What Does the Bible Teach About Obscene Language?

What Does the Bible Teach About Obscene Language? July 24, 2017

Obscene Greek graffiti
Obscene Greek graffiti outside the writer’s home? (Photo: Catherine Hobson)

What exactly is obscene language is in the mind of each listener. Always has been, always will be. There are very few words on anyone’s list that everyone considers to be indecent or obscene. Even the old King James Version uses as least two words that are still on my don’t-say list.

Paul features the Greek term aischrologia (shameful language) on a sin list in Colossians 3:8. In a parallel sin list in Ephesians 5:4, he uses aischrotes (indecency) plus “moron-talk” plus eutrapelia, a word that has been translated “coarse jesting” (NKJV), “coarse joking” (NIV), and “vulgar talk” (NRSV), but may also be translated “buffoonery” or even simply “wittiness,” as Aristotle uses the term to mean. It would appear that whether eutrapelia is bad or not all depends ultimately on the content thereof.

Unfortunately, we do not have a list of the words that Paul considered to be shameful. And if we did, it would be in Greek anyway. When I wrote my book What’s on God’s Sin List for Today?, I stated that the ancient writers have given us no such list. While technically that statement may still be true, today I would say that nevertheless there is evidence from which we can piece together such a list. A superb resource on the subject is Jeremy Hiltin’s dissertation (published in 2008), The Ethics of Obscene Speech in Early Christianity and Its Environment.

There are certain Greek words that tend to be found only in the Old Comedy texts, in bawdy writers such as Aristophanes and Lucian, and on graffiti such as is found at Pompeii. These include verbs such as binein (the f-verb), chezein (the s-verb), pygizein (the verb for anal sex), and laikadein (the verb for oral sex, which the ancients viewed as worse than pederasty – Juvenal has Roman harlots say, “We would never dream of doing that to each other!”), plus the noun prōktos (from which we get “proctologist”) and the less-than-decent terms for genitals, posthōn (male) and kysthos (female).

Plato, Aristotle, Plutarch, and most Greek writers after 400 BC tend to avoid such words. By contrast, Roman comics in Imperial times were fairly obscene. Martial is constantly using the Latin f-verb (fūtuere), and the nouns mentula (short for “Richard”) and cunnus (= Greek kysthos).

Plato would have banned aischrologia entirely in his ideal Republic, because of its effects on those who hear it. Aristotle (like Jesus!) was more concerned about what such language revealed about the heart of the speaker. Cicero argued that there is nothing inherently evil in the sounds themselves. Nor can the evil be in the objects or actions spoken of, because there are other words that can be used for the same actions or objects; obscenity, he says, is “nowhere.” Quintilian concurs: “no word is shocking (turpis) in itself…if the thing meant is disgusting, it comes to be understood by whatever name it is called.”

Hultin (page 11) observes, “Greeks and Romans did not generally use obscene words to fill out speech,” nor “in response to a sudden shock.” If one of the ancients banged their foot on a rock, they would pronounce a divine curse on it. Aside from the use of coarse language in comedy writings and plays, the most curious use of such language was in religious cults such as the festival of Demeter, where we are told that aischrologia was used to cheer the goddess with laughter. Also, in an addition to his Dialogue of the Courtesans, Lucian tells of a secret ceremony for women where priestesses whisper suggestions of adultery and crude descriptions thereof in their ears, while carrying vulgar replicas of genitals.

Incidentally, we are told that at Athens, there was indeed a list of forbidden epithets, but these were not crudities. Rather, they were slanders such as “shield-thrower” (coward) or “patricide,” which were viewed as horrible names for which the speaker could be punished in court.

What about the Christian approach to obscene language? In Didachē 3:3 (around 95 AD), it is argued that aischrologia leads to adultery. Likewise, popular preacher John Chrysostom (late 300’s AD) declares that aischrologia and eutrapelia are the “chariot of fornication.” Suggestive language suggests a behavior.

In Book 2 of his Christ the Educator, Clement of Alexandria has a chapter on aischrologia. He writes, “We ourselves must steer completely clear of all aischrologia, and those who resort to it we must silence with a sharp look, or by turning our face away, or by what is called a grunt of disgust, or by some pointed remark.” (2.7.49) Clement quotes Jesus: “The things that come out of the mouth defile a person.” Avoiding indecent language, he says, will prevent it from penetrating and injuring the soul. “If he who merely calls his brother a fool is liable to judgment, what sentence should be passed upon obscene conversation?” (2.7.50) “It is imperative, then, that we neither listen to nor look at nor talk about obscene things. And it is even more imperative that we keep free of every immodest action, exposing or laying bare any parts of our body improperly, or looking at its private parts.” (2.7.51)

Clement teaches that Christ “has forbidden the too free use of certain terms, meaning to eliminate too free contact with immorality…we have shown that it is not the terms, or the sexual organs, or the marriage act, to which names not in common use describing intercourse are affixed, that we should consider obscene…It is only the unlawful use of these organs that is improper…In the same way, writings that treat of evil deeds must be considered aischrologia, such as the description of adultery or pederasty or similar things.” (2.7.52)  Here Clement concurs with pagan writers such as Isocrates: “Things that are shameful to do, do not consider these things to be OK (kalon) to speak.” Similarly, Pseudo-Aristotle: “Guard against even speaking shameful deeds with shameful names.” Pseudo-Plutarch likewise argues that a word is but a shadow of a deed.

What shall we conclude for our Christian behavior today? Ephesians 4:29 frames the issue well: “Let no rotten/putrid (sapros) word come out of your mouths, but only what is good (agathos) for a constructive purpose, so that the word may give grace to those who hear.” Words send signals to those around us.  Obscenity is designed to jab like a knife. Used too much, and it may cease to shock others, but will continue its corrosive effect on how we are heard by others. And sometimes, such as today’s constant references to oral sex as a statement of disapproval, we may have no idea whom we are offending.

When a former senator was first criticized for saying “bulls—t” in a public speech in the early 1990’s, his response was, “Shucks, that’s just the way we talk back in Iowa.” My response from the pulpit was to recall the words of Jesus: “The mouth speaks what the heart is full of.” (Matthew 12:34) A constant flood of obscenities out of someone’s mouth should be a warning about the condition of their heart.


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