As promised in my very first post, here are the locations of the two verses in the New Testament where Church leaders used profanity. Actually, what they said was coarse, but not really profane.
As I mentioned before, modern translations tend to clean this language up. How unfortunate.
Acts 8:20 – A man asked if he could purchase the power of God. Peter (yes the apostle Peter) replied “Your money and you can go straight to hell.” That is a very good translation of the original Greek. The New International Version emasculates the passage to avoid offending silly people, translating it, “May your money perish with you.” Please!
Can anyone with any life left in them prefer the NIV translation to what the text really says? Peter was pissed off! This guy asked if he could buy the favor and power of the Almighty. He's lucky Peter didn't lop off his ear with a sword.
Galatians 5:12 - This passage is rather humorous. A group of people were suggesting that new Christians in Galatia should be circumcised. Paul said, “I wish those who are troubling you [over this] would cut their own balls off”.
Admittedly, the original Greek doesn't include the phrase “own balls off”. BUT, Paul did use a coarse and common term for castration. He was angry. If he lived today he would say, “Cut their own balls off”. Since translation attempts to render the original language with appropriate modern phrasing, I prefer my own rather earthy translation, thank you very much.
Every time I meet some uptight Christian person freaking out because someone said shit, or cock, or damn, or fuck, I laugh to myself when I think of Peter and Paul, givin em hell and cussin up a storm.
My people have lost their sense of priority and their sense or humor somewhere over the last 2000 years. I'm looking to find it again. If anyone happens to be passing through the middle ages, we might have left it by the side of the road just outside Byzantium on the way to the Holy Lands.
peace,
Preacher.
