67 ἀσέλγεια in Mark 7:22 Demosthenes accuses a man of treating his slave-girl ἀσελγῶς by having sex with her openly at parties (Neaer. 59.33.1). Philostratus (Vit. Apoll. 4.42.18) speaks of a character who dresses naked except for a gir- dle around the waist, “like the most licentious (ἀσελγέστατοι) of tavern customers”; he also speaks disparagingly of a gang of men who violated all standards of wantonness (ἀσελγεστάτα) with the wife of a certain man (Vit. Apoll. 3.20.40). Finally, a Cynic writer (Heraclitus, Epistle 7.5) complains of “a single young man who through licentiousness (ἀσέλγειαν) is the lover of an entire city”. Ἀσέλγεια appears twice in the OT Apocrypha and once in the Greek OT proper. In Hos 7,14, Aquila and Symmachus retranslate the LXX’s “they wail on their beds” (κοίτιας) as “they have spoken lasciviously” (ἀσελγῶς ἐλάλησαν), evidently employing ἀσελγῶς in a sexual sense9. In the LXX, 3 Macc 2,26 refers to the unspecified “countless ἀσέλγειας” of Antiochus IV. And Wis 14,26 juxtaposes ἀσέλγεια with μοιχεία, along with γαμῶν ἀταχία (“disorder/confusion of marriages”), γενέσεως ἐναλλαγή (NRSV: “sexual perversion”), and ψυχῶν μιασμός (“defilement of souls”). Jewish writers almost always use this word in its sexual sense. It appears that what βδέλυγμα was to idolatry, ἀσέλγεια was to πορνεία: sin taken to its most disgusting degree. In his comments on Gal 5,20, J. B. Lightfoot writes, “A man may be ἀκάθαρτος and hide his sin; he does not become ἀσελγής, until he shocks public decency”10. The term may have been used to refer to what were regarded as the most shameless violations of the sexuality taught in the Torah. For instance, in T. Levi 17,11, the Jewish writer lumps “licentious persons” directly together with “the lawless, pederasts, those who practice bestiality.” Philo (Spec. 3:23) uses the word to describe the “lewdness” of marriage to one’s own sister. Josephus (B. J. 4.9.10 §562) speaks of a Zealot named Simon and his comrades who invade the Temple during the insanity of 68 AD and proceed to imitate the dress and passions of women, devising in their “extreme lasciviousness” (ὑπερβολὲν ἀσέλγειαν) unlawful pleasures and wallowing as in a brothel. Josephus also tells (A. J. 20.5.3 §112) of a Roman soldier on guard in the Temple portico during Passover who uncovers and exposes his genitals to the multitude; he laments the fact that 20,000 stampede and die that day because of the “indecent behavior (ἀσέλγεια) of one soldier”. Josephus tells (B. J. 1.22.3 §439) of the Jewish princess Mariamne “carrying wantonness (ἀσέλγεια) so far…as to exhibit herself to a man”. It would appear that Aquila and Symmachus misunderstood - to mean “about 9 their promiscuities” rather than “upon their beds”. Lightfoot, Galatians 210. 10