My former student continued with the points she found interesting:

In response to Romans 1 and Paul’s other letters, I found this interesting viewpoint. “That’s a great question because Paul could have used many words if he intended to blast gays and lesbians. Yet Paul used none of those available words, choosing instead to coin an interesting new word, arsenokoitai. Despite what some scholars allege, arsenokoitai is never used in any extant Greek literature with our modern meaning of homosexual. 

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I hate to say this this way, but this is really not a very honest way to present this. 

First off – I wonder what words he means – what are these “many words”?  Did you see his list on the link?  His list (which even includes a latin word, words that ONLY reference lesbian relationships, and other slang words.  And some of these words are also mistranslated.  Maybe the most important of these in the list is “paidaresste” – these roots would ACTUALLY indicate adult male love of a boy.  So, when he says that the Greek word Paul uses could mean incest or molestation, this word (again, on his list of words Paul could have used) would almost CERTAINLY have meant that.  I would also note that so far, I am pretty sure, as he has only referenced 2-3 sources, they are ALL sources that are intentionally pro-homosexual.  I am sure you noticed that the website all of his links go to is “gaychristian101”.

Also, I would say it is intentionally misleading, but I cannot know another person’s heart… but consider this:  He is accurate that arsenokoitai is not used before Paul to indicate homosexual.  What he didn’t say was that IT WASN’T USED AT ALL.  Paul INVENTED the word – putting together two Greek words (as noted below) from the Greek Old Testament).  

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The best evidence available today indicates that arsenokoitai described shrine prostitutes. 

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I’m curious – did you click on either of these links – “best evidence” or “shrine prostitutes”?  Did you see what is pulled up?  Their case for “best evidence” is laughably bad.  No scholar would take this seriously.  The link for shrine prostitute is a dead link and the best evidence link actually undermines his argument.

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That is the learned opinion of Philo, a contemporary of both Jesus and the apostle Paul and one of the most widely read Jewish intellectuals in the first century. The apostle Paul, also a brilliant intellectual, was one of the most successful authors who ever lived. He wrote 14 short books in our New Testament, each of which has sold more than one billion copies. Paul received an exceptional education through private tutors including Gamaliel, the leading Jewish teacher of the first century, Acts 22:3. Romans 1 indicates Paul had read and was familiar with Wisdom of Solomon, a book which is not part of inspired scripture and with secular writers of his day. Paul quotes at least three heathen writers in his inspired epistles, Epimenides, Aratus and Menander. He quotes Epimenides and Aratus in Acts 17:28, Menander in 1 Cor 15:32 and Epimenides in Titus 1:14. Because Paul, AD 4 – 67, and Philo of Alexandria, 20 BC – AD 50, were contemporaries and because Paul was well educated and widely read, it is reasonable to believe that Paul was familiar with the writings of Philo, a fellow Jew and public intellectual, although not a fellow Christian.

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So, Paul was very well educated in Jewish and other thought.  Good to know.

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 Philo understood Moses, in Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13, to be condemning shrine prostitution.

Really?  Here is Philo on shrine prostitution:

“(40) And I imagine that the cause of this is that among many nations there are actually rewards given for intemperance and effeminacy. At all events one may see men-women (androgynes) continually strutting through the market place at midday, and leading the processions in festivals;

and, impious men as they are, having received by lot the charge of the temple, and beginning the sacred and initiating rites, and concerned even in the holy mysteries of Ceres

(Ceres is another name for Cybele, the fertility goddess first century Romans referred to as the Mater Deum or Mother of the gods. Remember, Philo probably wrote this around AD 35.)

(41) And some of these persons have even carried their admiration of these delicate pleasures of youth so far that they have desired wholly to change their condition for that of women, and have castrated themselves and have clothed themselves in purple robes…

(Philo describes castrated Galli priests who served Cybele and other fertility goddesses throughout the Roman Empire and links them to Lev 18:22, 20:13 and Deu 23:17).

(42) But if there was a general indignation against those who venture to do such things, as was felt by our lawgiver…” (Moses was the Jewish Lawgiver. Philo refers to Moses’ writings in Leviticus 18:22; 20:13 and Deuteronomy 23:17).

Philo, The Special Laws, III, VII, 40-42.
http://www.earlyjewishwritings.com/text/philo/book29.html

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I am not an expert on this at all… but I am pretty sure this is not an accurate way to say that.  What I read indicated that Philo used the Leviticus passages to condemn pederasty.  That would be like me using a passage about not getting drunk to argue against being intoxicated by marijuana… or even just if I said “the Bible teaches that you shouldn’t get drunk with whiskey.”  Well, if the Bible forbids drunkenness, it obviously forbids drunkenness with whisky.  More likely, Philo was making the point that if there is a passage in the Bible that forbids sex between males, that passage APPLIES to sex between a man and a boy.

“…For example, he argues that Philo clearly had the institution of pederasty in mind when expounding on the Levitical proscriptions. It seems obvious that this is indeed the case, but this was an application of a general condemnation of homosexual practice to the most prevalent manifestation of it in Philo‟s culture. It would be expected.”  (https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1180&context=sor_fac_pubs)

Still one more section of this overall article.