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Dear Ones,

I strongly believe that I should always present myself as a Christian
gentleman, avoiding offense in every way in order that I might more
effectively present the true offense, the Cross. But I am not sure that the
human authors of Scripture were as careful as I try to be. The Bible uses
filthy words and concepts to portray very vividly and repulsively the true
nature of evil. How offended do you think Ezekiel's congregation was at his
diatribes against Judah, comparing her to a slut in Ezekiel 16 and 23?
Isaiah 64:6 refers to human righteousness as a "cloth of the times,"
referring to a protective cloth used during menses, something not only
odious but ceremonially defiling as well. (Leviticus 15:19-24.) I have
literally preached thousands of sermons to my congregation here in Louisiana
and, in spite of being accused of being rather too graphic at times, I have
never dared to give an exposition from Ezekiel's two filthy chapters.

Ever since the Battle of Hastings, Old Saxon, onomatopoetic, monosyllabic,
physiological terms have been frowned on. Norman elitism looked down on all
things Anglo-Saxon, and only Latin was viewed with more respect than Norman
French. Consider the level of sophistication of the following words as an
example: Latin, "Interrogate;" French, "Question;" Saxon, "Ask." Added to
that is the fact that so many old Saxon words were onomatopoetic words that
reminded the hearer of the action they described -- take puke and snot,
merely uttering them conjures up distasteful memories in the mind. Remnants
of Old Saxon earthiness are found in the King James Version of the Bible's
use of the word, piss: "But Rab-shakeh said, Hath my master sent me to thy
master and to thee to speak these words? hath he not sent me to the men that
sit upon the wall, that they may eat their own dung, and drink their own
piss with you?" (Isaiah 36:12; cf. 1 Samuel 25:22, 34; 1 Kings 14:10; 16:11;
21:21; 2 Kings 9:8; 18:27.)

I'll stop with these three examples, because I don't want to go too far and
give offense. But that does not mean that their use is absolutely
proscribed. Consider the Lord's holy apostle's statement in Philippians 3:8,
"Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of
knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all
things and count them as rubbish (_SKYBALAN_ [dung, crap]), in order that I
may gain Christ."

When we think about idle talk and speculation, Saint Paul's vulgar word,
_SKYBALON_ comes to mind. In The Wisdom of Jesus the Son of Sirach, or
Ecclesiasticus, we find the following statement: "As when one sifteth with a
sieve, the refuse remaineth; so the filth of man in his talk." (Sirach 27:4,
KJV)

"In a shaken sieve manure (_KOPRIA_) is left behind, so the crap (_SKYBALA_)
of man (is seen) in his reflections (calculations, reasoning, sentiments)."
(Sirach 27:4, RBV)

Thinking about Jesus' words above, I get the modern picture of people
sitting around "shooting the bull." Human beings are all experts in Bovine
Scatology; there is a B.S. artist down inside us all. That was true in Jesus
ben Sirach's day in the second century before Christ, and it is true today.
Nothing stands out more vividly as an example of the ability of people to
pontificate on subjects about which they know next to nothing than the
incident when the U. S. Presidential race was still in doubt on December 12,
2000, and television journalists dashed in front of cameras, scanned the U.
S. Supreme Court's decision and shared what they had gleaned with facile
declarations as they read. Even an attorney would need time to read the
whole document and digest it before commenting on it, but here were people
who, at the most, simply have degrees in journalism, leafing through a
carefully crafted but complex document, and pontificating off the cuff.

When I think about such foolishness, I sometimes mutter "_SKOObahlon_."

Friedrich Lang alerted me to Jesus ben Sirach's deuterocanonical reference
in his article on _SKYBALON_ in the _Theological Dictionary of the New
Testament_, (Vol. 7, Page 445-447). I have expanded his abbreviations for
clarity, transliterated his Greek into Roman letters and written it below.

'Only with hesitation does literature seems to have adopted it from popular
speech. Lit(erally) . . . _SKYBALON_ means 1. "dung," "muck" both as
"excrement" . . .and also as "fodder or food that has gone bad". . .

'B. Hellenistic Judaism.

'The employment of the word in Hell. Judaism remains within the compass of
Gk. usage. In the LXX _SKYBALON_, occurs only once in a late work and in a
transf(erred) sense. Sir(ach) 27:4 uses the image of lumps of manure
(_KOPRIA_) remaining in the sieve to illustrate the refuse, i.e., the
impurity and wickedness in the mind of man (_SKYBALA ANTHRWPOU_) . . .
Joseph. tells how the inhabitants of Jerusalem, during the famine when the
city was besieged by Titus, had to search sewers and dung for something to
eat, _Bell(um Judaicum_ -- Wars of the Jews), 5, 571. . . .

