The dictionary definition is not the subject of this post. But let’s use it as a starting point. The online Merriam-Webster dictionary gives two definitions for the word “effeminate” —
“1: having feminine qualities untypical of a man : not manly in appearance or manner
“2: marked by an unbecoming delicacy or over-refinement”
Dictionary.com has a similar set of definitions:
“1. (of a man or boy) having traits, tastes, habits, etc., traditionally considered feminine, as softness or delicacy.
“2. characterized by excessive softness, delicacy, self-indulgence, etc.: effeminate luxury.”
However, even in the secular use of the term, effeminate does not refer to homosexuality (to a gay man). Now, in the Biblical context, this is also true. For example, in the first letter to the Corinthians, Paul gives a short list of grave sins:
{6:9} Do you not know that the iniquitous will not possess the kingdom of God? Do not choose to wander astray. For neither fornicators, nor servants of idolatry, nor adulterers,
{6:10} nor the effeminate, nor males who sleep with males, nor thieves, nor the avaricious, nor the inebriated, nor slanderers, nor the rapacious shall possess the kingdom of God.
The Latin text, translated as “effeminate” is “molles”, which means soft or delicate. The subsequent term “males who sleep with males” (Latin: “masculorum concubitores”) refers to homosexual acts. And although the second term is specifically masculine, the condemnation applies to women who sleep with women as well. It is a short list, with some specific examples, not meant to imply that unmentioned sins are not sins at all.
But since effeminate is given in the list just before a term referring to homosexual sins, effeminate cannot refer to the same. Thus, the term must be understood to have a different meaning.
What might that meaning be? First of all, it has to be a grave sin, that is, an objective mortal sin. For this is a list of sins that prevent one from obtaining eternal life. Having some feminine qualities (in a male) is not a mortal sin, and neither is over-refinement or a delicate temperament. So the two dictionary definitions are not fitting, though they are not entirely off the mark.
In the Bible, the Latin term “effeminat-” (with various ending) is translated as “effeminate” or “the effeminate”.
[Proverbs]
{18:8} The words of the double-tongued seem simple. And they reach even to the interior of the gut. Fear casts down the lazy, but the souls of the effeminate [effeminatorum] shall go hungry.
In Proverbs, the term seems to refer to persons who are worse than the lazy. This context suggests a person who is unwilling to work or endure hardships because he or she chooses self-indulgence and luxury. Their souls go hungry, even if they are wealthy and over-indulgent in many ways (including food). For they lack self-discipline and self-denial.
[Isaiah]
{3:4} And I will provide children as their leaders, and the effeminate [effeminati] will rule over them.
This context is a little more vague. But again, the meaning is not sexual in nature. The verse proposes that God will permit, as a punishment, that young, inexperienced, or immature persons will be leaders. These leaders are not children in the literal sense, although that would also be a disorder. The effeminate, then, would be persons who are as immature as children, but through self-indulgence in luxuries and delicacies, not youth per se.
[1 Cor]
{6:10} nor the effeminate, nor males who sleep with males, nor thieves, nor the avaricious, nor the inebriated, nor slanderers, nor the rapacious shall possess the kingdom of God.
In Corinthians, we have a different context, and perhaps a different meaning. The first two grave sins, in 1 Cor 6:9, are fornication and servants of idolatry. In the ancient pagan religious, grave sexual sins were often associated with the worship of idols. In the modern context, too, some wicked Christians use religion to justify grave sexual sins, and that is a form of idolatry. So the first four sins are: fornication, idolatry (including a sexual context), the effeminate, and homosexual acts.
The meaning here is most likely sexual in nature. In the Summa Theologica, Saint Thomas uses the term “effeminacy” [ST, II-II, Q. 154. A. 11] to refer to the grave sin of masturbation. The connection is that persons who live a life of great self-indulgence, in every area of life, also commit the self-indulgent sexual sin.
And since pornography is often used for the purpose of masturbation, and is itself a type of sinful sexual self-indulgence, “effeminacy” can be extended to both types of sins. So the Biblical condemnation of effeminacy as sinful sexual self-indulgence includes pornography and masturbation.
So 1 Cor 6:10 contains a condemnation of pornography and masturbation, using a figurative term, not unlike the condemnation of pornography and masturbation found in the Gospel:
[Matthew]
{5:27} You have heard that it was said to the ancients: ‘You shall not commit adultery.’
