Obscene Greek graffiti outside the writer\u2019s home? (Photo: Catherine Hobson)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>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\u2019s 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\u2019t-say list.<\/p>\n
Paul features the Greek term aischrologia<\/em> (shameful language) on a sin list in Colossians 3:8. In a parallel sin list in Ephesians 5:4, he uses aischrotes<\/em> (indecency) plus \u201cmoron<\/em>-talk\u201d plus eutrapelia<\/em>, a word that has been translated \u201ccoarse jesting\u201d (NKJV), \u201ccoarse joking\u201d (NIV), and \u201cvulgar talk\u201d (NRSV), but may also be translated \u201cbuffoonery\u201d or even simply \u201cwittiness,\u201d as Aristotle uses the term to mean. It would appear that whether eutrapelia<\/em> is bad or not all depends ultimately on the content thereof.<\/p>\nUnfortunately, 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\u2019s on God\u2019s Sin List for Today?<\/em>, 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\u2019s dissertation (published in 2008), The Ethics of Obscene Speech in Early Christianity and Its Environment<\/em>.<\/p>\nThere 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<\/em> (the f-verb), chezein<\/em> (the s-verb), pygizein<\/em> (the verb for anal sex), and laikadein<\/em> (the verb for oral sex, which the ancients viewed as worse than pederasty \u2013 Juvenal has Roman harlots say, \u201cWe would never dream of doing that to each other!\u201d), plus the noun pr\u014dktos<\/em> (from which we get \u201cproctologist\u201d) and the less-than-decent terms for genitals, posth\u014dn<\/em> (male) and kysthos<\/em> (female).<\/p>\nPlato, 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 (f\u016btuere<\/em>), and the nouns mentula<\/em> (short for \u201cRichard\u201d) and cunnus<\/em> (= Greek kysthos<\/em>).<\/p>\nPlato would have banned aischrologia<\/em> 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 \u201cnowhere.\u201d Quintilian concurs: \u201cno word is shocking (turpis<\/em>) in itself\u2026if the thing meant is disgusting, it comes to be understood by whatever name it is called.\u201d<\/p>\nHultin (page 11) observes, \u201cGreeks and Romans did not generally use obscene words to fill out speech,\u201d nor \u201cin response to a sudden shock.\u201d 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<\/em> was used to cheer the goddess with laughter. Also, in an addition to his Dialogue of the Courtesans<\/em>, 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.<\/p>\nIncidentally, 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 \u201cshield-thrower\u201d (coward) or \u201cpatricide,\u201d which were viewed as horrible names for which the speaker could be punished in court.<\/p>\n
What about the Christian approach to obscene language? In Didach\u0113<\/em> 3:3 (around 95 AD), it is argued that aischrologia<\/em> leads to adultery. Likewise, popular preacher John Chrysostom (late 300\u2019s AD) declares that aischrologia<\/em> and eutrapelia<\/em> are the \u201cchariot of fornication.\u201d Suggestive language suggests a behavior.<\/p>\nIn Book 2 of his Christ the Educator<\/em>, Clement of Alexandria has a chapter on aischrologia<\/em>. He writes, \u201cWe ourselves must steer completely clear of all aischrologia<\/em>, 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.\u201d (2.7.49) Clement quotes Jesus: \u201cThe things that come out of the mouth defile a person.\u201d Avoiding indecent language, he says, will prevent it from penetrating and injuring the soul. \u201cIf he who merely calls his brother a fool is liable to judgment, what sentence should be passed upon obscene conversation?\u201d (2.7.50) \u201cIt 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.\u201d (2.7.51)<\/p>\nClement teaches that Christ \u201chas forbidden the too free use of certain terms, meaning to eliminate too free contact with immorality\u2026we 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\u2026It is only the unlawful use of these organs that is improper\u2026In the same way, writings that treat of evil deeds must be considered aischrologia<\/em>, such as the description of adultery or pederasty or similar things.\u201d (2.7.52)\u00a0 Here Clement concurs with pagan writers such as Isocrates: \u201cThings that are shameful to do, do not consider these things to be OK (kalon<\/em>) to speak.\u201d Similarly, Pseudo-Aristotle: \u201cGuard against even speaking shameful deeds with shameful names.\u201d Pseudo-Plutarch likewise argues that a word is but a shadow of a deed.<\/p>\nWhat shall we conclude for our Christian behavior today? Ephesians 4:29 frames the issue well: \u201cLet no rotten\/putrid (sapros<\/em>) word come out of your mouths, but only what is good (agathos<\/em>) for a constructive purpose, so that the word may give grace to those who hear.\u201d Words send signals to those around us.\u00a0 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\u2019s constant references to oral sex as a statement of disapproval, we may have no idea whom we are offending.<\/p>\nWhen a former senator was first criticized for saying \u201cbulls\u2014t\u201d in a public speech in the early 1990\u2019s, his response was, \u201cShucks, that\u2019s just the way we talk back in Iowa.\u201d My response from the pulpit was to recall the words of Jesus: \u201cThe mouth speaks what the heart is full of.\u201d (Matthew 12:34) A constant flood of obscenities out of someone\u2019s mouth should be a warning about the condition of their heart.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Abusing God\u2019s name is profanity (forbidden in the Ten Commandments), but Paul also forbids \u201cshameful language\u201d (what we would call obscenity). Exactly what words does Paul have in mind? And why the XXXX does it matter whether we use such language?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3013,"featured_media":35,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[14,15,13],"class_list":["post-34","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-biblical-word-studies","tag-aischrologia","tag-colossians-38","tag-obscene-language"],"yoast_head":"\n
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![\"Obscene](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/783\/2017\/07\/Obscene-Greek-graffiti-300x193.jpg\")