'C. The New Testament.

'In the NT _SKYBALON_ is used only once by Paul at Phil. 3:8. As one who has
been led to faith by Jesus Christ he is evaluating all the natural and
religious factors (v. 5f.) which seemed to him to be very important in his
former life: . . . "I count them all as dung." . . . The threefold use of .
. . (count, consider) forms a crescendo. The perfect . . . (v. 7) relates to
conversion; since this Paul has learned to regard all his former . . . (gain
as loss) . . . for Christ's sake. The present . . . (count, consider) (v.
8a) confirms that this is his judgment now. The second present . . . (count,
consider) (v. 8c) strengthens this by substituting _SKYBALON_ for _ZHMIA_
(loss). The intensification lies in the element of resolute turning aside
from something worthless and abhorrent, with which one will have nothing
more to do. The choice of the vulgar term stresses the force and totality of
this renunciation. The divine privileges of Israel (R[omans] 3:1 ff.; 9:4
f.) and the spiritual character of the Law are not herewith denied. But the
striving for self-righteousness by one's own achievement is unmasked as . .
. (having put confidence in flesh) (v. 3), as a carnal and worldly
enterprise, the complete antithesis of faith. Materially, perhaps, Paul
chose _SKYBALA_, which in religious Hellenism was used for the dualism of
the divine and the secular . . ., to echo the contrast between spirit and
flesh, _XRISTOS_ (_PNEUMA_) and _SARX_, in the passage. To the degree that
the Law is used in self-justification, it serves the flesh and is not just
worthless but noxious and even abhorrent. The two elements in _SKYBALON_,
namely, worthlessness and filth, are best expressed by a term like "dung."

'The post-apost(olic). fathers do not use the word.'

Friedrich Lang, "_SKYBALON_," _Theological Dictionary of the New Testament_,
(Vol. 7, Page 445-447).

Here are two other scholarly comments on Saint Paul's word:

'_SKYBALON_ . . . useless or undesirable material that is subject to
disposal, refuse, garbage (in var. senses, 'excrement, manure, garbage,
kitchen scraps . . . specif. of human excrement . . . consider everything
garbage/crud Phil 3:8. "to convey the crudity of the Greek . . . : 'It's all
crap'"). [Frederick William Danker (ed.), _A Greek-English Lexicon of the
New Testament and other Early Christian Literature_. Third edition (BDAG)
(based on Walter Bauer's _Griechisch-deutsches Wörterbuch zu den Schriften
des Neuen Testaments und der frühchristlichen Literatur_, sixth edit.
Chicago/London: Chicago University Press, 2000.), p. 932.]

'_skybalon_, scrap, debris, refuse, dung, excrement 'It is not easy to
translate this NT _hapax_ at Phil 3:8, where St. Paul, renouncing confidence
in the flesh, meaning his privileges as a Jew, says they are worthless, to
be discarded . . ., in order to know Christ, gain him, be in him, share in
the power of his resurrection.'

'IV. -- In any event, the word means what must be eliminated. J. Huby's
comment is exactly right, in spite of the anachronism: "All of that is worth
no more than the contents of a garbage can." {J. Juby, Les Epitres de la
captivite, Paris, 1934, p. 335} To convey the crudity of the Greek, however:
"It's all crap." {The translation of E. Osty . . . in Ecole de langues
orientales anciennes: Memorial du Cinquantenaire, Paris, 1964 . . ..}'
[Ceslas Spicq, _The Theological Lexicon of the New Testament_, (Peabody, MA:
Hendrickson, 1994) Vol. 3, pp. 263-265]

SKYBALON -- what a word; it sums up all my efforts to feel good about myself
except as I stand washed in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and clothed
in his righteousness.

Cordially in Christ,
Bob

"Justification is an act of God's free grace unto sinners, in which he
pardoneth all their sins, accepteth and accounteth their persons righteous
in his sight; not for any thing wrought in them, or done by them, but only
for the perfect obedience and full satisfaction of Christ, by God imputed to
them, and received by faith alone." (The Larger Catechism, 70)

Robert Benn Vincent, Sr.
Grace Presbyterian Church
4900 Jackson Street
Alexandria, Louisiana 71303-2509

Tutissimum Refugium Sanguinis Christi
80 Hickory Hill Drive
Boyce, Louisiana 71409-8784

318.445.7271 church
318.443.1034 fax
318.793.5354 home
bob@rbvincent.com
http://www.rbvincent.com
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