are stolen from their parents, or wives from their husbands, or husbands from their wives, or parents from their children, or whole families are stolen together. None become slaves voluntarily, and consequently the whole process of making slaves partakes of the nature of theft of the worst kind. What theft is like that of stealing a man‘s children, or his wife, or his father or mother? The guilt of manstealing is incurred essentially by those who purchase those who are thus stolen - as the purchaser of a stolen horse, knowing it to be so, participates in the crime. A measure of that criminality also adheres to all who own slaves, and who thus maintain the system - for it is a system known to have been originated by theft. This crime was expressly forbidden by the law of God, and was made punishable with death; Exodus 21:16; Deuteronomy 24:7. For liars - Leviticus 6:2-4; Leviticus 19:11. For perjured persons - Those who swear falsely; Leviticus 19:12; Leviticus 6:3; Exodus 20:7. And if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine - To sound or correct teaching - for so the word doctrine means. The meaning is, if there is anything else that is opposed to the instruction which the law of God gives.