“It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father’s wife.”
It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that even pagans do not tolerate: A man is sleeping with his father's wife — the charge is gravely specific: incest (with stepmother, or possibly biological mother). The report (akouō, 'heard') is public knowledge; even 'pagans' (ethnē, non-believers) consider it abhorrent. Roman law condemned such unions. The Corinthian church's tolerance of this sin is shocking. Sexual immorality (porneia) is not peripheral; it violates the temple's sanctity (3:16-17).
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