WCH

Is there anything biblically wrong with swearing? By which I mean explitives. Using words you can't say on television.

I'm told that Paul swore in Galations 3:1... it's usually translated as "You stupid Galations" or "You foolish Galations," but a more accurate translation (based on the Greek) would be something like "You fucking Galations." Any confirmation of this? If that's the case, it kind of blows away the dogma that swear words are sinful.

inquisitive01

I don't see how Paul's phrase "Oh foolish Galations" could be perceived as "swearing." However, looking for Verses (or searching them on Biblical internet sites) regarding profanity, rather than "swearing," would likely help you answer your question.

I can tell you that, according to the Bible (Leviticus 18 & 19 and Nehemiah 13), we are instructed not to profane the name of God or profane the Sabbath.

WCH

You apparently weren't reading very carefully. I explicitly said that the English translations do not have swearing, but that the Greek word used is clearly an explitive, aka a swear word, which was watered down into "foolish" when it was translated.

Silent Acorns

I tlooked up the bible in Greek and the word at issue appears to be: ανόητοι (assuming that the online Greek bible hasn't been censored). I then went to an online translator where "ανόητοι" was translated as "unintelligent or foolishness". I also tried to translate unintelligent and foolish into Greek. For both words "ανόητοι" was the second choice (and only a varient of the first).

Of course I also checked to see if the translator could translate the word "fuck" into Greek. It couldn't (although it could for several other languages). As near as I can tell, "ανόητοι" is the modern Greek word for foolish. The only questions I now have are 1) are the online Greek Bibles different from the "originals, and 2) did "ανόητοι" once mean something other than foolish?

I find it hard to believe that the old word for "fucker" came to mean "foolish". Personally, I suspect that, at best, calling someone "ανόητοι" in the first century was as strong a term as calling someone a "fucker" is today.

JohNeo

Even though "fool" doesn't have the carnal connotations, "fool" was considered a very derisive term in Jesus' time, and especially among the religious, or so I learned in Bible study. So "fool" may not have been an obscenity, but it was a strong put-down equivalent to "idiot" or "moron."

JohNeo

inquisitive01

I read it. I don't think the original term was what might be considered as a "swear" term, though (although it might have been very stong in tone, such as a "swear" term might be).

jdlongmire

Ephesians 4:29
Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.

Ephesians 5:4
Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving.

NeoApostate

Yeah, but what does that MEAN, in context of the culture in which it was written?

I mean, take 'coarse joking' for example. According to Strong's concordance, the word there eutrapelia roughly means sarcastic joking. I know plenty of Christians who are just fine with sarcasm yet consider cursing a sin.

And what exactly is cursing? On the one hand, you have invoking the name of a deity in vain (ala the commandment). Then there is actually putting a curse on someone (ala Balam) such as damn. But then you have words like fuck and shit which are just slang terms. I think that stems from an aristocratic looking down on 'crude language', but now slang is much more accepted (even by Christians) except for those words which are tradionally considered crude, such as the ones mentioned above.

Christian aversion to cursing seems to be based on tradition rather than what the Bible actually says on the subject. The culture tells them what is not accepted, and Bible verses are pulled out merely to back up what is already percieved as true instead of being read in context.

jdlongmire

why not just not use them and strive to be a better light?

Philippians 4

8 Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.

...just because we can, don't make it right...

breathilizer

A little off topic, but maybe someone will find this interesting:

I see censorship of swear words as a SCC issue.