{5:28} But I say to you, that anyone who will have looked at a woman, so as to lust after her, has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
{5:29} And if your right eye causes you to sin, root it out and cast it away from you. For it is better for you that one of your members perish, than that your whole body be cast into Hell.
{5:30} And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it away from you. For it is better for you that one of your members perish, than that your whole body go into Hell.
Verse 27 condemns adultery. Verse 28 condemns lust. Verse 29 condemns pornography. Verse 30 condemns masturbation.
[Hosea]
{4:14} I will not send afflictions on your daughters, when they will commit fornication, nor on your spouses, when they will commit adultery, because you yourselves have associated with harlots and have offered sacrifice with the effeminate, and because the people who do not understand will be defeated.
In this verse, the term “effeminate” is given a sexual context, being associated with fornication, adultery, and harlots. So the meaning is perhaps those persons who commit a range of sexual sins out of self-indulgence. These sexual sins could include homosexuality, pornography, and masturbation.
[1 Kings]
{14:24} Moreover, the effeminate were in the land, and they committed all the abominations of the peoples that the Lord had destroyed before the face of the sons of Israel.
Here, the context is very broad, referring to narcissistic persons of wealth and influence who committed a wide range of grave sins, including sexual sins and other forms of self-indulgence.
Now let’s consider the use of the term in the Fathers of the Church.
Saint John Chrysostom, in his homilies on Matthew, uses the term effeminacy with the meaning of excessive indulgence in delicacies and luxuries, such as fine clothing and shoes. So does Tertullian and Clement of Alexandria.
Chrysostom: “Of what favor then can you be worthy; when, in spite of Paul’s prohibiting the married woman to have costly clothing, you extend this effeminacy even to your shoes, and hast no end of contrivances for the sake of this ridicule and reproach? Yes: for first a ship is built, then rowers are mustered, and a man for the prow, and a helmsman, and a sail is spread, and an ocean traversed, and, leaving wife and children and country, the merchant commits his very life to the waves, and comes to the land of the barbarians, and undergoes innumerable dangers for these threads, that after it all you may take them, and sew them into your shoes, and ornament the leather. And what can be done worse than this folly?
“But the old ways are not like these, but such as become men. Wherefore I for my part expect that in process of time the young men among us will wear even women’s shoes, and not be ashamed. And what is more grievous, men’s fathers seeing these things are not much displeased, but do even account it an indifferent matter.” [Chrysostom]
In the first part, the holy Saint includes women in the condemnation of this sin of self-indulgence. But notice, at the end, Chrysostom extends this meaning to men dressing like women. Tertullian and Clement of Alexandria speak similarly.
So the term effeminate can also refer to a person, male or female, who chooses to act contrary to their own gender. And that is a sin much promoted in recent years, under the term “gender ideology”. Now if we look back at the previously discussed Bible verses, this meaning fits a number of the verses.
{6:9} Do you not know that the iniquitous will not possess the kingdom of God? Do not choose to wander astray. For neither fornicators, nor servants of idolatry, nor adulterers,
{6:10} nor the effeminate, nor males who sleep with males, nor thieves, nor the avaricious, nor the inebriated, nor slanderers, nor the rapacious shall possess the kingdom of God.
Now we see that perhaps the effeminate, who shall not possess the kingdom of God, includes some transgender persons. But as is also the case for other objectively grave sins, they are denied eternal life only if their sin has the full culpability of actual mortal sin, and they do not repent.
[Proverbs]
{18:8} The words of the double-tongued seem simple. And they reach even to the interior of the gut. Fear casts down the lazy, but the souls of the effeminate [effeminatorum] shall go hungry.
Transgenderism is not a path to self-fulfillment, nor to love of God and neighbor. It is a self-contradiction, like those who contradict themselves in speech (the double-tongued). It provides no food for the soul.
[Isaiah]
{3:4} And I will provide children as their leaders, and the effeminate [effeminati] will rule over them.
The effeminate may include, not only wealthy self-indulgent persons, but perhaps also transgender persons. This situation is permitted by the providence of God as a punishment for the unrepentant sins of the people.
[Hosea]
{4:14} I will not send afflictions on your daughters, when they will commit fornication, nor on your spouses, when they will commit adultery, because you yourselves have associated with harlots and have offered sacrifice with the effeminate, and because the people who do not understand will be defeated.
Hosea predicts a future time in the Church when those who are offering sacrifice, that is to say, bishops and priests, include transgender persons and those who associate with figurative harlots (persons unrepentant from grave sexual sins).
