[B-Greek] Was SKUBALON a swear/vulgar word?

Jim West jwest at highland.net
Fri May 20 19:56:35 EDT 2005



Doug Hoxworth wrote:

>Do we have any evidence that this was how it
>was actually used? Or does Paul in Phil 3.8 just mean
>that his former life was
>garbage/useless/worthless/refuse? Please advise.
>
>Thank you.
>

In fact any word, if spoken with the right tone, can be derogatory.  
When Paul said his former life was "dog castings" what did he mean?  
Well if you have a somewhat scatological bent and you hear Paul's tone 
as somewhat vulgar, its not too much of a stretch to imagine that "dog 
castings" means "dog excrement" or in colloquial english, "dog crap".  
But if you are more gentle in nature and can't imagine Paul's tone as 
being anything other than pious, it will be nearly impossible for you to 
hear anything out of order.

Personally, I think Paul was a bit wicked.  To the Galatians he says "if 
they think cutting off a little bit will do them any good, tell them to 
hack off the whole thing!".  Thus, its not too difficult for me to read 
"dog crap" where others would read "refuse".  Translation is art as much 
as it is science.  To forget that is to consistently mis-translate.

Best

Jim

-- 
Jim West

Biblical Studies Resources -  http://web.infoave.net/~jwest
Biblical Theology Weblog -  http://biblical-studies.blogspot.com




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