μαλακοί malakoi — soft — applied in different contexts to clothing, character, and (in some readings) sexual passivity

Editorial note

This entry presents what biblical scholars say about the Greek word malakoi and its range of meaning. It documents the major scholarly positions on what the word means in 1 Corinthians 6:9 specifically without preferring any. It does not advocate for a theological or contemporary-ethical interpretation. Those questions belong to the reader — see our About page for the four-way sensitivity test.

The word

Malakos (μαλακός) — adjective, plural form malakoi (μαλακοί). The primary lexical meaning is soft — soft to the touch, soft in texture, soft in character, soft in resolve. The word’s range covers everything from physical softness to moral pliability.

In ancient Greek usage the word was applied to:

• Soft fabric, fine clothing — the dominant non-sexual usage
• Tender food (e.g. ripe fruit)
• Mild illness or weakness — Greek medical writers used it for non-acute symptoms
• Moral softness — lacking firmness of character, easily yielding, self-indulgent
• In specific contexts, sexual passivity — particularly in pederastic relationships, where the malakos was the boy or younger man playing the receptive role

The sexual application is one specific contextual sense. It is not the word’s primary or most common meaning in the Greek language as a whole.

The word in the New Testament

Malakos appears three times in the NT:

• Matthew 11:8: But what did you go out to see? A man dressed in fine clothes [malakois]? Indeed, those who wear fine clothes [malaka] are in kings’ palaces. (BSB)
• Luke 7:25: Then what did you go out to see? A man dressed in fine clothes [malakois]? Look, those who are clothed in soft clothing [malakois] and live in luxury are found in palaces.
• 1 Corinthians 6:9: in the vice list, immediately before arsenokoitai

In the Matthew and Luke parallels, Jesus uses the word in a clearly non-sexual sense — fine, luxurious clothing worn by people in royal palaces. The word here describes physical softness of fabric (and by metonymy, the lifestyle that goes with it). No sexual connotation is in view.

The 1 Corinthians 6:9 occurrence is the one where the meaning is contested.

Scholarly positions on 1 Corinthians 6:9 — document all, resolve none

Position 1 — The passive partner in male same-sex intercourse

In Greek culture malakos was used as a term for the passive partner in male same-sex intercourse, often (though not exclusively) in the context of pederasty (adult men with adolescent boys). In this reading Paul is describing the passive partner (malakoi) and the active partner (arsenokoitai) of the same act. Supporting points:

• The pairing with arsenokoitai immediately afterwards is read as a deliberate active/passive pairing
• The Greco-Roman cultural context made this active/passive distinction central to how male same-sex acts were described
• BDAG includes this as one of the two main senses of the word
• The 1 Corinthians 6:9 list contains other paired terms (moichoi/adulterers and pornoi/sexually immoral cover overlapping ground), so a paired sexual reading is structurally plausible

Position 2 — General moral softness / lack of self-discipline

Other scholars argue that malakos in 1 Corinthians 6:9 refers to general moral weakness, self-indulgence, or lack of self-control — not specifically to sexual passivity. In this reading the word may not be a sexual term at all in the vice list, with arsenokoitai alone carrying any sexual reference. Supporting points:

• The word’s primary lexical meaning is soft in a broader sense
• Greek moralists used malakos to describe characters of poor moral fibre — those who give in to luxury, ease, or comfort rather than exercising self-discipline
• The NT’s other uses (Matthew 11:8, Luke 7:25) are clearly about luxury and lifestyle, not sex
• The 1 Corinthians vice list contains other character terms (pleonektai/greedy, methysoi/drunkards, loidoroi/verbal abusers) — malakoi could fit this list as a general moral-character term
• Earlier English translations (KJV 1611: “effeminate”) attempted a broader rendering than the modern copyrighted translations’ more category-specific combined renderings

Position 3 — Effeminacy specifically

A middle position holds that malakoi refers specifically to men who adopted stereotypically feminine behaviours, dress, mannerisms, or self-presentation. In the ancient Mediterranean cultural framework, this was associated with passive sexual roles but was not strictly identical to a sexual identity. The word would describe a public-facing presentation rather than only a private sexual practice. The KJV’s “effeminate” (KJV 1611) reflects something close to this reading.

The pairing with arsenokoitai

The two words appear adjacent in 1 Corinthians 6:9 — malakoi … arsenokoitai. The reading depends substantially on how the two words relate:

• Read as a pair: malakoi (passive) + arsenokoitai (active) describing two roles in a single sexual category
• Read as independent items: each describes its own behaviour or trait in a list of unrelated vices

Both readings have scholarly defenders. The Greek syntax does not require either reading.

Translation history

The public-domain translations preserve the two-word distinction more visibly than the modern copyrighted family:

• KJV (1611) renders malakoi alone as “effeminate,” and arsenokoitai separately as “abusers of themselves with mankind” — two distinct English phrases for the two distinct Greek words.
• BSB combines both words into a single English phrase: “men who submit to or perform homosexual acts.”

Modern copyrighted translations diverge in how they handle the pairing:

• The RSV (1946) initially used a single combined English phrase for both Greek words; subsequent editions revised that rendering.
• The NIV (1984) preserved the two-word distinction by giving each its own English phrase (the first treating malakoi as a participation-role term, the second giving a compound for arsenokoitai); the NIV (2011) combined both Greek words into a single behaviour-describing English construction.
• The NRSV (1989) preserved the two-word distinction but selected different category-labels than the NIV had used.
• The ESV, NLT, and CSB each made different choices on the same axis.

Whether to preserve the two-word distinction is itself a translation decision with theological implications. To compare specific renderings, see the BibleGateway links in the section below.

What this word does not, on its own, resolve

Whether malakoi in 1 Corinthians 6:9 is sexual at all, and if so whether it refers specifically to passive same-sex partners, to effeminate self-presentation, or more broadly to moral softness, is a genuinely contested scholarly question. The word’s non-sexual uses elsewhere in the NT — Jesus describing fine clothing — complicate any reading that treats the word as exclusively sexual.

The contemporary ethical implications of these passages depend on interpretive judgements that go beyond the meaning of the single Greek word. This site does not make those interpretive judgements.

Read in other translations

The passages above use the BSB and KJV — both public domain. To read 1 Corinthians 6:9 in copyrighted modern translations, follow the links to BibleGateway:

• 1 Corinthians 6:9 — NIV →
• 1 Corinthians 6:9 — ESV →
• 1 Corinthians 6:9 — NLT →
• 1 Corinthians 6:9 — NASB →
• 1 Corinthians 6:9 — CSB →

See also

• /word/arsenokoitai/ — the rare compound paired with malakoi in this verse
• /word/toevah/ — the Hebrew word in the Levitical passages cited in connection with these NT terms