[1 Kings]
{14:24} Moreover, the effeminate were in the land, and they committed all the abominations of the peoples that the Lord had destroyed before the face of the sons of Israel.
When a society accepts transgenderism as if this were moral or good, that same society also will accept many other grave disorders (abominations). One sin leads to another. Our culture today has many grave sins, claimed to be good, including homosexuality, transgenderism, fornication, pornography, abortion, contraception, and many other grave sins.
Notice that the people of Israel fell into the same range of grave sins committed by the pagan peoples. Similarly, Christians often fall into the same grave sins as found in sinful secular society. And this causes grave harm to the Church and to Her work of salvation.
More Reading: in my book on marital sexual ethics. It is important that spouses in a Christian marriage not behave, in the bedroom, just as homosexual couples behave.
by
Ronald L. Conte Jr.
Roman Catholic theologian and translator of the Catholic Public Domain Version of the Bible.
Please take a look at this list of my books and booklets, and see if any topic interests you.
the reproach of Christ 
That’s great to know Ron that you’re working on a version of your translation of the Bible with footnotes. My suggested footnotes for the CPDV and for your consideration are the following:
[Genesis 3]
{3:15} I will put enmities between you and the woman, between your offspring and her offspring. She* will crush your head, and you will lie in wait for her heel.”
*[‘She’ or ‘He’]
[Luke 22]
{22:31} And the Lord said: “Simon, Simon! Behold, Satan has asked for you, so that he may sift you* like wheat.
{22:32} But I have prayed for you, so that your faith may not fail, and so that you, once converted, may confirm your brothers.”
*[‘you all’]
Sorry, my post above should have referred to “Romans 1.”
I would like to point out that the New American Bible seems to skirt the issue of homosexual acts in 1 Corinthians 6. The footnote in both the NAB and NABRE reads, “6:9 The Greek word translated as boy prostitutes may refer to catamites, i.e., boys or young men who were kept for purposes of prostitution, a practice not uncommon in the Greco-Roman world. In Greek mythology this was the function of Ganymede, the “cupbearer of the gods,” whose Latin name was Catamitus. The term translated sodomites refers to adult males who indulged in homosexual practices with such boys. See similar condemnations of such practices in Rom 1:26–27; 1 Tm 1:10.”
First, note that the footnote begins with saying that the word “may refer to catamites” and then goes on to provide this rendering of the word as the only explanation. The remainder of the footnote goes on to suggest that these homosexual acts were evil only because they were between an adult male and a child male. The reader is left under the impression that St. Paul is not condemning sexual relations between two adults of the same sex. The NAB and NABRE notes for 1 Romans do not directly discuss the issue at all.
The reason that this is a problem is 1) the NAB is the edition used by the USCCB, so anybody who reads these passages on the USCCB website is subject to these incomplete and misleading footnotes and 2) the vast majority of Bibles provided to and used by students in Catholic schools or religious education programs utilize the NAB. It is evident that the NAB editors purposely crafted this footnote apart from the clear reading 1 Cor 6, especially in light of Romans 1 and Leviticus 18 and 20, not to mention the witness of the Fathers and perennial teaching of the Church, so as to state that the condemnation is only because these acts were between an adult and a child, and not between persons of the same sex.
There are many such problems in the footnotes of modern Bibles. I’m working with a scholar who is preparing a version of my translation of the Bible complete with thousands of footnotes from Challoner (the Douay version) and some of my footnotes. On the specific point you raise, the Saints and Doctors understood these passages, referring to sexual sins, to condemn homosexuality and other broad categories of sexual sin. The modern approach is to dull all the sharp edges of the Gospel by means of such interpretations.
In the parable of the talents, the man who hides his talent instead of producing, would be considered an effeminate in Biblical terms?
No, I don’t think so. I think effeminate refers to persons who are immersed in luxuries and self-indulgences. Then, too, it can refer to the propensity of some such persons, men, to dress in a fashion similar to women.
Which of course is culturally different in times and places, whether different clothes are for men or women.
Again you have closed Q&A without a replacement.
“Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us”
So a child raped by a pedophile priest who ruins his life and infects him with VD, who cannot forgive this, goes to Hell?
Well, the rule for forgiveness is to forgive small faults and sins, as long as the other person has a continuing love of neighbor. For grave sins, God himself, who is most merciful, does not forgive without full repentance, and even then He requires satisfaction for the punishment. I think a Christian response to an extremely wicked act such as you mention is only to forgive if the perpetrator is repentant and is punished. But in that example, failing to forgive does not seem to me to be a mortal sin.
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